About Filippo Giusti
Filippo Giusti is an Italian painter who has lived in San Miguel de Allende, México, since 2018. He was born in Livorno, Tuscany, on March 2, 1990. Filippo discovered his passion for painting when he moved to Mexico and dedicated himself entirely to the visual arts.
Filippo learned mainly through online content and by visiting museums. After a period of creating classical portraits, he realized that he wanted to tell and depict something deeper about people. It was then that he began a new quest that led him to his new style, which he calls “Essentialism,” based on the question: “If we were colors inside and I could see through the surface, what colors would we be?”
He began gaining recognition in his studio/gallery at Fábrica La Aurora in San Miguel de Allende. His collaboration with Galería Alfredo Ginocchio in Mexico City gave him even more visibility and the opportunity to participate in international art fairs such as Zona Maco and Context Art Miami. In May 2022, Filippo had his solo exhibition “Essentialism” at the Querétaro Museum of Art (MAQRO), which was a success and broke attendance records for the museum.
Additionally, Filippo has been invited as a speaker at important events such as Tedx, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and COFOCE.
About Kate Van Doren
Kate Van Doren (American, b.1978) explores human resiliency, connection, and the healing power of nature through her realism paintings, drawings, and photography. With over two decades of experience as an art therapist in the mental health field, Kate offers a unique perspective that deeply connects with her subjects and fosters their stories about the human condition.
Kate received an honors degree in Fine Art and Psychology from the University of Oregon (2002) and earned a double master’s in Counseling and Art Therapy from Marylhurst University (2006). As a board-certified art therapist, she has developed and administered art therapy programs for at-risk youth, individuals with severe mental illness, trauma survivors, the elderly, and hospice care patients. She also mentors artists and art therapy students globally.
Kate is the creator of the Healing Words Project, a photography and painting workshop for women that documents the healing journeys of over 2,000 participants. This project has been recognized internationally, including in Newsweek Español as an early intervention program to prevent violence against women.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the U.S. , Europe and Mexico, including Art Basel Miami, and is held in private collections worldwide. Kate has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, PoetsArtists, Mod Portrait, and the Art Renewal Center. In 2022, she was an ARC and Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Finalist and earned 2nd Place in the international FIKVA award for painters. Her work is included in the Peregrine Collection, a time capsule of digitized art and literature sent to the moon.
Kate is based in San Miguel de Allende, México, where she devotes her time to her family, her art therapy practice, activism work, and her fine art studio. Visit katevandoren.com to explore her portfolio.
About Hope Palmer
Hope Palmer is a lifetime artist, art historian and teacher. A former university professor teaching both fine arts and art history. Her expertise is in contemporary art and that of Latin America. Her paintings reflect intimate moments in our lives while her teaching brings out the talent and insight of her students.
About Andrew Buckley
Andrew Buckley is a film school-educated writer, which means he’s spent most of his life with no money and a strong opinion about bad movies. Around the turn of the century he attended the Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program, graduating with excellence. Today, he’s a traditional and self-published novelist of rather silly, yet enjoyable speculative fiction for all ages, a comic book writer, screenwriter, podcaster, creator, and speaker.
For over 20 years, he’s worked in the dreaded world of marketing as a content creator, copywriter, and strategist for large national and international brands. He actively develops curriculum and teaches marketing, social media, and communication theory at the post-secondary level.
As a writer, Andrew favors playing in the fantasy and paranormal sandboxes and has a terrible habit of writing with a humorous and satirical slant despite being asked politely on numerous occasions to ‘please stop doing that’.
Andrew speaks to thousands of students each year, all over the world, about storytelling and writing through the delivery of interactive and engaging workshops and presentations at schools, colleges, writing conferences, teacher conferences, and comic cons.
At the time you’re reading this, he’s likely busy working on several new projects and attempting to bend time and space to allow for more hours in the day. He now lives happily in the Okanagan Valley, BC with a multitude of characters that dwell comfortably inside of his mind.
Andrew is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
