Shaun Tinney

Can you talk a little about your business and personal background?

I’ve spent the last 5 years designing and developing websites professionally in Portland. I spent 2 years with Opus Creative as a Flash Developer, then joined Substance as the Director of Experimental Projects where I have been ever since.

What led you to into web development?

After studying Multimedia Design at the University of Oregon, I taught myself to program so that I could turn my designs into something functional. I found that I enjoyed writing code just as much as design and layout, and from there it was a short leap to programming professionally.

How do you integrate technology and the communication side of your business?

Every website we build is a form of communication, typically from a business to their clients.

What do you like most about teaching in CE?

It’s a challenge to take something I spend every day doing, and distilling it into something that can be taught to others. The experience of presenting a concept, and having each student reach a point where they understand and can apply the knowledge is a rewarding experience.

How do you use your professional experiences in the classroom?

Being self taught as a programmer has given me plenty of time to take notes on what I wish I’d been told from the beginning. As an instructor, it’s important that every concept I teach is immediately applicable for the students in their own work.

What is your teaching philosophy?

To make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Rick Potestio

“PNCA has really great teachers whose work I’ve been looking at in galleries for years, and now I get to work with them. To me, that’s really valuable.” — Rick Potestio

Rick Potestio’s relationship with the college began when he was a child, taking classes at the Museum Art School on Saturdays. Art college was an impressive place, where he would walk down a hallway lined with Classical marble figures on his way to the studio classrooms. Rick is now an architect, working in the residential, commercial and urban design, from galleries Pulliam Deffenbaugh and PDX to restaurants, houses and schools. In Spring 2008, Rick decided to return to where his interests in art began, and took painting. Since then, he hasn’t stopped taking painting at PNCA, and now is hoping to find a studio to become more serious about his work. Rick says he likes taking classes at PNCA, because he isn’t treated like a community student. “You are treated like an art student. It’s doesn’t feel like entertainment and you actually are learning.”

Jefferson Powers

Jefferson is a Graphic Design Certificate Student with an interest in graphic novels. In image from his work appears on page 20 of this summer’s catalog and on the pnca.edu/graphicnovel page.

“Last summer I took the Graphic Novel Intensive at PNCA. I was unable to enroll in the full nine day course, so I just took the first three day section, Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, with Matt Madden and Jessica Abel teaching. I was really struck with how smart and how diverse the other students were, and by the third day of the class I was deeply regretting not taking the entire Intensive. I took it upon myself to collect contact information from everyone in the class, because I knew I wanted to see if I could encourage the other students to finish the projects we outlined in class, and I hoped they would encourage me to do the same. Nine of us met about a month after the class ended, and we resolved to not only finish our graphic stories but to publish them. Five months later our book, INTENSE: Tales From the 2008 PNCA Graphic Novel Intensive, was on the shelves in several local comic book stores, with graphic work by eight of us from the class and an introduction by Matt and Jessica.”

Faculty Profile: Fritz Liedtke

How long have you been teaching at PNCA?
Six years

What is your specialization?
Photography

What is your arts education?
I have a BFA from PNCA

Where have you exhibited, do you have work in collections, and what exhibits do you have planned?
It’s a long list. You can see my CV on my fine art website .

Has your work been published or have you published articles, reviews, interviews?
Yes, many times. I photograph for magazines, have had my fine art work featured in magazines, and have images in several books. Perhaps my favorite was the 18 page spread of my series Welcome to Wonderland, in LensWork magazine.

Is there a particular life experience you bring to your teaching?
I love what I do. I’ve been photographing since I was in junior high, and the passion has only grown in the intervening years. So when I come to teach, I’m bringing to the classroom my passion for and experience in both fine art and commercial photography. Combine that with a love of teaching, and my students seem to think it’s a pretty good mix. We have a really good time together.

What is your work background?
I’ve been a photographer for 20 years. I’ve owned my own photography business for 8 years. I have also worked in graphic design, and I invest in real estate.

