Teacher Bios
Teacher Bios
Don Bradford Professional Potter. Artist-in-residence in New Jersey schools with "Project Impact." Exhibitions: NJ State Museum, Morris Museum and others; BA in Art Education from Montclair State University. MA in Visual Arts from William Paterson University. Independent Studies include: Tuscarora Pottery School, The Aegean School of Fine Arts and Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts.
Sandie Butler has been based in Hawthorne New Jersey. A newly retired art teacher, Sandie Butler has been working with beeswax since 1994. Over the years her work has evolved from assemblages to paintings and finally to sculptures.” She has taught workshops to teachers and students showing them her method of combining beeswax medium, various papers, photographs, wood and metal to create what she calls her underwater life forms. In addition to creating sculptures Sandie is also a papermaker and loves to teach workshops combing both mediums.
Jane Chang studied master classes with Madame Aixinjueluo Hinyi, descendant of the imperial Qing Dynasty, China.Teaching experience: The Art school at Old Church, Northern New Jersey Art Center, Tenafly Senior Center.and private lessons. Exhibited throughout tristate area. Jane Chang has a MBA from Long Island University.
Jayne Conte is a graphic designer, painter, and artist. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and has taken classes at the Art Students’ League of New York City. She worked as a creative director for Pearson Education, where she designed and managed both the interior and cover design for textbooks in the college division. Jayne specializes in watercolors and has held several exhibits at local venues in the Hudson Valley. She is passionate about sharing her artistic talents with others and teaches watercolor classes in Rockland County.
John Creagh has worked as a designer and painter for over 20 years. He has studied at the prestigious Arts Students League in New York City and has a MFA from Lehman College of the City University of NY. John has taught at the Pelham Art Center, the Wallkill School and at the Westchester Art Workshop in Peekskill. A native of the Bronx and long-time resident of the Hudson Valley, John's paintings, including his urban works and his plein air pieces, have been influenced by the work of Edward Hopper. He incorporates his lifelong experiences in the visual arts into his classes and shares his unique vision and expertise with his students.
Marisol Diaz is an art educator of 21 years and is currently serving as the Chair of the Dwight-Englewood School’s Fine Art department in Englewood, NJ. She is a graduate of the high school of Art & Design in NYC. She received her B.A. from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in Painting & Sculpture. She received her Master’s of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, @ the Hoffberger School of Painting under the guidance of Grace Hartigan, an American Abstract Expressionist from the 50’s. Marisol is primarily an illustrator, and figurative artist, with prolific sculptural and glass-technique. She has exhibited her work nationally from Chelsea, to Harlem NYC, across the nation to Seattle, and internationally to Madrid, Spain and Tijuana Mexico. Her work is in both private and public collections. She often uses mixed-media and the-more-accessible-than-glass, ‘bar-top resin’ to cross 2d and 3d boundaries. Most recently, Summer 2017 she was the first art resident @ Bell-ans Creative Art Center in Orangeburg NY and concluded the experience with a large solo exhibit. She lives in a little moon cottage by the Hudson in Nyack NY, with her artist partner, Bill Batson and her dog named Chica.
Dan Dugan A former assistant to Professor Roger Hendricks at SUNY Purchase, he has been widely exhibited in the NY/NJ area and taught in Montreal, Canada, Cairns, Australia and Eastchester, New York.
Karen Edelmann, painter, received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, her Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, and today is Emerita Professor of Art at St. Thomas Aquinas College. Karen is a landscape artist who brings over two decades of college level art teaching at RoCA, plus insight gained from teaching and planning painting and drawing programs in the US, France and Italy with Artists Abroad and Afield, Inc. Students have regularly named her to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Her work is in corporate and private collections in the US and Europe, and is shown in galleries from New York to the Gulf Coast. She is a member of New York Plein Air Painters, the National Arts Club and other art organizations in the Hudson River Valley. You can see Karen’s work at KWEdelmann.com/gallery.
Daly Flanagan is currently the Executive Director at the Rockland Center for the Arts. She has over 20 years’ experience in art education and administration including positions as Director of the Craft Students League/YWCA and Coordinator of School and Family Programs at the Museum of Art and Design (formerly the American Craft Museum). She has a Masters of Science in Education and Administration with a visual arts focus from Bank Street College of Education and Parsons School of Design and a BFA in painting and printmaking from San Diego State University.
