Community Education Program Instructors

Matt Alexander
B.F.A., Universtiy of Tennessee
M.F.A., Cranbrook Academy of Art
Matt grew up on a dairy farm in rural Middle Tennessee in a family of folk artists. From an early age he was instilled with a sense of imagination and taught the technical abilities required to solidify his ideas. His interest in the creation of objects, and the design of the space that they occupy, inspired him to pursue a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Tennessee, where he studied both architecture and sculpture. In 2005, Matt received an Honorable Mention in the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture category, an honor assigned by the International Sculpture Center.

Gloria Ballard
B.A., The University of Tennessee
Gloria Ballard is a native of Nashville, where she enjoyed a 32-year career in journalism as a feature writer and editor at The Tennessean before leaving the newspaper business to become a freelance writer. During her career, she covered fashion, home design, gardening, travel and other features, and was travel editor at The Tennessean from 1998 until 2006. Currently, Gloria writes a weekly garden column for The Tennessean, garden and travel features, stories and essays, maintains a blog, and leads creative writing workshops. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee. Gloria also writes fiction, and was a 2004 participant at Sewanee Writers Conference. She is currently working on a variety of projects, is a member and past board member of the Tennessee Writers Alliance, and serves on the Wilson County Black History Committee in Lebanon, Tenn.

Tiffany Poulose
B.F.A., Wake Forest University
Poulose is an actress, an artist, and former preschool teacher who started making cards in her spare time. She stamped and she stitched. She painted and she printed. She drew and she designed. And she gave. She gave these handmade cards for holidays, birthdays, and baby showers until interest in her unique creations grew into her own business, Lucy Belle’s Cards and Prints.

Richard Cook
Born in Nashville, TN to a creative family, Richard was surrounded by a diversified collection of art which lead to his eclectic style and vivid imagination. Richard has worked as an illustrator, designer, art director and creative director. He has worked in several mediums over the years as a commercial artist and a fine artist. Through commercial work he has enjoyed changing with graphic design production, from paste-up to Macintosh based applications. His commercial works have exposed him to most forms of printing processes. He has designed environmental graphics, POPs, compact disk packaging, DVD packaging, journals, books, greeting cards, marketing materials and corporate identities. Richard talents have been noticed by the creative community with National Awards such as Print, ADDYs and The Printers Association of America.

Patrick DeGuira
B.F.A., Memphis College of Art
Patrick DeGuira currently resides in Nashville, TN. He received his BFA from Memphis College of Art in 1994. He was included in the last Perspectives exhibition at the Brooks Museum. DeGuira utilizes a variety of media including video, photography, sculpture and works on paper. He has had solo exhibitions at Fredric Snitzer Gallery (Miami), Zeitgeist Gallery (Nashville), Second Floor Contemporary (Memphis), and Cheekwood Museum of Art (Nashville). His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions at Hunter Museum of Art (Chattanooga), Brooks Museum (Memphis), The Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville), Mason Murer Fine Art (Atlanta), Steel Pond Gallery (Portland) and Honey Space (NYC). His work has also been featured in articles from Art Papers, Art Daily, Nashville Scene, and Number Magazine.

Amanda Dillingham
B.F.A., Watkins College of Art, Design, & Film
M.F.A., Vermont College of Fine Art
Amanda was recently named the Middle Tennessee Art Educator of Year by the Tennessee Art Education Association. She continues to work in art education, while also pursuing her career as an artist. Amanda’s work, which incorporates a a wide range of media, reflects a focus on contemporary art and art theory.

Spenser Fritz
B.F.A., Watkins College of Art, Design & Film
Shortly after graduating from Watkins, Fritz started his own production company: Boun Pane Pictures. He has written, directed and edited many award winning short films, most recently “Rock Hunter in 3D.” While Fritz’s main focus is narrative film making, he has also directed, shot and edited a variety of music videos, documentaries, and promotional videos. Throughout his career he has been involved with nearly every aspect of film making. In 2010 he was the sound recordist for the award winning film “Nickel Children” and most recently was the script supervisor for the upcoming TV feature “Lukewarm”.

