MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2020
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Denise Wakeman is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Memphis, TN that currently lives and works in rural NY. Wakeman received her BFA from University of Memphis with honors in 2018 and is currently pursuing her MFA at Alfred University. She has exhibited regionally in both the South and Northeast, has worked as a ceramic studio assistant, a sculpture teaching assistant, and has received awards from institutions such as the Metal Museum. She is deeply interested in psychological phenomena, sexuality, gender, the body, and views her work as a way of processing and understanding emotion. Her practice developed, in part, as a response to her own struggles with anxiety, dissociation, and traumatic childhood experiences. Wakeman’s work often utilizes humor and invites viewers to investigate their own emotional lives. She enjoys campy horror flicks, anything sci-fi related, and roller-skating. Her future plans include teaching, traveling, and building an off-grid cabin.
Jamie Marie Rose was born and raised in central Illinois and received her BFA with honors from Illinois State University in 2013. She has won many awards and honors for her artwork, such as a Puffin Foundation Grant and the Jerry Raphael Fellowship through the Metropolitan Contemporary Glass Group. Her artistic and functional work has been published many times, most notably in American Craft Magazine and Vogue. Professionally, she has worked as an instructor for Bullseye Glass Company, as a Visiting Artist at Illinois State University, and as an assistant for several prominent artists in the glass art field. Her work focuses on fragility and emotion, often utilizing glass as an expressive tool for these concepts. She uses multiple techniques to create anything from cast sculptures to ephemeral, site-specific installations. Rose is currently pursuing her MFA at Alfred University in Sculpture Dimensional Studies, investigating transient processes in conjunction with glass.
Erin Hoffman is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus in glass. She explores ideas of language and technology in our continually developing culture. A large part of her practice includes traveling to assist artists, promote art making, and teaching. Hoffman has worked at several schools including UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, and Peter’s Valley School of Craft in New Jersey. After receiving her BFA at Tyler School of Art in 2015, earning the E. Rosen Scholarship and The Jack Malis Award, she then worked as the Glass Departmental Assistant for the University of Louisville for three years. Her professional experience assisting artists involved a range of glass techniques including glass blowing, casting, sculpting, and flameworking. She has exhibited a solo show, Motherboard, in Philadelphia as well as a group show, Attempting Communication, in Louisville. Hoffman is currently working towards her MFA in the Sculpture Dimensional Studies at Alfred University and hopes to continue her work through teaching and traveling.
Teisha Holloway is an interdisciplinary artist that currently lives and works in Western New York. Holloway received received a BFA from Clemson University in 2017 with Magna Cum Laude distinction and is currently pursuing her MFA at Alfred University with a focus in sculpture and dimensional studies. Holloway has received the Carol Shafsmama Award for merit in photography (2014) and has been featured in publications to include “Ekphrasis” a collaboration of poetry and art in 2013, “Clemson Chronicle Magazine” 2015 and 2016, as well as being featured in “The Laurel Magazine of Highlands and Cashiers NC” and on “The Bascom Life” blog both in 2017. Holloway has also participated in group shows in Oregon, South Carolina, and New York, she also was chosen as the Bascom Winter Resident in Highlands, NC which culminated in a solo show in 2017. Holloway’s work is focused on human experience and often touches on themes of identity, community, and the intersection of technology.
Sam Horowitz is a material-based sculptor pursuing an MFA at Alfred University. Earning his BA at Bard College in 2010, he has exhibited in solo shows at Syracuse University and the Society for Domestic Museology in Manhattan, and in group shows throughout the greater New York City area. During his time between schools, Horowitz worked as an artist assistant, cooked professionally, worked construction, and fabricated bespoke furniture. All these trades fuel his work, merging mundane with concept, rule and process with artistic license and interpretation. Horowitz’s work explores time and shared experience through this palette of honest materials. The ubiquity of these processes provide handholds for his viewers, availing the work to the widest audience possible. His work is currently on view at Unison Sculpture Park in New Paltz, New York, in “What’s Next?”, a show curated by Linda Weintraub and inspired by her 2018 book of the same title
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2019
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Paméla Simard is a French-Canadian artist. Drawn to sculpture, performance and photography, her interdisciplinary approach aims to foster a dialogue about the complexity of social construction and the innermost being. Throughout her process, Simard combines multiple layers of experience by activating the elements she creates using the body. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including the Ph21 Gallery in Hungary and the CICA Museum in South Korea (2019). She has a permanent installation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Montréal as well as the Women’s Leadership Center at Alfred University. Simard participated in two international exchange programs in France (2013) and Australia (2014-15) where she studied and expanded her artistic practice. She holds a BFA in Art History and Studio Arts from Concordia University in Montréal and is currently pursuing an MFA in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies at Alfred University, NY. She looks forward the possibility to collaborate with other artists and foreign cultural organizations.
