PARTICIPANTS
This workshop was co-led by Arts Scholars Director Harold Burgess, Associate Director Heather Bremenstuhl, and Graduate Assistant Gabi Tillenburg. To learn more about the Arts Scholars Program Faculty, peruse their bios and portfolios above.
ALEX CURRY
Lead Teaching Assistant
ASAD RISVI
Lead Teaching Assistant
Lead Teaching Assistants Alex Curry and Asad Rizvi have been with the Arts program for 4 years, first as participants in the program, and then as Teaching Assistants. In their second year as TAs they have been instrumental in providing the Arts program with support and guiding our more recent TAs as they have grown in these new roles. Throughout the Spring semester Alex & Asad have conducted observations, assisted with lesson planning and delivery, reviewed student work, and in general, have been key on-site players ensuring that not just "Creatives in Progress" but all our Spring workshops run smoothly. We are incredibly grateful for their "can do" attitudes, creativity, enthusiasm and support.
ESKINDER BELAYNEH
Participant
Eskinder Belayneh is an aspiring architect studying in University of Maryland, College Park. He likes creating models and representing the potential look of a building in an abstract collage where he likes to distort and fantasize about a built structure. His time in Architecture has gotten him accustomed to what picture needs to be placed where a thought-provoking display of collages can form.
His time in Architecture also proven his interest in building orientation and what formation of building suit his desired demographic. He specifically wants to influence Ethiopian residents and wants to create a sustainable environment in the hopes of saving the earth at however grand scale as he can.
LEO BLANCO
Participant
Leonardo Blanco-Salamanca is a digital artist working in silver spring Maryland, he
illustrates and produces various characters, graphic media, and videos. His work focuses on
elements such as vibrant colors, expressiveness, and creating an atmosphere within his pieces to
help viewers understand what emotion is being expressed in the art. His work is meant to bring
humor, a sense of joy, and at times is informative on a variety of topics.
GEORGIA BURROUGHS
Participant
Georgia is a photographer who is working in Annapolis, Maryland. In digital and film photography, she experiments with different exposure techniques and vibrant colors. She utilizes different types of film to emphasize the colors that she sees in the natural world and capture them. Georgia loves working with film photography because of the element of uncertainty it brings and the opportunity that each photograph can turn out differently with different exposures, light flashes, colors, and more.
Her work highlights the amazing beauty that is found within the colors of everyday life that we may often overlook. Georgia’s art invites viewers to see the excitement and fun of life as well as the beautiful relationship between people, colors, and light. She hopes that her work can inspire others to see the beauty in life that she sees as well and is constantly trying to capture through her lens.
EMMA HUYNH
Participant
Emma Huynh is a visual artist at the University of Maryland. She creates vibrant and fantastical illustrations done in digital media and mixed media. She is largely influenced by nature and has a semi-realistic style in her designs. Her work is meant to invoke feelings of comfort
through her use of vibrant colors and whimsical imagery.
ALICE KELLY
Participant
Alice Kelly is a visual artist working in College Park, MD. She creates two-dimensional works that celebrate the beauty of nature, culture, and people in acrylic and illustrative mediums. Specifically working In acrylic paintings and sketch drawings, while using different artistic techniques and creative processes such as fine details and compelling designs. Her practice explores physical attraction in different varying aspects of life, including experiences specific to gender socialization, and society’s pressures on men and women upon them. Her work invites the viewer to assess their judgment of beauty and how they think of others. She also challenges them to reevaluate how they define beauty in their own lives as well as in their culture.
KELLY KIM
Participant
Kelly Kim is an illustrator practicing in Boyds, MD. She creates stylized portraits and drawings, primarily of human subjects through digital means. Using sketching and line work, her practice explores conveying personal fulfillment, growth, and expression, through an artistic lens. Her work reflects on the importance of LGBT representation in attempts to normalize these common experiences that queer people encounter and have been repressed by heteronormativity in society.
