Members — This is Hinterland!

Babs Mansfield is an alchemist. In her own words: "Everyone in my family has extremely sensitive skin. I’ve nurtured a wide range of skin complications — from my daughter’s eczema and severe allergies to my son’s skin damage and sensitivity from cancer treatments. I couldn't find a soap that both smelled great and was gentle enough for my delicate flowers — so I made it. Aromas are powerful connectors to emotions, to memories, to each other. Phoenicia Soap products are plant-based, using oils infused with or distilled from botanicals wild-crafted or sustainably grown in the Catskills. We minimize packaging, carrying several zero waste products, and we forego colorants and ingredients that harm people, water, and land. We hope to build a community of personal care product makers who share their practices and techniques."

Jennifer Salvemini is at heart a producer, bringing elements from her personal passions into cohesive creations, ranging from living spaces to curated events. As a student of anthropology and philosophy, her academic interests evolved into an obsession for aesthetic expression in all areas of culture. She developed an intense appreciation for deep sensory experiences and finds great satisfaction in creating sensational experiences for others. Jennifer is an interior designer living and practicing in the Catskills and is the founder of Hinterland. Hinterland is an unfurling dream. It's a playground, a sanctuary, and a home – an evolving concept to bridge disciplines, build community and generate joy. You're invited! Jennifer is also a member of the Kingston Design Connection strategy team, the organization which produces the annual Kingston Design Show House, as well as a participant designer.

Katie Westmoreland is an artist based in New York, NY. She draws upon her family’s legacy of quilting, 15 years of ballet training, and studies of alternative photography processes to create drawings, paintings, textiles, installations, and murals. Katie is interested in the way pictures form over time, how shadows change shape as leaves blow in the wind, and how we account for the experiential phenomena of such events. She gathers source material through extended studies of specific places and chance encounters with forms of dynamic light filtration, such as the alpenglow effect or light and shadows cast upon a sidewalk. From the initial experience of viewing filtered light, Katie relies on a process of direct tracing and memory to construct artworks.

Alison Zavracky's love of product & furniture design was sparked while working post-college as a rendering artist for Vicente Wolf Associates, a prominent New York City interior design firm. She earned a master's degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute, and refined her aesthetic while working as an industrial designer and CAD specialist for John Boone Inc., a high-end furniture design showroom. Taking inspiration from Art Deco and Mid Century Modern styles, Alison Zavracky Design Studio's Hardware and Furniture Collections feature unexpected angles and juxtaposed materials at every turn.

Brenna is a graduate of Bard College and worked in the music industry for a decade before deciding she would rather be creative herself instead of working for other artists. She learned the basics of her crafts while earning her certification in Historic Preservation and Restoration, then developed her skills at a stained glass studio and a gilding studio, both based in NYC, before establishing her own studio in Rosendale, NY. “I have always been fascinated by anything with a past and its own story, so I love bringing centuries-old traditional crafting techniques into contemporary settings. The inspiration for my work comes from patterns and color palates I see around me: historic buildings, record album covers, an aged iron railing, and nature just outside of my studio windows. Even though stained glass and gold leaf have both existed for centuries, there is so much newness to what has yet to be done in their conventional fields. I'm motivated by the endless possibilities."

Sophie Grant is a chef, curator, and event coordinator. With a deep focus on local farms and the Catskill community, Sophie creates delicious and memorable food experiences around eating and education. In addition to bringing people together at thoughtful, intimate, and intentional gatherings, she spearheads farmers' markets and maker showcases around the Catskills Sophie brings her expertise to Hinterland to create authentic, immersive events that build community amongst regional artists, designers, and wanderers alike. Sophie is our resident experience designer!

Marcie Paper is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer currently focusing on hand-painted, bespoke wall paintings for homes and businesses. A long-time painter, Marcie’s patterns are always derived from her own abstract paintings. Twenty years ago, Marcie’s father was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that left him without the ability to retain short-term memory. As a way of understanding his experience and preserving her own, she began making abstract paintings that recorded and tracked her own memories. She has continued to do so to this day. The process and product have evolved over the years but memory and painting have remained at the root. With this foundation, Marcie creates patterns, block-printed fabric, wall murals, hand-painted tiles, tufted rugs, and hand-drawn animations. She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2006. Since then, she has shown her work nationally and has been awarded a number of grants and residencies, including the Jentel Artist Residency, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson, and the Vermont Studio Center. She is currently living and working in the Hudson Valley.

