Faculty
View all Art faculty.
Cascade
Jessica Beck, Department Chair
Elizabeth Bilyeu
Elizabeth 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 history, I focus on practicing with students the language of art – skills of visual analysis. This gives them confidence in front of the original works of art. It is their 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 the Fall term of 2009, she taught in PCC’s Study Abroad Program in Florence, Italy.
Jacqueline Ehlis
Central to Jacqueline’s 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. She believes in the worth and creative power of any individual. Jacqueline 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 Associate of Arts at PCC. 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.
Una Kim
Ruth Lantz
Michael Lazarus
Joe Macca
Sam Morgan
- BFA Studio Arts, University of Colorado Boulder, 1993
- MFA Ceramics, Alfred University New York, 1996
Tara Murino-Brault
Shawn Records
Kathleen Rick
Sandy Sampson
Jim 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 PCC and works as a studio artist. He is a nationally and internationally exhibited artist.
Renae Kowitz, Ceramics Studio Technician
Kaite Thompson, Studio Technician
Rock Creek
Michael McGovern, Department Chair
The environments and people that surround my life inform the art I create. My work calls upon the repetitive nature of printmaking and photography to create a network of reoccurring images that I meditate on to search for truth. I use a lexicon of images that relate to specific events in my history. My work is about constructing autobiographical images that explore the ghosts and spirits of my past. I compose memorials to the fleeting and intangible memories of my life. By visually recording impressions of specific times, places, and events in my life I am preserving memories that seem to fade with each passing year.
I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Specifically NE Portland where my parents still live in the house I was raised in. I am the youngest out of nine children and my family has always encourage my artistic endeavors. In 2004 I received my BFA in Photography from PNCA here in Portland, Oregon. In 2009 I received my MFA in Printmaking from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Since graduating with my Master’s degree in 2009 I have been rooted at PCC Rock Creek teaching printmaking, screen-printing, digital photography and sometimes drawing.
There are so many reason of why I love teaching for PCC but one of the biggest reasons is my sense of obligation, I want to give back from what I have received. I started my arts education at PCC Sylvania in 1996 by taking photography and drawing classes to help build my professional portfolio to apply for art school at PNCA. Those classes and teachers, at Sylvania, helped shape the artist I am today and helped form the teacher I have become. I take pride in continuing in the tradition of my teachers before me of being a creative and cultural guide to my students to help shape their future selves through art and self-expression.
I love teaching at PCC Rock Creek specifically because it feels like home to me. After being here for 12 years I feel like Rock Creek has grown into a tight-knit community of students, faculty and staff. There is a great culture of collaboration, communication, support, and sharing between the faculty, staff and students here at Rock Creek and I want to continue to grow with and contribute to this community.
I am both humbled and honored to have the opportunity continue to grow as a teacher and to be a further asset to the PCC Rock Creek community.
Amy Bay
Ben Buswell
Ben Buswell (b. 1974 in Dallas, Oregon) is an artist and educator whose sculptural work spans diverse media, encompassing ceramics, metals, resins, incised photographs and more. He subjects these materials to physical processes (such as scratching, piercing, melting and tearing) wherein the accumulation of small, repetitive gestures build into a complex whole.
“Teaching, for me, is about getting to know students and helping them find the ways of making art that work best for what they want to say. In this sense, I teach a lot of different media, foundational concepts and techniques and skills- from design to metal casting to figure sculpture to perspective drawing. I encourage students to experiment, build skills and see the connections between the different media that they use in their work. Materials, technique and process have meaning. This is an important idea as students learn to create work that reflects their experience in the world. What does it mean to sculpt the figure like a classical master? How does it affect the content of your work? Can we find ways to represent our ideas and ourselves that are more true to us and who we are?”
Buswell received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and BFA from Oregon State University. Buswell is a Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts (2015) and a two-time recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and Ford Family Foundation (2014 and 2011) and received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2018. Buswell has had notable solo exhibitions at Upfor, Samuel Freeman in Los Angeles, CoCA Seattle, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University and TILT Gallery and Project Space in Portland. Collections that house his work include that of Jan and Patricia de Bont and the public collections at The Portland Art Museum, The University of Oregon and the Collaborative Life Sciences Building at Oregon Health and Science University. He recently completed commissions for Western Oregon University and Hyatt Hyatt Centric.