Born in
Florida, Monir Madkour is an
Egyptian-Palestinian political artist who was raised in the Middle East. His
diverse upbringing has afforded him a global perspective, which he draws from
deeply for his work. Initially geared towards medicine, Madkour returned to the
United States for college and attended the University of Miami earning his
bachelor’s in Biology with minors in Chemistry, Philosophy, and Art. Pivoting
to focus on a career as a glass maker he spent the next few years working for
multiple institutions in the South Florida glass scene, and during that time he
began making politically motivated work. Wanting to delve deeper into the
narrative and scope of his own work Madkour chose to pursue a master’s degree
and currently attends Alfred University as a graduate student in Sculpture and
Dimensional Studies. At Alfred he has expanded his repertoire and investigates
video, performance, as well as installation art.
Li Jiayi is an interdisciplinary artist who was born and raised in Shunde, Guangdong, southern China. She holds a BFA degree from China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, where she earned a glass design background. Graduated with distinction, Li has won various scholarships and design contests internationally. Her work has been exhibited in Crafts Art Museum of China Academy of Art, Shanghai Museum of Glass, and China International Design Trading Expo. Li has experience assisting instructors in an academic setting at home and abroad. In 2017, Li moved to New York to pursue an MFA degree in Sculpture Dimensional Studies at Alfred University. The cultural displacement that Li experiences brings out rooted Buddhist tradition which inspires and manifests in her studio practice. Throughout her own discipline, Li has been distinguishing relationships between materials and method; deconstructing and recontextualizing elements and using metaphor or symbolism as a tool to instigate dialogue.
Samantha Leopold-Sullivan creates visceral creatures in dialogue with industrial objects, deepening self-understanding and reflection within the viewer. After graduating Cum Laude in 2014 with a B.A. in Studio Art and Environmental Studies from Macalester College, she stayed as Graduate Apprentice for 3 years, assisting sculpture and foundry classes. She also taught youth classes at Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Franconia Sculpture Park. She is active in the Conspiracy of Strange Girls and Dark Art Society collectives, and has sculpture installed at Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum and Salem Art Works. Her works were exhibited in 'Solid Gone' at Sordoni Gallery and 'Digital Iron' as part of the 8th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art. Now a Sculpture Dimensional Studies MFA candidate at Alfred University, she is faculty of record for Beginning Sculpture. After graduating in May 2019 she will be the Hot Iron Intern Coordinator at Franconia Sculpture Park.
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2018
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Schuyler Dawson hails from Marin County California at
the intersection of rural and suburb. He spent his youth crashing bicycles with
an army of boys in his cul-de-sac and building forts in the marshlands and
woods nearby. Evoking themes from his childhood Schuyler’s
work explores our notions of comfort, the divine absurdity of existence, and
the spaces we navigate and occupy, both physical and psychological. In
pursuit of a life of creating, Schuyler attended San Diego State University
where he received his BFA. During this time, he became interested in
exploring installation work outside the gallery context. These interests led
him post BFA to have solo shows in such locations as dilapidated WW2 military
bunkers and oak forests. Currently He is pursuing his MFA in Sculpture at
Alfred University.
Marina Fridman is a Russian-Canadian multi-media artist. Immersed in traditional
drawing and painting in the early years of her education, Fridman now works in a wide range of materials and techniques,
moving fluidly between drawing, sculpture and installation. Her work explores our perception of time, space, reality and
mortality. Fridman has been awarded
grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Edmonton Arts Council, and her work has been
exhibited in the US and Canada. Fridman’s work has been published in various
books and magazines, and she has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio
Center, the League Residency at Vyt, the I-Park Foundation, the Creative
Practices Institute, and the Manifest Gallery. Currently, Fridman is a
Sculpture MFA Candidate at Alfred University. She is also the Founder and
Author of The Drawing Source, a website providing free online education in
representational drawing.
