CONNIE ATHENS
holds a BA in fine art with an emphasis in painting from George Washington University, Washington, DC, where her program was affiliated with the Corcoran School of Art. She later attended the Art Students League of New York. Connie has taught classes privately to both children and adults, emphasizing freedom of expression based on theories of balance and structure. She’s participated in solo as well as group and juried exhibitions, and her painting has been featured on the award-winning label of Meadow Glen Wine, Sonoma County, California. Connie’s artwork is collected both locally and nationally. She has taught at the Art Academy of San Diego since 1999.

STUART BURTON  www.stuartburtonart.com
received his BA in painting and printmaking from San Diego State University in 1977. Since that time, he has had over 25 one-person shows and participated in over 40 group and juried exhibitions. From 1980 to 1992, Stuart owned Rogue Graphics and Stiff Springer Gallery in North Park. He is a founder and the Director of Fine Art of the Art Academy. Galleries in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida represent him. Memberships include the CA Art Club, Oil Painters of America and the Impressionist Society of America.

REED CARDWELL www.reedcardwell.com
received his BFA from Cal State University, Long Beach with further studies at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Reed also studied drawing and painting with Los Angeles artist Harold Kramer and later studied painting with Nathan Oliveira in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Reed worked as an animation artist for Walt Disney Feature Animation. His work is exhibited locally and nationally and is part of many private collections. Reed has taught at the Athenaeum School of Fine Art and at UCSD Extension.

MARY CARIN
earned her MFA at SDSU in 1994 in sculpture. Her interest is in the human body and its language, especially when the gestures of that language imply protection of ones past or disclosure. Mary uses a multitude of materials in each sculpture and is as adept at using paper as she is at using clay, formed metals, wood, stone and a variety of cast materials. She often mixes the classic realistic figure with an abstracted form and believes that a strong classical training in figure study is important when using the figure in an abstracted way. Her familiarity with the human body and use in an abstracted form links her with ancient imagery and language to contemporary psychological situations. Mary has been teaching the craft of sculpture and mold making of the human figure since 1989.

STEPHEN CURRY
earned a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1990. He was given his first show at Doug Simay's Java Cafe/ Gallery in 1992. Stephen has been represented by the Thomas Babeor Gallery and is now represented by Quint Contemporary Art in La Jolla and Koplin del Rio in Los Angeles. He has been included in three shows at the California Center for the Arts Gallery, Escondido. Stephen has also shown at the Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco, Saddleback College, Claremont College, Grossmont College and The Cannon Arts Gallery in Carlsbad. His work is included in many private collections and also in the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and the California Center for the Arts Collections. Stephen also teaches at Palomar Community College, San Marcos. 

LAUREN BECKER DOWNEY
holds a BFA in Weaving and Textile Design from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, 1977. She also studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Utah. For many years, she exhibited woven tapestries and painted fabrics of abstract, nonrepresentational imagery. Lauren now uses Mosaics and Painted Furniture as the medium for her expression. As the Art Academy of San Diego’s Director of Workshops and the former owner of Bravo Gallery and Bravo Workshop, she has also been involved in the arts in San Diego since 1990. Lauren has been teaching art and fine crafts to adults throughout San Diego County since 1992. 

RAUL ESPINOZA
studied art primarily in San Diego colleges and universities. His work as a painter has been juried into many exhibitions. Raul’s teaching experience in the local community colleges, in Europe, as well as at the Art Academy includes airbrush, painting and drawing. He has been filling commissions for murals for businesses, private homes, schools, and for public art projects. In the 80’s, Raul was one of the original muralists on the Chicano Park Murals. 

JACQUELINE GORE
earned her BA from San Diego State University’s School of Art and Design, studying under the tutelage of world-renowned professor and author, Arline Fisch. She has also studied at Haystack Mountain School of Arts and USCD Craft Center. A native of California, Jacqueline finds ample inspiration in nature here. One can readily see the waves of the sea in her fluid shapes. In addition to creating jewelry, she also teaches art to children.

DEANNA LEA JACOBSEN
is a silversmith who has been designing and making jewelry since 1990. She attended Grossmont College to study jewelry design and fabrication. Born and raised in San Diego, and after several trips to Mexico, she became interested and influenced by vintage Mexican jewelry design and technique. This influence can be seen in her current work. Her one-of-a-kind and limited edition jewelry pieces can be found in galleries, shops and at art shows throughout Southern California. Deanna began as a stained glass artist in 1973 and made stained glass windows for 15 years. She studied glass blowing at Palomar College and eventually opened a hot glass studio in La Mesa where she produced blown pieces and flat glass, held seminars and taught classes in stained glass and glass blowing. Deanna lived in Amsterdam from 1984-1988 and worked with a well-known Dutch glass artist making windows and lampshades. All of her skills and experiences led to her passion of designing and making jewelry and the joys of teaching.