Brad McLemore
Brittney Cathey-Adams
Brittney Cathey-Adams (b. Fortuna, CA) is a photographic artist and educator currently located in Portland, OR. Her work includes themes of body politics, and fat representation that interrogates the histories of the male gaze and self-portraiture. Her work has been exhibited throughout institutions such as the de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA, SF Camerawork in San Francisco, CA, Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA and Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, CO. She was part of the 2019 Curatorial Prize at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR and gave a lecture at the Portland Art Museum.
Most recently her work was featured in FORECAST 2020 with SF Camerawork. She also recently finished a residency with Sitka Center for Art & Ecology as a 2021 Artist in Residence, and recently had her work published in “The Body Issue” as a guest artist with the collective Female Photographers Org.
With a strong passion for photography and art education, Cathey-Adams dedicates herself to image making as well as sharing visual language through teaching at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College. Her teaching encompasses both traditional and contemporary approaches to photography while highlighting underrepresented artists. In the classroom she keeps things as hands on as possible asking students to consider what compels them to pick up the camera.
Chris Knight
Chris learned to draw by copying his favorite superheroes out of comic books. This early fascination with larger-than-life, symbolic, and mythic figures was the first step in a lifelong love of visual art and storytelling. In his paintings and illustrations, Chris uses narrative elements to discover and explore the idea that identity and relationships are composed of stories: the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we tell others, the stories we choose to remember, the stories we choose to forget.
As a teacher, Chris encourages his students to explore the sense of mystery and wonder that arises out of creativity. He provides a safe environment in which every student can develop their own skills while they find the best way to present their unique vision of the world. Chris takes the time to see each student as an individual so they can achieve personal goals and express their diverse experiences in an inclusive setting. Chris’s goal is for his students to see art as a joyous experience, and to leave the classroom with a creative curiosity that can motivate and energize everything they do in life.
Chris has been teaching drawing, painting, and design at PCC since 2005. He studied painting at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Chris is the recipient of the WK Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. His work has been shown in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and at various locations across Oregon, including the Oregon Biennial.
Cora Pearl
Donna Cole
kathi rick
kathi rick (b. Seattle WA) is a photographic artist and educator currently located in Portland, OR. Her work is socio-political in nature and deals primarily with body politics, feminism, and the patriarchal nature of western art with an emphasis on pushback of the ‘male gaze’.
She is also a founding member of Art at the CAVE Gallery in Vancouver WA, an experimental art space that has hosted artists both locally and internationally .
In addition she is co creator of ARTIS OBSCURA a podcast dedicated to exploring disturbing and frightening art through the centuries.
Passionate about teaching she is dedicated to inclusiveness in the classroom and is fearless in addressing issues of race, gender, and other topics of tremendous social importance within the classroom setting, and uses art to facilitate ways of communicating and connecting through the powerful medium of photography.
Kelsey Ferreira
Kelsey Ferreira (she/her) holds an M.A. in Art History from the University of Oregon with a focus on contemporary art and theory. She’s worked in arts education for the past decade, including as a Kress Foundation Interpretive Fellow at the Portland Art Museum where she developed and led educational programs. She incorporates strategies of slow looking and object-based inquiry into her classroom teaching, and motivates students to consider how objects from the past can help us make sense of the present. Her course material reflects her work to decenter the historically male, white, Eurocentric narrative of Art History by focusing on underrepresented artists and using free Open Educational Resources in lieu of traditional textbooks. She listens and learns from her students by considering feedback from course evaluations and by encouraging open inquiry assignments. An instructor at PCC since 2009, Kelsey takes seriously her responsibilities to foster an empathetic and welcoming learning environment, empower creative and critical thinking, and inspire a lifelong appreciation for the visual arts.