Sydni Gause is a visual artist
from Leesburg, Florida. Having been raised in the South with a fairly
conservative upbringing, Gause is in constant negotiation between cultural
archetypes and identity. Her interdisciplinary approach to sculpture and
installation investigates issues with America's current social and political
climate, specifically power structures, gender inequality, and psychological
behaviors. Gause was a 2011 nominee for the Sculpture Magazine Outstanding
Student Achievement Award and had her second solo exhibition "Florida
Lottery" in 2016 at Channel to Channel Gallery in Nashville, TN. Gause
received her BFA from Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in 2012, and is
currently enrolled as a MFA Candidate in Sculpture and Dimensional Studies at
Alfred University where her work continues to examine the role of women in
America.
Hillary Heckard was raised in Talahalusi, also known as Napa, California. She attended the University of Oregon in 2004 and
received her Bachelors of Art degree in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in
music in 2008. While studying abroad at the University of Hawaii Manoa, she
found a passion for glassblowing and pursued a Bachelors of Fine Art degree at
the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2012. She was awarded scholarships for
Outstanding Glass Student, the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund, and the Traveling
Assistantship Award for the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. Heckard has
exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Chrysler Museum of Art,
Portsmouth Museum, Windward Community College, and the Glass Furnace in
Istanbul Turkey. Currently she is pursuing a MFA degree in Sculpture Dimensional Studies at Alfred University. She is
interested in using glass and mixed media to investigate space, environments,
and systems through the notion of impermanence.
Ashley
Kerr was born
in Sweetwater Tennessee, now lives and works in upstate New York. where she is currently
a graduate student at Alfred University in the Sculpture Dimensional
Studies program. Kerr graduated Summa Cum Laude with her BFA from
Florida Atlantic University where she also received a BS in Computer Science. She was selected as an Honorable Mention in the
International Sculpture Center’s 2016 Outstanding Student Achievement in
Contemporary Sculpture Award program. Her work deals with the nature of expectation and a
person's need to maintain a consistent internal logic as it pertains to media,
materials and experiences as well as the intersection of gender, technology,
sculpture, masculinity, and femininity. By subverting those very expectations
while maintaining the viewer’s suspension of disbelief, she aims to create
sculptural fictions that reveal the underlying structures and mechanisms of how
we experience the world and thereby expose truths, however small or large they
may be
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2017
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Mimi
Bai is a visual artist based in NYC. Her studio practice is very much
intertwined with her experience as a production designer and fabricator for
films. By weaving together a wide range of materials and techniques, from
drawing to glass, woodworking to video, Bai moves back and forth between
two-dimensional work, sculpture, installations, and time-based media as she
shifts her focus between the parts and their whole. She has been awarded
several national scholarships and grants for her studio work. Her film projects
have won awards at international film festivals and have been featured on media
platforms such as PBS, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and others. Bai is pursuing
her MFA in Sculpture at Alfred University where her current work is informed by
geological forces, conceptions of the “Void,” and space-time.
Anthony
Cerilli is an American visual artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Drawing from both his upbringing in an all-white Northeastern suburb and his
time spent living in the American South, Cerilli explores themes of cultural
bias, shared space, and exceptionalism. His work
has been shown on the Atlanta BeltLine and the B Complex in Atlanta’s West End,
and he was the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Distinguished Alumni in
2014. Cerilli received his BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in
2013. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Sculpture at Alfred University in
rural New York where through the use of industrial materials, altered clothing,
and historical narratives, his work continues to highlight the failures of
western anthropology and seeks to establish a normative vocabulary between
political and personal relationships.
Meagan Daus explores sculptural pathways through residencies, conferences and travelling. Daus’ work can be seen at Franconia
Sculpture Park, MN, and at Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum, Latvia. The strong art
communities built via working, learning, and helping each other encouraged her
current focus on metal casting and woodworking. From local to international
Daus has led workshops inviting community members to participate in making
their own art pieces, sharing with them her skill in the process of metal
casting. Daus continued working in Minneapolis after receiving her BA from the
University of Minnesota Twin-Cities in 2011. Retained by the U of M Department
of Art as a 3D Shop Tech Assistant whilst working as a Studio Assistant for
metal casting and fabrication artists provided her with the experience and
passion to pursue being an independent maker and educator. Daus is currently a
Sculpture/Dimensional Studies MFA at Alfred University where her artwork
explores how memories continue to transform and overlap.
