Making It! From Habit to Ritual; Nurturing the Flow State;

chaired by Shannon Estlund and Kelly Boehmer

Presenters: Charles Carbia, Anthony TungNing Huang, Monica Cioppettini, and Shannon Estlund

All artists face challenges to accessing the creative flow state because of time and space constraints, distractions, etc. In this round table discussion, presenters will discuss how to access the flow state more easily (mise en place), how to maintain flow states (main course), and how to wrap up a work session ensuring that you will be able to pick up right where you left off (dessert). Through active dialogue, participants can share and learn how incremental changes can build habits, which can be developed into rituals that feed the creative process. We will discuss well known artists’ successful practices as well as how contemporary artists can leverage technology for maintaining creative flow. Attendees will leave with a menu in the form of a printed worksheet of options for building their own studio ritual.

Shannon Estlund’s Bio:

Shannon Estlund is an artist and educator whose multifaceted practice centers around themes of landscape, memory, and transformation, working across painting, sculpture, and installation. Estlund currently serves as a Professor of Foundation Studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and has held teaching positions at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), Augsburg University, and Macalester College, among others. She earned her MFA in visual studies from MCAD and her BFA in art from the University of Florida. Estlund’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally—including the Crisp Ellert Art Museum, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Rosalux Gallery, and the National Galleries of Scotland—and she has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Community Foundation Jacksonville. 

Chuck Carbia’s Bio:

Chuck Carbia received his BFA from Florida State University. He received his MFA from the University of South Florida. He is a leading member of performance groups including Glitter Chariot. Carbia is also the leader of the traditional Latin group Tocamos Mas and a member of the surf punk band, Donna Savage. Carbia has had exhibitions and performances nationally and internationally. He currently resides in Savannah, Georgia. Carbia is a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design.    

Monica Cioppettini’s Bio:

Monica Cioppettini (b. 1994, USA) is a multidisciplinary artist driven by the hidden lives of discarded treasures. She earned her B.F.A. in Fine Art from Monmouth University in 2017 and her M.F.A. in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2020, where she now teaches full-time. Her work—featured in exhibitions across New York and Georgia—draws from jewelry and found objects, gathered from thrift shops and flea markets. Each gold chain, pearl earring, or forgotten ring holds echoes of past identities, stories once intimately close to strangers but later abandoned. In her hands, these fragments find a renewed purpose, evolving into works that hold both personal and collective memory. Cioppettini currently lives and works in Savannah, GA, weaving narratives from the jewelry box remnants of a thousand unknown lives.

Anthony Huang’s Bio:

Anthony Huang is a Taiwanese American artist. Born in Taipei and raised in Shanghai, China, he received his BA in journalism from the East China University of Political Science and Law in 2014. After working as a professional ballroom dancer and theater producer in Shanghai, he moved to the United States. He first lived in Los Angeles, California, and then earned his first MFA in Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2024, he received his second MFA in Studio Art, focusing on Printmaking, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In July 2024, he moved to Dallas, TX, to begin his teaching career as a full-time professor of Printmaking and Drawing at Dallas College.

Huang began printmaking in 2020 and became enamored with the charm of the traditional print processes. The Daoist philosophy influenced his artistic practice – Wu Wei. He's trying to use the idea of Wu Wei to rethink the relationship between urban space and the natural world and how it can create a spiritual sublimation for urban citizens.

Kelly Boehmer’s Bio:

Kelly Boehmer creates soft sculptures and performance artworks. She has exhibited and performed her work nationally and internationally in over 175 exhibitions, including shows including shows in Baltimore, Dallas, Miami, New York City, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, San Juan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, Ivano-Frankivs'k, Ukraine, and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She received her BFA in Studio Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA in Studio Art at the University of South Florida. She is a member of the performance art band, Glitter Chariot.  Kelly is a Professor of Foundations Studies at Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, GA.