Luke Peterson
An art historian from the Portland area, Luke Peterson (b. 1984, Portland OR) focuses on art education. He has worked in museum art education programs abroad and locally. Three main influences shape his instructional approach: experience in museum services, M.A. program completed at the Frei Universität Berlin (focusing on Feminist art and Eastern European architecture), and professional training in International Baccalaureate (IB) methodology. Luke brings diverse perspectives to his lectures and emphasizes the application of concepts learned in course assessments. In 2020, Luke co-authored an OER textbook for Understanding Art with other PCC faculty and looks forward to continuing his professional development with PCC and guiding non-traditional students through the academic world of art.
Marie Sivak
Mark Andres
Mark Andres (1959- York, Maine) is a painter, filmmaker and educator. Son of Illustrator Charles J. Andres, Mark Andres studied at Williams College, The Art Institute of Boston, and The University of Massachusetts (Amherst). His paintings are in numerous public and private collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Maryhill Museum, Oregon Health and Sciences University and University of Portland. His art is represented by Augen Gallery. He is a recipient of a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowship and an Oregon Literary Arts Award Grant. His silent animated feature films have been have been official selections at numerous festivals and been awarded Best Animated Film at the Independent Filmmakers Showcase in Los Angeles (three times), the California Film Awards, the Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards, the Mexico International Film Festival, and received awards from the International Independent Film Festival Awards, Back in the Box Screenplay Competition, and LA Underground Film Forum. Andres is the recipient of a Gordon Galbraith Award for teaching excellence, a U.S. Bankcorp Teaching Award, a NISOD Award for Teaching (University of Texas, Austin) and was named Higher Education Art Educator of the Year by The Oregon Art Educators Association. He has been on the faculty of PCC Rock Creek since 1991.
“My classes are about looking and translating what you see into drawing and painting– two foreign languages which you understood once upon a time but may have forgotten. The ways of translation are infinite, so the goal of all my classes is to give you the tools of perception, the craft of materials, and the art of design so that you feel you could draw or paint the things you love, the things you hate, and the mystery of looking at the world.”
Mylan Rakich
I am originally from Rome, New York, and have been living and working for the last 26 years in Portland. My educational background includes a MFA in Sculpture from Portland State University, BFA in Sculpture and Drawing from Purchase College (State University of New York), and a Certificate in Welding from Portland Community College. In addition to my work as a large-scale metal sculptor, I have also taught art and welding courses for over 20 years at schools throughout the Portland metropolitan area (Portland Community College, Clackamas Community College, University of Portland and Portland State University). When not teaching or creating art, I enjoy spending time with my wife and two young sons, working in the yard, and baking.
Phyllis Trowbridge
Phyllis Trowbridge is an artist who focuses on drawing and painting from perception, often outdoors in the landscape. Her work is a product of continuous observation of and response to seasonal changes, as well as larger trends over time, both natural and human-caused, particularly the effects of a warming climate. She received her MFA from American University in Washington, D.C. and her B.A. from Hamilton College in New York state.
Since moving to Oregon in 1992, she has exhibited her work locally and nationally and participated in numerous invitational and juried shows, including Art Beyond at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, OR, Painting Portland at the Art Gym at Marylhurst University, and the Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum. She has pursued painting residencies at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Red Cinder Creativity Center and the Vermont Studio Center.
In her classes, Phyllis strives to provide a framework of themes, and processes, gleaned from a range of sources and cultures, that act as a springboard for students to explore their own interests. She is passionate about teaching students perceptual skills that aid them in seeing what is really in front of them, and she loves to introduce them to new ways of working with their materials so they can experience both the magic that sometimes results, as well as the many ways ideas and plans can grow and change through the process to make something previously unimagined.
Susanne Tringali
Michael Robinson, Studio Manager
Contact Susanne Michael Robinson
Sarah Vanderpoel, Administrative Assistant
Sylvania
Gene Flores, Division Dean
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 PCC as well as Clackamas Community College.
Gene was hired full-time at PCC in 2005 where he continues to teach life drawing, basic drawing, and printmaking courses. Gene 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 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.
Mark Smith, Department Chair
Mark holds a BS degree from Western Oregon University, a BFA from the Cooper Union and an MFA from Portland State University. He maintains an active studio practice and has completed several large-scale public art projects in the region, most recently for Trimet and Western Oregon University. 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. His work is also featured in three current book publications; Artists and Maps, from Princeton Architectural Press, Forty Years of Murals in New York City, from University of Mississippi Press, and 100 Artists of the West Coast II, from Schiffer Books. Mark is the recipient of a 2010 Oregon Arts Commission Visual Artist Fellowship. His work is represented in Portland at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Mark’s work can be seen at Elizabeth Leach Gallery and Lewis & Clark Howard Hall.
