Melissa Johnson is ACES April 2026 Wilderness Resident at Toklat. Melissa is an educator and multimedia sketchbook artist whose 25-year journaling practice began while living in the ghost town of Ashcroft, Colorado. During that time, she served as a resident ghost and archives intern for the Aspen Historical Society while spending her evenings working cookouts at Toklat. With a background in anthropology and art history from Washington State University, her career has spanned interpretive rangering for Washington State Parks, university-level English instruction in Oaxaca, Mexico, and nutrition education for vulnerable populations.

In 2024, Melissa completed a “life resume” trek of the Pacific Crest Trail, documenting the journey in an illustrated journal. This transformative experience solidified her commitment to the deep sense of place that only slowing down can provide. Today, she weaves storytelling and creativity into her lessons to foster a sense of belonging and global responsibility. Whether stewarding her family homestead in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains or exploring the landscapes of Mexico, Melissa remains a lifelong explorer, dedicated to honoring the world through mindful observation and her ever-present sketchbook.

Elena Gonzalez Ruiz is a master weaver from Teotitlan del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. As a teenager, she accepted an invitation by Stuart Mace to represent her village at the Toklat Gallery. That was 1989.  Since then, Elena has been a long-standing Artist-in-Residence at the Catto Center at Toklat, traveling back to the Castle Creek valley nearly every summer for over thirty years. The Magic of the Zapotec Hand is a cooperative Elena founded which helps support over fifty families in her village through sales at the Catto Center.

The Zapotecs of Teotitlan del Valle have been sustainably practicing the art of naturally dyeing and weaving sheep’s wool for centuries. ACES is proud to support this model for environmentally-responsible textile production and to support the traditions of this indigenous community.  Elena contributes to ACES’ mission by providing educational opportunities related to traditional and environmentally-responsible textile production.
Through interactions with visitors at the Catto Center at Toklat and presenting daily Cochinilla Color Demonstrations, Elena teaches the art of weaving and dyeing as her indigenous community has sustainably practiced for generations in the Oaxacan region of Mexico. Elena’s community has successfully fostered a thriving textile industry while protecting and nourishing its natural resources, specifically its vast and critical watershed.

Elena fulfills critical environmental education roles at the Catto Center at Toklat. Additionally, Elena and her family generously donate 5% of Oaxacan weaving sales to ACES’ Summer Camp scholarship program.