instructors
Bonnie Ashmore-Davis
M.F.A.: American University, Painting with Printmaking concentration B.A. and Post-Baccalaureate Certificate: Brandeis University, Art with French and Secondary Education Minor.
Bonnie Ashmore-Davis is a certified teacher in Massachusetts of Art K-12, and previously, of French 7-12. She has a decade of experience teaching students of all ages; from Kindergarten through graduate students. Currently she teaches art to grades 3-66K-5 during the school year and works at various institutions in Massachusetts on an adjunct basis. In addition to being an educator, she is also a practicing and exhibiting artist. Her artwork has been included in shows on The North Shore, in the Boston area, New York, Florida, Maryland and Washington, DC. She is looking forward to her second yearyearsummer of teaching inindrawing at the Montserrat Pre-College Program.
Jason Asselin
Master’s degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art, BFA from Montserrat
Jason Asselin has been making artwork on the North Shore for eight years. He received his BFA from Montserrat in 2001. He holds a Master’s degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has concentrated his intentions towards interactive work in a variety of mediums. Jason is the artist behind the Highway Heart, a heart sign that was hung on Route 128 North in Danvers. The artwork raised interest from Salem News and Fox 25; it has turned into a charity to raise donations for the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Jason’s website is www.highwayheart.org.
David Atkins
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA
David teaches a Foundation course at Montserrat College of Art. He has taught painting and drawing for several art centers including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, and the 92nd Street Y Art Center in New York City. While David has worked in abstract, landscape, and figurative modes he is primarily a figure painter. He has a studio in Manchester by the Sea, MA and currently shows in New York City.
Kim Bernard
Working with encaustic, both 2 dimensionally and sculpturally, Kim Bernard exhibits her work nationally. Intrigued with the phenomena that objects and places have the power to elicit an air of spirtuality her works are simultaneously archaic and contemporary, implementing contrasting materials such as wax, lead and ceramic. Bernard is represented by Arden Gallery in Boston, Bowersock Gallery, Provincetown, MA, Fenn Gallery, Woodbury, CT, McGowan Fine Art, Concoard NH and Hawthorn Gallery, Birmingham, AL. She teaches at the Maine College of Art and regionally as a visting artist. Bernard is the founding member of New England Wax, a professional association of artisit working with encaustic, and has offered numerous presentations on encaustic and sculpture, acted as an invited juror and guest lecturer. www.kbernard.com
Wilbur Blair
BFA, Boston University, MFA, University of Michigan
Dinah Cardin
Boston University, M.A. Communication
Drury College, B.A. Communication
Founder and Editor of ART Throb a multi-media online arts magazine for the North Shore. Dinah was a former Staff writer for various newspapers on the North Shore; the Salem Gazette, North Shore Sunday , Merrimack River Current, Saugus Advertiser and Wakefield Observer. She has taught writing for Media and communications at Salem State College. Visit www.nsartthrob.com
Ned Delaney
Art Institute, Boston Museum School, Tufts University
Ned Delaney has published nearly 30 books. Half of the titles are books he's written and illustrated, the others, illustrated for other authors. He's worked for magazines, textbooks, TV and advirtising. He attended The Art Institute of Boston and graduated from the Boston Museum School and Tufts University.
Ron DiRito
Faulty, Chair :Photography & Video
B.A. Metropolitan State College;
M.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design
Professor and Chair of Montserrat College of Art Photography and Video Department. Before coming to Montserrat, Ron DiRito worked as a freelance photographer for various newspapers, magazines and photo agencies. As an artist Ron has received numerous award for his photography. His work is exhibited nationally and held in many public and private collections. Ron has been recognized in Who's Who Among American's Teachers for his dedication to his students and teaching.
Jeannie Donovan
BA, Emmanuel College; MFA, UMass/Dartmouth
Jeannie is a painter and papermaker and more recently has studied graphic design at Mass College of Art. Working mainly in watercolor, acrylic and oil, she also creates pulp paintings out of handmade paper, a technique she learned at Rugg Road Handmake Paper studio in Boston. She has taught extensively on the high school and college level and has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in Boston, New York City, Nantucket and Cape Cod. Her imagery is derived fromt he memory of a place or event - areas of line, color and texture create the emotional resonance of the experience.
James Durrett
Education: B.A., Art Education/Art Studio, University of Kentucky, Lexington; M.F.A., Vermont College, Montpellier, Vermont
James received a B.A. in art education/art studio from the University of Kentucky and an M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Art. He teaches workshops on stone and glass at The Carving Studio in West Rutland, Vermont, and has shown work at The Carving Studio, as well as Sculpture Fest, Woodstock, Vermont, and the North Bennington, (Vermont) Sculpure Fest.
