Samara Caughey received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from University of Southern California. She taught art classes for children at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California, for 9 years before opening Purple Twig, an art studio for children and families. The studio teaches techniques in ceramics, drawing, sculpture, collage, and printmaking, all the while allowing children to have their own voice. Samara's approach to teaching children grows directly out of her own fine art practice, which consists of sculpture and collage. She has exhibited professionally in solo and group shows in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. Samara is also contributing writer, creating art projects for children on a bimonthly basis for artfulparent.com and artbarblog.com, and has created art content for teachpreschool.com for their Discovery Conference on process art and how to incorporate it into a preschool curriculum. She lives in Los Angeles, California.