LORETTA KRAMER
received her MFA in Printmaking in 1994 from CA State University, Long Beach. She won a Printmaking Fellowship at the Kala Print Institute, Berkeley, in 1996. While earning her BA at UC, Davis, during the 1980s, Loretta studied printmaking with Roland Peterson and painting with Wayne Thiebaud. She taught printmaking at Palomar College for five years. Her recent work has focused on Monoprints. She has exhibited her work internationally and is included in many collections. She is currently a member of North County Printmakers of San Diego, Los Angeles Printmakers Society, San Diego Artists Guild and the San Diego Art Institute.

LISA MAYWOOD  www.verredesigns.com
is a highly trained, classical stained glass artist. She is a diplomat of the Ecole de Vitrail et de Creation, Monthey, Switzerland. There, after a 3 year intensive program, she mastered all aspects of drawing, painting, design, and all aspects of the stained glass process. Her work has been in several European exhibitions including the Swiss Museum of Stained Glass. Lisa’s professional stained glass studio is called Verre Designs where her specialty is in-home designs.

JAMES Q. MILLARD
Fresh and Fluid Watercolor
His approach and execution in painting evolved over 45 years as an art director, graphic designer, painter and teacher. A student at the famed Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles and at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, he also studied with nationally recognized teachers including Rex Brandt, Robert E. Wood, Frank Webb, Steve Quiller, and Don Andrews. Jim regularly exhibits and conducts workshops at the San Diego Watercolor Society. He is well steeped in the principles of design, value, composition, shapes, color, and what he calls a unified pattern, identifying what a painting should be about, the statement or reason for the work, and how to accomplish it. His approach to students is one of enthusiasm and guidance, stressing principles, application, planning, and the best qualities of watercolor. A dedicated teacher and lifelong student himself, Jim feels that the gift we have been given to express ourselves should be honored, but it needs to be nurtured with an understanding of the underlying principles of good art in order to paint with authority.

SHARON K NOVAK
has been an artist and metal smith for over thirty years. She earned an MFA from SDSU, a BFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and an Associate of Arts from San Diego Mesa College. Inspired by nature’s palette of colors and texture, Sharon thinks like a painter when working with metal. Her mixed-media assemblages juxtapose archetypal symbols in metal with paint, collage, and found elements. Sharon’s artwork includes sculpture, masks, metal collage, drawings, jewelry and ornaments. She’s been teaching art throughout San Diego since 1989 and has exhibited in the US, Europe and Japan.

NEIL SHIGLEY   www.neilshigley.com
is a painter and designer who lives in San Diego. In addition to teaching at the Art Academy of San Diego Neil has been teaching drawing and illustration at San Diego State University since 1999. He taught at the Academy of Art in San Francisco prior to that. His art education began at San Diego State where he studied painting and printmaking. He then went on to earn his degree in illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Neil provides illustration and design to many Fortune 500 companies. Neil lived and worked in New York City and San Francisco before returning to San Diego in 1990. Along with his design and illustration, he also exhibits his paintings and woodcuts in San Diego, Santa Barbara and throughout Europe. 

JOHN THURSTON
began his training in Photography at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in 1969. As a teenager, he taught children's art classes with artist Joe Nyiri at the San Diego Zoo. John studied Fine Arts and Earth Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, and returned to San Diego to get a practical degree in Information Systems from San Diego City College in 1985. For many years he worked as a Technical Editor for Hughes Aircraft Company in the Graphics and Marketing Departments. Finding that Rocket Science wasn't his real calling in life, he recently rediscovered his love of Photography. John has exhibited his award winning photographs at the Del Mar International Photography Exhibitions, the Mia Italia Exhibition at the Italian Community Center in Little Italy, and City College's Student Photography Exhibition. John works in traditional Large Format and in Digital Photography.

ROBERT TREAT  www.roberttreat.com
is a California artist whose work is exhibited and collected nationally. He began working abstractly with primitive materials early in his career. Robert’s formal training is in Architecture and in Fine Arts from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After graduation, his interests expanded to include large format photography and film animation. Over the years, he has had the opportunity to study and teach with a variety of creative individuals including Robert Wolfe Jr., Ansel Adams and Chuck Jones. Along with his painting career, he has been involved in the Hollywood animation industry for over twenty years.