wendy de gros susan hawkins andrew lewis catlin lewis connie morey val nelson inga römer valerie salez kate scoones tusa shea heather spears marie ulber jeroen witvliet
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GUEST FACULTY

All of our guest faculty have undergraduate degrees in art (BFA), exhibition record and teaching experience.

Wendy De Gros
Wendy De Gros is an artist whose practice focuses on abstract painting informed by architectural structures and imagined spaces. She has an Honours BFA from the University of Victoria and has studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Alberta College of Art and Design. In addition to being a practicing artist, Wendy has apprenticed in Traditional Chinese Medicine. She has exhibited work in textiles, sculpture and painting in Alberta and British Columbia.
BFA University of Victoria
degros@vancouverislandschoolart.com

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Susan Hawkins
Susan Hawkins is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History in Art at the University of Victoria, where she also completed a B.A. and an M.A. in History in Art and Visual Arts. Susan is an instructor of the History of Photography at UVic, a practicing photographer, an ecocritical theorist and researcher, Landscape Horticulturalist and Master gardener and is keenly interested in the role of artistic engagement with our environment and issues of sustainability. Susan worked as a professional landscape gardener, garden designer and garden historian in a variety of noted gardens in the Victoria region.
PhD Candidate University of Victoria
MA University of Victoria
BA University of Victoria

hawkinss@uvic.ca

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Andrew Lewis
Andrew Lewis, an internationally recognized Canadian art director and graphic designer, is widely acclaimed for his award-winning corporate brand identities, ground-breaking consumer packaging and bold poster art. A much sought after lecturer/speaker at design conferences and universities in Canada, the USA, Latin America, as well as Europe and Asia, his work is included in myriad international collections, design conferences, poster biennials and design text books. His clients span the globe and include such household names at Perrier, Starbucks, Zyliss and VISA. Lewis was recently heralded by Rockport Publishing as one of "The 30 New Poster Masters."
Diploma, Ontario College of Art and Design
lewisa@vancouverislandschoolart.com
http://www.alewisdesign.com/

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Catlin Lewis
Catlin Lewis is a writer and curator who grew up in Victoria. She has written articles for Open Space Arts Center, The History in Art Department at the University of Victoria, The Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, and for MediaNet, where she works as Programming Director. Catlin has curated screenings and media arts exhibitions for Open Space, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Community Arts Council and MediaNet. She was Secretary and Pacific Regional Director for The Independent Media Arts Alliance, a National media arts organization. Catlin is editor of a new publication on film and video artists and centres in BC called Crossing Channels: Essays on Contemporary Media Arts in British Columbia. She has taught classes in the University of Victoria's History in Art Department Continuing Studies Division.
MA University of Victoria
BA University of Victoria

lewisc@vancouverislandschoolart.com

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Connie Morey
Connie Morey’s studio practice explores the permeable genres of installation, sculpture, contemporary craft, drawing, painting, artist's books and critical-creative writing. She received her BFA (Visual Arts) from the University of Lethbridge in 1995, a M.Ed. (Art Education) in 2007 and is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Victoria, where she also teaches studio courses. Connie’s practice focuses on issues related to ecology, gender and human-animal relations. This has led her to collaborate with artists and writers from different corners of the globe through artist projects, presentations and exhibitions.
PhD Candidate University of Victoria
MEd University of Victoria
BFA University of Lethbridge

http://www.conniemorey.com/
cmmorey@uvic.ca

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Val Nelson
A former dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Val graduated with honors and received the Helen Pitt Award from Emily Carr College of Art + Design. After over a decade making dance-videos, she studied painting with Florence-trained Lee Makalak and Paul Chizik. Singled out by art critic Christopher Brayshaw at Artropolis 2003, she was a semi-finalist the same year in the Royal Bank Canadian Painting Competition. Val has received Canada Council, BC Arts Council and Vancouver Foundation grants, and she is included in Carte Blanche Vol. 2: Painting, a book on the current state of painting in Canada. In 2011 her work was purchased by the Canada Council Art Bank, and she was a scholarship resident at the Vermont Studio Center.
BFA Emily Carr University of Art + Design
val@valnelson.ca
http://www.valnelson.ca/

