Carol Panaro-Smith received her BS in Art Education from State University College at Buffalo and an MFA at Arizona State University. She has taught photography and mixed media for over 20 years in the valley. Her photography and mixed media work has been exhibited extensively for over a decade. Her area of specialization is alternative photographic processes, mixed media and artists' books. Recent honors include an artist in residency fellowship at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts and a national grant from the Surdna Foundation of New York. Carol founded Alchemy Studio Workshops in 1998 with the vision of bringing the highest quality workshops in the arts to the community. She currently teaches part time at Arizona State University and Scottsdale Community College and is co-director of Alchemy Studio with partner, James Hajicek.
James Hajicek is Professor Emeritus in the School of Art at Arizona State University. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the University of New Mexico. His area of specialization is late 19th century photographic printing processes. His work has been exhibited internationally over the last thirty years and can be found in many significant public collections including the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris France. He has received several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for his own photography and his work with obscure photographic printing processes.