Meet Our Staff

“

You won’t find any facilitator or staff anywhere else that’s better. They LISTEN. They’re helpful. If you need to talk they’re there for you. There’s nothing that a NIAD staff artist is not capable of or willing to do to help any artist here. I do mean ALL the NIAD staff.

A close-up portrait photograph of a person in an art studio. The person has brown skin, short black hair, and a short black and grey beard. They are wearing a black mask, pulled down on their chin, and a black teeshirt with a white tiger head printed on the front. They look directly into the camera. A patterned banner hangs above their head. Behind them is a blurry space filled with work tables and shelves.
Shawn Sanders, NIAD artist

Administration

Studio

Board of Directors

  • A watercolor and pencil drawing on paper. The image is of a figure with a blue face and a blue and white checkered outfit. They are holding a small sailboat. The space behind them is painted with green, red, and orange watercolors.

    Alexandra McFarland

    Chair
  • An abstract acrylic painting on a tall rectangular canvas. The paint is applied thickly with a large brush. The image features multiple oblong shapes, colored orange, yellow, or white and outlined in blue, red, or purple. The background is mostly shaded blue and black. There is a bright orange star shape peeking in from the top edge of the painting.

    Lauren Vassell

    Vice-Chair
  • A scanned image of a colorful abstract crayon drawing on paper. A field of oblong wiggly shapes fills the page. The shapes are mostly colored orange, light green, yellow, red, and pink. There are small yellow and green spots peppered throughout. The background is dark blue and the artist has written their name very small in the bottom right corner.

    Pam Martin

    Secretary
  • a serigraph print on white paper. Stacks of numbers drawn in red or orange curl around and intersect to form a branching cluster that fills most of the page. The cluster looks like 2 hands overlapping as they reach in from the top and bottom of the paper.

    Dave Moore

    Treasurer
  • a square painting with a light blue sky and a light brown and green ground. The majority of the surface is covered with multicolored birds and thin trees below them.

    Jay Youngdahl

    Legal Advisor
  • A linoleum block print on white paper. The shape is a navy blue rectangle with the abstracted silhouettes of 4 figures cut out and left white in the center. The figures stand close together such that their outlines merge into one lumpy shape. The reference image was a photo of members of the rock band KISS.

    Ben Choi

  • A scanned image of a screen-print on tan paper. The image is an ink drawing of two figures, both frowning and wearing "A's" baseball caps and jerseys. Their outlines are painted in green and yellow ink. The artist painted their signature on the bottom right, writing: "Ann Meade"

    Joey Enos

  • A drawing made with colored pencils and watercolor on white paper. Filling the page are rings of concentric circles, growing from the smallest in the center to the largest which touches the paper's edges. Each ring is intricately patterned with dots and lines in every color of the rainbow.

    Nicole Ferdinando

  • A ceramic sculpture photographed in a white space. The hand-built sculpture is tall and cylindrical, and glazed with red, white, and black stripes. The form represents a seated cat. The cat has a large head with thick orange whiskers, round purple eyes, and a big red nose. Its little red tongue protrudes from its round mouth.

    Devin Malone

  • A work on canvas made with paint and markers, photographed on a white wall. The surface is covered with a dense pattern of text and symbols. The imagery is built up in layers. There are areas of the background painted yellow, green, or orange. Drawn over these areas are arrows, suns, and handwritten text referring to weather, time, wrestlers, and movies.

    Lizeht Zepeda

Substitute Studio Facilitators

  • a bright acrylic painting on paper. The paint is applied in a flat and graphic style. The image shows two animals that resemble a rabbit and a cat sitting on a green background. The larger animal in the center has a bright blue head with long ears and a darker blue body with four legs. The second animal is behind and to the right of the first. It has a bright red head with pointed ears and a light blue body with a long tail. Both animals have yellow triangle noses and black eyes.

    Lauren Ari

  • A colorful painting on canvas of a purple boutique. The shop has 6 iconic princess dresses on display in its two large windows. There is a winding yellow path leading to the purple door. Beneath the shop, a lush dark green field. Above the shop, the sky is painted in dynamic windy strokes of blue and white.

    Sarah Bowser

  • A drawing made with colored pencils on black toned paper. The drawing features a grid where each square contains an X or an oblong shape. Some squares are totally colored in with bright yellow, blue, or pink. The grid is outlined with light blue and green pencils, and the shapes are drawn in every color of the rainbow. The artist has written their name in a square on the top left corner of the grid, "Karen May"

    Lena Gustafson

  • Cora Lautze

  • A green heart drawn in marker on pink paper. Around the green heart center is a red marker outline. Around the red outline is an orange marker outline that extend to the edge of the sides. In the lower right corner the artist's name, Christopher Jimenez.

    Marie Muscardini

  • A digital collage album cover. On the top of the image, the title is typed in white letters backed by a rainbow colored bar. The title reads "Shades of Me (EP)" Below these words is a vintage pink telephone with a long pink coil and a grey number pad. Collaged beneath the number pad are the words "Hi, (ring ring ring) are typed in orange. The background is a smooth rainbow gradient. The artist's name is typed in white text on a rainbow bar in the bottom right corner, "Xiomara Rosales"

    Maggie Preston

  • A collaborative colorful pencil and ink drawing on paper made by two artists. The drawing shows two turtles drawn in black ink with gridded shells and legs. They are colored in every color of the rainbow, mostly bright red, pink, and yellow. The words "May Karen" are written in red pencil on the top left corner.

    Christine Shields

  • A ceramic vessel photographed in a white space. The vessel is a tall pink vase with a clown face painted on the front. The face has large blue circle eyes, a yellow circle nose, and a wide green mouth. The interior of the vase is glazed dark brown.

    Chinzalée Sonami