Kelly Green Grady is the owner of The Iron Spirit, a trendsetting jewelry boutique specializing in wearable art. While her love of the arts began as a dance teacher in her early years, and was supported by studying at the pottery wheel, Kelly found herself in the world of metal arts when she moved with her family to New Jersey in 2000. Kelly believes "wearing or creating a piece of jewelry should positively impact your day. It should brighten your mood, or remind you of a special person, place or moment”. Kelly previously taught at Annealed Studio in Cranford NJ until its closure in early 2020. She currently teaches metal arts privately and is on faculty at The Visual Arts Center in Summit, NJ, and The Art School at Old Church, Demarest, NJ. Her current teaching curriculum includes work in metals, metal clay and enamels.
Catherine Graham is a New York State Certified Art Teacher with a M.A. in art education from the City University of New York, Lehman College, and a BFA in fine arts, with a minor in art history from the School of Visual Arts. Graham is a practicing artist with a wide scope of knowledge in both the fine arts and education fields. Her experience in the educational field represents a large range of knowledge gained through work with a variety of learners from ESL students of all ages, to urban public school students, to suburban students at a private art center. Graham is a printmaker and abstract painter whose work has been exhibited at Hopper House, RoCA, Lehman College Gallery, and SVA Chelsea Gallery. Her work can be seen at Catherinevgraham.com
Marlene Krumm-Sanders BFA, Parsons The New School For Design, NYC. Also studied: American College, Paris, France. Worked for 10 years as an illustrator before turning to clay. Ceramic Studies: Rockland Center for the Arts, N.Y., Foundation for Arts and Science, N.J. and self-development in her own studio. Has taught privately in her studio. Currently works at Outside In Gallery, Piermont, N.Y. co-managing gallery, artist in residence. Has exhibited in many local venues, Hudson Valley, Westchester, N.J. Online: Mks-art.com.
Sally Lipton Derringer was a book manuscript finalist for the Tampa Review Prize, as well as for Fordham University’s Poets Out Loud Prize, the New Issues Poetry Prize, and the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, and a semifinalist for the Brittingham/Felix Pollak Prizes, Elixir Press Poetry Award and Cider Press Review Book Award. She was a finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Prize, Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize, Arts & Letters Prize, Kay Murphy Prize, Phyllis Smart Young Prize, Sonora Review Fiction Contest, New Millennium Fiction Award, and Tampa Review Danahy Fiction Prize, a runner-up for the Solstice Fiction Prize, William Dickey Memorial Broadside Contest and Grolier Poetry Prize, and a semifinalist for the James Wright Poetry Award and Paumanok Poetry Award. She also received honorable mention in Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize and New Millennium Writings' Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in Poet Lore, The Los Angeles Review, Solstice, Sentence, Bellevue Literary Review, the Briar Cliff Review, The Prose-Poem Project, Memoir, SLAB, ArLiJo, The Quarterly, The New York Quarterly, Tampa Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Court Green, december, Far Out: Poems of the '60s, Writing for Life, and other journals and anthologies. She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has taught in the English Department at SUNY Rockland.
Paula Madawick CPSA Artist. Apprentice to Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, studied at the School of Visual Arts, Cooper Union and SUNY where she received her BA. She has exhibited her colored pencil drawings at Castelli Gallery, Matthew Marks, The National Arts Club, Silvermine, Blue Hill Corp., and the Hopper House; is in the collection of Chase Manhattan Bank, NA, Rutgers University and the Bergen Museum. Madawick has received numerous awards and was an invitational instructor for the Color Pencil Society of America’s National Convention. She was also the former Executive Director, Edward Hopper Art Center, Nyack, NY and former Gallery Director of Center Gallery, Demarest, NJ.
Stephanie Maddalena has a BA in Fine Arts, St. Thomas Aquinas College; also studied at Peters Valley Craft Center, Brookfield Craft Center, Old Church Cultural Center, taught for Syracuse University and the Craft Students League; exhibits throughout the region; owns and operates Foxcroft Beads in Haverstraw, NY.