Jim Falck
BFA, Montserrat College of Art
Radiant Design: Painting by Jim Falck, Montserrat College of Art Gallery: "Jim Falck's colorful watercolors bring to mind Stuart Davis's jazzy modernist style and John Marin's deep engagement with the places he painted." The Boston Phoenix, 5/22/07
Yetti Frenkel
Yetti Frenkel specializes in painting large scale murals of people and animals. Her paintings chronicle the urban scene, portraying diverse populations that makeup contemporary communities. She has worked with children, businesses and community organizations to create murals that brighten and enhance neighborhoods, schools, and institutions.
Blyth Hazen
BA, Austin College
MFA, Massachusetts College of Art
Blyth Hazen received her B.A. from Austin College, Sherman, Texas and her M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art. She is an Associate Professor at Montserrat College of Art. In addition, she serves as the Education Coordinator at Do While Studio, a Boston-based non-profit organization working with art, technology and community-based projects. She has a background in painting and has been working with digital media since the mid 1980s. Ms. Hazen collaborates with Jennifer Hall on large-scale art/robotics installations, some of which have been installed at the DeCordova Museum, Keene State College and Phillips Exeter Academy. In 2003, she was a recipient of the St. Botolph Club Grants-in Aid award and co-authored a chapter in the book Women in Technology recently published by MIT. More of Blyth Hazen's work can be seen at www.dowhile.org/physical/people/hazenb.html.
Masako Kamiya
Education: B.F.A. and Diploma, Fine Arts, Montserrat College of Art; M.F.A., Painting, Massachusetts College of Art.
"My goal as an instructor is not to simply tell students what may make their art work better, but to demonstrate how to think and work as an artist."
A 1997 graduate of Montserrat, Masako joined the full-time faculty at Montserrat teaching in the Painting and Foundation Departments in the fall of 2002. Her solo show at Kingston Gallery in 2002 was featured in Art in America. Now represented by Gallery NAGA, her solo show there in February 2003 was praised in The Boston Globe and ArtsMedia Magazine and her work is included in the publication, New American Painting. She has been featured in other venues in Boston including HallSpace and a show titled Boston Abstraction Now: Selections from New American Paintings edition #44, at the OSP Gallery in Boston, spring 2003.
Education: B.F.A. and Diploma, Fine Arts, Montserrat College of Art; M.F.A., Painting, Massachusetts College of Art.
Maria Malatesta
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Fifth Year Certificate and Diploma, Lesley College, BS
Maria Malatesta is adjunct faculty at Montserrat College of Art. She has assisted teaching international programs in Umbria, Italy and in Tortola, BVI. She also teaches privately. She studied at the University of California at Davis, summer programs in Tuscany and Venice Italy. She received a grant to the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been accepted twice into the national prize show at the Cambridge Art Association and has been included in numerous group shows throughout the Boston area. Maria’s work can be seen at the Chameleon Gallery in Newburyport, MA.
Jules Means
After studying ceramics in college Jules Means studied jewelry making in classes from Montserrat to Metalwerx to Sharon Arts and Sturbridge Village. For many years her focus was on fiber arts. She taught sewing and quilting classes at several local fabric stores including Stretch n Sew in Danvers and Cranberry Fiber Arts in Hamilton. She has taught and demonstrated wool spinning, knitting, embroidery and felting. Largely self-taught she loves to think of new designs and inspire students with ideas and encouragement. Making jewelry with simple tools, wire and beads is her latest passion.
Nathalie Miebach
Massachusetts College of Arts, MFA, Sculpture, MS Art Education
Oberlin College, BA, Political Science and East Asian Studies
Nathalie Miebach is a professional artist and teaches "Sculptural Weaving" at Massachusetts College of Art.
