Victor Frailing, Visual Arts Department Chair

website: http://www.victorfrailing.com, email: vfrailing@gsarts.net

Bachelor of Arts, Silver Lake College, Magna Cum Laude

Master of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Summa Cum Laude

Victor has taught art in Virginia and the East Coast for 32 years, at both the secondary and collegiate level. He is a painter and a photographer, with numerous regional and international awards. Victor has worked in humanitarian efforts in Africa and Asia, and has had his work in exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Chrysler Museum, the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, and at the United Nations in New York City. Victor lives in Chesapeake Virginia with his wife Lynne, son Richard and two insufferable dogs.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Professional Fellow
• Surdna Foundation Arts Teacher Fellow
• Norbert Kustka Humanities Award

Diana Laurel Caramat, Visual Arts Associate Department Chair

website: http://www.dianalaurelcaramat.com, email: dcaramat@gsarts.net

(B. 1984 Batangas, Philippines)

A GSA Visual Arts alumni herself, Diana graduated from VCUarts at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009 with degrees in 'Sculpture & Extended Media' as well as 'Painting & Printmaking'. She has exhibited her work throughout Virginia since 1998 and in 2008 was awarded a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts fellowship. Formerly, she worked in the Integrated Production and Design Department @ The Martin Agency in as well as VCUarts Dean's Office at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Diana's sculpture studio is located at 2501 Fawn Street in Norfolk and welcomes studio visits upon request.

Visual Arts Faculty

James Catlin Chalkley , along with teaching ceramics at GSA, is an Adjunct Associate Professor Old Dominion University.

He received his MFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University

His works have been featured in numerous national exhibitions, publications and is included in several museum and private collections. One recent venue was his inclusion in the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show held in the National Building Museum, Washington D.C.

He has received many honors throughout his career including two Professional Artist Fellowship Grants from The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a Fellowship Residency Award from The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Amherst, VA and a Presidential Citation for Teaching Excellence from the Governors School of the Arts, University of Richmond.

William Collins has worked in the film/video industry for over ten years. He began his career as a videographer/editor in New York City where he worked on several music videos for Sony Music, edited various national television commercials and worked on weekly internationally broadcasted television shows. While he resided in New York, he further pursued his self-interest as a documentary filmmaker and as a result, “Virgins of New York” was released in May 2006 and was well received at several national festivals.

Additionally, Mr. Collins is an accomplished video artist and has showcased his art in New York City and in the Hampton Roads area. Mr. Collins has traveled to various places around the world including Amsterdam, Ireland, Alaska, Haiti and six life changing months in South Africa.

Much more than an ambitious visionary, Mr. Collins is a board member of the Friends of the Norfolk Juvenile Court, a volunteer mentor for the Family Life Center for Social Change and a part-time teacher at the Governor’s School of the Arts. His website is http://www.williamkcollins.com

Liana Graham’s education includes a B.S. Degree in Communications from JMU, and a B.F.A. in Painting from ODU, with an Art History minor. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, and was recognized as the College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Student in Studio Art. Liana was a contributing artist in A Dolphin’s Promise, creating the public artworks seen at the Schooner Inn and at the Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. Her work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center, Riverview Gallery, The Selden Arcade, Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, and the Peace Festival at the Studio for the Healing Arts.

Clay McGlamory has taught for 18 years at the Governor’s School for the Arts.  Clay started Half Ass Press in 2008, based in Norfolk, where he is the founding director and master printer.  He has had over 25 solo and two person exhibitions including The Red Door Gallery in Richmond in 2008, and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach in 2005-06.  His work has been included in over 175 national and international juried and invitational exhibitions and has work in numerous public and private collections.

Jackie Merritt is an Artist and Musician from Hampton, VA. She received her BA in education from Norfolk State University, and an MA in painting from the Univeritiy of Wisconsin

Jackie has taught undergraduate and graduate painting/drawing classes at: Norfolk State University, Elizabeth City State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is presently teaching studio classes at the Charles Taylor Art Center, Hampton, Virginia; Thomas Nelson Community College, Hampton, Virginia; and The Governors’ School for the Arts.

Jackie is also a performing artist with MSG , the Acoustic Blues Trio on harmonica, guitar and bones.

Achievements:

• 2011 Elected to the Board of the Hampton Arts Commission
• 2010 Alli Award for (Art/Music): presented by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads
• 1971 Summer visit with Georgia O’Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico

Rendez Padgett is a freelance Illustrator and Visual Artist specializing in editorial illustration, book cover illustration, and storyboards for film. In 2010 he earned his BFA in Communication Arts, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed an internship with Communication Design Inc. under the tutelage of award winning Illustrator/Designer Robert Meganck, and during the summer of 2010 he attended the highly revered Illustration Academy in Richmond, VA. As a student he was a recipient of the 2010 Mallory Callan Scholarship, the 2010 Richard Carlyon Scholarship, and his work was accepted into both the 2009 and 2010 VCU Arts Juried Student Competitions.

A graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art with an MFA in painting, Bob Sites has exhibited in eighteen states, has received numerous awards in both national and regional exhibitions, and has recently shown at international art fairs in New York and Miami. He has received two fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and a fellowship from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. In 2005, 2009 and 2011, he was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. He has appeared on public radio and television, and was featured in Hampton Roads Magazine (2009). His work was also featured in New American Paintings Magazine (June/July 2010) and will be in an up-coming issue of Studio Visit Magazine. Bob is also professor of Fine Arts at Norfolk State University.

Norfolk native Virginia Van Horn is a longtime member of the Hampton Roads art community and has an extensive exhibition record both in the region and the Southeast.

She received her BFA in printmaking from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her MFA in sculpture from the Visual Studies Program of Old Dominion and Norfolk State Universities. She also studied and exhibited in Urbino, Italy as part of a program sponsored by New York’s School of Visual Arts.

Virginia currently teaches at Old Dominion University as well as the Governor’s School for the Arts. Inspired by her childhood as a champion rider, she is fascinated by animal imagery, especially horses. Her most recent work branches out from equestrian images to explore new and different combinations of animals, both wild and domestic.

Blade Wynne was born in 1980, in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended
Pratt Institute and was awarded his BFA in painting in 2002. During his time at Pratt Institute he received a travel grant to study drawing and painting abroad in Tuscany in 2001. He received his MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 2008 where he received the "Award of Excellence", as well as a teaching certificate from the Sheridan Center at Brown University. His work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Providence and Chicago. Most recently his work was exhibited in a two person show at Tompkins Projects in Brooklyn, New York, as well as a solo show at The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach. His work has recently appeared in publications such as "Journal of the Print World" and "New American
Paintings." He lives and works in Chesapeake, Virginia.