Morgan
Rose Free was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. She creates sculptures and
installations that examine the extent to which our manufactured world collides
or coalesces with the natural environment. Free received her BFA majoring in
Fibre from the Alberta College of Art and Design with honors in 2012. From
2012-2015 she held the position of Studio Artist in Residence at various
schools within the Calgary Board of Education, most notably Willow Park
Art-Centred Learning School. During this time she also pursued continuing
education courses in woodworking at the Southern Alberta Institute of
Technology. She is currently an MFA candidate majoring in Sculpture at Alfred
University in Alfred, New York due to graduate spring 2017 where she continues
to articulate her ideas through assemblage and collage. Free has exhibited her
work in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
James
Ronner is an artist with an extensive background in
materials, BS 2006 with a double major in sculpture and molecular biology, MSc
2006 cell and molecular biology. Ronner
approaches art making from an inherently transdisciplinary yet fiercely material
perspective. He views art and the processes of making art as vectors of
progressive social change. The conceptual foundation of his work is firmly
rooted in the role of technology in the transformation of society and has thus
far explored these ideas via traditional materials such as glass, metal and
stone. His work can be seen in both
private and public collections in the US, P.R. China and Taiwan. Ronner has
received national and international grants from several institutions including
the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Georges Lurcy Charitable Educational
Trust. Currently, Ronner is an MFA
candidate in Sculpture at Alfred University investigating methods of visually
communicating communal systems of knowledge.
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2016
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Joshua Hershman, originally from Colorado first began
working with glass at the age of 17. After graduating with a BFA with
distinction from the California college of Arts in 2009, Hershman began to
incorporate a variety of materials and experimental processes into his multidisciplinary
art practice. Being born with no peripheral vision or depth perception, decades
of vision therapy led Hershman to have a lifelong fascination with the complex
nature of the visual system. The transformational process of going from near blindness
to clear vision resulted in a very unique personal relationship with light and
perception that currently guides his work. Hershman employs the unconventional
use of light, photography, Sound, and cast glass to investigate the
significance of how each individual visually and physically interprets the
world in their own specific way. Hershman is currently pursuing his Master of
Fine Arts at Alfred University, in the Sculptural/Dimensional Studies program.
Joel
Isaak is a nationally recognized artist for his
cross-cultural explorations and is constantly traveling to teach workshops,
consult, lecture, and conduct research. He uses his research at Natural History
Museums and
indigenous cultural study to reconcile living in-between two worlds. He is an
artist who develops his practice based on wonderment of how the physical and
social world operates. Isaak has a passion for learning,
teaching, and communicating that he carries with him in
all his walks of life. Beginning his
undergraduate program exploring Chemistry, Isaak ultimately graduated with a
BFA in Sculpture from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Isaak is faced with the
challenge of how to translate his proficiency in visual and verbal
communication into the written word.
Currently Isaak is completing his MFA at Alfred University and working to
developing an educational model that combines a formal Western education system
with customary traditional Native Alaskan life ways.
Leana Quade has been using glass as her art medium for almost 15 years. She
received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2003. Since gradating she traveled the world working with glass, assisting
artists, teaching classes and sharing her knowledge and passion of glass with
others. Her work has been shown internationally, including Belgium, China, Italy
and throughout the United States. Quade’s work exploits glass and other
materials in a surrealist sense, inviting viewers to question the material and
what they are seeing. Quade’s goal in developing her work is to inspire
curiosity by revealing mystical properties of glass and mixed media by shedding
light on the surprising characteristics, capabilities and properties they may
have. Quade is currently an MFA candidate in Sculpture at Alfred University in
upstate New York. After graduating in 2016, she plans to continue her studio
practice while pursuing her passion for teaching.
Erin Ethridge is an artist, MFA candidate and Teaching Assistant at the School of Art and Design at Alfred University. While completing her BFA at the University of Texas at Tyler, her contemplation of the mind’s landscape pulled her drawings into the third dimension and initiated a fascination with geological phenomena, materiality and decay. Conceptually tackling illusions of perception, aggregate identity, and the collective unconscious, she activates her mixed media sculptures with metaphor and symbolism. She is a perpetual learner, always asking questions, hoping the work reflects a sense of what it means to be here now .. and be here together.
