Faculty Profiles
Cascade Faculty
Faculty Profiles
- Jacqueline Ehlis, Department Chair
Central
to Jacqueline Ehlis' teaching philosophy is that the experience of making art
as a practice within an aesthetic context contributes to the invaluable effort
to put the individual in possession of all of one's powers. Ehlis believes in
the worth and creative power of any individual. Jacqueline Ehlis received her
M.F.A. at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; her B.F.A. at Pacific Northwest
College of Art, Portland, Oregon; and her A.A. at Portland Community College.
Selected solo exhibitions include; Couture, Stipend Exhibition Award, New American
Art Union, Portland, Oregon, Juror: Ruth Ann Brown and selected group exhibitions;
Las Vegas Diaspora, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada, Curator: Dave Hickey.- Elizabeth Bilyeu
- Elizabeth Bilyeu teaches the Modern Art History sequence, the Honors History of Western Art sequence, the Introduction to Art sequence, and Women in Art at Cascade Campus. She often asks students to venture out of the classroom to apply their skills critiquing art and architecture. She says, "along with the history, I focus on practicing with students the language of art -- skills of visual analysis. This gives them confidence in front of original works of art. It is there face-to-face with the work that you best learn to look at, think about, and discuss art." Elizabeth earned an MA in Art History from Washington University, St. Louis, and an MA in Feminism and the Visual Arts from the University of Leeds in England. In Fall term 2009, she taught in the Study Abroad Program in Florence, Italy.
- Vanessa Calvert
Vanessa Calvert received her M.F.A. in 2009 from Portland State University and her B.A. from Whitman College in 2003. She is a mixed media sculpture and installation artist and has shown in Oregon and Washington at places including Disjecta, Igloo, Autzen, FalseFront Studio, and Broderick Gallery.- "My teaching philosophy centers on helping students develop a growing ability to question what, why, and how they are making work while building a strong relationship with the materials and concepts they are using. I encourage a transdisciplinary approach to making work with a level of engagement that moves beyond technique alone and wherein students inform their work using methods and frameworks from outside fields."
- www.vanessacalvert.com
- Karen Esler
Karen Esler is an MFA graduate of Vermont College with a focus on painting and critical studies. She teaches painting, life painting and life drawing. Her professional art practice is primarily two dimensional, painting and drawing, figurative and landscapes. Her work is shown in Portland, Oregon, at Augen Gallery.- Tia Factor
Tia Factor received her BFA with High Distinction from the California College of the Arts (CCA) in1997 and an MFA in 2001 from the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. Factor began teaching on the college level while attending Berkeley and has continued to teach painting, drawing and foundations since then. She has completed several artist residencies in India, Vermont and Tasmania. Her paintings and installations have been exhibited both nationally and internationally in group and solo shows and were featured in two book publications in 2010, Happy Meat Drawing Anthology #2 and New American Landscape, edited by David Paul Downs. Factor's work is represented by Swarm Gallery in Oakland, California.- www.tiafactor.com
- Mic Marusek
Mic Marusek shares years of commercial and documentary experience with her photography students. She values sending them out in the field to test their equipment, aesthetic sense, conceptual perspective and their own minds while pushing them all beyond expectation. Her teaching approach is practical and folksy while never straying from the importance of technical mastery and intellectual growth. She has been teaching at PCC since 2009 and loving every minute of it. She earned her BA in education and BFA in painting from Ohio University. She earned her MFA from New Mexico State University.- Kicki Masthem
Kicki Masthem teaches drawing, sculpture and clay and works out of her studio in Portland, Oregon. She has received awards such as the "Individual Artist Fellowship" from the Virginia Commission for the Arts (1999), "Halvorsen Residency" at Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery (2001), "Artist in Residence" at Watershed Ceramic Center for the Arts, ME (2004) and at The Clay Studio in Missoula, MT(2007). Her work is featured in "500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form", Lark Press (2004) and "Image Transfer" by Paul Andrew Wandless (2006).
- Sam Morgan
- BFA Studio Arts, U Colorado Boulder - CO 1993
- MFA Ceramics, Alfred U - NY 1996
- JulieAnne Poncet
Hello, my name is JulieAnne Poncet and I have been teaching art history courses at PCC for six years. I was born in Portland, Oregon, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, returning to Portland in 2002. I have an AA degree in Fine Arts from Ohlone College, Fremont CA, a bachelors degree in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley, and a masters degree in Art History from University College, London, England. I teach a sequence ART101, 102 and 103 as well as ART204, 205, 206, and ART215. I have also taught at PSU and Marylhurst University, as well as spent three years working as the curator's assistant at the Portland Art Museum.