Maya Goer-Palenzuela, daughter of a visionary outsider artist, assumes the creative pedigree by illuminating landscape design as the slowest form of art. Using a primary palette of endemic plants, Maya's botanical compositions aim to be sustainable, beneficial to the environment, and loaded with texture and color throughout the season. After cutting her teeth as a year-round Head Gardener on a private estate in the Hudson Valley, she developed a strong horticultural background, and formed a petite landscape design company called Harmonyscape. Achieving a certificate in Landscape Design from the New York Botanical Garden was the “cherry on top” that gave Maya a “Veni Vidi Vici” moment as she embarked upon the highly competitive industry. Maya further demonstrates her love for the Earth by publicly lecturing to embed the importance of protecting the only planet we live on.

Jocelyn Siegmann, a seasoned clothing designer and seamstress, weaves her narrative through the craft of vintage-inspired handmade garments. With over a decade of experience as a designer in the fast-paced fashion industry, a yearning for a slower, more meaningful approach overwhelmed her. This led to a relocation from Brooklyn to Kingston, NY in 2022. In the inspiring landscapes of the Hudson Valley, Jocelyn found her rhythm and a renewed appreciation for the art of slow fashion. Disheartened by the industry’s waste, she embarked on a journey to create her own clothing brand that embodied her values. One that celebrates the timeless charm of vintage aesthetics while honoring the details of handmade garments and the authenticity of natural fibers. This led to the start of her clothing brand, Ennui. Embracing nostalgia, craft, and romance, and lovingly sewn at home in the Hudson Valley, Ennui emulates a longing for home, with delicate housewares that go perfectly with staying in. When not immersed in design, Jocelyn can be found exploring the great outdoors. Whether hiking through scenic trails, or setting up camp, nature serves as both muse and sanctuary, shaping her design philosophy and influencing her craft.

Courtney Dudley is an interdisciplinary artist with a specific interest in the ennoblement of craft materials, the domestic space and natural cycles. Her practice includes research in archaic processes, resulting in creation of works that position the artist and viewer in relation to cosmic time, underscoring the brevity of current power and social structures. She aims to make objects that encourage a culture of mindful collectivism. Courtney received a MFA from Pratt Institute in 2018 and has attended residencies including The Wassaic Project and The Studios at Mass MoCA. She has exhibited widely and her work can be seen in October 2024 at Headspace Gallery in Kingston, NY.

Courtney is a school teacher and fiber artist living in the Hudson Valley, NY. She began weaving in 2016 and creates in her home studio on handmade frame looms. She is mostly self taught and experiments with a variety of fibers including cotton rope, yarn, wool roving, and hand dyed ribbons. She draws upon nature for inspiration and enjoys the journey from pieces to whole that is weaving.

Renee is a Catskills-based chef and designer who specializes in working with wild plants, natural fibers and fungi. She rediscovered her childhood love for basketry when she was unhappy with the sourdough bread baskets she could buy, and decided to make them herself instead. She works in many media, builds cob ovens, bakes bread and pastries and obsesses over finding and eating wild mushrooms.

Maya Ojalvo Oren is a creative director, cinematographer, photographer, and writer. She is the founder of MOJALVO, a brand experience consultancy, and writes On Holiday, a catch-all newsletter exploring celebratory and intentional living through her explorations and travels. Maya's filmmaking work has taken her all over the world to produce creative content for food, hospitality, travel, and lifestyle brands, and earned her a runner up award in the Conde Nast Shorties awards in 2016. She also has a portfolio in brand experience and programming, developing creative partnerships, events and activations, and amenity programs within the boutique hospitality space. Maya is also a wellness and new age practitioner, with teaching certifications for both Vinyasa and Kundalini yoga. She facilitates visioning and meditation workshops incorporating breath work and journaling, as well as meditative movement gatherings that focus on somatic awareness.

Trading Brooklyn for the Hudson Valley, Shana exchanged not only her location but also her leather handbag brand for a focus on interior design. Always a creative, whether in dance, fine art, or meticulously crafting leather goods, Shana now dedicates herself to enhancing what people cherish most—their homes. With a fashion degree from Pratt Institute, Shana worked in costume design, contributing to notable Broadway shows while simultaneously establishing her eponymous leather handbag brand, known for its modern silhouettes and quality materials. In '23, Shana, along with her husband and two young girls, relocated to the Hudson Valley. She has fully immersed herself in creating not only a warm, inviting, and showstopping home for her family but also for others.