JENNIFER MANGANDI SIBRIAN
Participant
Jennifer is a designer studying Architecture in College Park, Maryland. She creates communal spaces and abstract compositions by using pencil, pen, charcoal, construction paper, and digital software to convey a marriage between black and white color schemes representing contrasting identities. Her practice explores community and collaboration because as a child, she moved around frequently and found herself trying to connect with others in each new location. Every change in scenery helped her to recognize the importance of bonding with her peers
through common experiences and conversation. Her work reflects how architectural spaces become accessible to diverse personalities and bring people together.
ANNALOU MARRINER
Participant
AnnaLou is a sculptor working out of Annapolis, Maryland. After diving into her exploration of body language through her capstone project, her practice continues to study modeling how the human form has its own way of communicating. She creates a series of sculptures of all sizes, ranging from a life sized person, to 6-inch people, and many focused body parts in between. She primarily works through molding, but is expanding and diversifying by experimenting with unusual innovative materials such as packaging tape and the 3D doodle pen. Her work challenges the viewer to evaluate the contexts of body language and how we both reveal and conceal ourselves and communicate our thoughts through nonverbal communication.
MIMI NGUYEN
Participant
Mimi Nguyen, an English and Psychology major at the University of Maryland, College Park, is a creative writer who immersed herself into the practice as a means for self-expression. Writing became a way to help her identify and make sense of her emotions, which she noticed people around her also struggled with.
Mimi’s poetry explores the human experience through an introspective and reflective lens, asking those who consume her work to do the same in their lives. The small things in life or the big moments in life, are to be celebrated and reflected upon. Identity, our relationships and friendships, heartbreak, nature walks, bodily sensations: the things that make up the human experience that we may overlook. Mimi invites people to find ways to implement writing into their lives to help them reflect, or work on mindfulness, or simply create art.
EUNICE OH
Participant
Eunice is a digital artist, primarily based in Gaithersburg, MD and College Park, Md.
She creates digital artworks that utilize texture effects and precise, crisp line art with custom brushes and color palettes in procreate. Their original ideas draw on inspiration from body horror, the sinister yet whimsy aspects of the occult, and anthropomorphic beings. Their practice explores experimental designs and concepts with fantastical and macabre horror, creatures, and monsters alike. Her work invites viewers to explore an unconventional and unexpected, or off-kilter perspective on the unsettling yet mystifying sides of art and design.
ELENA POLL
Participant
Elena is a designer studying architecture in College Park, MD. She creates building and object designs through drawing and 3D physical/digital modeling. Through the use of sketching, technical hand drawing, and computer-aided design, she explores the connection of spaces within her designs. She draws inspiration from preceding architecture around the world and aspires to repurpose spaces without eliminating the valuable history attached to them. Her fascination with historic architecture motivates her designs to consider the past in a cultural and historical context. She aims to explore the integration of preserving historical sites using contemporary strategies while addressing current issues such as sustainability, climate change, and
environmental justice. Her designs consider the impact of human spatial patterns within the built environment to create better spaces for people. She is determined to bring architecture and
intellectual design to communities in order to grow and promote safe spaces.
MAIZIE RUBIN
Participant
Maizie Rubin is an artist located in college park. Her pieces use acrylic paint and pastels layered over canvas to illustrate overly shadowed images. These pieces mostly focus on demonstrating humanity. This sense of humanity is meant to emphasize duality, emotions, and growth. This central theme has surfaced through her time as a human development
major.
KELLY VILLATORO
Participant
Kelly is a visual artist studying at the University of Maryland.
She creates drawings with pencils and bright colored pencils. She also creates flat planar paintings with vivid acrylic paint. She uses shading techniques in her drawings and blending techniques in her paintings.
Her practice explores landscape paintings and still life drawings. For landscapes, she likes to paint natural sceneries such as mountains, rivers, forests, etc. For still lifes, she
likes to draw small objects such as fruits, plants, household items, etc.
Her work is designed to show the world around us from a different perspective.