Meet the artist

Kirsten Bjøre Guerrero (she/her) is an artist and teacher who places the highest importance on supporting social and emotional connections through making. She loves developing new techniques and creating functional art objects. She is an advocate for issues of mental health, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+ community, and creative entrepreneurship.

Kirsten offers small group classes and workshops as well as programs that support schools by aligning projects to state art standards and integrating art with other subject areas. She also offers professional development for educators, discussing strategies for creating inclusive, accessible, and equitable classrooms with a focus on social and emotional wellness. Her artistic practice has shifted and changed over the years, and as a result she has explored almost every media imaginable. Her current focus is in leather work, including costume and accessory design. She reserves a limited number of slots for educational and creative consultation services and commissioned artwork.

Kirsten currently serves as Head of Engagement and Programming for the arts nonprofit, Life On Earth Art. Her work there involves forming community partnerships and developing curricula for combined methodologies of healing, artmaking, and activism– to further the mission to unite, create, and heal through art.

In 2023, Kirsten co-founded the Petaluma based art collective, WonderStump! She and her partner create large scale, interactive, audio-visual sculptures that invite viewer participation and elicit a sense of curiosity and wonder. The founders of WonderStump! Art Collective are the current organizers of Arts Alive Petaluma, a cooperative monthly event which takes place at various host locations throughout the downtown area.

Kirsten was born and raised in Southcentral Alaska, spent 18 years in San Antonio, Texas, and now lives in Northern California with her two amazing children, their dad, and a whole lot of chickens.