My approach to advising is to provide resources, make campus seem smaller, and to build community through learning together. I help students understand their degree requirements and schedule planning for their major. I try to view each student holistically and recognize the role intersectionality plays within a student’s individual development. My job is to provide academic advising to students to help them to determine what is the best decision for them in supporting their goals and desired outcomes. I am here to actively listen to you, to help you build your knowledge, and learn how to...
Tamar Beja is a printmaker whose interest in this medium is both technical and conceptual. In particular, she cares about Prints' role in how visual ideas shape society and ideology. She likes the egalitarian nature of print, and its ability to reach a wider audience, while at the same time allowing for a physical, material experience (as opposed to digital, ethereal, disembodied– you won’t find her on Instagram). Her own projects, which often incorporate humor and plants, are motivated by a desire to make things to share with people; she considers Print a community-building activity and...
Erik Nelson is the Management Services Officer (MSO) for Art Practice. He manages all staff and oversees the budget for the department. Erik is also trained as an artist and has created an impressive range of photographs. You may see him on two wheels, as he bikes to work almost every day.
Gazelle Samizay enjoys building community through engaging exhibitions, programs, and classes. As a multimedia artist, her work often reflects the complexities and contradictions of culture, nationality, and gender through the lens of her bicultural identity. Her work in photography, video and mixed media has been exhibited across the US and internationally, including at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; the California Museum of Photography, Riverside; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; and the Slamdance Film Festival, Park City, UT. Her pieces are part...
Teresa Smith manages the Sculpture Studios. Teresa is available to help students taking sculpture classes in the wood and metal shop. Painting students that wish to make stretcher bars must complete a workshop and can only use the shops when sculpture classes are not in session.
The Sculpture Studios are open: Monday–Saturday, 1pm–7pm
Dillon Thomas is a filmmaker, musician, 3D animator, visual effects artist, VR developer; as well as a technician, biohacker, and teacher. Dillon has worked in the visual arts since he was 8 (when he bought his first super8 movie camera), and has been making film works (artistically, and commercially) since. Dillon started his career working in education providing technical support in 1998 at the Academy of Art University, and has been working in education and providing technical support to filmmakers and digital artists ever since. Dillon is currently exploring the new medium that virtual...
Ehren Tool has made and given away more than 22,000 cups since 2001. Tool has shown his work in the US and Europe. Tool’s work is in the collections of the Everson, Scripps and the Renwick as well as an unknown number of private collections. Tool served in the 1991 Gulf War and as a Marine Embassy Guard in Rome and Paris. Tool took advantage of the GI Bill studying at Pasadena City College transferred to the University of Southern California receiving his BFA in 2000. Tool Received his MFA from UC Berkeley in 2005. Tool has been the Senior Laboratory Mechanician for Ceramics since 2005....
