ArtsNow
Summer 2008 Instructors
Juan Aguilera C400
Juan G. Aguilera is an Industrial Designer from the University Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City with a pre-press specialty. He has been involved in digital publishing since the darkroom days. A self proclaimed color nut, he believes color is an independent language, with a specific grammar, spelling and intonation.
Juan is a teacher at heart, having taught geometry and design with students ranging from middle school to adults, he currently teaches Photoshop, Color Correction, Camera Raw, Fine Art Printing and Digital Photography workflow in the Northwest. He is a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and has attended several Photoshop World events.
Meredith Arnold C404, C407
Meredith Arnold is an artist living a little off center in Shoreline, Washington. Her work has been exhibited internationally and continues to be published in books and magazines. Teaching for over 30 years, Meredith has taught an array of programs in the arts, life skills, creativity and even English Literature. Both art and teaching are passions that Meredith found early in life. She is a founding member and on the Board of Directors for the N.W. Polymer Clay Guild, an artist's non-profit organization. As a mixed media artist, Meredith is fascinated by working with polymer clay, precious metal clay, fabric, paint, beads, glass and a variety of metals.
Katherine Billings C502, C700, C801
Katherine Billings is an award-winning director, actor, writer, producer, & Teaching Artist at the Broadway Center Conservatory, Evergreen and South Puget Sound Colleges. Awards include the American Film Festival, U.S. Film Festival, International C.I.N.E., Stage Directing & Acting honors. A professional coach to actors for auditions and appearances on Wonder Years, Bull Durham, X-Files, Millenium, Stargate, DaVinci’s Inquest, Deadman’s Gun, Disturbing Behavior, Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy.
Jennifer Eichmeier C405, C501
Jennifer Eichmeier graduated with a master in industrial design from Western Washington University in Bellingham. She currently displays her artwork at local venue around the Puget Sound. In the last year, she has begun to teach at local community colleges in a variety of different subjects in visual arts. Some examples of Jennifer’s work are available on her website at www.designedbyjenny.com.
Haley Green C302
Haley Green, MA. Creativity Catalyst Life Coaching. www.haleygreen.com. Haley offers her clients a rich pallet of coaching, adult learning, expressive arts, wellness, business administration and team-leadership development. She is passionately committed to supporting her clients as they embody their most meaningful and authentic life. With a Master's Degree in Human and Organization Development, Haley brings over 10 years experience in the Transformative Learning and Development field.
Karon Leigh C409
Karon Leigh is a mixed media artist . Karon grew up in Michigan and the California Bay Area where she won numerous awards. She relocated to Washington State in 1995 where she has been a single mother, artist and a self employed business owner.
She has studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and the Kirkland Arts Center I in addition to numerous workshops with professional artists. She is especially drawn to printmaking and encaustic work, both allowing collage and other mixed media to find their way into her pieces. Landscapes are most often the imagery of her artwork as she notes that, "landscapes allow us to see how we fit into the world."
Jennifer McCord C500
Jennifer McCord currently owns her own publishing consultant business in Seattle, and has over 20 years of experience in the publishing business, including writing, producing, marketing, selling, speaking, teaching and publishing. She has been a national spokesperson for Waldenbooks on the romance industry, which included writing columns, giving speeches and granting media interviews. She received an industry award in 1991 from the Romance Writers of America; an Affair d’Couer award in 1993 for promoting the women’s fiction, romance genre and authors in the genre; and a Melinda Hefler Award in 2002 from the Romantic Times for promoting and writing about women’s fiction and romance. She is a member of the National Romance Writer’s Conference, and is on the Advisory Committee for Writer’s Program at the University of Washington, as well as the Program Committee for the Northwest Book Festival and Oregon Writers Colony.