Ben Gazsi was born and raised in Lancaster, Pa. After attending a year of Architecture School in Rhode Island, Ben transferred to West Virginia University where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture. While in West Virginia, Ben received multiple academic scholarships and the Faculty/Mentor Award. He also exhibited multiple large earth works in the surrounding community, receiving broad coverage by the local media. In 2013, Ben competed and finished 6th in the large public art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ArtPrize. Ben's work varies greatly in material and process, but the environment and nature act as a unifying conceptual thread throughout. With his outdoor works, Ben collects, manipulates, and combines natural materials in order to transform the natural world into large, totemic sculptures. These “Eco-sculptures” are meant to naturally decay and decompose in the public setting, giving the viewer insight into their structure and materials as the pieces deconstruct. When working indoors, Ben focuses on bringing the natural world to the viewer. His work investigates perspective, scale, place, and space while continuously experimenting with new and different processes. His sculptural paintings curve and wrap around the viewer, inviting them into the depicted landscape. These pieces are meant to inversely transport the viewer into the painted scene. Whatever the medium or process, Ben's work examines the natural world and mankind's relationship with it. Currently Ben is working towards is Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture/Dimensional studies at Alfred University in western New York. There he hopes to continue experimenting with new techniques and materials, while exploring and discovering new influences and artistic interests.
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2015
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Kay Dartt, a native New Yorker studied sculpture and engineering for undergraduate degrees at Binghamton University where his sculptural practice took root in metal casting. After, he stayed to complete an MS in Mechanical Engineering in which gained intimate knowledge of the thermodynamics of metal casting. Since graduating he has been practicing as an artist traveling to residency programs, participating in iron casting events and pursuing artistic endeavors. His work has been displayed across the country in solo exhibitions, group shows and sculpture parks. Currently, Kevin is at Alfred University studying towards an MFA degree in sculpture.
Tim Gonchoroff grew
up in Faber, Virginia and received a bachelor’s degree in art history from the
College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as a
post-graduate degree in Fiber and Material studies at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago. He is a mixed media artist who incorporates materials
ranging from handspun wool to electronic circuit boards into installations that
examine the extent of our material culture in unexpected places. Extracting
natural materials from the forests and manmade ones from locations such as
landfills and roadsides, his work combines elements from different ecologies to
confront the contemporary relationship between people and their immediate
environment. His recent work explores how to extract dyes from natural and
manmade materials found at landfills and waste areas. Tim is currently pursuing
an MFA in sculpture at Alfred University in Alfred, New York.
Ronda
Wright-Phipps, international artist, received her BFA in sculpture from
University of Tennessee, and will receive her MFA from Alfred University in 2015. Captivated by the process of casting
iron. The breathing of the furnace, the intensity and spectacle of the molten
iron and pouring and the creative unity of iron casting community; led to
utilizing medium iron as a catalyst for equality. She is the founder of SAFE: ‘Social Action For Equality;’
celebrates our diversity, while focusing on our common elemental existence of
life: Iron. Through the facilitation of groups sharing individual experience of
home and family she generates a connection to and value of diversity in life.
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2014
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Sara
Bruce was born in Meridian, MS. and raised in Louisville, KY.
After spending her formative years in Louisville, She joined the U.S. Navy
where she learned Spanish in Monterey, CA at the Defense Language institute
earning a diploma. She was then stationed in San Antonio, TX and after 3
deployments and serving her time, moved to Tyler, TX where she earned her BFA
at the University of Texas at Tyler. Under the guidance of Professor Dewane
Hughes, Bruce focused on installation work in mixed media, specifically
incorporating soft sculpture; or sculpture made of fabric among other
materials. She would also fulfill her creative needs through sewing, doll
making, painting and playing the guitar badly. Her current sculptural work explores the dynamic
relationship between the social construct of the self and the unacknowledged
aspects of the darker side of the personality; also known as the persona and
the shadow in psychoanalytic terms. Themes
of protection, coping and the absurd are threads that often run through her
pieces. Through her previous work in painting, Bruce is interested in conveying
narrative and metaphor through sculptural form, as well as the nature of color
within these works. She continues to use various media and is currently
obsessed with casting soft stuffed forms in metal. Bruce enjoys road trips, listening to good music, reading
and making clothes for herself and her daughter Audrey. She resides in Alfred,
NY and is pursuing her MFA at the Alfred University School of Art and Design.
