Founded by former art teacher, Patty Palmer in 2008, Deep Space Sparkle’s mission is to uplift art teachers through happy art, colorful curriculums and sparkly support.
Based in Santa Barbara, California, our team supports a thriving membership site for art teachers, The Sparklers’ Club, and an active blog devoted to providing art projects for teachers and families.
Patty Palmer
CEO, Founder DEEP SPACE SPARKLE
Patty is the CEO and Founder at Deep Space Sparkle. Patty founded Deep Space Sparkle while working as an elementary art teacher in Goleta, California.
Sharing project ideas and tips on what her students were doing in the art room on her blog, inspired teachers from around the world. Now Deep Space Sparkle helps teachers teach art to kids in art rooms, classrooms, kitchens and studios.
Patty is the author of Draw, Paint, Sparkle Creative Projects from an Elementary Art Teacher (Roost Books 2018)
Neil Cutcliffe
Mister Sparkle
Neil is the CFO and CTO of Deep Space Sparkle. He keeps all ships running smoothly and even tolerates glitter.
In his former life, Neil worked as a computer engineer and manager before devoting his days to DSS.
Neil and Patty have been married for 28 years.
Shannon Cain Reyes
Customer Happiness
Shannon is our resident customer happiness guru. She takes care of all our customers and members and makes all things sparkle inside Team Sparkle.
This native Texan lives in Santa Barbara, California with her husband and two boys.
Ashley Christian
Publisher
Ashley meshes technical and creativity effortlessly by uploading & managing the content for The Sparklers Club and Deep Space Sparkle.
She’s also a video editing magician and loves piecing together b-roll bits.
Fun fact: Ashley is a former student of Patty!
Amy Clay
Lesson Development and Curriculum Planning
Amy creates our lesson plans and art resources all with our Core Value of The Sparkly Standard of Excellence top of mind. She is the creative genius behind our mixed-media projects and art history curriculum.
Amy is a former elementary school art teacher with a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. She lives with her husband, a sheep farmer, and sweet baby boy in South Dakota.
Heather Sparks
Lesson Development and Teacher Training
Heather hails from Georgia and has worked as an art teacher for 13 years before joining the Deep Space Sparkle creative content team. Heather is a master innovator and loves designing lessons that offer a unique perspectives on traditional subjects.
Heather lives with her two young boys and amazingly supportive husband in a fun, creative household in Georgia.
Emma Deardorff
Video and Photography
Emma brings our art projects and creative content to life with her beautiful photography and videos. She shoots, edits and animates our sparkly educational videos and keeps the office humming with her musical selections and creative energy.
Fun fact: This isn’t Patty and Emma’s first stint working together. When Emma was 12, her innate organizational skills and confidence made her Patty’s go-to gal in Santa Barbara’s annual Seashell Wine-Tasting event.
Hannah Barbaria
Community Manager & Creative Connector
Hannah welcomes art teachers with a huge smile and open arms into our Sparklers community group, hosts the Sparklers’ Club weekly Zoom meet-ups and ensures that everyone is supported and celebrated. She is the creative “eye” behind many of our photoshoots, Instagram stories and newsletters.
Hannah lives in Santa Barbara and bicycles to work everyday on her adorable beach cruiser.
Alexis Watters
Graphic Designer & Maker of Pretty Things
Alexis is our resident graphic designer & illustrator. She ensures that our resources and lesson plans exceed our Sparkly Standard of Excellence that surprise and delight our members each month.
If it’s not “Alex-ified”, it’s not sparkly!
Natalie Christensen
Social Media & Content Manager
Natalie juggles metrics, copy and content as our in-house Social Media & Content Manager.
She thrives on organization, pretty pens and color-coded files and keeps our overflowing Dropbox folders organized.
Bethany Mees
Customer Happiness
Bethany loves cozy sweaters, mugs of steaming northwest coffee and helping our members. No problem is too small for Bethany and no question to simple. If you have any questions about your membership or questions about Deep Space Sparkle, Bethany is ready to help.
Bethany lives in Portland with her husband, 3 boys, 1 sparkly girl and a very large dog.
Rachelle Smith
Resource Specialist
Rachelle is art educator in Columbus, Ohio who teaches at a specialized school for the blind. Her vast knowledge as an art teacher to children with various abilities as well as experience teaching and reaching diverse audiences, is an exciting role for the growth of Deep Space Sparkle’s resources.
Mabre Lencho-Armstrong
Assistant Lesson Creator
Mabre is a studio artist with a background in art therapy, elementary education and museum work.
She is an elementary art teacher in Gilbert, Arizona and yes, she is currently teaching remotely!
Mabre specializes in mixed-media and clay.
2018 TEAM RETREAT
Team Sparkle believes in growing through learning and pushing past comfort zones. This was put to the test at this year’s team retreat.
We headed for Figueroa Mountain in the Santa Barbara back country to experience solitude, relaxation, brainstorming, harrowing drives up steep mountain faces, ostriches, roosters and gale force winds.
But we had wine and the most delicious food from Dolce catering.
2019 Team Retreat La Quinta Resort, Palm Springs, California
We are a growing company of online resources for art teachers. We're looking to grow our team in the areas of social media, community support, product design and education.
In person and virtual positions opportunities available. We are located in Goleta, California.
EXPLORE CAREERS