Dan Neish C401
Dan Neish, is an Edmonds Community College art instructor. Dan graduated from the University of Washington with a Master’s of Fine Arts. His area of expertise is ceramics. He has had many solo exhibits in Seattle and been in invitational exhibits across the country
Craig Orback C410
Craig Orback graduated with a B.F.A. in illustration from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle in 1998. He has taught Children's Book Illustration for four years at local colleges. Children's book illustrations fulfill Craig's passion for telling stories with his art and he enjoys sharing his passion with others. Working primarily in oil, acrylic and watercolor, his illustrations are realistic yet painterly. In his free time he enjoys painting landscapes of scenes around his home. Some of his award winning published books and clients have included "Nathan Hale: Patriot Spy", "Benjamin Bannaker: Pioneering Scientist", "Bronco Charlie and the Pony Express", and "Paul Bunyan", all for Lerner Publishing. Other clients have included Simon and Schuster, McGraw Hill, Scholastic Inc., Houghton Mifflin, and the Seattle Children's Theatre. Craig's illustration website is at www.craigorback.com
Claire Putney C403
The foothills below the Flat Irons of Boulder, Colorado were my first home. I soon after began to retreat further into the mountains with my family to explore. We read maps, collected rocks and walked. This is the context through which I came to understand my surroundings and my place within them. Growing up with a mother who is a painter and a grandfather who was a watchmaker/machinist, I quickly learned to communicate through the process of making.
I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Painting, Printmaking and Photography at San Diego State University, although the majority of what I learned during that time was in the open desert of southeast California. Before applying for graduate school, I spent one year as a visiting artist at Hoover High School in San Diego, CA through the Price Community Builders Fellowship and five months as an art instructor at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, while continuing my personal studio practice. In June 2007 I completed my MFA in Studio Art at the University of Washington.
Since my arrival in the Seattle area, I have had the pleasure of participating in a number of group and solo exhibitions, have had my work purchased for the City of Seattle Portable Work Collection, and have contributed to the University District Public Art Project. My work has been shown in group exhibitions around Seattle and San Diego. I am also looking forward to an upcoming solo exhibition at the Haydon Art Center in November 2008.
Patricia Ridenour C402
Patricia Ridenour is an award winning, internationally published, fine art and commercial photographer. She has won multiple awards in The International Photography Awards, done the series posters for The Seattle Opera, a book by Random House, and been published in Vogue, Mirabella, Conde Nast, and Travel Leisure magazines. She is on the faculty of The Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle, along with teaching travel photography for Rick Steves Europe Through the Backdoor.
Bruce Taylor C701
Bruce Taylor, aka. “Mr. Magic Realism” is best known for his writing of Magic Realism, and surrealism and, more recently,. in the anthology, The Bizarro Starter Kit (wwwbizarrogenre.org) Bruce is called one of the “ …ten … leading authors in the bizarro genre.” Bruce has two books in print, The Final Trick of Funnyman and Other Stories (www.FairwoodPress.com) and Kafka’s Uncle and Other Strange Tales (www.Afterbirthbooks.com). Edward: Dancing on the Edge of Infinity is due out in November, 2007 from RedJack books. Under editorial consideration: Stormworld (co-authored with Brian Herbert), The Mountains of the Night, The Tails of Alleymanderous and Other Odd Tales, Kafka’s Uncle: the Unfortunate Sequel and Other Insults to the Morally Perfect. are currently under editorial consideration Bruce has just completed two new books, Kafka’s Uncle: the Ghastly Prequel and Other Stories of Love and Pathos in the World’s Most Powerful, Third-World Banana Republic, and The Magic of Wild Places, a sequel to The Mountains of the Night. Bruce was Writer in Residence at Shakespeare & Company, Paris, former Co-Director, The Wellness Program, Harborview Medical Center. He’s also a hypnotherapist and Vice-president, Switchback Backpacks (www.switchbackpacks.com).
Recently, Bruce has accepted the position of president of the Seattle Free Lances, the oldest (1921) and reputed to be the most respected, professional writers group in the Northwest.
