Our Teachers
Elena Gingras, Artist-in-Residence
Janay Weaver, Teaching Assistant
Tim Farr, Founder and Lead Teacher
Elena Gingras
Teacher & Fall 2026 Artist-in-Residence
At Cedar & Bones, Elena works with children in our open-ended art studio immersed in nature, introducing real materials, tools, and techniques while giving children room to explore through their own interests and ideas.
Children might learn to work with clay, make pigments from berries and plants, create botanical prints, weave with natural fibers, or build sculptures from materials found in the forest. The goal isn't for everyone to make the same thing. Children choose what captures their attention and decide where to take it.
Elena observes what children are noticing, wondering about, and returning to, and uses those interests to help shape what enters the studio next. In this way, she is both artist and teacher — modeling technique while giving children space to experiment, create, revisit ideas, and develop their own forms of expression.
Elena Gingras is a multi-media artist whose practice spans printmaking, clay sculpture, painting, paper-making, and drawing. Her work explores the relationship between material transformation, sensory experience, and restoration. Through process-driven methods, she investigates how touch, movement, repetition, and experimentation can become forms of reflection and care. Her work embraces chance and imperfection, allowing cracks, wrinkles, tears, and uneven impressions to remain as evidence of material histories and transformation.
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Elena draws inspiration from the natural landscapes and dense environments that shaped her early experiences. Water, color, texture, and movement are recurring elements in her work, connecting sensory memories of place with physical experiences of the body. A common theme of her work reflects on her background of swimming, translating the sensation of moving through water into visual and material form.
Elena earned her degree in Art Studio from the University of California, Davis. During her time at Davis, she participated in the Art Walk, helped curate and participate in the annual Art of Athletes exhibition. In the spring of 2026, she presented her senior exhibition at Pence Gallery in Davis, California, bringing together her interdisciplinary practice across printmaking and ceramics. Her work continues to explore material experimentation and the ways making can become a form of attention, presence, and restoration.
Tim Farr
Founder, Teacher and Nature Educator
Teaching and mentorship have always been a thread throughout my life. My dad was a middle school teacher before eventually becoming a school superintendent, and my mom ran a childcare program and preschool out of the home I grew up in.
After a 20-year career leading teams in marketing, becoming a father shifted my focus and perspective completely. More than anything, it reminded me what actually matters and the importance of doing work you genuinely love.
Cedar & Bones grew out of countless hours outside with my own boys, learning this land, meeting the local wildlife, exploring creeks, building forts, finding bones, getting muddy, asking questions, and solving problems together.
I am inspired by their curiosity, imagination, and complete engagement with the natural world around them. Montessori education and positive parenting also deeply influenced our family and helped shape how I think about childhood, independence, cooperation, and interest-led learning.
Eventually I discovered that “Forest School” and outdoor learning in nature are established educational frameworks practiced all over the world. Looking back, it felt strangely familiar. We had already been living our own version of it.
What inspires me most about the preschool age is their curiosity, resilience, creativity, and total immersion in the present moment. I call them my little Zen teachers. Preschool-age kids are naturally driven to experiment, explore, imagine, and learn through direct experience.
Cedar & Bones was created to share a love of teaching and the outdoors right here in our own backyard, and to help children build confidence, belonging, and their own relationship with the forests, creeks, plants, animals, insects, and ecosystems around them.
Certifications & Training
Certified Nature Educator, Friends of Tryon Creek
Certified Wilderness First Aid, Base Medical
Certified Pediatric CPR & First Aid: American Heart Association
Circle of Security Caregiver, Pediatric Associates of Northwest
Central Background Registry, Verified by Oregon Childcare Licensing Division
Nature is our best teacher though.
The role of educators is to create a safe and supportive environment. By spending meaningful time outdoors each day, children form their own relationships with plants, animals, insects, forests, and seasons — developing empathy and a strong sense of connection and belonging in the world.