Mike
Fleming received his Bachelor of Science degree in Photography
in 2003 from Drexel University in Philadelphia. He became extremely active in
the Philadelphia arts community- curating and staging events and performances
at influential galleries and venues throughout the city, and later working as a
photographer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was also a member of several
touring bands, giving Fleming, camera in hand, a unique perspective on the
cultural landscape. Transitioning to a multidisciplinary approach, Fleming now
focuses on sculpture, installation, and performance works. His work has been
shown in Italy, Russia, China, Poland, Belgium, Australia, Canada, and the US.
He currently resides in Alfred, NY where he is pursuing an MFA in Sculpture at
Alfred University.
Shaun Griffiths was born and raised in San Jose,
California. He earned his BFA in Spatial
Arts from San Jose State University in 2008.
Upon graduation, Shaun was awarded a Fulbright Postgraduate Award
allowing him to attend the University of Sunderland in northeast England where
he received a Masters in Glass. He was a
glassblowing instructor at the Bay Area Glass Institute in San Jose and a warm
glass instructor at the Sunnyvale Community Center nearby. He is currently working to complete his MFA
from Alfred University in upstate New York.
Adam
Stacey is a time based artist
who is currently pursuing his masters in sculpture/dimensional studies at
Alfred University. After having received his Bachelors in painting from
Colorado State University Adam spent a number of years in the Pacific Northwest
where he developed his fascination in Jungian Psychology, Motion Pictures, and
Romanticism. Through the manipulation of video projections and 4 dimensional
space Adam’s work blurs the distinctions between images and forms to create
cinematic moments that raise awareness about consciousness. He can also really
break it down on the dance floor.
Kim Watters received her BFA in glass and BS in
Art Education from Southern Illinois University. Upon graduation, she
immediately began her teaching career as a High School art teacher. Over the
past 6 years of teaching Kim was awarded Biannual Educator of the Year award at
Lake Mary Preparatory School as well as selected to attend the Teacher
Institute in Contemporary Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim
has a passion for teaching and given the opportunity to organize International
educational workshops for peer teachers’ and students. Currently, Kim is a
graduate student in Sculptural and Deminsional studies of glass at Alfred
University, New York. As an artist, she finds her work is naturally progressing
and transforming. Kim continually challenge’s her intellectual capabilities, as well as her ability to
express complex thoughts and feelings through sculpture. Her time spent in
graduate school will allow her to develop a strong sense of direction with her artwork
while learning more about self-evaluation in order to develop a life-long
Artistic way of thinking. It is Kim’s intention to continue her path as a
distinguished artist and educator.
MFA GRADUATE STUDENTS 2013
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
Bridget Elpers is
an artist engaged in a variety of materials working to make artwork in peoples’
lives a standard instead of the exception.
She was born and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. She apprenticed in sewing with her
grandmother and earned her BFA in Ceramics from Wichita State University in
Kansas. Elpers has taught children and
young adults including Ceramics at the Derby Recreation Center for several
years and Liberal Arts Sculpture at Alfred University. She has been involved with the art
community through conferences such as NCECA, solo and group shows, and
workshops at Anderson Ranch in Colorado and Watershed in Maine. Elpers does not have media boundaries as she
explores media such as textiles, ceramics, found object, wood, glass, and paper. She is always interested in new knowledge she
can gain by those facilities and people around her. Bridget currently resides in Alfred, NY with
her Chihuahua (Apocalypse) where she is getting her MFA in Sculpture, currently
working in textiles. Her current
research explores possessions that bring people comfort
and define who they are by acquiring previously
owned objects and investigating the memory that they carry with them.
Caitlin Harder is a mixed-media artist
currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Sculpture at Alfred University. She earned her
B.A. in art from Marlboro College in 2009, and has studied literature and
religion at Mount Holyoke College. During her childhood in rural Vermont,
Caitlin became aware of the duality of nature, which could be at once harsh and
beautiful. Today, whether in the woods or the city, she continues to be struck
by the poetry of that duality. Her sense of balance-- between lightness and
weight, stillness and flux, absence and presence-- shapes the content,
materiality and form of her sculpture. Caitlin creates installations using a
combination of raw materials and archetypal forms like the bed, the wheel, and
the bowl, to explore the role of Self within various states of balance.
Heather Joy Puskarich is currently completing her MFA in
Sculpture and Dimensional Studies at Alfred University and received her BA in
Film Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003. She was born in Dallas
Texas and spent most of her life moving between Dallas and Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania, the city she currently calls home. Puskarich began working
primarily with photography and after being introduced to glass techniques
became fascinated with multi media methods of working and material investigations
using images. One of eight children, Puskarich values the closeness of family
and the devastation of her father’s death has strongly influenced her life and
her work. Her works exude a feeling of melancholic yet aesthetic beauty.
