Jody Singer- director/founder
is a native of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. "I'm mostly a self-taught artist and have worked in several mediums including pen & ink, clay, fiber arts, painting, photography and mixed media. I’ve shown my work at local venues over the years and have achieved several 1st place prizes in local art shows, and have sold works to several residents of Monroe County.
My past history involved in the arts includes working with the Pocono Arts Council (formerly Monroe County Arts Council) on several projects including chairing the Stroudsburg Arts Festival on Main Street in Stroudsburg. I’d sat on the panel awarding grants to local arts venues, volunteered to work on PAC's printed copies of their newsletter, and helped to promote the council in several various venues in the local area.
In 1994, I worked at Pro-Art on Main Street in Stroudsburg for 3 years, opening a community gallery in the lower level of the business to highlight and sell several artists’ works. I also created classes and workshops for adults and children. In early 1997, I moved on to create Hands In Art Community Arts Center in East Stroudsburg, which I owned and operated for 3 years creating classes, workshops, events and fundraisers for area charities and other community events. In 1999, I became Cultural Arts Director for Hemlock Farms Community Association for6 years, and then due to an accident, was incapacitated for several years.
After 2010, I started to feel the urges of serious creativity again, and became involved in several art shows around the area, including the West End Fair art exhibit and the Living Room Gallery on Main Street in Stroudsburg. I began talking to area artists and the local galleries, and it seemed that everyone was ready to “begin” again.
I started to see a resurgence in the art scene in the area and began working diligently with many area artists to get that creative ball rolling even more. I taught various workshops in things like paint and decoupage, silkscreening, gelatin ink transfer, and hypertufa making, and got involved with people who wanted to make large differences in the area’s landscape and image. The mural wall on Main Street is part of that difference. Now, I’m working with a core group of other artists to produce 10 large scale murals in Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg in September 2014. I’m on the ArtWave Committee for the Downtown Arts District; I am Director of the Gallery at the School of Visual and Performing Arts in Stroudsburg; and am part of member services at Pocono Arts Council as well."
Ashley C Fontones- assistant director/cofounder
is a twenty-something multimedia professional with a background in motion graphics, character animation, and webdesign; who has always considered herself an artist. The daughter of a musician/server engineer father and a painter/sculptor/tattooist/art teacher mother; the blending of the arts and technology has always been a natural way of life for Ashley.
A Brooklyn native, Ashley attended the Brooklyn New School where her education was heavily focused on literacy and culture. Through BNS, she earned scholarships to Pratt Saturday Art School and the Brooklyn Museum weekend arts school program for children. She attended Bishop Hafey Highschool in Hazleton, PA on full scholarship, and finished her highschool diploma at Pocono Mountain East High School, where she made her decision to study digital arts and become a creative professional.
Ashley attended Pratt Institute in pursuit of a film degree in Traditional Animation, before the program was transferred into the Department of Digital Arts. After attending the school and receiving a merit scholarship and high grades, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, eventually forcing her to leave the school to focus on regaining her health. A former distance runner and yoga student since her teen years, living a holistic and healthy lifestyle has always been imperative to her vitality as an artist.
She has been featured in various publications such as Pratt Success, The Forwardian, Mewseum.org, Local Flair Magazine, Noupe.com, and others for her work as an illustrator and animator. A member of Project Street Art core staff, Ashley Fontones prides herself on a passion for bringing arts to the forefront in her community. Ashley Fontones was one of two visual effects animators on the last season of Nick Jr.'s "Team Umizoomi", and has worked on several ads for broadcast both on the web and for television. Her love for volunteering and event planning has lead her into the Pocono arts community, where she has volunteered and advocated for Project Street Art, The Sherman Theater Living Room, The School of Visual and Performing Arts, and now Origins Gallery