- Amber Vanhatala Stene
I'm a teacher of visual art. I hold an MFA in fine art. And I have a strong working history as a creative graphic design professional. My design work is strategically concepted and target-driven. My fine art is also driven by concept and message, and is created to invite viewer participation.- In teaching, I strive to fuel the passion to create successful art. To do this, I build an excitement about art by showing students examples of current movements in art, providing resources and training in art, and referring them to specific artists whose work will serve to inspire. In return, I get the joy of watching students explore, experiment, and grow in their work.
- Ultimately, I feel the successful art and design student will be self-motivated, self-critical, and a creative thinker who is able to produce work that is visually arresting and meaningful. This is what I teach, and this is a great job to have.
- www.amberstene.com
- Marlana Stoddard Hayes
Teaching Philosophy: As an artist I have always been interested in making work that is thoughtful, generous and organic in quality (meaning growth over time)…also accessible to most people and hopefully, beautiful. As an art instructor, I also hold to these beliefs and strive to embody them in my manner as a teacher and mentor to aspiring artists.
Since all of us come from different perspectives and life experiences, I do wait for each person to tell some of who they are before I make suggestions for growth or change. My manner is gentle and quietly persuasive, but mature in focus and honed through years of practice. I feel it is my privilege to help a person unfold in their artistic search and sincerely look forward to every single class I teach; to learn and know about the many varied people in our world. Since I am very interested and concerned about the natural world and its challenges and sensitivities, I do use materials that are from nature as source materials for drawings and paintings and for course problems.
- James R. White
- Raised and educated in the Pacific Northwest, Jim completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Religion at the University Of Puget Sound in Tacoma Washington. After a year of teaching English in Tokyo, Japan he returned to UPS and finished a second undergraduate degree in studio art. After receiving his MFA degree in ceramics and ceramic sculpture from the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1997, he traveled to Kanazawa, Japan and had the distinction of being the first American apprentice at the pottery studio of Chozaemon Ohi, a family renowned over 11 generations for their production of ceramic vessels used in the Japanese Tea ceremony. From 2000-2009 he was a full time faculty member teaching ceramics and design courses at Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Illinois. In 2009 he and his family relocated back to Portland where he is an adjunct instructor of ceramics at Portland Community College and works as a studio artist. He is a nationally and internationally exhibited artist.
Rock Creek Faculty
Sylvania Faculty
Faculty Profiles
- Gene Flores, Department Chair
Gene was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. The youngest of eight, he graduated with a BFA from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). He then received a fellowship to attend the University of Iowa where he received his MA and MFA with honors in printmaking. After graduating Iowa he returned to El Paso where he soon became the Gallery Director as well as teaching basic drawing courses at UTEP. After three years he moved from El Paso and returned to Iowa City. Gene taught a life drawing course at the University of Iowa, while at the same time, was hired as a preparator at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A year later Gene moved to Portland, Oregon where he met his wife and became a part-time art instructor at Portland Community College as well as Clackamas Community College. Gene was hired full-time at Portland Community College in 2005 where he continues to teach life drawing, basic drawing and printmaking courses. Gene Flores and his wife live in Washington state.
All my works are self-portraits, a reflection of my life, from the death of my father to the joys of being alive. My images have been described as humorous, insightful, and disturbing. Many of works are a play on words and imagery, with mythological creatures and a combination of human and animal characters (logic and instinct) playing a vital role. I view my works as a window to another world with reoccurring characters and themes. My work tiptoes between surreal and absurd. When making my art, I play the role of the viewer and try to capture a glimpse into this strange world, a world where anything is possible and where anything can, and often does, happen.
- Hillary Barsky
I've taught ceramics, drawing, watercolor, painting, and basic design at PCC for many years. I believe in the importance and power of the visual image and in the benefits of crafting ideas into form. My educational background includes both BFA and MFA in ceramics, with a minor in graphic design, from the University of Oregon. - Angela Batchelor
Angela Batchelor received her M.F.A from Boise State University in 2007. She grew up in Idaho, but currently calls Portland, Oregon home. She teaches Basic Design courses and Printmaking for PCC. Her most recent studio work consists of a mixture of drawing, painting, printmaking and artist books. Much of Angela’s work incorporates organs, insects and other natural forms to discuss fragility and the fleeting quality of life. Although, her beloved cat, Marvin, often serves as the subject for less-serious prints as well. An innate curiosity about the world is the driving force behind all of her work.
My teaching philosophy has developed from my own artistic interests and practices. As an artist I wish to be constantly challenged and inspired, so this desire is transferred to how I approach teaching. My goal is to develop a curriculum that I would be excited and stimulated by – one that will cultivate this type of experience for my students. I want my students see a clear connection between an excitement for my own work and for my position as their instructor.