Emphatic Distance, 2012, mixed mediums on wood panel, 60″ × 70″
Museum Peripheral, 2012, mixed mediums on wood panel, 60″ × 70″
Christine Weber, Department Chair
Christine holds an MA in Art History from the University of Washington with a focus on Modern Art and Critical Theory. As an undergraduate, she completed an interdisciplinary studies BA at Western Oregon University and studied literature and theater 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 worked as an assistant in the collection of Native Alaskan art and artifacts at the Jensen Museum in Monmouth, Oregon. She has also worked in New York at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery and curated a show on literature and the landscape at NYU’s Bobst Library.
Christine has taught art history at Pacific Northwest College of Art and Mount Hood Community College and has been teaching at PCC since 2006. She teaches the Modern Art sequence, Women in Art, the History of Graphic Design, Understanding the Visual Arts, and Understanding New Media Arts.
Vanessa Calvert
Bruce Conkle
Bruce declares an affinity for mysterious natural phenomena such as snow, crystals, volcanos, rainbows, fire, tree burls, and meteorites. His work combines art and humor to address contemporary attitudes toward nature and the environment, including deforestation and climate change. Bruce’s work often deals with man’s place within nature, and frequently examines what he calls the “misfit quotient” at the crossroads. His work has shown around the world, including Reykjavik, Ulaanbaatar, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet/MAX Light Rail, and Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art + Residency. In 2011 Bruce received a Hallie Ford Fellowship and in 2010 and an Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. His 2012 show Tree Clouds was awarded a project grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
The Thinker, 2008/09, from Burls will be Burls series, bronze, and pigmented cement
Critical Laputa, 2012, Gouache, pencil and acrylic on paper and polyester, 9″ × 12″
Kowkie Durst
Karen Esler
Areas of focus: Painting, drawing, critical theory, contemporary art practices, media literacy.
Current works: Karen has been a college art educator for 20 years, primarily at Portland Community College, also at University of Portland, Portland State University, Chemeketa Community College, Pacific University. She has taught painting, life drawing, drawing, and watercolor painting.
Karen has been a professional artist for 30 years with past and current representation by Portland galleries Quartersaw Gallery, Margo Jacobsen Gallery, Mark Wooley Gallery, and Augen Gallery, and galleries in New York and California. Her work is included in public and private collections including The Hillman Collection, Pacific University, Pearl Lofts HOA Commission/The Elizabeth, Schnitzer Collection LA, Good Samaritan Hospital, and The University of Oregon permanent collections, and has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 1991. Karen has served curator, committee member and board member in art organizations including Disjecta, The Portland Art Center, Portland State University Art Alumni Association, and a current curatorial project with the United World College Association “7-Continents Project.”
Education and training:
- 2004, MFA in Visual Arts, emphasis in studio practices and critical theory, Vermont College Union Institute & University, Montpelier, VT.
- 2002, BA in Liberal Studies, Portland State University, Portland, OR, With Honors.
- 1998-1999, School of Realism, Seattle, WA
- 1993-1996, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR.
- 1995, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA
- 1976-1977, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Nikolyn Garner
Nikolyn Garner is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas and a member of the Oneida and Cherokee nations. She was raised on the Flathead Reservation in Montana. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Montana in 2001. She continued post-Baccalaureate training in studio arts and art history in Portland, OR. She returned to the University of Montana to pursue a Master’s degree in Art History, which she completed in the spring of 2018. She is an art history professor at Portland Community College specializing in Indigenous art of America. She is a painter, a textile artist, and a visual storyteller.