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Inga Römer
Inga Römer is a painter from Berlin, Germany who has exhibited her paintings throughout Canada and Europe. Nature has been a predominant factor and source for Inga's artistic work. As part of her practice, she is also involved with Interdisciplinary collaborations such as working with marine researchers, and alternative architecture collectives. She is currently finishing a Master of Science degree in Climate Change Management and will be pursuing a PhD in in Dundee Scotland with the research focus: “The role of nature in contemporary and traditional art making and the influence of the Romantic and the Sublime in Social and Philosophical Ideologies.” This focus of study will offer her an opportunity to combine the arts and the environmental studies. Between 2006 and 2009, Inga Römer has taught courses as a permanent lecturer at VISA, as well as the Continuing Education and Visuals Arts Department of the University of Victoria, where she graduated with an M.F.A. in 2006.
MFA University of Victoria
ingaromer@gmail.com http://www.ingaroemer.com/

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Jenn Robins
Jenn specializes in both traditional and innovative forms of printmaking. She has developed a proprietary process where she prints on various thicknesses of metal. Jenn has received many awards in Canada for her printmaking and her art is found in collections in Canada, the US, Holland, Japan, Argentina and England. Jenn has recently been accepted into the juried 8th British International Miniature Print Exhibition.
BFA University of Victoria at Okanagan University College
robins@vancouverislandschoolart.com
http://www.jennrobins.com/
FOCUS magazine article.

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Valerie Salez
Valerie Salez is an inter-disciplinary artist who has been making and exhibiting her works on a national scale for the past 10 years. She has been invited to numerous symposiums and residencies across Canada to present talks and create special projects. Galleries and events at which she has exhibited and participated include the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, the Canada Winter Games National Artist Program, Edmonton Art Gallery, Yukon Arts Center Gallery, Confederation Art Gallery, Dare Dare Montreal, Blackwood Gallery University of Toronto, Carleton University Art Gallery, and Dalhousie University Art Gallery. She has taught in the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design's Continuing Studies, the Dawson City School of Visual Art, and in a multitude of public schools and art centers across Canada.
BFA Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
http://www.wooloo.org
vsalez@hotmail.com

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Kate Scoones
Kate Scoones is a fifth-generation Gulf Islander. She graduated with honours in painting from the University of Victoria and was accepted to the Art Studio Program at the Banff Centre where she studied for two years. After a year in London, Kate returned to the Banff Centre as coordinator for Arts Journalism, Writing, and the Leighton Studios, where she also taught life drawing for Continuing Education. In the late 90s, after a brief stint as a sheep farmer, she returned to Victoria. Her painting practice includes oil, gouache and egg tempera. Kate also illustrated three ESL books for Oxford University Press as well as two children’s books. Kate actively participates in group and solo exhibitions. Her work is in public and private collections in Canada, the US and Denmark.
BFA University of Victoria
http://www.katescoones.com
kate.scoones@shaw.ca

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Tusa Shea
Tusa Shea is a Victoria-based art historian, writer, and editor who focuses on how art communicates with its audience, particularly through embodied engagement. She has taught a wide range of Fine Arts courses at the University of Victoria where she completed her dissertation on the work of California dancer Anna Halprin in 2012. Tusa is currently writing an essay on American writer Paul Goodman for the forthcoming anthology Radical Gotham: The Anarchist Tradition in New York City, to be published by the University of Illinois Press.
Ph.D. University of Victoria
M.A. University of Victoria
B.A. University of Victoria

tusas@uvic.ca

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Heather Spears
Heather Spears is a Canadian writer and artist living in Denmark, who visits Canada yearly to teach drawing, lecture and read from her published work. She has won many awards for her poetry including The Governor'-General's, held 79 solo exhibitions of drawings, and published eleven collections of poetry, four novels and three books of drawings. The Creative Eye (Illustrated Edition 2012), is the first of a series on visual perception.
http://www.heatherspears.com
spears.heather@gmail.com

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Marie Ulber
Marie Ulber graduated in architecture at the Bauhaus-University Weimar and worked in the Swiss studio Degelo Architekten. In her work she uses various artistic and architectural methods to capture the character of places. As Assistant Professor at the Chair for Design and Theory of Building Types she was in charge of student studio training and in the summer she taught international students 'Understanding Spaces' at the Bauhaus-University Weimar. Marie is working on a Ph.D. on the topic landscape aesthetics at the Faculty of Art and Design.
PhD Candidate, University of Victoria
BA in Architecture, Bauhaus-University Weima

marie.ulber@uni-weimar.de

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Jeroen Witvliet
Jeroen Witvliet attended the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, Holland and the Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver BC. He is an artist who works in a variety of media, such as photography, painting, drawing and video. He has been working independently as an artist for the last 13 years and has taught different art related courses in these years as well.
MFA Candidate, University of Victoria
BFA Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam
witvliet@vancouverislandschoolart.com
http://www.structure365.com
Artist Talk

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