MEET THE STAFF

Carrie Hull-Garwood

Instructor / Studio Coordinator

Carrie has been a teacher at Firstlight for 6 years. She knows just about everything there is to know about our school and curriculum. Before heading off to college, she was a student with us for several years, and she teaching moved into an assistant role when she was still in high school. She has a degree in fine art from Lipscomb University and lives in Nashville with her husband, Ben.

Carrie also works on our curriculum and helps run the studio.

Arianne Reducha

Instructor

With a Bachelors in psychology and a Masters in Developmental Disabilities, Arianne has merged her passion for art, with teaching and working with the special needs community, along with our Foundations courses. She comes to Firstlight from a previous position as an instructor and art program director at a special needs school in Miami, Florida.

She mostly enjoys painting with watercolors and doing large scale commissions inspired by her love for nature.

Ruthie Davis

Creative Concierge

Ruthie taught grade school in the Metro Nashville public schools for 14 years before joing her husband and founder, Dennas, at Firstlight. As our Creative Conceirge, she helps customers at the studio, and with general administration. Ruthie is also in charge of supplies and helping students during class time.

Dennas Davis

Director

Illustrator, painter, teacher, and founder of Firstlight, Dennas has been a professional artist for over 40 years. He is the original illustrator of The Beginner’s Bible, and has worked for Disney, Forbes, Nabisco, and Betty Crocker. Dennas has over 5 million books in print worldwide in over 30 languages. Dennas is also the Founder of The Art Instructor and Homeschooling Art, online curriculum sites for art educators and parents.

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SINCE 2006

Dennas remembers there was an obvious need for art training. “I looked around for classes for my own kids and there was nothing but crafts and games. I also knew my own mom had been frustrated for years trying to find good art instruction in our area. It seemed like we needed something for artists, in the same way there are good options for dance, theatre, music, and sports.”

Since then, we have instructed over 2000 students from ages 4 to adult, and we have around 30 weekly classes to choose from. Each class is small with only 8 to 10 students, and meets once each week.

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