Through sometimes seductive imagery, never revealing the complete self, she
entices the viewer to step closer into the scene. By fragmenting and
reconstructing these dreamlike visions, she further complicates emotional
meanings by layering images physically and psychologically, interweaving a
memory that is a confusion of truths and untruths. This is where the whispering
voices and sanity meet, the ideas of impermance and permanence, reality vs.
nonreality, and the investigation of the self can begin or end. By struggling
between the precarious nature of an unstable mind and emotional experience, she
strives to bring the viewer into her racing thoughts and confused moments in
time. By continuing to use imagery and a variety of materials, Puskarich is
searching to uncover her own truths and share her body and mind experience with
the viewer.
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Jon Lundak grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho. He received a Bachelor of Science in Art from Eastern Oregon University, studied at Whitman College and is currently an MFA graduate student at Alfred University. His sculpture involves a heightened sense of craftsmanship and material knowledge. This affinity for material exploration has helped guide his abilities as a maker. His concepts and meanings expand and evolve as the process of making progresses. Currently Jon is examining the miniaturization of architectural space and the implications of the viewers memory on these sculptural spaces.
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Brad Turner, native to Calgary, Canada, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2006. With fresh mortarboard in tow, he ventured to Toronto to complete a four-year Artist Residency at the Harbourfront Centre, having developed a mix of sculptural and functional glass objects with a focus on originality, diversity, and clean design. His most recent change of scenery resides in Alfred, NY, USA, where he is currently courting his MFA at Alfred University. In addition to his artistic training, Turner holds a Bachelor of Kinesiology from the University of Calgary, having earlier pursued an interest in physical activity and awareness.
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MFA GRADUATE STUDENT 2012
Sculpture Dimensional Studies @ ALFRED UNIVERSITY
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Chris Boyd Taylor grew up in Columbus Ohio where he attended The Ohio State University and studied sculpture. Chris is consistently challenging his ability to make a charming and well-made object. Coming from Midwestern suburbia, he embraces how subtle changes to the familiar can substantially change one’s perception of the everyday. His studio practice comprises of drawing, model-making, and fabricating, all of which are augmented using technology. He is currently residing in Alfred, New York where he is finishing a MFA in Sculpture and Dimensional Studies. Chris enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter. Together they enjoy cooking, traveling, and canoeing.
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Alli Hoag is fascinated by the human mind, how we integrate the outside world into a world of our personal experience and imagination. Working in glass and mixed media, she utilizes imagery from the physical world, translating them into a dreamlike fantasy. From growing up in Florida to living in Oahu, where she received her BFA at University of Hawaii, the wealth of fauna and flora has been a source of constant inspiration. Alli is currently pursuing a Masters in Fine Art degree at Alfred University with her dog, Frank.
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Lauren Jo grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture at Alfred University. She is a mixed media artist, working with various materials such as wood, metal, plastics, light, and found objects. Her work mainly deals with the human condition, exploring relationships between the self and the other. Lauren also likes playing with language in her work. She finds it interesting to see people's interactions with words placed in an unexpected context that changes its meaning. After all, a good pun is its own reword.
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Aric Snee has worked with glass in studio, academic, and factory environments, and sees a rich connection in all of these experiences. After studying glass at Salisbury University in Salisbury, MD, and the Canberra School of Art in Australia, Aric worked in several private studios in Brooklyn, NY. There, he began to develop a dialogue between studio glass and traditional factory training and technique. Aric has worked as a master glassworker at Steuben Glass in Corning, NY, while pursuing his own interests as an independent artist. In May of 2008, Aric was the Artist-in-Residence at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass. He is currently completing his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture at Alfred University.
Kristen Tordella-Williams works across media exploring imagery and sculpture generated from the performative process. Raised in Massachusetts, she received her B.F.A in sculpture from UMass Dartmouth. Kristen is currently pursuing her M.F.A concentrating in Sculpture and Dimensional Studies at Alfred University. Kristen uses performance to investigate issues of labor, identity, and memory using an array of material commonly found at hardware stores, supermarkets and recycling bins. Her performances range from methodically sifting flour through pantyhose to repetitively hanging sheet rock.
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