Aspiring Artists® was first introduced at the Jersey Shore by its Founder Debra Stasiak, who is an entrepreneur, artist, Rutgers University graduate, certified teacher and mother of two sons. Debra began teaching masterpiece paintings in 2000 while she developed her own pre-k curriculum at a school in Spring Lake Heights, NJ.
Since 2001, Aspiring Artists® classes have been offered throughout Central New Jersey. Ms. Stasiak, more commonly known as “Miss Debra” to all of her students, has taught thousands of students who have produced over 50,000 interpretive renditions of famous masterpieces from Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, and Vincent van Gogh using her unique Interpretive Impressionism® system. She has expanded the Aspiring Artists® curricula to include compositions in Interpretive Fauvism™, Interpretive Modernism™, and Designs by Debra™.
In 2013, Debra was asked to collaborate with world renown international calligrapher Guodong Li. Their collaborative compositions were exhibited at the United Nations. One of their collaborative paintings was chosen to be on the 2015 United Nations Women’s Guild calendar. Seven hundred calendars were sold at the United Nations building to benefit the United Nations’ Women’s Guild children’s relief efforts. Photos from their collaboration are shown below. Aspiring Artists® students from Monmouth County NJ participated in fundraiser painting classes to help pay for the production costs of the calendar.
Aspiring Artists® aims to involve youth in opportunities to help children in need, and offers various fundraiser events, such as its annual Give Love project, to support its Serving the World through Art™ effort. Aspiring Artists® is honored to give its students a chance to share their artistic talents as a means to inspire and enrich the lives of less fortunate children, both internationally and nationally.
Aspiring Artists® has traveled to impoverished areas through its International Curriculum for Children in Need™ curriculum. This customized curriculum offers regional lessons and has reached orphaned and impoverished youth in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Liberia, Kenya, and Israel. It is art with a cause!