Nathalie's work focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations or theories. Nathalie works will be exhibited in 2010 at the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA and a solo exhibition at Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI. Recently she had a solo exhibition at Schick Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY and Amherst College. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Science, Boston, MA, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem , MA, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA and DeCordova Sculpture Museum, Lincoln, MA. Gallery representation at Cynthia Reeves Gallery, New York City, NY. Visit her website www.nathaliemiebach.com
Michael Miller
Rose Olson
B.A. Tuft University, Montserrat College of Art
Rose Olson is a painter with a studio in Boston’s South End. Her exhibits this year include Kingston Gallery, which represents her, Marcia Wood Gallery, Art Complex Museum, Danforth museum, NYU and Montserrrat College of Art among others. Reviews of her paintings have appeared in Art New England, The Boston Globe artsMEDIA, SoWa News and local venues. She has taught at The DeCordova Museum School, Radcliffe Seminars, Salem State College as well as Montserrat College of Art, where she is a professor in the Painting and Foundation Departments. www.roseolson.com
Rhoda Rosenberg
B.A., Temple University; M.F.A., Tufts University; Certificate, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Rhoda has exhibited in Massachusetts and throughout the U.S. In the summer of 2002, with money from a grant from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a faculty enrichment grant from Montserrat, she traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to visit and teach at Artist Proof, a print collaborative. The trip led to two exhibitions in the Montserrat Galleries in the spring of 2003, in addition to a fundraising campaign in the aftermath of a devastating fire that destroyed Artist Proof earlier that year. Her work was also in a show at the River Gallery in Ipswich with other Montserrat Printmaking faculty in early spring of 2003 titled Printmaking on the North Shore. Rhoda also teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Robin Samiljan
B.A.Vanderbilt University
The art making process enhances my life and brings me into a more peaceful, meditative place. When I paint, I detach from my surroundings and get lost in the flow of the creative process. Rather than fight with the paint to control it, I respond to the watercolor washes and markings and embrace the translucent qualities of the medium.
Years of studying watercolor technique has also lead me to the study of Buddhism, Asian art and Sumi-e ink painting. My current body of work reflects this, and illustrates my desire to find serenity in not just the act of painting but also the end result, the finished artwork. Lush, pure colors combined with simplified shapes create an impressionistic balance in each of my works. My most successful paintings draw the viewer into the feeling I have created and a shared communication develops between us.
Robin is involved in various art organizations on the north shore of Boston and has several galleries representing her. Children’s Hospital in Boston and Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton have purchased numerous pieces of her artwork for their permanent collections. Her artwork contributes to providing the peaceful environment these hospitals strive to create for their patients and visitors.
www.fineartbyrobin.com
Lisa Sawlit
BFA Tufts University,
MFA Tufts University,
As a mid career artist Ms. Sawlit has worked within multiple mediums. Her current focus is in representational drawing and painting. She works as a fine artist in Boston and teaches painting and drawing part time at Montserrat College of Art where she has taught for the last twelve years. Her most recent exhibitions include a solo show of drawings at MacPhail Gallery in Belmont, MA, 2003, a solo show of drawings and paintings at Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA, 2004, and a group show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2005. She is also an original signatory of the "Slow Art Manifesto" signed in NYC in 2005 and now studies classical painting exclusively under renowned painter Graydon Parish.
Ms. Sawlit continues making contributions in online media, as she is Chairman and Founder for National College Radio. She also serves as an Online Advisory Board Member of The Boston Classical Orchestra and has a seat on the Planning Committee at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Sarah Smith
MFA in Bookarts/Printmaking at the University of the Arts.
"I try to expose my students to as many basic skills, processes, techniques, visiting artists and field trips as possible, while also teaching them the history of the arts of the book, including type, design, printing and binding, with the aim to give them a better understanding (and inspiration from) the visual, technical and intellectual world around them."
Sarah began bookbinding, making pop-up books of her illustrations and cartoons at Umass Amherst, with the guidance of Northampton bookbinder, Bill Streeter. She then went on to get an MFA in Bookarts/Printmaking at the University of the Arts (formally Philadelphia College of Art), where obfuscatory writing and letterpress printing loomed large in her work.
She also is a book conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, MA. Her teaching at Montserrat includes graphic design, letterpress and bookbinding.
Aside from producing letterpress printed broadsides and books, Sarah also paints odd oil paintings and has written articles for published and proposed issues of Art Journal. She wrote the Introduction to Richard Purdy's book, Revisiting Late Ba Pe: Perambulations in Reverse Archeology, published in the Fall of 2003.
Sarah's teaching experience includes typography, letterpress, binding and bookarts at Penland School in North Carolina and the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore. Her absurdity can be found in collections at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, The Boston Public Library, Printed Matter in New York City, Special Collections of Georgia Southern University and the Greenfield Library in Philadelphia.
Kevin Townsend
Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington,DC - BFA
Kevin Townsedn is a painter, printmaker and former master printer for Hand Print Workshop International and River Tree Arts. He has taught drawing, painting and printmaking as adjunct faculty at Corcoran College of Art and Design and most recently at Maine College of Art. Kevin has been recognized by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities for excellence in high school arts education and was awarded an honorarium from the National Museumof American Art for his work as master printer. His work has been featured in the Prints Washington Exhibition and can be found in the Corcoran Gallery of Art's permanent collection as well as the White House Ornament Collection.
Catalina Viejo
BFA, Montserrat College of Art,
2005
Catalina was the Valedictorian for Montserrat College of Art 2005. She has exhibited in numerous shows including :Tufts Summer Show, Cambridge Art Associations and a solo show at Montserrat College of Art. Visit her website to see her work www.catalinaviego.com
