VSA arts
of Nevada
Teaching Artist Bios
Changing
Woman
Mary Lee Fulkerson
Hat Design and
Making
Lilli
Moffit
Raku
Fired Ceramics
Jacy Robinson
Elaine
Colgan
Mary
Lee Fulkerson
Cindy
Gunn
Erik Holland
Cindy Hoonhout
Vicki
LoSasso
Lilli
Moffit
Valerie Parks
Jacy Robinson
Elaine
Colgan
Currently
Teaches: VSAN's visual art workshops at Sierra Place Assisted Living Community
in Carson City.
Elaine Colgan is an eclectic artist probably because of teaching so many
mediums. Her love lies in watercolor, acrylic, fiber art
and collage. She has taught for many years and enjoys exhibiting her work in
many regional galleries.
Mary
Lee Fulkerson
Fall/Spring Classes: Changing
Woman (with Vicki LoSasso), Burden
Basket Workshop
Also Teaches: Soul Collage
The
themes of Mary Lee’s baskets and fiber sculpture reflect the lovely stories
of daily life and speak to that kernel of hope that resides in everyone. A
Reno native, her work is held in private and corporate collections around the
country, including the White House in Washington, D.C., and she has been
featured on public television and several local and national publications.
Each piece she makes is important to her, for she doesn’t want to
fill the world up with more generic “stuff”.
She
has been a professional artist for over 20 years and has been teaching most of
that time, at such venues as VSA Arts, Truckee Meadows Community College,
Nevada Museum of Art, and Sierra Arts “Arts in the Schools”.
She believes that everyone needs to create an art piece that comes from
their heart and soul, for this is how the world is healed.
Cindy
Gunn
Teaches: Adult
Ceramics, Clay Clay Clay
Cindy has been a practicing, exhibiting and commissioned ceramic artist and painter for over 30 years. Her work has been shown in many local and regional exhibitions, including Dada and Nada Motel exhibitions. Cindy is also very involved in community based art. She worked as an artist for Reno's "Art in Public Places" program, and on ceramic mosaics with the "Moving Murals" project in Woodland CA.
Her extensive teaching experience has taken her to to a wide range of settings including gallery workshops and schools. Cindy has a fun and dynamic approach to her classes and her work, with an emphasis on the sculptural and thinking outside the box.
Erik
Holland
Spring Classes: Oil
Painting
Erik
He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, The Art Students League of New York and the San Francisco Academy of Art.
Currently
Erik teaches art at
Cindy
Hoonhout
Fall Class: Glass
Fusion
Cindy has been fascinated by glass since she was a child. She creates stunning, functional and decorative pieces such as sun catchers, wine stoppers, platters, bowls, vases, and candle holders, jewelry and ornaments.
Her approach to teaching is to give students the basics, and then let their creativity take over and guide the making of their own works of art in glass.
Vicki
LoSasso
Fall Classes: Changing
Woman (with Mary Lee Fulkerson)
Also Teaches: Soul Collage
Vicki LoSasso is a Reno
artist who has worked in a variety of media including printmaking,
photography, basketry and mixed media. She is a member of the Printmakers'
Conspiracy art group, and her current work involves exploring a variety of
printmaking techniques and mixed media constructions. Her background includes
work with survivors of domestic violence, where she began to
recognize and ponder the relationship between creativity and healing. She has
been teaching workshops with Mary Lee Fulkerson for the past five years.
Both Vicki and Mary Lee believe deeply in the power of personal creativity to heal spirits and enrich lives. It is important to them that they create a safe and nurturing environment where participants can explore and celebrate their own creative process. They introduce a variety of artistic media and projects designed to help participants discover the inner rewards and joy of expressive creativity.
Lilli
Moffit
Winter Class: Hat Design and
Making
Having always worn hats, Lilli started making her own as the price of commercially available hats went up, and the quality of materials and workmanship went down. She has taken many hat-making classes and is passionate about creating hats with graceful design and fine craftsmanship.
In this class, Lilli aims to inspire a further interest in hat making and encourage a greater appreciation of hat making as an art form. She also wants to show people that hat making is not only fun, but that you don't need lots of expensive equipment to create your own quality hats at home.
Valerie
Parks
Winter/Spring Classes: Watercolor,
Pastels, Drawing
Fundamentals, Intermediate
Drawing
Valerie has been a professional artist since 1978. Her particular passion is working with all types of landscapes, with a particular emphasis on mountains.
Valerie has been teaching drawing, watercolors, pastels and mixed media to adults and children since 1981. All her classes cover fundamental techniques including value studies. Her watercolor and pastel classes will also work on landscapes, while her drawing class will include still-life.
Jacy
Robinson
Fall/Winter/Spring Classes: Adult Ceramics, Clay Clay Clay
Raku Fired Ceramics
A ceramic artist and northern Nevada native, Jacy has
always had an interest in the arts especially of the three-dimensional
variety. In 1993 he discovered the joy of clay and has not veered too far from
its influence since. Having worked extensively both in the sculptural and
functional realms, he describes his current work as a "comfortable
combination of imagination and function".
Jacy has been teaching for
over six years including several classes at VSA, TMCC and NV Museum of Art.
His goal as a teacher is to share all that he has studied with anybody that
has the desire to learn, so that they have the chance to enjoy clay as much as
he has.