Staff and Guest Artists:
Credentialed Staff
Our D/FA Department staff are our day classroom teachers. A few of our staff also teach in the Conservatory after school. Here are their course websites.
Jacqueline Bergeron-
Rachel Edwards - http://teachers.sduhsd.net/redwards
Jessica Matthes-
Laura McKay-
Julie Rais- http://teachers.sduhsd.net/jrais
Angela Van Lier-http://teachers.sduhsd.net/avanlier
Kendall Younglund- http://teachers.sduhsd.net/kyounglund
Guest Artists
Our Guest Artists are artists who have earned local, regional, national, and international praise for their work as artists and teachers. They work with students both in day class and in the Conservatory after school.
2008-2009:
Amber George- Painting
http://ambergeorge.com
Amber George is an exhibiting artist and arts instructor. She earned her degree in Fine Art from UCLA where she studied with some of the most prominent artist of contemporary art, including Nancy Rubins, Don Suggs, and Lari Pittman. Her work is exhibited nationally, and her current body of work will be shown in a solo show at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas. She enjoys sharing her passion for the arts and hopes to inspire students to pursue careers in the arts.
Elizabeth Washburn - Portrait Painting
Elizabeth Wasburn grew up in Kansas where she began painting at the age of thirteen. After high school, she moved to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art College. She received a BFA in Drawing and Painting in 1995. Elizabeth backpacked Europe for several months thereafter and ultimately landed a job as a painter for a mural studio in San Francisco. The studio specialized in large-scale murals for casinos and hotels, primarily in Las Vegas. With two years of work experience, Elizabeth ventured off to New York to pursue her free-lance career. She continued doing commissioned murals and paintings for homes and restaurants. Less than a year went by in New York, when a mural commission lured her overseas. The presumed three month duration of the commission turned into an eighteen month sojourn, living, working and traveling in Egypt. After a year and a half, Elizabeth returned to the U.S. and decided to move back to California, this time to San Diego, where she has resided since October of 2000. She carries on with mural and painting commissions, as well as local exhibitions. A recent addition to her career has been teaching adult painting and drawing classes, as well as art classes for children, at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Elizabeth plans to continue with her painting as well as broaden representation of her work in the U.S. and abroad.
Jackie Lo - Life Drawing
Amanda Dahlgren - Advanced Photography
www.amandadahlgren.com
Amanda Dahlgren is a former Canyon Crest Academy teacher and was part of the team that founded Envision Conservatory as the first Envision Digital/ Fine Arts Coordinator. She is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts in Photography, running a small portrait photography business, and spending lots of time with her adorable 17 month old daughter. Please visit her website at: www.amandadahlgren.com
Jeff Kahn- Computer Arts
http://www.kahn-design.com/
An Art Center College of Design graduate and scholarship student. Jeff Kahn's professional experience encompasses twenty-seven years in graphic design, marketing communications and branding. He has worked as an art director and senior designer for national advertising agencies, graphic design and publishing firms. He has been the owner of Kahn Design for the past thirteen years.
His technical and design expertise has landed website and graphic interface design projects for OKbridge, the Internet's #1 bridge club plus design projects for Hewlett Packard and Revlon. Jeff's created a tremendous amount of work for Laugh.com - designing graphics, CD packaging and promotional materials for George Carlin, Jonathan Winters and Phyllis Diller.
Jeff's packaging design for Nana's "Temptations", a high end chocolate bar, was awarded “Best New Vegetarian Product 2006” by VegNews at “Expo West”.
Awarded recognition in international logo design competition. Three logos were judged worthy for inclusion in the new books
Currently you will find Jeff teaching part time at Palomar College and Canyon Crest Academy. Jeff is actively painting and has had national best selling fine art prints early in his career.
2007-2008:
Karen Eastman - Painting
http://kareneastman.artspan.com/
I have always loved to draw and paint. This interest led me to pursue an education in the arts at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where I graduated in 1987 with a BA in Humanities and a minor in Art History. After graduation, I moved to San Diego, California and enjoyed a career in sales and merchandising over the next ten years. I always felt something was missing though, and came to realize I had gotten away from my passion to create art. I decided to start my own business in 1996 called Paint, Glaze & Fire!, a ceramics studio, located in Encinitas, California. Working with customers to help nurture and advance their own creativity made me realize that art was in my soul and painting was my favorite form of expression and release. I sold my business in 1999, and have been painting full time ever since!
Andi Phizackerley- Ceramics
Andrea was raised in Northern California just outside of San Francisco, she received her BFA in ceramics at the University of Oregon in 2000. Since then, she has taught ceramics, jewelry design, and painting in Oregon, Northern California, Jackson Hole Wyoming, and now Southern California. Always balancing her passion for the outdoors and art she is now living in the city to focus more on producing art to sell and teaching more full time. Her art reflects her love for nature and organic forms. She feels clay is a limitless medium with endless inspiration. She specializes in hand built sculpture and functional ware.
Marsia Scheinfeld- Photography
Photographer received her B.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from The State University of New York at Albany in 2002. She has extensive experience within the medium of photography as well as a particular interest in the alternative processes in photography, of which she was the recipient of an undergraduate award for her endeavors in the methods. She has worked at The International Center of Photography in New York, where she was involved in their Community Outreach programs geared towards high-school students and served as an educator for museum tours and family workshops. For the past 3 ½ years she has worked in the Education Department at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park where she is responsible for School in the Park, a program designed to integrate photography and film into elementary schools with diminished and/or lack of funding in the arts. In addition, she is working to curate Education-related exhibitions, new programming, and photographic workshops for people of all ages. In the fall of 2008, Marisa will be attending San Diego State University and working towards an M.F.A in Printmaking and Photography.