Demetria Chappo creates ceramic home objects, sculptures and wall hangings with an emphasis on surface design and organic and architectural forms. Inspired by nature and universal symbolism that holds personal connection, her pieces feature intricate textures, patterns and graphic motifs often carved, etched and painted. Her series of pit fired sculptures and vessels are a process of alchemy, fired in sawdust, wood and a combination of materials, the resulting surfaces reminiscent of galaxies created by the smoke and flame. Demetria has enjoyed teaching ceramics for over a decade, ever inspired by sharing this craft to those new to the material and artists looking to grow and refine their technique. In 2016 she co-founded Brooklyn Clay Tour, an annual city-wide week of ceramic events, exhibits and shows celebrating the vibrant ceramic arts community. Demetria currently teaches in her studio, workshops, and weekly classes at Auberge Resorts Wildflower Farms. Living in New York City, she began her clay practice and love of the material nearly 20 years ago and in 2012 created Demetria Chappo Ceramics. She sells her pieces across the US and internationally. Her work has been featured in New York Magazine, Architectural Digest, Vogue, among others. Originally from Louisiana, Demetria holds a BFA from the University of Utah. Her studio is currently located in the Hudson Valley, New York.

Saga is the creator of FlowForm, a healing journey to re-pattern childhood survival systems blocking our authentic expression. By repatterning these systems, Saga helps people open to divine Flow and, from there, create their authentic Form through the bridge of the heart. She is a channeler-writer, a flower essence maker and amateur herbalist, a mother to two small children and one rescue dog, and a facilitator of ceremonies and ritual. Saga comes to this work via an academic background in History of Art and Architectural Theory and a high-level apprenticeship in corporate communications. She is excited to join Hinterland to allow her creativity to explore and be stimulated by other mediums: anything flowers, textiles, paint, dance, music!

Tamires Martins is an analog collage artist and SoulCollage® facilitator born in Brazil and based in Woodstock NY. With scissors, paper and glue at hand, she intuitively rearranges found imagery to reveal evocative figures that are regarded by the artist as portals to the soul. Her main inspirations are the unconscious mind, womanhood and the occult.

Chelsea Best is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is, most simply, a love letter to color. Once upon a time a dancer, waiting for approval in order to create, she woke up 10 years ago to the notion that she could create anything - and the only permission she needed was her own. Large scale abstract paintings are the freest form of expression she has found. The process is as much physical as it is visual. The work becomes a practice of discovery, of oneself and of the world around them. Layers are built to be stripped away, only to find revelation in a saturated collage that marries one’s inner and outer landscapes, everchanging as they are. “The idea is not to paint the thing exactly, but what it left with me - the way it made me feel.” Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Chelsea grew up dancing to her mother's piano and reading plays with her father when she wasn’t climbing trees or painting Pollock blobs while watching Bob Ross. Chelsea’s eventual performance career allowed her to travel to various corners of the world which then afforded her the opportunity to deepen her yoga studies in Matapalo, Costa Rica. Her wanderlust and spiritual inquisitiveness lend inspiration to her lifelong journey as an intuitive painter. Chelsea lives in a teeny Upper West Side apartment with her best friend, Rory, where she currently paints on the bedroom wall, because “where there is no space, one must carve it out for herself.”

Lisa is a Chef, Farmer and Cannabis entrepreneur. Now owning and operating two small business's, she pulls knowledge from her time in the NYC culinary industry. As the next generation for her families farm in Orange County NY, Windfall farms is 142 acres of preserved farmland. Lisa along with her partner Mike, act as the lands next generation stewards and farmers. Her direction of passion is environmental packaging and small farmer advocacy. Stemming from the beginning of her career in packaging sustainability, culinary became a natural form of art expression and food became the medium. It was then she realized returning to Windfall felt like one big canvas of growing life. She spends the majority of her time at Windfall working the land to continue its natural beauty, creating diverse "Unconventionally grown" crops and value added products for all the farms sales outlets, chatting away at our markets, and aiding other farmers with the tools to protect their businesses. Merging almost 30 years of experience as a teacher as well as a natural world enthusiast/gardener, Lauren has taken the leap to create a 14 acre pollinator meadow that will inform, inspire, and allow for a community shared nature experience that highlights the area’s native flora, fauna, and pollinators. She hopes this next step allows for community building- an integral component of living in the Hudson Valley

