Artist Instructor Bios

LORI ADAMS owns a commercial photo studio in Hopewell Junction, NY. She sees photography as a blend of art and science that communicates intriguing ideas effectively. She has been sharing her passion about both traditional and digital photography since 2000.

BETH BOLGLA holds an MFA in Ceramics and has extensive graduate studies in Art History. Beth’s work has been collected nationally and internationally by individuals, corporations, and museums.

TIMOTHY BREWER holds an MA in philosophy and studied art with Maestro Frank Mason at the Art Student's League in New York City. He recently finished an exhibition at Garrison Art Center entitled "Masterly Figures and Dreamscapes."

ADA PILAR CRUZ has been teaching art since 1987. She currently works through Mercy College, Pace University, the Museum of Modern Art, and Garrison Art Center. She excels in exposing students to diverse art techniques in the art making process, and enabling interested participants to have fun in the exploration.

DAISY DEPUTHOD, primarily a plein-air painter, has studied with some of the best plein air painters in America: Ken Auster, Gay Faulkenberry, Frank LaLumia, Joan Marron-La-Rue, Ray Roberts and George Strickland. She is a Signature member of the American Impressionism Society and the New York Plein Air Painters and a member of the Oil Painters of America, the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters and the Artists in the Parks. Daisy has participated in several Plein Air Festivals. She was nationally juried in the San Luis Obispo Plein Air Painting Festival in California, and The Plein Air Competition & Arts Festival in Easton, MD. She has participated in Garrison Art Center's AOL auction for more than 20 years.

NINA ELTON holds an MFA in Art History and has completed post-graduate study at SUNY New Paltz. She worked as a graphic designer for many years for established publications. Nina teaches drawing, design, ceramics and more at various art institutions: SUNY New Paltz, Purchase College, Marymount College, College of Mt. St. Vincent and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has also taught grades K-12 in public and private schools.

ELANA GOREN is a printmaker, painter, and graphic designer who works from her studio in Peekskill, NY. Elana employs various media and techniques to create visual "stories." This practice leads her to pieces based on the creative process in its purest form. She holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and is currently working with renowned printmaker, Bruce Waldman. Elana has participated in several group shows and her work is represented in varous private collections. She has also been published by Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Inc. and other publishing companies.

BARBARA SMITH GIOIA holds an MFA in painting. She teaches at Storm King Art Center, Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, arts enrichment for public and private schools and is a teacher for the Summer Arts on the Hudson at Garrison Art Center.

LISA KNAUS, a studio potter from the New Paltz area who exhibits nationally,  is known for her exquisite functional pots and particularly for her amazing surface and glazing techniques.

KIRSTEN KUCER is primarily a 3-D artist who also excels in drawing. She sees materials and processes as a journey through inner language to form. Kirsten holds an MFA from SUNY Stony Brook. She has taught 3-D Design and summer drawing at Parsons School of Design and was a time professor in studio arts at the University of Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

DEBORAH LECCE is a studio potter in Carmel, NY. She has studied clay art for many years, most recently at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY and The Brookfield Craft Center in Brookfield, NY. Deborah co-founded a pottery studio in Brooklyn, NY where she also teaches.

LISA LIGHT, is a master student in the ceramic studio at Garrison Art Center. She is known for her delicate hand built forms and imaginative surface treatment.

DAVID LOEB attended Cornell University, Yale Summer School of Music and Art, Boston University (BFA), and Indiana University (MFA). Awards he has received include a Fulbright Scholarship, Yaddo Residency Fellowship, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. He has taught at The New York Academy of Art and at Parsons School of Design. He is represented by the Beckel-Odille Gallery in Paris.

JAANIKA PEERNA works at the crossroads of digital and traditional media, often dealing with the themes of water, simplicity and silence. She has an MFA in intermedia design from SUNY New Paltz, and she has worked as teaching artist at DIA Beacon, the Visual Thinking Strategies project of the Soros Foundation and taught art for students ages 5-60 internationally. Peerna has had solo exhibitions in New York and in Tallinn, Estonia, her native country.  For more information and images of her work go to:   www.jaanikapeerna.net 

VIRGINIA PIAZZA received a BFA in Ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in 1990. She has been working as a studio potter as well as teaching classes in various venues in NYC, Beacon, and Port Chester since then.  She has exhibited her work nationally and was included in “500 Teapots” and “Best of Pottery”.

KIM WALDHAUER took her first clay class at the Garrison Art Center in 2000. She has studied with Pangea Bohl, Mikhail Zakin, and Susan Beecher. She currently assists Lisa Knaus in the Art Center's Ceramic Studio.