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Elaine Aquino taught art for 10 years at Queen of All Saints. She has been beading for a decade and sells her creations in high end galleries. Elaine enjoys all types of jewelry making but her favorite obsession is Kumihimo.
Janet Bloch is the Education Director at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts. In addition to being a professional artist, Bloch has 15 years of experience giving workshops and private consultations to artists. A recipient of numerous grants and awards, Bloch is represented by the Linda Warren Gallery in Chicago.
Laura Cutler holds a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA and studied figurative realism at the New York Academy of Art, New York, NY. She currently teaches drawing and painting at Indiana University South Bend, and is co- owner of the Thaddeus C. Gallery, LaPorte, IN.
Peyton Daley is a stage, voice-over, and film actress who has been teaching acting and improvisation to all ages for over a decade. She has been a member of the adjunct faculty with the Second City Training Center in Chicago for several years. She trains individuals, businesses, groups, workshops and camps for all ages around the country through The Daley Acting Company. She is a working member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Linda Sorkin Eisenberg holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia College in Chicago. She co-founded Paper Press, a non-profit center for papermaking that Columbia College acquired in 1994 and formed the nucleus of Columbia’s Book and Paper Graduate Program. Eisenberg also designed, dyed and sold batik clothing throughout the United States. Currently, she teaches at Truman College and gives workshops throughout the Chicago area.
Marie-Claire Foster has been a professional artist and an instructor of fine arts since 2000. She received a BA from Purdue University and has studied various styles of art in Europe, Mexico and Haiti. Currently, she is the Marketing and Events Coordinator for Porter County Parks and Recreation.
Lucrecia Guerrero is an author and experienced teacher who holds an MFA in creative writing. Her short stories have been anthologized and her work has been published in journals such as The Louisville Review and Glimmer Train. Chasing Shadows, her collection of linked stories, was published by Chronicle Books, and Tree of Sighs, her first novel, is forthcoming from Bilingual Press at Arizona State University.
Amanda Heise is a printmaker with a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. A LaPorte native, Heise has been commissioned by St. Andrews Products in Michigan City to create artwork for past Indiana Governor, Joe Kernan and for Gurley Leep. Recently Heise's work was accepted to the prestigious Biennial 25 at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
Susan Henshaw is a self-taught artist and a lifetime resident of Union Pier, Michigan. As such, she has drawn inspiration from the surrounding waters of Lake Michigan, including the rivers and streams that pour into it. Her work is part of several corporate and private collections and has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions. Most recently, she received the Best of Show and Best Pastel awards at the Michigan Annual Arts Competition 2010 at the Box Factory for the Arts, St Joseph, MI.
Julia Holmaas was employed after college with the National Park Service until she retired as Chief of Interpretation at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2004. She began painting watercolor in 1992 while working as an Exhibit Curator at the Park Service Design Center in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. There she was responsible for planning numerous educational exhibits for Park Service Visitor Centers throughout the country. Painting in both watercolor and oil, Holmaas has won awards for her work in both mediums. For the past two years she has coordinated the South Shore Art Association Plein Air group and annual exhibit.
Alison Jaksa holds a BFA degree in Art and has worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for 25 years. Jaksa taught elementary school art at the American School of The Hague, The Netherlands and taught elementary and middle school art in the Michigan City Area schools.
Amanda Joyner is a Pastry Chef turned Milliner from Texas. She self taught herself the art of millinery before turning to Joy Scott of Chicago for more millinery training. Her love of hats stems from musicals and her quirky sense of style.
Connie Kassal is a painter and art instructor in Long Beach Indiana. Kassal holds a Bachelor's degree in painting from the University of Wisconsin and a Master's degree in painting from Governors State University. She is an art professor at Purdue University Northwest and active in arts in Northwest Indiana including exhibiting, managing galleries, and involvement in artists groups.
Neil Kienitz is a signature member of the Transparent Watercolor Society of America. Kienitz is a self-taught artist who has had 22 solo shows and received more than 90 national and regional awards. His work is included in numerous corporate and private collections, such as Amoco Oil Corporation, Wausau Insurance Company, Borg-Warner Corporation and the Marshall Field Company.
Jasmine Lake holds a B.A. in Theatre Performance from Western Michigan University. Her training includes five years of acting, Shakespeare, Balinese mask work, Fitzmaurice vocal reconstruction, extensive directing experience, and a year studying theatre at Goldsmiths (University of London). Jasmine works as a director and teacher throughout the community, bringing her education to interested groups and timid youth. Noteworthy collaborations include directing/producing the Rocky Horror Show with fellow WMU alumni and developing a show with the nationally acclaimed Tectonic Theatre Project.
Deborah Landry lives in Porter, Indiana and has done several public art projects in Northwest Indiana including several Michigan City Area Schools. Landry has received numerous awards for her artwork, including a 5 week Public Art Residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her vast exhibition history includes shows throughout the Southeast United States and in the Midwest. You can view more of her artwork at http://www.renditionsstudio.com.
Thomas Mapp is a painter, photographer and retired professor. He earned his MFA at Yale and began a long teaching career. He was the Chairman of the Undergraduate Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for numerous years and then became the Director of the Undergraduate and Graduate Programs, Midway Studios at the University of Chicago from 1975 - 2001.
Andrea Peterson holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She co-directs Hook Pottery Paper, a paper, print and pottery studio in LaPorte, Indiana. Peterson has taught art at Columbia College, Chicago Center for Book, Paper, and Print and Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Olivia Petrides is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Painting & Drawing Department and the Visual Communications Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has illustrated two guides to trees in the classic Peterson Field Guide Series as well as four other manuals to trees issued by Stackpole Press.
Jo Ellen Pilecki holds a Bachelor's degree in history and English and a Master's degree in English and secondary education from Indiana University Bloomington. She taught English and creative writing at Rogers and Michigan City High School. She is an experienced group leader and an Amherst Writers and Artists affiliate, certified to lead workshops in the AWA method.
Debra Sawyer was schooled in fine arts and ran her own Design Firm for over 20 years. She returned to the School of the Art Institute, Chicago and finished a Masters of Art in Art Education to focus on art process and art in community. Her public art includes flags, painted sticks and lightning rods, and a current series on women and cancer.
Rana Segal has worked as a director, producer and cinematographer for 30 years. She has shot documentaries in Senegal, Borneo, Russia, Mexico, Europe, Brazil and the US. Her work has aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel and as a permanent exhibit at the Field Museum. She has taught filmmaking and video production at Columbia College and The Center for New Television.
S. Gayle Stevens received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. Stevens was named one of the Critical Mass Top Fifty Photographers for 2010. Ms. Stevens has worked in antiquarian processes for over fifteen years. Her chosen medium is wet plate collodion for its fluidity and individuality. Called the “Alt Queen” by her students, she has taught alternative photo processes at the College of DuPage, Illinois for eleven years.
Melissa Washburn is a painter and 2D mixed media artist with a BFA from Binghamton University and an MA in Arts Administration from IU Bloomington. Her career has taken her full circle from museum administration to graphic design to now concentrating on her own artwork again. She took up knitting as a hobby after her daughter was born in 2005, and was hooked.
Dana Zier has a Bachelor of Arts from Montana State University, Billings, and a Master of Arts from Purdue University, W. Lafayette. She has taught art at Montana State University in Billings, Purdue University, Valparaiso University, and St. Joseph College in Indiana as well as healing art workshops for homeless/abused women, children, and Alzheimer patients. Her work can be seen at the Attic Gallery in Crown Point, IN, Lifestyles in Valparaiso, IN, and Inspired Fire Gallery in Lafayette, IN. |