Bethany Hays
Bethany was born in a small town outside of Yakima, WA, and holds a BA in Foreign Language, Spanish from Central Washington University; a BA in Studio Art from The Evergreen State College; and an MFA in Contemporary Art Practices from Portland State University. Bethany’s work focuses on feminist themes and uses imagery associated with home and domesticity. Her current body of work began when she realized that the persistent piles of clean laundry in her house were like incidental sculptures or landscapes that could also represent the often overwhelming nature of balancing work and family on a metaphorical level. Through large-scale watercolor paintings that play on the word wash, drapery studies, and the “grand landscape”, Bethany strives to make work that stimulates discussion about the complexities of modern motherhood and our culture’s ideals of beauty and value.
Recent exhibitions and awards include Erratic Formations, Alexander Gallery, Clackamas, OR; New Views, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR; Cummulus Congestus, North View Gallery, Portland, OR; Piling Up, Rogers Gallery, Salem, OR; Divergent Strategies, Salem Art Association, Salem, OR; It’s Possible, Disjecta, Portland, OR; Artistic Focus Project Grant, Regional Arts, and Culture Council; Money for Women Grant, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.
Anticline Formation, 2016, watercolor on paper, 34″ x 58″
Rift Valley, 2016, watercolor on paper, 34″ x 58″
Kim Manchester
I am interested in the stories of space, place, objects, and home. I explore the histories, memories, and narratives that can be excavated and communicated through the photograph. I’ve worked in the photographic medium for over two decades now and still use both film and digital processes to create my images. Sometimes I use both, sometimes neither.
I have taught photography here at Sylvania for over eight years now and while I am myself a photographer, there are so many more things that I do – that make me who I am. Not just as an artist, but as an instructor. For me, my interests in the memories, moments, and behaviors that are unique to each one of us are reflected not just in my work but in the way I teach.
Playspaces: Hide & Seek, 2011, archival digital print, 20″ x 20″
Object: Place, 2006, archival digital print, 24″ x 24″
Force For Change: Shannon, 2013, 3 panels, archival digital print, 16″ x 20″ inches each
Nathan Marcel
Nate has been an adjunct drawing instructor at PCC since 2004. In addition to teaching and lecturing for PCC, Nate is a freelance illustrator, producing traditional and digital-based artwork for private clients and collectors. His recent works can be seen on Nate’s blog. Nate received his Bachelor’s Degree in drawing, painting, and printmaking in 2001, and his MFA from Portland State University in 2003. He has been drawing and painting in a professional capacity since 1995.
Although Nate works in mixed genres and multiple media, his work is always directly anchored in the drawing experience. He has trained as a fine artist and studied fine arts extensively, including architecture and both modern and ancient sculpture, but the majority of his skills have centered around illustration. Nate’s heaviest influences include Silver Age and European sequential art, Secession movement artists, The Cubists, 19th Century illustration, and art from the Northern Renaissance. His tastes are eclectic and diverse, dipping heavily into the naive well of Outsider, Art Brut, and Kitch culture.
When students enroll in Nate’s classes, he will most notably stress the importance of building a new way of “seeing”. Nate approaches drawing fundamentals by first training students in layers to observe the largest forms first, then build details to complement and complete the needed content. He stresses perspective study to build skills in seeing and flattening three-dimensional space, and as a much-needed means towards a realistic comprehensive skill level goal. Nate supplements all of his teaching with lectures, critiques, and examinations of the historical visual media which builds the context for a greater appreciation of drawing in students of all ability levels, and art in general, as well as demystifying, by example, a complex and demanding subject of study.
Mic Marusek
Photography is pretty awesome! My love is studio photography and enhancing and creating great light.
I have my BFA in fine art and BA in education from Ohio University and my MFA from New Mexico State. I started as an oil painter and mixed wet media artist. I then gravitated toward documentary photography and naturally found my way into studio photography. I am drawn to technically challenging mediums.
I often get asked to teach private classes to entrepreneurs who are looking to improve their e-commerce sites with less laborious, faster, and more consistent photographic and tighter lighting techniques.
As an educator, I want to learn and be there when people absorb something challenging and rewarding in their making. I use my mastery on your behalf. I aim to be honest, helpful, and inspiring.