Hello! I’m Kate Murray; the owner, printer, designer and sole employee of Quick Brown Fox Letterpress, based in Saugerties, New York. To pay my dues before starting this business, I worked in two amazing letterpress studios for more than 10 years here in NYC. When the opportunity came up to salvage and restore two presses, both in pretty bad shape, Quick Brown Fox Letterpress was born. Most of the cards that you see on this site are printed on the press that was in the worst shape, Goldie the Golding Jobber. Years and years later, I am constantly adding to my line of quirky, pun-filled letterpress greeting cards. Each card is painstakingly printed one at a time, one color at a time, with immaculate registration on a late 19th Century and an early 20th century letterpress. Some people may say, "11 colors for one card?! That's a lot of colors!" I always say, "there's no such thing as too many color."

Woodstock Field to Vase is a small flower-farm and floral design service in the heart of the Catskills. Deb Tankard is a steward of our environment and awed by nature in bloom. Each blossom is tended with love in its long journey from seed to Field to Vase. Deb treads lightly on the earth and uses organic, regenerative, and sustainable growing practices. She grows and designs specialty seasonal flowers for local events and small weddings, has weekly seasonal flower subscriptions, and delivers floral arrangements for Woodstock Field to Vase is a small flower-farm and floral design service in the heart of the Catskills. Deb Tankard is a steward of our environment and awed by nature in bloom. Each blossom is tended with love in its long journey from seed to Field to Vase. Deb treads lightly on the earth and uses organic, regenerative, and sustainable growing practices. She grows and designs specialty seasonal flowers for local events and small weddings, has weekly seasonal flower subscriptions, and delivers floral arrangements for all occasions. Her whimsical style is reminiscent of a field of wildflowers, with an artful blend of colors. Mother Nature is her teacher. During the season, the unused blossoms are harvested and hung to dry naturally so local flowers are available all year.

Amanda Russo Rubman is a Hudson Valley based artist, designer, and lifelong learner. She has spent 20+ years developing identities for iconic, heritage, and emerging brands. That time established her foundation of respect for the art of collaboration and talent in all forms. Today she leads AR Studio – a home for an evolving collection of her own artwork and collaborations that celebrate New York-based artists and vintage objects. As an artist, more than medium, Amanda's expression is intended to be experiential. Her need to create comes out of a direct desire to capture or harness a mood. Currently most drawn to sculpture regardless of material; clay, lucite, paper, wood, found. Her work is typically layered in texture and technique that may also include photography, motion, painting and antique materials. Amanda's work has been exhibited at Artport Kingston, Inness, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild and WAAM.

Maura Rapkin is a New York City chef, western Pennsylvania trained farmer, and small business owner guided by principles of community engagement and enlightened hospitality. She is passionate about conceiving solutions for a socially just, equitable, sustainable, and environmentally conscious food system. She started her career in 2011 as a sustainability-oriented chef in New York. She worked as a chef and manager in hospitality businesses including Michelin-rated restaurants The Modern and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, internationally renowned Breads Bakery, and premier catering company Abigail Kirsch. After receiving her Masters, Maura founded Napkin LLC, a mission-driven consulting company, when she saw a need emerge for lean, agile, and sustainable business solutions in the food and agriculture sectors. With Napkin, Maura has been able to expand her impact working with stakeholders to build a more equitable, environmentally conscious, and hospitable food and ag industry. Maura applies the knowledge she has gained in the kitchen, on the farm, and advising small business owners to guide her work. She joins Hinterland with the intention to make her work more place-based in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, bring concepts into a more physical realm, and integrate creativity and community into future projects. Maura Rapkin received her MBA and Masters in Food Studies from Chatham University’s sustainability program and a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies and Film Studies from University of Rochester.

Merging almost 30 years of experience as a teacher as well as a natural world enthusiast/gardener, Lauren has taken the leap to create a 14 acre pollinator meadow that will inform, inspire, and allow for a community shared nature experience that highlights the area’s native flora, fauna, and pollinators. She hopes this next step allows for community building- an integral component of living in the Hudson Valley.

Meet our members!

Ethos.