Bob Giordano
Screenwriter/Director
Bob Giordano has had an active role in the Tennessee Screenwriters Association (TSA), serving as the President in 1998 and co-creating the Script Development Program which assists writers in developing their screenplays from concept to completion.  In 1997 Mr. Giordano received an honorable mention at the Nashville Independent Film Festival for writing, directing and producing his short film Blind Spot.  In 2002, he won the Hollywood Symposium Contest for his feature-length script Grendel and in 2001 was the winner of the Writer’s Network Screenplay competition for the feature-length script Resistance. 

Katie Gonzalez
B.F.A., University of Georgia
Katie Gonzalez first studied the art of bookmaking in Cortona, Italy during the summer of 2006. Visiting a medieval bindery, working with luxurious materials, and learning to make paper by hand instilled a sense of traditional techniques into her work. She combines that background with her contemporary graphic design degree. Katie runs her own bindery, linenlaid&felt, creating one-of-a-kind journals, photo albums, guest books, and artist’s books. She lives and works in East Nashville with her husband and her brindle bullmastiff.

Barbara Gronefeld
M.A., Belmont University
Barabra is an independent artist working in mixed media and ceramics for the past 24 years. Her work was selected by Wynonna Judd in 2005 for the Nashville GuitarTown Sculpture Project. She is a member of the Tennessee Art League and was awarded, at the 2004 Members Exhibit, Best Mixed Media Award. Barbara was awarded a commission in Cat Fish Out of Water Sculptural Project, Nashville, TN, 2004. Her work was juried and published in the Central South Art Exhibit, Belmont University, 2003.
Barbara was nominated for the National Disney Teacher Award for 2006 and received the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts Outstanding Teacher Award in 2005. Barbara has taught the Visual Arts Program at St. Cecilia Academy for 11 years.

David Hellams
B.A. in Art, University of the South
Hellams is a visual artist working in drawing and painting, and a native of the Nashville area.  Since 2009, he has worked as an admissions recruiter at Watkins, reviewing countless portfolios and teaching classes in Portfolio Development in Watkins’ Pre-College Summer Program. 

Annie Herlocker
M.F.A., University of Alabama
Herlocker works as a full-time librarian and teaches Book Arts as an adjunct instructor at Watkins College. In her spare time, Annie owns and operates Paper Revival Press and publishes her own artists’ books. She has work in several University special collection libraries across the U.S. and Canada.

Richard Heinsohn
B.F.A., University of Georgia
Heinsohn has shown repeatedly in group shows at Allan Stone Gallery, most notable of which was the Summer Group Show of 1995 where he was included along with Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and other historically important painters. Recently he recieved the ” Critic’s Pick ” From The Nashville Scene, as well as a feature in the Tennessean, for his solo exhibit at Estel Gallery in Nashville. In 2010 his work was shown at Preston Contemporary Art Center in New Mexico and at The Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and featured in Nashville Arts Magazine. Heinsohn was also selected to teach a workshop in conjunction with the ” Modern Masters ” abstract painting exhibition from the Smithsonian American Art Museum at Cheekwood Art and Gardens in Nashville.

Heather Hilley
B.F.A., Georgia State University
M.A., Georgia State University
Heather Hilley is a local photographer specializing in weddings, music photography and portraits; she often combines traditional and photojournalistic approaches to her work. In addition to photography, Hilley works as a high school art educator.

Jennifer Knowles-McQuistion
B.F.A., Watkins College of Art, Design, & Film
Knowles-McQuistion is a book artist and photographer from Middle Tennessee. She discovered bookbinding in 2000 and has studied with and assisted book artists from all over the United States. Jennifer’s work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in both private and public collections. She teaches Book Arts workshops and lectures throughout the Southeastern U.S. and belongs to the Tennessee Book Arts Guild, the Nashville Book Arts Group, the College Book Arts Association, and the Artist Book Collective. Her work can be found at www.jenniferknowlesmcquistion.com or search for Brown Dog Bindery on Facebook.