Eleanor Miller is a classically trained artist, Eleanor Grace Miller received her BA from Monmouth University, where she studied under Eleanore Mikus, a vanguard Minimalist, and Bernard Aptekar, one of the original SOHO Ten Downtown, and continued her studies at the National Academy School of Fine Arts. Miller has exhibited extensively throughout the East Coast, both in fine art galleries and corporate venues, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including Best of Show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, the Anna Hyatt Huntington Award from the National Arts Club, and the Gamblin Artists Award from the Salmagundi Club. Her work is in both private and corporate collections. She is currently on the faculty at RoCA and the Pelham Art Center. Eleanorgracemiller.com
Patti Mollica has been a professional illustrator and fine artist for over 30 years. She has been commissioned by, and is included in the private collections of American Express, Sheraton Hotels, CBS and RCA Records, Penguin Press, Mellon Bank and many others. Her artwork is known for its fearless use of color and uninhibited brushwork. She delights in painting the world around her in a bold, decisive style, with hues that are intense, brilliant and contemporary. She is represented by several galleries in the U.S. Patti teaches "How to Paint Fast, Loose and Bold", as well as a variety of workshops on how to use Golden Paints, Gels and Mediums. For more information visit: www.mollicastudio.com.
Kanitra Perrault studied at Cooper Union and Pratt Institute, majoring in film/animation. For the past ten years she has taught multicultural arts at Martin Luther King Center in Spring Valley, NY. In 2005, her passion for film/animation led her to develop a media arts program which currently includes video/animation and claymation production for students of all ages.
Janet Pirozzi-Riolo graduated The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) with a degree in Fashion Illustration. She has worked in the garment district designing screen prints and fashion illustrations for companies such as Healthtex and Danskin. Even though her early experience has been in commercial art in recent years she has focused most of her time in developing her fine art skills in the medium of watercolor pencils. Her work has appeared in collaborated shows in Nyack, Valley Cottage Library and The Ridgewood Art Institute in New Jersey. Recently she received The Best in Show, Judge's Choice and First Place Award for The St. Catherine of Bologna Patron of the Arts Association in Ringwood, New Jersey.
Barbara Pollitt Designer has won a Drama Desk Nomination for her design of Caucasian Chalk Circle and an Obie Award for her performance in Epidog. Her masks have been seen on Broadway in The Tempest and Jelly’s Last Jam. She recently exhibited her masks at the Carter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, CT. Her work was exhibited at Lincoln Center as well as other venues in New York City. She was an artist-in-residence for the past two years at Nyack High School and has also taught at Manhattanville College.
Michael Porfido began his lifelong journey as a potter in 1980 when he worked as Mikhail Zakin’s studio assistant at TASOC. From ’83-’87 he apprenticed with two potters in The Republic of Korea and mastered traditional techniques. During the 90s, Michael taught pottery at elementary and middle schools, completed a BA in Arts Management and attended many workshops at Peters Valley Educational Center. From 2000-2007, he was an adult ceramics instructor at ACA of NY/NJ in Jersey City and at Bostree Studios in Sugar Loaf, NY. In 2012 he established Porfido Pottery and continues to work as an independent artist selling his functional pottery online and throughout the region. He is currently an instructor of throwing and handbuilding classes at Rockland Center for the Arts.
Diane Rosen is a New York-based artist, educator, and writer. She studied in New York City at the Art Students League where she was Dan Greene's studio assistant; l'École des Beaux-Arts in Paris on a French Government Painting Fellowship; and Columbia University for a Master's degree in Education. Her bold figurative work is primarily in pastel, combined with acrylic paint. Diane has taught art privately as well as at high school and college levels, including Parsons School of Design at The New School in Manhattan. Her work is exhibited widely, and has been featured in publications such as The Pastel Journal; Pure Color: The Best of Pastel; and American Artist magazine. She is listed in Who's Who in American Art, and in 2003 was elected a Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America (PSA). In 2018, her pastel painting won the Founder's Award-- the top prize at PSA's 46th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York City.
