Alumni Notes

Bill Anthes (MA 1994), who used to teach at the University of Memphis, is now an Assistant Professor of Art History at Pitzer College (Claremont Colleges) in Claremont, California.

Carol K. Brown (MFA 1981) worked for a number of years as a sculptor in Miami, Florida. More recently she has shifted gears towards painting and digital media. Among her awards are 2 individual artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has been included in exhibitions as far ranging as the Beijing Biennial; The National Museum for Women in the Arts; The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; and Art Basel/Miami Beach.   Her work is owned by numerous institutions and prominent collections, including: The Miami Art Museum, The Denver Art Museum, Florida International University, State of Florida Art in Public Places, Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places, and the Tampa Art Museum. She now divides her time between New York and Miami and teaches one semester a year at the college division of New World School for the Arts in Miami.  Her work can be seen at www.carolkbrown.com

Sarah Brozna (BFA & BA 2006) has just entered a graduate program in Museums Studies at the University of Dublin.

Lauren Ashwyn Collins (BFA 2006) began graduate school at the University of Illinois this fall.

Sharon Dilustro (MA 2002) is an Adjunct Professor of Art History at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Hannah Dunn (BFA 2002, MA 2005), who worked as Assistant Curator of Education for Outreach and Family Programs at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, is now the Coordinator of Adult and Community Programming at the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University.  She is working in outreach, docent training, and exploring new technologies for learning in the galleries. 

Joseph Farbrook (MFA 2004) is currently an Assistant Professor of Art (Interactive Media and Game Development) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts.  His work has recently been awarded top honors by Nick Capasso, curator at the DeCordova Museum, during the ArtsWorcester Biennial 2007. Some recent exhibition venues include the Kibbutz Art Gallery (Tel Aviv, Israel), the Incubator (Kansas City, Missouri) and Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery (Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada).

Elizabeth Folk (BFA 2007) is attending graduate school at the University of California – Santa Barbara. 

Alyson Fox (MFA 2004), according to Sunday New York Times, “a former visual director for Anthropologie in Plano, Texas, who left retail in 2005 to return to her art-school roots, quickly became the darling of design blogs for her slightly sinister drawings of faceless people and animals.  Her choice of canvases – often old cloth book covers or clipboards – seems to aid in calling to mind an adult’s fevered dream of a childhood storybook.  ‘I always say they are very familiar but alarming,’ she said.  The art world hasn’t been as much alarmed as charmed: this summer she will have a show at the Brooklyn Collective.”

Robert Gherman (BFA 1978) lives in New Jersey where he continues to paint, mostly in oils.  A New York Times critic has described his artistic vocabulary as “one based around the words hard work and control – control which has to be learned the old-fashioned way through hard work.”  Robert is also Vice President and Publisher of Picture Framing Magazine, a periodical serving picture framers, conservators and art galleries worldwide, and the show director of the West Coast Art and Frame Show in Las Vegas, as well as director of many art charity auctions.  He is represented by BOI’s of New Hope Art Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania. 

Andrew Granitto (MA 1994) is Curator of Exhibitions at Yakima Valley Museum in Washington State. 

Beverly Grindstaff (MA 1994) has received her Ph.D. from the University of California in Los Angeles and is now an Assistant Professor at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. 

Sarah Hurwitz (BFA 2005) is attending graduate school at the University of Arizona.

Amy Johnson (BFA 2003) has just completed her MFA in the Ceramics Department at the University of Washington. She continues to live and work in Seattle.

Meredith Kahn (MA 2007) was selected for a position as a University Library Associate for 2007-2009 in the University of Michigan Art, Architecture, and Engineering Library.  The ULA program provides full funding for UM School of Information students as well as significant work experience in an academic library.  Only four of these positions are available every year, and they are awarded to applicants who have shown the potential to become leaders in the field of academic librarianship. In addition to working as a ULA, Meredith is attending the University
of Michigan School of Information's MSI (master of science in information) program with a concentration in Library and Information Services.

Katrina Kopeloff (BFA 2007) is now a graduate student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.

Anne Kückelhaus (Fulbright MFA student, 2004-05) had a solo exhibition at Galerie Julia Garnatz (12 June - 31 July, 2007) in Cologne, Germany. 

Betsy Lundquist (BFA 2006) is attending graduate school in London, England. 

Alan Magnani (BFA 1978) works as a building maintenance carpenter at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.  He writes that he has never given up on his dream to be an artist of note.  A 2004 article in The J-TAC, a Tarleton State University weekly, tells us about a 12 feet by 3 feet mural of an outer space view created by Alan and installed in the university’s science building.  Since then, Alan has painted six more murals in this series and sold a 13-piece sculpture/painting hybrid.  Alan thanks all the professors at CU who inspired him. 

Melanie McHugh (BA 1990, MA 1994) is enrolled in a graduate program in landscape architecture at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Daniel McReynolds (MA 2002) is now working on his Ph.D. at Princeton University and was awarded the very prestigious Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome.  The title of his Award is posted on the AAR website as: Donald and Maria Cox Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize.
Daniel R. McReynolds.  Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
"Refiguring the Palladian Legacy: Architectural Reform in Eighteenth-Century Venice." 