Jennifer Leach
B.A., University of Washington
B.F.A., University of Washington
Leach moved to Tennessee from Seattle Washington after graduating from University of Washington with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and a B.F.A. in Printmaking.  After completing her graduate studies in printmaking at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville she moved to Nashville. Her love of the diverse landscape of Tennessee kept her in the area. Currently she teaches printmaking at Tennessee State University and belongs to the Tennessee Naturalist Program. She currently shows her work around middle Tennessee and recently joined The Wild Iris Art Collective.

Megan Lightell
B.F.A., School of Visual Arts NYC
Born in 1979 and raised in rural Coshocton County, Ohio, no matter where Lightell lives, she feels she’ll probably always be painting from the memory of those gently rolling hills of fields. After spending a few years in New York getting a B.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts, she was ready for a return to the natural environment, and her work took an unexpected turn to landscape. This subject has felt like home to Lightell ever since.

Rob McClurg
B.F.A., East Texas State University
M.F.A., Texas A&M University
Rob McClurg received his M.F.A in Ceramics from Texas A&M University. He began teaching in 1986 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago spending many years teaching various ceramics, firing and kiln building techniques. Mr. McClurg later began teaching at Oxbow School of Painting in Michigan, where he also the coordinated the ceramics program.  He is currently an adjunct instructor at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film teaching both ceramics and 3D design. In addition to teaching Mr. McClurg shows his fine ceramics at galleries such as Sarratt and Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center.

Sarah Meador
B.F.A., Cleveland Institute of Art
M.A., Case Western Reserve
Sarah Meador recently relocated to Nashville, after working as an Art Educator for six years in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Master of Arts in Education in 2004 from Case Western Reserve. Meador’s work consists of sculpture, installation, photography, and process art. She is currently working on several projects exploring feminism, fashion and social constructs.

Robert Myers
B.F.A., University of Evansville
M.F.A., Trevecca Nazarene University
After teaching film and theater for three years in Metro schools, Robert began freelancing in the film industry.  In addition to editing, shooting, and directing several music videos Myers has worked on documentaries and feature films as both filmmaker and actor.

Kimberly Santiago
B.F.A., Austin Peay State University
Kimberly Santiago is a mixed media artist that began her career as a graphic designer. She has been recognized for her work by HOW design magazine and Conquer Paper. Kimberly has also published a book, “Collage Playground”, which contains step by step instructions on twenty five mixed media projects.

Shonna Sexton
Sexton is passionate when it comes to creating spaces to fulfill clients’ needs and improving day-to-day quality of life through art and design. Making decisions that are respectful of the past, that stand the test of time, and that require a limited amount of maintenance are her focus. Shonna is a member of the International Interior Design Association and has served on the IIDA Tennessee Chapter Board for the past several years and is the recipient of the Tennessee Chapter Service Award,  chosen by a group of her colleagues.

Doug Stevenson
B.F.A., Graceland University, Iowa
B.A., Ottawa University, Arizona
Doug Stevenson was raised in Western Colorado and received his BFA from Graceland University in Iowa. His junior year was spent studying in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He attended the Insitutio de Allende, and traveled all over the country.  Doug has lived in several cities before settling in Nashville. He has shown his work in galleries and shows in Scottsdale, AZ, Prescott, AZ, Durango, CO, and Nashville, TN. Doug feels that his influences come from all the time he has spent in the west and Mexico.

Kristy West
A.F.A., Watkins College of Art, Design, & Film
West has worked alongside photographers such as Beth Boldt, Allen Clark, Kristina Krug, Kris D’Amico, Caroline Allison and Andrea Hallgren. She has worked on site for Spin Magazine, Travel and Leisure and Culture and Leisure Magazine, and has been published in Professional Photographer’s Magazine. Among the artists she has worked with are Nickel Creek, Lari White and Jeremy Camp. Kristy currently works as the Photography Lab Manager for Watkins College of Art, Design and Film and is a member of several local bands, including Guilty Pleasures, Knowing Me Knowing You: A Tribute to Abba and her own solo project.