Lions' Digest Winter Issue 03 2020

10 | WINTER 2020
Ave, she created the design for the booth.
Harpster doesn’t actually create the kombucha,
though--in her own words, “the thing that I do
not do and do not trust myself with is the
actual brewing process.”
While Harpster gets an opportunity to
pursue her love for design with Moody Culture,
she also pursues art on her own terms. Art has
always been a part of her life, and she’s
constantly experimenting with different forms
and mediums.
“I would say I’ve probably been into art my
whole life,” Harpster said. “I remember going to
coffee shops when I was in high school with my
watercolors and my acrylics. I‘ve always done
some kind of art. I also danced throughout high
school, so I think whether or not it was
performing or actually making something, it’s
always been a part of me.”
Harpster’s latest project was born out of
Moody Culture.
“[SCOBY] is a colony of bacteria and yeast
and that is what eats the sugar in kombucha
which is what causes it to ferment. So when [we
were] done with it, we were putting it into the
compost bin, and I was like, ‘this is so cool, it
just seems like you should be able to do
something cool with this,’” Harpster said.
Harpster began to make masks with the
SCOBY, and she continued to experiment with
different mediums to create new pieces.
“So [Andy Merritt] brought a painting in,
maybe over a year ago, to my coworker Andy
Wilson, and he does the acrylic pours, and I was
like ‘that’s really cool, I wonder if I could do
that on the back of my masks,’” Harpster said.
After Harpster started working with acrylics,
commissions through her Instagram, @
rawunfilteredart, and the Moody Culture
website, moodyculture.com, started to pour in.
When reflecting upon her artwork, Harpster
noted that her students directly influence her
and her art on a regular basis.
“Art is so authentic in that it just comes
from you,” Harpster said. “I do feel that in my
teaching and I value that so much in my
students, when they get to a place, a comfort
level, when they can just be themselves and
there’s not this exterior of superficial
expectation. [...] Authenticity is definitely equal
in both worlds. I guess the constant inspiration,
too. My students are a constant inspiration as is
the world and anything that I look at that I
want to make something on.”
For Harpster, the seemingly unrelated worlds
of ESL and art converged and pushed her
forward. She continues to grow as both a teacher
and an artist, and if her past is anything to go
off of, the path ahead of her looks bright.