Who are your artists of influence?
Mary Ellen Mark
Bosch and Breugel
Keith Carter
Milton Rogovin
Arnold Newman

What is your teaching philosophy/methodology?
I mix technical instruction with a lot of hands-on in-class experience. I love questions. We joke around a lot. I give a lot of open-ended assignments that allow the students to experiment with and ingrain the lessons, using their own equipment and style. We create cool images together.

What are your goals as an instructor?
I want my students to leave my class with more excitement, insight, and options than they came in with. Especially in Continuing Education, students take my class because they are already interested in and pursuing the subject matter. I want to answer the burning questions they bring to the class. I want to give them a solid technical foundation so they know how to achieve the images they imagine. And I also want to help them see that there is far more they could do with the medium—technically and aesthetically—than they ever imagined.

What are your goals as an artist?
To tell powerful stories through personal images.

Fritz’s work can be seen online:

Fine Art

Portrait, Wedding

Editorial, Travel, Documentary

Blog

Jeffrey Baker

Jeffrey Baker had been looking for a creative experience to compliment his work. A BFA graduate of Oregon College of Arts and Craft, and a teacher of sixth through eighth-grade students at Swallowtail School in Hillsboro, Jeffrey felt the Certificate Program in Graphic Design might “harken back to those fun days,” in high school, when he was developing his love of design and enjoyed laying out the school newspaper. He describes himself as the type of person who likes to put things together carefully, from his studies at OCAC, and enjoys employing his careful nature into design.
“Exploring graphic design offers me another creative outlet, as well as a way to better understand the cultural landscape,” he said. I’ve been able to very practically apply what I’ve learned at PNCA for a variety of personal promotional projects related to my studio art practice as well as take on jobs over the summer for a few different clients.”
Jeffrey said that he enjoys the high expectations from instructors. “They allow for creative leniency, but are demanding,” he said. This is helpful, because there is nothing easy about getting a job in the arts.”

Faculty Profile: Anna Fidler

When and how did you get started in painting?

I attended Interlochen Arts Academy in High School and majored in Visual Arts and Creative Writing. I then studied French and Art History in Paris at the Alliance Francaise. I had great opportunities to look at art in major museums. In Paris I set up a small painting studio in my residence. Since then I have continued to paint regularly.

With the many forms of technology and mediums that has been introduced over the last century, why do you choose painting?

I have also worked with film, music, and installation. I always return to painting though. I like the physicality of paint.

What do you find most exciting about the art world today, and in the world of painting?

I am interested in contemporary figurative painting. I am excited about new ways of portraying the figure, borrowing from the past, and exploring new interpretations.

What makes Portland attractive to you the artist?

The cost of living. Having moved back to Portland from Los Angeles I value the vast amount of studio space one can have at relatively low cost. There are a lot of new galleries/exhibition spaces opening up here that provide great opportunities for emerging artists.

What do you like about teaching art?

I enjoy spontaneity. I feel that in the creative arts there is an element of chance in the classroom; mistakes can become important achievements and experimentation is applauded. I like this acknowledgment and affirmation of the unexpected.

What is your teaching philosophy?

I encourage my students to see and think critically in our visually saturated culture. I cultivate a sense of community in a dynamic class atmosphere and see the classroom as a kind of art laboratory for continual experiments.

What advice would you give to an adult student who is just starting in painting and drawing?

I would encourage them to consider their entire life experience as a build up to this moment. That everything they have done in life externally of art will inform their practice and to use this vital and exciting knowledge as a tool.

Elizabeth Schwartz

When Elizabeth Schwartz moved to Portland from Idaho two years ago, she hadn’t practiced any fine arts in the past. She decided to take a Continuing Education studio class at PNCA. Beginning Painting was the only class with a vacancy that suited her level. Since then, Elizabeth hasn’t stopped painting and hasn’t stopped taking classes. She has been enjoying the unstructured nature of the Painting Atelier class on Saturdays with Stephen Mauldin. In Fall 2008, she was allowed to join the painting thesis class at PSU, and is looking forward to showing at Urban Grind this winter.