Where Are They Now?

ACA Alumni - Where Are They Now? 1971-1980

 

Charles Ahrens (graphic art, 1972) lives in Perdido Beach, Ala., with his wife, Jan. They have two children. He is the owner of Fitz Shirt Co., manufacturing shirts for the tourist trade. He wrote, "I will be producing paintings in Southwest Mexico from November 2006 through March 2007. Will be located in Bara de Navidad or surrounding area, south of Puerto Viarta."

Patrick Boatenreiter (B.F.A., painting, 1971) wrote, "After a successful 30-year career in the recorded music industry, I took an 'early retirement' to start a new career as an artist. So far, I have produced signage, murals, illustrations, merchandising and graphics for various companies and individuals. Paintings have been exhibited in juried shows in North Carolina, and Florida and other paintings have been purchased by individuals in the Atlanta area. I have resided in Decatur, Ga., for the past 20 years and am one of the last full grown men."
 
T. Carter Butterworth (B.F.A., graphics, 1975) lives in Kennesaw, Ga., with his wife, Shelly, and their children, Clay (March 1988) and Carson (March 1990). He is a job supervisor with 1st Victory Development Co., a real estate development company.

Donald Clarke (B.F.A., graphic design, 1971) lives in Lithonia, Ga. He spent 15 years as a commercial artist followed by 10 years as a freelance artist and now works as a sales associate for Dillard's.  
 
Reggie Daniel (B.F.A., graphic design, 1975) lives in Charlotte, N.C., and is president of Daniel Design Inc. (www.danielinc.com), a food service consulting and design company.
 
Mitchell Fagan (B.F.A., sculpture, 1977) lives in Duluth, Ga., with his wife, Kelly. They have three children, Erin,  Patrick and Katie. Fagan is owner of Mitchell Fagan Design and wrote, "I have over 30 years of experience in the graphic arts industries. I have taken continued educational classes in digital imaging and advanced Adobe applications. I attended a designer course in 3-D CAD rendering from auto-des-sys Inc. in Ohio using form-Z CAD rendering."
 
Connie Floyd (B.F.A., printmaking, 1975) lives in Raleigh, N.C., with his wife, Roxianna, and their son, Daniel (April 1995). He is an associate professor of art with North Carolina Central University.
 
Gena Grant (B.F.A., sculpture, 1976) lives in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. She will have an invitational show at The City Gallery at Waterfront Park from June-August, 2006. This gallery is run by the City of Charleston, S.C.
 
John Grimsley (B.F.A., printmaking, 1971) lives in Hanahan, S.C., and is the owner of a home repair and improvement business.  
 
Drew Hale (B.F.A., painting, 1972) lives in Bonaire, Ga., and wrote, "I still like art."

Steve Hale (B.F.A., photography, 1976) wrote, "I've spent a little over 20 years photographing for a large global hobby dist.  My photos have been used in trade shows, box art, mag ads, and covers internationally. I'm currently self-employed doing freelance commercial work and portrait/wedding photography. I love photographing people. I'm blessed with wonderful kids and grandkids. I'm on facebook if you want to connect. Visit my Web site at www.stevehalephotography.com." (updated 07/13/10)

Labarbara (Jones) Mack (B.F.A., 1979) is currently a freelance photographer and artist. (updated 05/25/10)

Krista Jurisich (B.F.A., sculpture, 1974) just completed the first part of the "New Orleans Immortelle" series featured in the 2008 Fall issue of the Louisiana Cultural Vistas referring to the death and reverence. (updated 06/07/09)

Leila (Kepert) Yarbrough (1971) lives in Marietta, Ga., with her husband, Jack. She wrote, "I am lucky enough to have been in 'Who's Who in American Art' since 1971 and since then in many others, such as 'Who's Who of American Women.' This year I was invited to be in 'Who's Who in the World' because of my large body of work - 9,002 large etchings and thousands of paintings since 1971."  
 