- Evertt Beidler
Evertt Beidler has taught welding at PCC Sylvania for the past two years. While casting and fabrication are central processes to his work, his studio practice is driven by his interest in the relationship between material, content, and form.
Images and reviews of Evertt’s work have been featured in publications such as Sculpture Magazine, The Daily Constitutional, The Oregonian, and the Willamette Week. His exhibition record includes group exhibitions at the Grounds for Sculpture (Hamilton, New Jersey), and the Nu-Art Series Gallery (St. Louis, Missouri), as well as solo exhibitions at Gallery II (Washington State University-Pullman), the Autzen Gallery (Portland State University), and Gallery 500 (Portland, Oregon).
Presently Evertt is producing a series of works that incorporate video, installation, sculpture, and performance. For more information about Evertt and his work please visit his website at everttbeidler.com.
- Bruce Conkle
Bruce Conkle loves snowmen, coconuts, fairy tales, crystals, burls, and meteorites. He is interested in creating work which combines art and humor to address contemporary attitudes toward nature and environmental concerns, including deforestation and climate change. Bruce's work often deals with escapism, artificial worlds and man’s place within nature and frequently examines what he calls the “misfit quotient” at the crossroads. His work has shown in Reykjavik, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for TriMet/MAX Light Rail and PSU’s Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art + Residency. In 2010 Bruce received an Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship and a project grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.- Kim Manchester
- Kim Manchester is a photographer who is interested in the stories of space, place, objects and home. She explores the histories, memories and narratives that can be excavated and communicated through the photograph. Kim works with both digital and film as well as the occasional textile and/or tactile project and enjoys exploring the elements of audience engagement and social practice. She is the lead faculty for Photography at PCC Sylvania and works and lives in Portland, Oregon.
- Nathan Marcel
I absolutely love drawing and teaching. I’ve been a drawing instructor at Portland Community College since 2005. I have been drawing with the intention of improvement since as early as I can remember and began painting seriously in 1995. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in drawing, painting and printmaking, and my MFA from Portland State University in 2003.
Although I work in mixed genres and multiple media my, work is always directly anchored in the drawing experience. I have trained as a fine artist and have studied fine arts extensively, including architecture and both modern and ancient sculpture, but the majority of my skills have centered around my first love; illustration. My heaviest influences include Silver Age sequential art, Secession movement artists, The Cubists, 19th Century illustration and art from the Northern Renaissance. My tastes are also eclectic, dipping heavily into the naive well of Outsider, Art Brut and Kitch culture.
In each of my classes, I stress the importance of building a new way of "seeing". I manage the fundamentals by training students in steps to see the largest forms first, then build details in the drawings to complement and complete the needed content. I stress perspective study in order to see and flatten three dimensional space, and as a much needed means towards a realistic comprehensive skill level goal. A lot of students come to my classes with different skill levels wishing to focus on personal technical criteria, but from my own experience, students are much more likely to be engaged and excited if what they learn can easily be applied to what they value. I also supplement all of my teaching with lectures, critiques and examinations of historical visual media which builds within the eager student the context for a greater appreciation of drawing, and art in general, as well as demystifying, by example, a complex and demanding subject of study.
- Crystal Schenk
Crystal Schenk received an MFA from Portland State University in 2007, and BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon, USA.
Schenk’s artwork has been published in Sculpture and Craft magazines. She was awarded the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award for 2006, and was subsequently selected as the recipient of ISC’s artist in residency program at Art-st-urban in Switzerland. This was a six week, fully funded residency during the summer of 2007, which provided both live and work space and the opportunity to meet many of Switzerland’s artists, collectors and curators. While there, she completed a suite of nine new sculptural works, which were featured in a six month solo exhibition at Art-st-urban. In 2009 Art-st-urban awarded Schenk with the institution’s first Emerging Sculptor Award. Recently, she participated in a three month artist residency at Milepost 5 in Portland, where she collaborated with artist Shelby Davis in the creation of a life-size semi truck made of drywall. Schenk was selected as one of 19 artists to be represented in the current Oregon biennial, Portland 2010.
Schenk’s work has been exhibited at galleries in Switzerland, New York, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle. She is an adjunct professor at Portland Community College, Pacific Northwest College of Art and Portland State University.
