A new year, and with it five new Core Fellowship students soon to make their way to Penland to join our little community of creativity and learning. Here they are:

Zee Boudreaux is a textile artist who earned a BFA at California College of the Arts in 2009. He lives and works in San Francisco where he has worked for several years as a dyer, studio assistant, baker, delivery person, and administrative assistant. Zee wants to make a living as a textile artist and hopes to take classes at Penland in textiles, books, and metals with a focus on production, technique, and practical application. He has proven himself talented and resourceful and now wants an educational experience that will propel him towards his professional goals. Zee was a studio assistant at Penland in 2007 and 2011, and (most recently) was a studio assistant during the Instructors Retreat this fall.

 

Liz Koerner is a woodworker and furniture maker with a strong designer’s eye. She grew up in Iowa and earned a BFA from California College of the Arts in 2009. She is currently working as an assistant in a metal fabrication shop in Oakland, CA. She is a resident artist at a cooperative artist’s studio where she works as the facilities manager in exchange for studio space and shop time. Liz wants to continue learning everything she can about wood and furniture design and is interested in incorporating iron, glass, and metals in her designs. Liz was a work/study student in the Penland wood studio this summer.

 

Michael Krupiarz is a glass artist, originally from New York, who lives and works in Spruce Pine and the Penland area. He is currently studio assistant to Cristina Córdova and Pablo Soto and has worked for Thor Bueno, Kenny Pieper, Greg Fidler, and Martin Janecky. He earned a BFA from Alfred University in 2005 and has also worked at Pilchuck Glass School. Mike is seeking the chance to step out of his role facilitating other people’s creative process and put his own work first. He plans to continue his glass education while experimenting in complementary classes. He was also the Penland auction assistant in 2010.

 

Rachel Mauser is the recipient of a 2011 Windgate Fellowship which she has used to expand her education in book arts. She has taken workshops at Haystack, Penland, and Anderson Ranch in wood, books, and letterpress respectively. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Rachel earned a BFA from Murray State University. She seeks to increase her knowledge in books, papermaking, printmaking, letterpress, and metals in order to expand her repertoire in sculptural books. Rachel aspires to be a studio artist and educator in the craft field. She was a work/study student at Penland last summer.

 

Molly Spadone is a potter with specific interests in atmospheric firing. She grew up in Maine and recently graduated from Guilford College with a BFA in ceramics. She is currently apprenticing with her mentor (and Penland instructor) Woody Hughes in Maine. She also works at a Bed & Breakfast and on an organic farm. Molly’s focus will be on functional pottery, and she intends to explore ideas for presentation and display for her pots. Her interests include classes in wood, glass, books, and printmaking. Molly was a work/study student at Penland in 2010.

 

Click here for more information about the Core Fellowship program at Penland School of Crafts.

It’s our pleasure to tell you about the three incoming Penland Resident Artists for spring, 2012:

Micah Evans

A lampworker from Austin, Texas, Micah taught the Fall 2011 flameworking concentration, Creative Engineering, and was the assistant for Carmen Lozar’s Narrative Flameworking class this past summer.  Largely self-taught, he has worked in glass since 1999, and has been a visiting artist and consulting flameworker at the University of Miami and taught workshops at several small glass centers. He’s run his own lampworking business in Florida making functional work and small sculpture inspired by natural forms, and says he’s now ready to leave the production world to develop a more personal body of work. He’s interested in storytelling through objects and in translating his family history through his work.

Click here to visit Micah’s website.

Dustin Farnsworth

Dustin is a mixed media artist currently living in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He has a BFA from Kendall College or Art and Design in woodworking with a minor in printmaking. Currently he’s in a year-long residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, where he has taught woodworking, printmaking and drawing. Dustin was a winter resident in printmaking at Penland last year (we blogged about him then) and assistant for Sylvie Rosenthal’s fall wood class, Experimental-Traditional-Sculptural-Furniture Mashup. Dustin’s work includes kinetic sculpture, furniture, and hand-carved figurative sculpture, reminiscent of marionettes. He received a 2010 Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design Windgate Fellowship. Dustin’s work has been exhibited at SOFA Chicago, and published in 500 Cabinets (Lark Books), I.D. magazine, Sculptural Pursuit magazine, and Woodwork magazine.

Click here to visit Dustin’s website.

Rachel Meginnes

Rachel is a textiles artist specializing in works on cloth and currently living in San Francisco. She has an MFA in fibers from the University of Washington-Seattle and is the co-founder of Dorjé Contemporary, a rug company where she worked as sole designer & business manager for six years. Her textiles work involves drawing individual threads out of the cloth, altering the inherent structure, before working with gesso, ink, and paint on the surface. Rachel has travelled extensively researching and studying weaving and dyeing traditions in other countries, including Nepal, India, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Austria, Denmark. She says she’s now ready to leave the rug business behind to devote time to her personal work.

Click here to visit Rachel’s website.

We’re looking forward to welcoming them into the community, and seeing what sorts of amazing things they’ll do here.