Stephen Klema (B.F.A., 1977) lives in Winsted, Ct., with his wife, Patty. He earned his M.F.A., from the Hartford Art School and is a professor of graphic design at Tunxis Community College (www.tunxis.commnet.edu) and an adjunct assistant professor in the computer science/interactive digital design department at Quinnipiac University. He wrote, "The last five years or so I have been concentrating on digital art (2D) with pieces in regional and national group shows, and animation and design for interactive media. I fixed up two old (1900) houses - there will NOT be a third. Our son recently graduated from Dickinson College in political science. Our daughter is a junior at Pratt in New York City. Tried to talk her out of the art thing, but she is driven."  
 
Ron McDowell (B.F.A., sculpture, 1971) wrote, "During my years at ACA, I worked on my projects at night. Today, I work a full-time job as technical illustrator and work on my own projects at night. After the experience of designing and constructing a working foundary in the 1970's, today I have ventured into CNC with a computer carving machine I designed and constructed on my spare time. 3D software is my world of sculpture today. With the knowledge of 3D modeling and the construction of my first CNC carving machine, I hope to return to creating more of a series of sculptures I created in the 1970's as I thought of them at that time and could never afford to produce the large scale sculptures I wanted to make.

Those who know me know of my large scale welded sculptures, while only a few know of my figurative constructions.

I was reluctant for many years to enter computer 3D, until I discovered that the control and the possibilities in computer manipulation allow me the control over form as effective as working in clay and metals. I continue using traditional sculpting at times when I feel it works for me.  Computer scanning affords me this luxury. Fast visualizations now give me opportunity to work out ideas in real world computer generation and move to physical sculptures from computer output to CNC and metal construction from computer files. Reproduction of an image as symbol has always intrigued me, since my intended series of sculptures were based on the concept of images reproduced many times in a framework constructed of situations expressing individual efforts." (updated 11/01/08)
 
Mark Morton (B.F.A., printmaking and painting, 1980) lives in High Point, NC and works at Lowe's Home Improvement #459 as an Assembler, assembling products: grills mowers, furniture, etc.
 
Lawrence "Cliff" Norris (B.F.A., sculpture, 1971) lives in Seagrove, N.C., with his wife, Beth Norris (B.F.A., printmaking, 1971). Cliff Norris retired after 30 years as both visiting artist with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources and design instructor with the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges.

Joseph Priser (B.F.A., photography, 1976) wrote, "I worked as a portrait photographer 1976-1985 and  as a freelance photographer and auality expert for a major airline 1996-2005. Currently I am working in my studio in Clearwater, Fla. and do Web design and illustration for a number of local companies. Have created one coffee table book and my work is shown on a number of national and international Web sites." (updated 05/20/10)

Barbara Schreiber (attended ACA, 1976) lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, Bill. Her daughter's name is Dinah (October, 1985). Barbara is a visual artist and self-employed. She wrote, "I have exhibited my paintings at numerous museums and galleries including P.S.1, High Museum of Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum and other institutions throughout the U.S. and Europe. I am currently represented by Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta."  To view her artwork please visit (www.barbaraschreiber.com).
 
Charles "Chuck" Stiles (B.F.A., painting, 1972) lives in Hayesville, N.C. He is retired after 21 years as an art director for Creative Loafing and spends his days painting and drawing, with work in several galleries in Western North Carolina and North Georgia.
 
Glenn "Kendall" VanSant (B.F.A., graphic design, 1971) lives in Islamorada, Fla., with his wife, Cecelia. He is a self-employed bronze sculptor whose work can be viewed in major public buildings in Scotland, the United States and The Bahamas. 
 
Jan Willadsen (B.F.A., printmaking, 1975) lives in Atlanta, Ga., and owns Willadsen Scale Models, a full scope model making company that specializes in national and international golf course and mixed-use real estate development master site plans.  Her daughter, Kate Siegel, will graduate this spring from Parsons The New School of Design in Fashion Marketing.