2009 Faculty

Susan Lynn Smith’s color photographs investigate the peculiarities that often go overlooked within the everyday spaces we inhabit, revealing an unexpected sense of humor and anxiety.  Her work has been featured in several exhibitions, including shows in New York at the Visual Studies Workshop, Gallery Henoch, Gulf and Western Gallery, Clearview 62nd & Broadway Cinema, The School at the International Center for Photography, and at Cantor Film Center.  Recent Bay Area exhibitions include Depth of Perception at the MarinMOCA, Eighteen Months: Taking the Pulse of Bay Area Photography at San Francisco City Hall, Inhabited at the Diego Rivera Gallery, TASTE at Root Division, and On Second Thought, her MFA thesis, atthe Fort Mason Center.  Her recent work can be seen at www.susanlynnsmith.com
 
Susan received her M.F.A degree in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in May 2008.She also earned a B.F.A. in Photography & Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 2002.  While residing in Manhattan, she worked a freelance photographer, a Gallery Associate, and as an Art Instructor.  Her teaching experience includes positions with Excel Amherst College & Spain (Putney Student Travel), New York University (Community Collaborations), and Good for Kids Foundation in San Francisco, CA.  Additionally, Susan has assisted classes at the San Francisco Art Institute and the International Center of Photography.  She currently is the Program Manager at Good For Kids Foundation.  Susan is very excited to return for a 2nd amazing summer at Oxbow.

Cherie Hackerwas born and raised in Chicago.  Early on, she experimented with all types of media.  At twelve she spent her earned allowance on art supplies and painted with oils on an easel in her bedroom.  Her personal high school fieldtrips embodied taking the “L” to the Art Institute where she was influenced by Picasso and Dali.  Cherie holds a MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, a BA in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis, as well as Associate Degrees in Art, General Education, and Railroad Technology.  An educational highlight for Cherie was a Smithsonian Graduate Level Internship in 2000-01.  She attended over thirty comprehensive workshops, seminars, and museum tours.  Assigned to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, she assisted in Exhibition Design and on the NEA Artists Archive Project.   

Cherie has installed and currated many gallery and student shows.  Most recent, she was Gallery Director at Asylum Gallery in Sacramento, and taught Art Foundations at Folsom Lake College.
Cherie Hacker is a conceptual artist and abstract painter whose work is process oriented.  She is an avid nature lover, experienced at hiking volcanoes and rafting big rivers.  She knows the value of allowing your art ideas to develop over time.  “I am in the seventh year of an environmental project, The Lamp & Endtable Project, in which respect for the earth is my ultimate message.  This has taken me on wilderness journeys from Alaska, thru the Northwest mountains, beaches, and deserts.” says Cherie.  “I began from dreams and sketches.  Now the lamp and end table appears in paintings, sculpture, photography, and printmaking.”  She is quintessentially a mixed-media artist with a studio in Sacramento.

Cherie has exhibited her art in group and solo shows in Minneapolis, Montreal, New York, Alaska, California, India and China, and with the project: The Faces of Courage – 911 Heroes in which larger than life portraits traveled throughout the east coast and in two World Trade Centers.  With several bodies of work, Cherie moves in and out of each as the inspiration calls from portraits to nature to coyotes, to abstracts, to ceramic sculpture and installations.  “I tend to use several media within one piece.  One painting may contain charcoal, ink, gesso, collage, oil, latex, alkyd, and enamel.  I use recycled wood, paint, wallpaper books, and found objects from flea markets.  I aspire to work on the Lamp & Endtable project indefinitely, and to document the changes in our environment thru it.” 

Michael Murnane has worked in many aspects of film making, theater, design and teaching. Michael has been designing, sculpting characters and sets in the film, television, video game and toy industry for over ten years. After graduating in 1992 with an Illustration degree from Long Beach State he began freelance Illustration, sculpting toys and moved back to the bay area. Here he found more character sculpture work on Bump in the Night, a stop motion animation kids show that ran on ABC Saturday mornings for two years. He later moved on to Industrial Light and Magic where he sculpted maquettes, made models, and/or designed props on films such as Frankenstein, The Mummy, Galaxy Quest and Star Wars Episode I. This led to more character design work on Star Wars Episode 2 where he worked in the art department at Skywalker Ranch designing cooks, jedis, bounty hunters and creatures of all shapes. He continued character sculpture at Pacific Data Images (Shrek) for a new film, Madagascar, and was back on Star Wars recently designing characters for Star Wars Episode III.

Outside of his commercial work Murnane worked on traditional and experimental theater, (Red Rocket Theater) putting on plays and art installations in San Francisco. Mike is in production on a digital spaghetti western he is writing and directing with two friends/ filmmakers. Here he has honed his storytelling skills and dabbled in all aspects of the filmmaking process.

Michael has currently been teaching a 2D art/character class as well as helping the kids design and paint an urban/anime themed mural after school at the ISA High School in San Francisco. He has worked in day care, summer camp, and art instruction before, during and after his college years with all age groups.

In summer 2009 Mike will participating as a Guest Artist.

Joshua Short is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work focuses on integrating art into public life and the urban environment. He is a conceptual artist and interventionist, frequently incorporating social content into his work—from bio-waste to border-crossings. Josh has shown his artwork at Intersection for the Arts, Balazo Gallery, Galeria de la Raza and the 16th Street BART station. He is a founding director of the artist coalition Hypersea and a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. After his tenure as a martial arts instructor, Joshua worked as a storyboard artist, illustrator, and animatronics operator for the nationally syndicated television show, “The Adventures of Kangaroddy”. Since Graduating from San Francisco State University in 2004 Joshua has continued his career as a Artist/Educator and graphic designer. Joshua has taught Silk Screen Print Making at CELL Space in San Francisco and has build a giant kinetic phoenix for Carnival 2007 with youth from the Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club.

This year, Joshua is finishing up his MFA studies at UC Davis.

In summer 2009 Joshua will participating as a Guest Artist.

Camp Counselor Bios and Art