Guest Faculty
Jennifer Billig, Composting, Plant Propogation
Jennifer’s background and career have been in fine art, graduating from Pratt Institute in the early 90’s with a degree in printmaking and continuing with a 30-year career as a tattooist. Her midlife crisis involved parlaying years of random horticulture courses and orchard internships into an MS in Horticulture from the University of Arkansas. Jennifer taught plant propagation at the U of A before relocating to the high desert of New Mexico and starting a small farm focused on diversified fruit production, where she also runs fruit tree grafting and pruning workshops.
Emily Rose Hirtle,
Director of Education
Emily Rose Hirtle is from Westerville, Ohio she attended “The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and received her BFA and Certificate in Painting in 2017. In May of 2019 she received her MFA in Drawing from “The New York Academy of Art”. Her work is part of numerous collections such as: The Linda Lee Alter Collection in Philadelphia, PA. Actress and Model Brooke Shield’s and Actor Aidan Turner. She is a practicing Artist and a Drawing/ Painting instructor for numerous institutions in Philadelphia, PA.
Kate Nearpass Ogden, Romantic Landscape Paintings
Kate Nearpass Ogden received her Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University, New York. She has taught for nearly 30 years at Stockton University, where her courses focus on 19th and 20th century art in addition to the art history survey (nicknamed “Pyramids to Picasso”). In addition to articles on painting and photography her publications include a book, Yosemite, published in 2015. Prof. Ogden’s website, “Art & Architecture of New Jersey,” is currently offline being refurbished.
Joseph Podlesnik, Digital Photography, Drawing
https://www.josephpodlesnik.com
Joseph holds a BFA in drawing and painting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MFA in drawing and painting from Cornell University. Currently he is one of the inaugural facilitators for the Digital Photography Cornell Certificate Program; he also serves as Visual Arts Adjunct Faculty for Stockton University and served as Associate Professor/Lead Faculty of Art Foundations for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh-Online Division. Several of his photographic prints (in limited and open editions) are offered through Museum Editions Art Consultancy, NYC. Podlesnik exhibits his photographs, singly and in group shows, nationally and internationally. He resides in Phoenix, AZ.
Ekaterina Popova, Promotion
Ekaterina Popova is an artist, founder of Create! Magazine, coach, co-author of The Complete Smartist Guide and podcaster. Her mission is to empower artists and give them the tools to take responsibility for their own career and find validation and success from within. Ekaterina Popova was born in Vladimir, Russia. After moving to the United States, she fell in love with painting and received a BFA from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including The Painting Center in New York, The Trenton City Museum, Delaware Contemporary, The Boxheart Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery, and many more.
Ekaterina has been featured in multiple blogs and publications, including Aesthetica, The Jealous Curator, DPI Magazine, Friend of The Artist, Iceview, and The Philadelphia Inquirer; and she has attended several residencies, including at Centre Pompadour in Abbeville, France, NES Residency in Iceland, the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Greece. Katerina currently lives in Delaware with her longtime partner Sean and Pomeranian Kolibri.