Current Instructors:
Professor Meg Mitchell
Meg Mitchell’s work operates at the intersection of the material, the textual, and the public sphere. Often referencing seemingly disparate things such as weather, data flows, plant sexuality and technological systems, the work seeks to reconcile the opposing forces used in its metaphorical construction. She uses humor to subvert formalist interpretations of her work, and to play with the boundaries between the conceptual and the physical spaces her work occupies. Mitchell borrows from a diverse range of sources such as Greek drama, contemporary advertising, camp, cinema, art history, and media representations of technological progress. The work takes on various forms such as sculptural installations, mobile applications, printed ephemera, horticultural installations, and public performances. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
TA – Christopher Rowley
After working in graphic design and illustration for many years I decided to change course and become a stay-at-home dad. Once the kids were in school full-time I began pursuing my degree in painting. I am currently in the final year of my Master of Fine Arts candidacy at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
My current body of work is based on an exploration of a middle ground between representation and abstraction. By layering brightly colored images of objects, architectural spaces, and abstracted forms I create an uncanny sense of space that engages the viewer in a way that is difficult to achieve with pure representation or abstraction alone. The objects and architectural spaces within my paintings develop, almost entirely, out of my own exploratory photography. It is important to my process that I experience the objects and spaces myself. It not only provides me with a greater control over my source imagery, but it creates a stronger sense of authenticity within the final painting.
TA Stephanie Lifshutz
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Stephanie is currently working toward an MFA at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She pursues her art with an interdisciplinary approach, and incorporates that theme into her photography and printmaking. Stephanie’s current work explores the experience behind each portrait she takes, and the memories she shares with each person in addition to a physical object.
TA- Marissa Mackey
I am currently an MFA candidate at UW-Madison. I received a BFA from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts in 2009. After graduating I worked as a photography assistant for various commercial photo studios, then as a teaching assistant for Maine Media Workshops and most recently for the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison.
As an artist I am interested in how the uncanny and the enigmatic give way to open narrative in art, particularly in photography. My most recent body of work examines the paradigm of the American road trip and our human inclination toward imagining. These images explore our role of spectator implicit in the vantage point of both the automobile and the camera.