Oana Tomai C800
Oana moved to Seattle in the fall of 2004 after she received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature from Eastman School of Music where she served as a graduate assistant. A native of Romania she performed in a ten-concert tour with theater actress Leopoldina Balanuta in recitals of Romantic poetry and music and was broadcast live. Oana moved to the U.S. in 1996. She became an American citizen in 2005. She is a recipient of various scholarships and grants, participated in music festivals such as Aspen Festival and School of Music, Chautauqua Institute, Brevard Music Center and Pecs Summer School of Music and as an accompanist in the International Percussion Competition of Debrecen, Hungary. She played in masterclasses for Vladimir Feltsman, Tzimon Barto, Nemethy Attila, Arkady Sevidov, Gabriel Chodos and Edward Auer. As an opera accompanist and chamber musician she has been coached by Fiora Contino and Malcolm Bilson. Her principal teachers were Rebecca Penneys and Andrew Cooperstock. Among her most recent activities are guest artist appearances for the George Crumb Festival University of Northern Colorado, By Crumb! at the Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle Symphony Made in America Festival at Nordstrom Recital Hall and participation in the U. W. World Series Masterclasses. She is a former faculty member at the Seattle Conservatory where she taught theory and composition. This year Oana is a composition teacher at Music Center of the Northwest for both Adults and Kids. This fall she will play with Cornish College of the Arts faculty members an extraordinary concert of Romanian music presented by Seattle’s own Nonsequitur at the Shepherd’s Center. Oana is a frequent guest in fund raising recitals benefiting various schools of music and colleges in the Northwest.
Roberta Trahan C500
Roberta Trahan is a writer, editor, instructor and marketing consultant in the Seattle area. Her more than 20 years experience in communications ranges from newspaper journalism to advertising, media relations, corporate & retail sales, event promotion, public relations, and publicity. Words have been her way of life from the moment she could read and write—from her first published poetry and feature articles at age 16 throughout her entire career. Currently, Roberta works as a freelance marketing consultant, specializing in services that support authors and publishers.
Michael Wewer C412
Michael Whithmarsh C408
Kristi Zevenbergen C406
Kristi Zevenbergen teaches beading, wirecraft and metalsmithing in the Seattle Area, designing projects that enable students to learn technique. “I enjoy watching the process of discovery as students begin to imagine and discuss new possibilities. Teaching gives me a chance to impart the joy of creating and to give others the permission to create just for the sake of creating. ”. In her own work she uses the process of “responding” to what she sees before her, choosing from a variety of techniques to accomplish a finished piece. “ I’m happiest when I am able to make art freely without the boundaries of marketplace aesthetics”. Inspiration for her pieces comes from old things and things in nature. See Kristi’s work and class schedule at www.kristizevenbergen.com
Yu-ming Zhu C411
Originally from Shanghai, China, Yuming began to study under the painting masters at the age of ten. He blends the styles of the East and West into his oil, pastel and Chinese watercolor paintings. Capturing the light and darkness of the European masters while combining the familiar and textured ink brush strokes found in Chinese painting and calligraphy, Yuming finds that his art keeps him “spiritually wealthy and healthy”.
Along with art, Yuming began a lifetime fascination with literature, mythology and philosophy. “Painting is more than painting.” “Painting is like poetry and music, yet a vision stimulation of the arousal of imagination and deep sensation of the ritual of life”. After he received his BA in Literature from China, he came to the States to study art and psychotherapy. His first solo art show was in 1989 at California State University, Sonoma, where he later earned a Master of Arts degree. Among several other exhibitions in California was a solo show at the Asian Museum of Art in Oakland, California.
He held several group exhibitions after he moved to the Great Seattle area. He also teaches Sumi style painting in community colleges and is an active member in several artists’ associations. In 1996, Yuming participated in the “Five Thoughts of Asian Art”, an instructional program offered through the Seattle Art Museum and KCTS.
Yuming is striving to express modern life phenomenon and obsession of music through his own unique heritage. He describes his effort of making statements through his work as Lyrical Impression and Idealistic Expression. Musical and rhythmic movement, passion and sometimes humor are flowing in his painting. “ism”, (the term he answers to people when asked what style he paints), is the constant evolving way he describes himself in painting.
To view more of Yuming’s work, pleases contact
Z. Yuming
425-497-9915
Email: zhuyuming@yahoo.com
www.Paragon-Art.com