Kimball Taylor- Writer
Teaching an artist and writer collaboration class
http://kimballtaylor.com/
Kimball Taylor has been scolded by a leper; robbed in Peru; nearly duped by a Balinese transvestite; riddled by malarial mosquitoes in Ecuador; attacked by baboons in Africa; and mocked, browbeaten and harangued by great and not-so-great surfers around the world. A senior writer for Surfer magazine, Taylor also contributes to various other surf publications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and is currently a candidate for a master’s in creative writing at San Diego State University.
Lisa Paysen- Mixed Media 2-D and 3-D
Hometown – Clemson, SC
- Oldest of three girls in a family of educators.
- Life long love of art.
- Attended Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC and received a BFA in - Ceramics and Printmaking.
- Worked for a production potter for 2 years and then given the opportunity to try teaching.
- Have now gained National Board Certification and 10 years of experience.
- Recently moved to Encintias with husband, Eric and dog, Zoe.
- Teaching art at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad.
- Work revolves around personal relationships/experiences and interest in travel and nature – very much a “story-telling” style.
- Love to incorporate mixed media in 2D & 3D format with materials such as charcoal, pastels, collage, and paint on paper/canvas and found objects.
Viriginia Broersma- Alternative Painting Techniques http://www.virginiabroersma.com/
Viriginia was born in San Diego, CA in 1982. She received her BFA degree in painting in 2004 from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah Georgia. She worked as a freelance muralist in both San Diego and Savannah throughout school with a primary focus as a studio artist.
Virginia works mostly in acrylic. The majority of her works are large format pieces that range from four to ten feet. She has participated in several group shows in the Savannah area and is currently working as a studio artist in San Diego, CA. She has recently been involved in shows in the Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Atlanta areas.
Lori Mitchell- Illustration Workshop
http://www.differentjustlikeme.cc
Lori Mitchell graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California, with a BA in Illustration.
Lori wrote and illustrated the award-winning children's book, Different Just Like Me. She has appeared on Oprah and the Today show. Her other books include Holly Bloom's Garden, Marfan Syndrome from A to Z for the National Marfan Foundation and a series of six books on character development for Life's Building Blocks. Lori teaches drawing and composition at Palomar College in San Marcos, pen & ink at the Athenaeum in La Jolla, and 4th and 5th grade art at Curie Elementary School in San Diego.
Greta Erbe- Toy Design Workshop
Greta has her BA from University of San Diego in Visual Communications and her MA from Azusa Pacific University in Arts Education.Greta has worked as a graphic designer for 5 years in LA and NY focusing mostly on logos, identity and invitation design.She has also worked as a toy designer for Jakks Pacific Inc in Malibu for 2 years and then started her own doll co (greta's girlz) in woodstock for 2 years. She was the lead designer for Hello Kitty and Care Bear while at Jakks Pacific. Currently Greta is teaching middle school art at Earl Warren Middle School.
Kimmie Chung- Self-Portraiture and Zine
Kimmie received her B.A. at UC Santa Barbara, where her emphasis was in painting. After graduation she went on to receive her Masters of Education in Visual Art as well as her teaching credential. She has been creating art since she was three, but started learning how to oil paint at age 12 in art classes at a private studio. Since then, she has focusing mainly on portraiture attempting to capture realistic representations of friend, family, or herself.
Currently, Ms. Chung ( as students call her ) works at Escondido High School teaching an Introduction to Art class, as well as a combined Intermediate and Advanced Class. This her second time teaching as a guest artist at Canyon Crest Academy.
William Leslie- Light Sculpture
Art serves many purposes, most of which I try to integrate into my work. Besides providing a beautiful light to illuminate our dwellings, workplaces, or recreational spaces, I'm hoping Paper Sun Lightsculptures will cause people to stop long enough to see timelessness in passing time, to experience what Zen refers to as "The Mind of No-Mind." I believe that one moment in eternity is worth many lifetimes of sleepwalking.
The best art is created when the artist allows the creative process to take over. Pardon this hackneyed cliche, but it's true. I won't dwell on who I am, or where I'm coming from. However, since we are what we do (and vice versa), here are some of the more meaningful ongoing influences in my life: teaching philosophy, surfing, Vispassana meditation and human rights activism.
Janet Lee- Printmaking
Jackie Hall- Sculpture
John Ratajkowski- Mono-Print Workshop
Key to artist John David Ratakowski’s work is travel, without which, he explains, he would become numb to his surroundings. Exhibited internationally and in the U.S., Ratajkowski lived in southwest Ireland on a two-year sabbatical. Inspired by the Celtic ruins there, he painted richly textured and vibrantly hued non-figurative landscapes.
Consistently intrigued by various media, materials and techniques, Ratajkowski has invented his own paint using some formula over five centuries old. Mixing dry pigments, applying waxes and resin, heating the canvas surface to control viscosity, Ratajkowski creates paintings with velvety and layered finishes.
Dale McCloud- Screen Printing
Dale McLeod is a Graphic Artist specializing in Textiles. His family
operates a small shop creating prints from children's artwork for the
YMCA www.lonecloud.com. Dale has a Master's Degree in Graphic Design from UCLA. He currently teaches Screen Printing & Graphic Design at San Dieguito Academy and is drawing pictures every chance he gets.
Carolyn Ames- Figure Drawing
Geoff Allen, Life Drawing (a college credit, Mira Costa course)
Joe Nalven - http://www.digitalartguild.com/