Finding 2, 2017, mixed media, digital print, gesso on board, 16″ x 16″
Salt Jars, 2016, digital photograph
Carrie Miyamoto
Rochelle Nielsen
Rochelle lives in Vancouver, Washington, and works in Portland, Oregon. Rochelle is a Graduate in the MFA Contemporary Studio Practice at Portland State University, 2012. Received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Marylhurst, University, 2009. Rochelle is very involved in the Native American community. As well as working for the Evergreen School District as a coordinator for the Native American Education Youth Program. Adjunct Professor at PCC. She is a member of the Northwest Band of Shoshone Tribe.
Dayaipe Mubii’, 2012, mixed media
Bia Bungu, 2013, mixed media
Jay Olinger
Raised on a cattle ranch in eastern Washington, Jay Olinger is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar residing in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches Understanding the Visual Arts and Comics Art and Literature at Portland Community College, and Comics Theory at Portland State University. Along with teaching, Jay presents her research at international conferences, curates group exhibitions, and creates short comics.
Jay received a B.S. in Arts and Letters from Portland State University with Minors in Art History, English, and Medieval Studies; as well as a Post-Baccalaureate in Comics Studies, which led to a position at Marvel in the Special Projects Department. Her graduate studies took her to Scotland, where she graduated with Highest Distinction from the University of Dundee with a Master of Design in Comics and Graphic Novels, fully-funded by the Principal’s International Excellence Scholarship. Jay’s graduate project, Prompt(ed), was awarded the 2017 Duncan of Jordanstone Comics Prize, which explored the intersection of Fine Art and Comics through media application.
Cora Pearl
Cora is a calligrapher and lettering artist and has been doing calligraphy since 1978. Cora got her B.A. in Art and Art History at Oberlin College where she taught calligraphy at the Experimental College and also studied Chinese calligraphy. In addition to teaching calligraphy and hand lettering at PCC, Cora also teaches private sessions and does commissions for poetry, quotations, and certificates as well as calligraphy and lettering for special events. In 2012, Cora had the honor of creating an honorary degree for the Dalai Lama.
Fish Shape Poem
Dalai Lama Certificate
Theresa Redinger
Zeinab Saab
Originally from Dearborn, Michigan, Zeinab Saab is currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her current work deals with the history of bookmaking within Islamic art history, and re-contextualizing narratives and philosophies pertaining to life, death, and the afterlife within Islam. She received her BFA in printmaking from Bowling Green State University from Bowling Green, OH in 2015 and recently completed her MFA in printmaking at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in Detroit, New York, California, Dubai, New Mexico, and Hawaii, among other places, and is held in several permanent collections, including Zayed University in Dubai, UAE, the Arab American National Museum, and the University of Iowa’s Special Collections Library.
Kitab Alif cover
Kitab Alif detail
What Was Gained
What Was Gained detail
Be
Be detail
Julianne Sandlin
Julianne is an art historian, who received her Ph.D. from Florida State University. Her studies focused on the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Her primary area of research is architecture, especially exploring how the patron’s influence manifests itself in the building. At PCC, she teaches courses on architectural history and the History of Western Art (from the Prehistoric era through the seventeenth century). Julianne is enthusiastic about teaching art and architectural history. Her goal is to help students understand the works as meaningful objects, each reflecting the social, political, religious, and economic climate of the time in which it was made. A native of North Carolina, Julianne moved to Oregon in 2011 to teach at PCC. She enjoys exploring all the new things that Oregon and the West Coast have to offer.
Crystal Schenk
- MFA 2007, Portland State University (Sculpture)
- BFA 1999, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Sculpture)
I primarily make sculpture and sculptural installations, although sometimes dabble in video, drawing and knitting when the mood strikes. Rather than practicing material monogamy, my sculptures range from stained glass to magnets to expanding foam. I have a very labor-intensive and detail-oriented way of working, in which craftsmanship and material choices play a large role. Woven through what initially appear as visually disparate works are common themes of class structure, heritage, physical and mental illness, and the fluctuating perceptions of memory. While much of my subject matter is drawn from my past, the topics I explore are based on experiences we all share – bridging the gap between personal and public. Each piece captures a moment within a broader story, one that is left for the viewer to contemplate and allow their imagination complete.
