Art

Artist, teacher, traveler, gardener, Nancy Dahlstrom has exhibited her work throughout the southeastern United States and in Norway, France, and Australia. Don't be surprised if she speaks to you in Swahili, French, Japanese, or Norwegian, or takes you out to her garden in historic Fincastle, Virginia, for a drawing session. Nancy always has a sketchbook with her. You might even find yourself one of her subjects. Nancy teaches drawing and printmaking.

"Shinto Gate - Fushimi Inari Fox Shrine"
monotype, 18 x 24"

Ed Dolinger, lecturer in art
Attended the Corcoran School of Art, Columbia College and Penland School of Art 

A self-proclaimed “studio rat” of several decades, Ed has also developed several non-profit art galleries and studio complexes around the country. He received the Mayor’s Artist of the Year Award in Salt Lake City (1997), a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Visiting Artist Fellowship (1993), and has several “Artist-In-Residence” experiences in schools and communities around the country to his credit. His two and three dimensional work is found in the collections of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Weinstock’s of Sacramento, as well as public art commissions in several Utah and Virginia locations.

Rick has lived in Floyd, Virginia with his wife, Donna Polseno, where they have worked as studio artists for over thirty years. He received an individual NEA artist grant in 1987 and has been widely known for his highly decorated porcelain ceramics. He has taught and led workshops all over America and was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. Locally, he and Donna are among the founding members of the 16 Hands craft group. Richard was an invited participant to the International Clay Symposium in Izmir, Turkey in 2002 and most recently was a visiting artist in Jingdezhen, China at the Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Art.

Jan is a "plein air" artist, a French term that refers to working directly from nature. She delights in loading up her studio car with her portable easel, her dog Nora, and her homemade pastels and heading down the highway to small towns or grand vistas along the Blue Ridge Mountains. When she makes pastels with students, they joke about being the only students in the whole world to have these colors and materials to use. Jan shows her work in nationally competitive shows, colleges and university galleries, and her work is handled by the Hackett /Freedman Gallery in San Francisco. Jan teaches design and drawing.

"View from River Bluff," conte crayon, 18 x 24"

Donna has lived and worked as a studio artist since then in Floyd, Virginia. She has been known for a variety of work over the years including raku vessels, porcelain pottery, and figurative sculpture. She has taught workshops and summer sessions in numerous places including the University of Michigan, Oregon School of Crafts, Alfred University, Arowmont, and the Long Beach Art Foundation. Donna was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation. She is included in many collections such as the St. Louis Museum, the Silber Collection, and the Mint Museum of Contemporary Crafts. Donna was an invited participant to the International Clay Symposium in Turkey in 2002 organized by the University of Izmir. She was a visiting artist in September 2004, at the Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Art in China, working with students in an exchange program for the University of West Virginia.

Kimberly Rhodes is an art historian who writes and teaches about modern and contemporary visual culture. Before coming to Hollins in 1998 she worked at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY. Her scholarly work on nineteenth-century British and American art has been published by Yale University Press and Hudson Hills Press, among others, and she has presented papers at conferences, museums and universities around the U.S. Her book Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture: Representing Body Politics in the Nineteenth Century is forthcoming from Ashgate Publishing. At Hollins she teaches classes that reflect her feminist, interdisciplinary and transhistorical engagement with visual culture including "Feminism and Contemporary Art," "Art and Literature in Britain" and "Art History and Fiction."

Tina is a ditch digger of classical objects. She spends all her free time bicycling around Greece studying various sites. Recently Tina and Chris Richter, assistant professor, communication studies, took a group of Hollins students to Greece for our January Short Term. They traveled to Arcadia, Delphi. Tina specializes in Greek archaeology and religion and her research combines art, history, religion, numismatics, epigraphy, architecture, and literature. "I like to study the ancient world as a whole complex organism--you can't look at Mycenaean wall paintings without reading Homer or late Hellenistic art without understanding Alexander the Great," she says. Her book on the Cults of Herakles will soon be published by the University of Michigan Press. Tina teaches ancient art and classical studies.

One must enter Bob's studio with some care. He has recently embarked on a series of still life images that examine life and death, beauty and horror. Stacked on the floor and filling every shelf are artifacts from the old biology lab at Hollins -- such as stuffed birds, snakes, tools of the trade, and then there is a mannequin, hundreds of bottles, and even fake grapes. His photographs have been exhibited in more than 100 solo and group shows in the mid-Atlantic region including the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. A solo exhibit of his work is currently circulating through the Virginia Museum's statewide exhibition program. Bob teaches photography and photo history.

"Lamb," gelatin silver print, 8 x 10"

Nickel yellow, turquoise blue, sap green, and brown madder alizarian are paint colors on Bill's palette. He is a painter who is in love with color and the process of painting. Still life objects found in his studio are never the color they should be. A pink feather duster or a lime green beach ball (including the spider that makes its home inside the ball) stand beside more traditional objects. You might see him paint with a brush with a three-foot handle, a rag, his hand, or a spatula.
   Bill's work has been shown in more than 20 solo exhibits and 75 juried shows. His paintings are in private and public collections, including his 12-panel oil painting, "Studio Light Suite" which is owned by the Art Museum of Western Virginia. He teaches painting and drawing.
   Visit Bill's personal gallery.

"Betsy's Room," oil on linen, 36 x 32"

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