Lauren Rudolph was born in New Jersey and currently lives in Nyack, NY where she works as a portrait artist and instructor. From a very early age Lauren was drawn to portraiture. She has always had a fascination with the face and the essence of what it means to be human. Early in her creative life, pastels were her medium of choice, but she was deeply inspired by paint which she has explored through both acrylics and oils. She feels that there is a life and an energy in painting that is full of depth and that there is so much to yet uncover. Lauren began her college education at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and received her BA in art from the University at Albany. At 42 years of age, she feels that she is now truly the student she desires to be, always open to learning, growing and allowing the artistic process to lead the way.
John Rosis Painter, has a MFA from Hunter College New York, as well as a BFA, from School of Visual Arts, New York. Teaching experience includes Westchester Community College, Art Students League and Rockland Center for the Arts. Exhibitions include Hopper House Art Center, Vermont Center for the Arts, Berkshire Art Museum, Holter Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Paul Sharpe Gallery and Rockland Center for the Arts. Grants include the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Program. Work in public, private and corporate collections. John is represented by the Gerald Bland Gallery in New York City. Website: www.johnrosis.webs.com
Jim Shaughnessy is a self-taught potter making ceramic vessels and sculpture for more than a decade. He has studied with local, as well as nationally known clay artists. His work can be found in a number of galleries in the surrounding area. In 1999 and in 2001 his work was selected to serve as the Rockland County Executive Awards given to artists and supporters of the arts. In 2002, one of his pieces was used as an award given to Nobel laureate author Toni Morrison. In 2003, his work was featured in silent auctions to benefit the American Cancer Society and the Nuyoricans Poets Café. In 2004, the Human Rights Commission selected to use one of Jim’s sculptures in their annual fundraiser event held at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. Also in 2004, Jim’s work was selected to serve as awards for Rockland County Congresswoman Sue Kelly and Nita Lowey, as well as for New York State Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton.
Margery Theroux BA, New York University. Also studied: Montserrat College of Art, MA; NY Studio School; private study with Sam Feinstein, NYC. Former gallery committee member & curator at Hopper House, NY & Center Gallery at TASOC. Exhibited at various locations in the tri-state area & New England; included in private collections nationwide. Workshop presenter & art teacher for 20 years.
Colleen Vanderhoef, M.A. is an Artist/N.Y.S. Certified Art Teacher. Attended N.Y.U., Art Museum Administration/Art Educator/Artist, study abroad program in Paris and Venice, with an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Education Department. Past employment included Keith Haring’s Pop Shop and the Leo Castelli Gallery both in NYC. She served as past VP of the Hopper House Art Center and currently the ACOR Gallery Committee Member, NYS Art Educator Member, and NYS Teachers' Association Member. Colleen is currently a public school Art Teacher with 25yrs.+ experience. Colleen teaches after-school children’s art classes and family workshops here at the Rockland Center for the Arts, 10+ years. Her personal artwork can be found in local collections, exhibits, and on her webpage: https://colleenvanderhoef.wixsite.com/colleenvanderhoefart. She shares student opportunities on her Teacher education FB Page https://www.facebook.com/mrsv.artteacher/. A highlight for her was chosen as the 2021 Arts Council of Rockland’s creator of the Annual Arts Award with her clay vessels. “I am very proud to be a part of the ROCA team.” Her motto is “Every Child Is An Artist", by Pablo Picasso.
Laura Vogel has worked as a freelance botanical artist and has been teaching for 20 years. She has done illustrations for magazines, products, books and scientific publications, including the Illustrated Companion of Gleason and Cronquist's Manual of Vascular Plants for the New York Botanical Garden Press, which was awarded top bio/science book of 1998 by the Association of American Publishers, and Intermountain Flora. Exhibits: The New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, The New York State Museum at Albany, Northwest Botanical Illustration Exhibit in Washington State, The American Society of Botanical Artists, and The Horticultural Society in NYC.
Logan Wall is currently an artist in residence at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York where she is a ceramics instructor with a strong studio practice. Logan received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Florida where she discovered her interest in clay. From 2013-2014 Logan worked as the UNF Ceramics Studio Lab Assistant, furthering her efficiency in studio practices. Her work was featured in the Exposure Section of the December 2015 issue of Ceramics Monthly. As an artist Logan is interested in functional objects with a strong focus on design. She is intrigued by the unique interaction each user will experience with her work