As a painter, drawer, and printmaker, I use color, line and materiality to explore the space between image making and abstraction. My work reflects on psychic space and how affects our physical realities, as well as different structures that organize temporality; mainly architecture and daily routine. In my class you’ll be encouraged to observe and research artworks and design from different time periods, and from around the world. The practice of looking will inform studio projects where you build technical and conceptual skills and are encouraged to develop your personal artistic voice. Experimentation and risk taking are promoted within a collaborative and student-centered classroom environment.

I am a figurative artist. I have studied with some of the most important figurative artists of the 20th century, both at Chelsea School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. My work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and I am the recipient of several awards, artist in residencies, and fellowships, including the Cheltenham Fellowship and Artist in Residence at Stroud Museum.

As an artist, I work with satirical themes within a historical precedent, filtered through contemporary actors and staged in theater-like settings that suggest Southern California locations. A narrative that presents itself for re-interpretation is my creative driving force. My compositions are lyrical and robust with complex characters in elaborate costumes interacting in an unconventional environment. My training and intense analysis allows me to direct the stage with a deft touch and keen insight.

As an educator of artists and designers, my ultimate goal is to be able to equip my students with the tools and the freedom to be able to design, build, move, emotionalize and characterize anything they see or imagine. Therefore I find it necessary to teach students the fundamental skills of how to build the human figure from observation as it translates to the language of drawing. This process involves the deconstruction of the human figure into its individual parts and then the synthesis of those parts based on various design principles. The human figure is the most complicated machine ever designed. If you learn to draw the human figure you can build anything.

I work as part of a duo, Beck+Col. Our practice encompasses a wide variety of media and techniques, including costume, performance, video, music/voice and installation. Through costume-based performance and video, we build alternate universes that are populated by monsters, spawning a counter mythology and queering of existing norms. The playfulness of our monsters and lightness of the materials contrasts the brutality and gore of the performances. Our work questions individualism, both in practice and in content. Inherently collaborative, our practice also features other artists and performers, working together to create large works. We highlight the effects of atomization, and in contrast, the power of community. We draw inspiration from professional wrestling, opera and horror films. In my class, students can expect a fun, collaborative environment that challenges them both technically and creatively.