Schenk’s artwork has been widely published, including features in Sculpture, Craft, and Whitewall magazines. Art-st-urban, in Switzerland, represented her work at ArtBasel in 2013 and Open 18 in Venice Italy in 2015. Locally, her work was represented at the Oregon biennial, Portland 2010, and exhibited at Bullseye and Linfield galleries. She is currently working on national public commissions with her husband Shelby Davis, and locally their artwork can be seen on Division Street in Portland, and on Main Street in Estacada.
Shelter, 2013
- Medium: stained glass, steel, furnishings
- Dimensions: 8’ high, 11’ wide, 11’ deep
- Location: Bullseye Gallery, Portland OR
Shelter is a one room, Appalachian-style shanty made of stained glass. This project examines the ever-widening gulf between the lower and upper classes, reflecting on this disparity not as a criticism, but as an examination of the meaning and importance of home.
I’m Not a Barnacle, I’m a Boy, 2017
- Medium: Stoneware, porcelain
- Dimensions: 13” wide, 23” deep, 21” high, installation includes over 100 rocks with barnacles
This sculpture exposes my mixed emotions to being a parent, and my bond with this tiny being who is both autonomous and not so vaguely parasitic.
Rachel Siegel
Rachel lives in Portland, Oregon. She teaches photography for PCC and serves on the Portland Women in Art Lecture Series committee. Her artistic work includes photography, digital prints, artist’s books, video, and installation work. Rachel weaves together multiple interests, often using humor and playfulness to investigate issues that are significant to her, including body image, family, health, and labor. Rachel works on collaborative and solo projects. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, received grant funding for projects and her work is owned by private and institutional collections. Her MFA is from University at Buffalo, State University New York. And her BFA is from the University of California, Berkeley.
Measure Up
Cottage Industry
Tatiana Simonova
It starts with a question: How do we form meaning across linguistic barriers? What happens between remembering and forgetting, between the possible and the actual? What happens if nothing happens? Tatiana Simonova relates language, history, and humor to draft formal and process proposals. She works in printmaking and drawing, choosing her media as a strategy to explore recording, repeating, memorizing, and obscuring while solving self-made mysteries.
Simonova holds a BA from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Her work has been exhibited both nationally – at David Krut Projects, Heidi Cho Gallery, Storefront Ten Eyck, and IPCNY in NYC, SPACE Gallery in Portland, ME, and Nine Gallery in Portland, OR, among others – and internationally in Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Hungary. She has been an Artist in Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Can Serrat Art Center, Vermont Studio Center, and most recently has been selected as a fellow at Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory in Kawaguchiko, Japan. She was raised in Sofia, Bulgaria and currently makes her home in Portland, OR.
Learning to Count Again, (set of 1, 2, 3), 2005-ongoing, aquatint, 15”x22” each
Learning to Count Again, (set of 11, 12, and 13), 2005-ongoing, aquatint, 15”x22” each
Conversations 1 and 2, 2018, mokuhanga, 9.5”x 14” each
Write and Rewrite II, 2019, etching with graphite additions, 15”x15”
Charlie Washburn
Charlie grew up in Mill Valley, California. He studied art at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon under the instruction of Ken Shores. Upon receiving his BA, he landed a job as a laboratory technician in ceramics at Portland Community College. He was smitten and decided he wanted to become a ceramics instructor. With the guidance of Al Bain, he learned about clays, glazes, and kilns. Most importantly, he learned about being true to one’s self-expression and teaching to a high standard. He was fortunate to study with Rick Hirsch at the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology for graduate school. Rick taught him many lessons but the one that hit home was “If you are going to do it, then do it! Don’t do it halfway.” In 1994, he received a master of fine arts in ceramics with a minor in glass. PCC offered him a part-time instructor position teaching 3-D design and ceramics. He was awarded a residency at Contemporary Crafts in 1999 where he continued to develop as an artist. In 2001, Charles received a full-time teaching position at PCC, where he continues to teach all aspects of ceramics (throwing, hand-building, glaze formulation, and kiln-firing). He strives to provide dynamic, creative, and knowledgeable instruction in the ceramic arts.
Charles lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, two daughters (his greatest creations), and their dog. When he is not teaching and creating he enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, gardening, hiking, and reading.
Clan Persona #106
Clan Persona #96