- Marie Sivak
BFA, Sculpture University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA), MFA, Sculpture & Extended Media Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond,VA)
Marie teaches Sculpture and Three Dimensional Design. Locally, solo exhibitions have been mounted at Laura Russo Gallery, Blackfish Gallery, Contemporary Crafts Museum, and the IFCC. Marie’s work has recently been shown nationally and internationally at the Museum of Arts and Crafts (Itami, Japan), Nancy Margolis Gallery (New York), Art London with Panter & Hall Gallery (London, UK), The Drawing Gallery (London, UK), Kunstihoone, (Tallinn, Estonia) and Palazzo Pretorio (Volterra, Italy). Her sculpture was featured in a solo exhibition entitled Ephemera: Recent Work in Video and Stone at A.I.R. Gallery in New York (April 2008). Marie has won many grants and awards. She was the 2005 winner of the Yeck National Young Sculptors Competition and an Artist in Residence at the Berllanderi Sculpture Workshop, (Wales, UK). She has been the recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship, a grant from the Ruth Chenven Foundation, and two Regional Arts and Culture Council Grants. Marie’s work has been collected internationally and may be found in the public collections of Miami University (Oxford, OH), the municipality of Volterra, Italy, and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK).
Philosophy: At the heart of my creative practice is a respect and awe of the beauty and conceptual power of materials. My interdisciplinary work combines stone carving, fibers, video, drawing, and performance. I have traveled to the mountains of Carrara and the Tuscan hills of Volterra in Italy to learn techniques of master stone carvers, artisans, and artists, which I share with my students. I believe in teaching both traditional techniques and experimentation so that students may begin to move fluidly from one medium to another to express their ideas.
- Micki Skudlarczyk
Micki Skudlarczyk is an artist / educator living and working in Portland. Her work investigates with the psychological and emotional realities surrounding life and the physical transition to death. Micki is a multi-media artist whose foundation is rooted in the ceramic arts. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States as well as shown in Canada, Mexico and the Netherlands. This past year she worked as a collaborating artist in the Netherlands, and was selected to be an artist in residence at the Fundacion Gruber, Jez in Cholul, Mexico in 2008 and at the LH Project in Joseph, Oregon, in 2007. She has been awarded fellowships and grants, most recently a Lighton International Artists Exchange Program Grant from the Kansas City Artists Coalition and a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission. She received her Master of Fine Art from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. - Mark R. Smith
Mark R. Smith holds a BS degree from Western Oregon University, a BFA from the Cooper Union in New York and an MFA from Portland State University. Mark exhibits regularly, and has completed several large-scale public art projects in the region. Past exhibition venues include White Columns and The Drawing Center in New York City, Zimmerly Art Museum at Rutgers University and the Portland Art Museum in Portland. His work is also featured in two recent (2009) book publications, Artists and Maps, from Princeton Architectural Press and Forty Years of Murals in New York City, from University of Mississippi Press. Mark was the recipient of a 2009 Oregon Arts Commission Visual Artist Fellowship. His work is represented in Portland at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
- Christine Weber
Christine holds an MA in Art History from the University of Washington with a focus on Modern Art and Critical Theory. She completed an interdisciplinary studies program as an undergraduate at Western Oregon University and studied literature at the University of Cambridge in England.
As a graduate student, she conducted archival research in Western and Central Europe and wrote a Master’s Thesis on the Bauhaus, titled The Architect and the Hausfrau: The Haus am Horn and the New Woman. In Seattle, she assisted painter Norman Lundin on the exhibition, Perception of Appearances: A Decade of Contemporary American Figure Drawing at the Frye Art Museum. She has also worked as an assistant in a small collection of Native Alaskan art and artifacts. Finally, she has worked in New York at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, curating a show on literature and the landscape at the Bobst Library.
Christine has taught art history courses at Pacific Northwest College of Art and Mount Hood Community College and has been teaching at Portland Community College for 5 years. She teaches the Modern Art sequence, Women in Art and the Introduction to Art series.
- Vicki Lynn Wilson
Vicki Lynn Wilson was born in District Heights, MD and currently works in Portland, Oregon. She holds a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art and an MFA from Portland State University, both are in Sculpture. Vicki grew up in Virginia and at 16, began a three year apprenticeship to bronze and stone sculptor, Retha Walden-Gambaro. She attended Virginia Commonwealth University for a year of Foundation Art before moving to Oregon to finish school. After receiving her BFA, Vicki worked for "Michael Curry Design", a theatrical prop and costume workshop and became a member of the "Blackfish Gallery" cooperative. In her 5 years with "Blackfish", Vicki notably curated the 2004 show "The Locals", had a collaborative exhibit with John Larsen titled "a blue mouse: collaborative interpretations of children's dreams" in 2002, and had a solo installation exhibit titled "Love in the Wild" in 2006. Vicki's work has also been shown at Haze Gallery, Disjecta, Froelick Gallery and the "Portland Building Installation Space". In 2007 she participated in the "Deitch Art Parade" in New York City and in 2008 she attended the summer residency program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Also in 2008, Vicki was awarded a year long public installation project at Tryon Creek State Park. Vicki is currently working on a new body of work while teaching and working as a gallery director at Portland Community College.