About Us

Mike & Lauri first met at Muhlenberg College in Italian class, but they didn't start dating until they ran into each other again a few years after college. They were married in August of 2008 and now live in Bethlehem, PA with their 3 amazing kids (Finley, Oliver & Henry) and crazy dog, Derby.

For years Mike and Lauri would talk about their dream of opening up their own art studio together. One day they got the idea of renovating their garage into a studio space, and after many, many months of working on the space, and thanks to the amazing help from family, The Art Nook was born!

Mike

Mike Tripaldi works full time as an elementary school art teacher for the Nazareth Area School District, where he has been teaching since 2006.

Mike enjoys teaching individual art lessons to school age kids and has hosted canvas painting workshops and birthday parties. He also serves as art club advisor and art show coordinator at the Nazareth Area Intermediate School.

He earned a B.A. in studio art and art history from Muhlenberg College in the Spring of 2003 and a M.Ed. with an art education concentration from Arcadia University in the Winter of 2005. He has a Level II Pennsylvania Teaching Certificate in Art K-12. He has all required federal and state updated clearances.

Mike truly enjoys teaching his students about the world of art and helping them discover and cultivate their own artistic talents. He is looking forward to exploring many different mediums and materials with his students right here at his own studio space, The Art Nook.

Lauri

Lauri Tripaldi runs the business end of The Art Nook and also teaches photography classes and private photography lessons here at The Nook.

Lauri studied film and digital photography in college and continues to educate herself by attending different workshops each year to push herself artistically. Her first photography "gig" out of school was photographing an album cover for a local band. Over the next 15 years she went on to photograph hundreds of weddings and has had her work shown in a few different galleries online and locally. Her main focus now is photographing kids and families, her favorite subjects yet! You can check out her work on her website: www.lauritripaldi.com. Lauri has all required federal and state clearances.