Yana Payusova (MFA 2006) is currently teaching at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts.   Most recently, she had a solo exhibition titled “When My Neighbor Told Me I Would Die” at Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston (September 2007) and a group exhibition “Sun Pictures to Mega Pixels” at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn, NY (September 2007). Together with 6Plus: a Women's Art Collective (other members include Sama Alshaibi (MFA 2005), Mary Rachel Fanning (MFA 2004) and Sherry Wiggins (MFA 2005), they have recently curated a traveling exhibition titled "Secrets" as well as developed an ongoing community project "Turning Our Tongues" at the Deheisheh Refugee Camp in Palestine. Other venues include Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center (Ramallah, Palestine), Al Hoash Gallery (East Jerusalem, Israel), The Nobel Women's Initiative International Conference (Galway, Ireland) and Exit Art, NYC.

Joshua Peters (MFA 2002) announces in his brief report from Brooklyn that he is transitioning into public school teaching.  This is how his artwork is described by a reviewer from The Brooklyn Paper: “In Peters’ rainbow version of comic book heroes, the Human Torch wears Adidas, while Captain America is portrayed as a powerful-looking Asian man before a barbed-wire-topped wall, as if rescuing a child imprisoned during World War II.  Spider Woman is made over as a haggard and overworked single mother whose face, says Peters, has ‘a strength that has nothing to do with bouncing from building to building.’”  The whole text can be found online: www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/4/30_04xray_visions.html

Oscar Plascencia (MFA 2006) has accepted a three-year appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 

Adriana Restrepo (MFA 2003) has been the International Assistant and Art Shows Curator and Coordinator for the Instituto de Artes de Medellin, Colombia: IDEARTES since 2002. She has curated and coordinated a total of 14 solo and group shows of international and Colombian artists for their art gallery. As a result of her assistance, our department has extended its connections to Colombia, making formal in 2007 an informal cooperation that has been happening between IDEARTES and the department students, instructors and professors since 2002. Adriana has recently extended her curatorial network to other countries; including an art exhibition in Paris, which she curated in collaboration with Mia Semingson and Andrea Wallace. Additionally, she continues creating her own artwork and exhibiting nationally and internationally.

Erin Rice (BFA 2007) has been accepted for graduate studies in Landscape Architecture at the University of Colorado at Denver. 

Kevin Robinson (BFA 1979) is an award-winning, internationally published commercial photographer based in Ridgefield, Connecticut.  He specializes in provocative environmental and individual portraiture.  He is the 2006 Faber Birren National Color Award winner and is currently at work on a book project which examines the world of tattoos.  His website is at www.kevinrobinsonphotography.com

Mary Robinson (BFA 1990) received her MFA in printmaking from Indiana University (2001), and is an Assistant Professor and Head of Printmaking at the University of South Carolina. She has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States, and her work has been included in over fifty group shows, including most recently the Penang International Print Exhibition in Penang, Malaysia, and the Hong Kong Graphic Arts Festival 2007. She has received numerous awards including a Fulbright-Hayes Study Abroad Project in Korea. Her work can be viewed at www.marysdrawings.com

Marcia Sanders (MFA 2004) currently teaches printmaking, art education and foundations courses at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.  She is also enrolled in a Ph.D. program for Curriculum and Instruction/Education.  She works on her art projects at the UnderPressure Fine Art Studio in Arvada, Colorado. 

Jaime Saunders (MA 2000) reports that although she still has a passion for art history, she realized that God was calling her to be an elementary school teacher.  She spent several years as an educator at the Children’s Museum of Denver and then became a substitute teacher.  She is currently a 3rd grade teacher at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Longmont.  She met Ken Archer, a former Navy officer, on match.com in January 2005 and they were married on July 8, 2006 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Boulder.

Louis Schmidt (BFA 2005) is in the MFA program at the University of California – San Diego. 

Emily Schroeder (MFA 2006) was a visiting artist at the University of Wyoming, Laramie in April 2007.  Also, that same spring, she participated in three exhibitions:  Salt & Pepper Exhibition at Santa Fe Clay in Santa Fe, NM, the La Mesa Exhibition at the NCECA Conference in Louisville, KY and Small Favors II Exhibition at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Angela Schwab (BFA 2006) has her own company, Invalt Design in Denver, Colorado. The company’s website is www.Invaltdesign.com

Mary Shay Millea (BASA 1992, MA 1998) is completing her Ph.D. at Rutgers University in New Jersey, with a fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum this year. She also gave birth to a baby boy, Luca Alden Millea, on August 21, 2007.

Daniel Staylor (BA & BFA 2003) has just entered a graduate program in art history at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, and is looking forward to studying Renaissance art in Florence.

Annie Strader (MFA 2005) is teaching at Wichita State University in Kansas.  She was recently in the exhibition The Match Show at the Dubhe Carreno Gallery in Chicago.  The Bridge Club, a collaborative group to which Annie belongs, together with Julie Wills (MFA 2005), Christine Owen (MFA 2005) and Emily Bivens (MFA 2004), had an exhibition titled Intersections: Artifice and Matter at the Durango Arts Center in March 2007. 

Karen Swyler (MFA 2002) is an Assistant Professor of Art at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.  She teaches ceramics, sculpture and 3D design.  He has recently launched her own website: karenswyler.com

Sandra Trujillo (MFA 2001) has accepted a tenure-track position at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia, starting Fall 2007. 

Shanna Waddell (BA 1992, MA 1996) is a curator at the Museo de las Americas in Denver.

Julie Wills (MFA 2005), in addition to her active participation in the Bridge Club, was a recipient of a Rocky Mountain Women's Institute Fellowship and part of the fellows' exhibition at Emmanuel Gallery in Denver in the spring of 2007.