Faculty

The Art Department at SRU has an excellent and dedicated faculty. Members hold advanced degrees from prestigious institutions across the nation and abroad, and they maintain active exhibition and scholarly careers.

Sean Macmillan

Sean Macmillan Associate Professor - Metalsmithing, Chairperson
sean.macmillan@sru.edu
724.738.4289
Art Building, room 201

Sean Macmillan earned a MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the University of Kansas in 2005 and a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2000. He currently resides on a three acre farm in Butler, PA and is the Metalsmithing Professor at Slippery Rock University. His recent work is an exploration of hammered organic forms and textures combined with scrap steel. Most formal influences are the result of decisions in response to the found steel elements. After a year working as a Metal Spinner, Welder/ Fabricator and Production Bench Jeweler, he returned to academia in 2006. He has shown his work at numerous national galleries including the Courthouse Galleries of the Portsmouth City Museums, Erie Art Museum, University of Kansas Art and Design Gallery, Zaruba and Zaruba Gallery, Alice Sabatini Gallery, and the Craft Alliance. Sean has taught metals workshops at California University of Pennsylvania, Murray State University in Kentucky, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the Society for Contemporary Craft. His work has been published in 500 Metal Vessels and the Best of New York Artists and Artisans.

Theresa Antonellis

Gallery Director, Instructor
theresa.antonellis@sru.edu
724.738.4209
Maltby Center, Room 102

Theresa Antonellis earned her MFA from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she was the Director of the Student Union Art Gallery. Ms. Antonellis graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She earned a dual degree in studio arts and art history and served as the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Assistant at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. In that position, Ms. Antonellis worked with the curator to research the wide array of campus collections ranging from cuneiform tablets, historic costumes and clothing, rare books, and archival materials as well as historical scientific instruments and mathematical models. This project formed the basis for an ongoing project to preserve these collections, bring them to attention of the faculty, and put them to use in the liberal arts curriculum.

Ms. Antonellis attended Vermont Studio Center artists' residency in two consecutive years, 2014 and 2015. Her artwork has been exhibited at universities and colleges in New England and New York. Ms. Antonellis' drawing and painting practice of breath-generating marks using body centered meditations, culminates in organic abstractions that mark the time experienced in meditation and locate the space between the body and the mind, between natural and the fabricated.

Her art works and exhibition list can be viewed at www.theresaantonellis.com

Tricia Bishop

Assistant Professor - Ceramics
tricia.bishop@sru.edu
724.738.4210
Patterson Hall, room 133

Tricia Bishop was raised in the Southern Caribbean Island of Grenada. She moved to the United States in 1995 to attend Howard University in Washington DC where her artistic focus changed from Graphic Design and Painting to Sculpture and Ceramics. Ms. Bishop received her BFA from Howard University and MFA from Syracuse University. She has worked in the United Kingdom specializing in using organic materials to achieve colors and designs on fired clay. She also spent time learning historical Italian ceramic techniques at La Meridiana International School of Ceramics in Tuscany, Italy. Her work has been selected on several occasions to represent Grenada in Exhibitions at the Art Museum of the Organization Of American States. She has received merit awards from the Buyer Market of American Craft, Philadelphia, PA and the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY.

Pierre Bowins

Assistant Professor - Graphic Design
Pierre Bowins pierre.bowins@sru.edu
724.738.2344
Art Building, room 105

Pierre, was an in-house designer and educator for Frederick Community College (MD). He is a lifelong maker and self-proclaimed design historian. His design and teaching methods utilize research-based theories to assist in the discovery of personal, cultural, and historical identities while implementing design ideas within analog and digital media. His research largely focuses on exploring the history of graphic design and investigating the unbalance that exists within design history. Pierre holds a Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art. He is an active member of his local AIGA chapter. Pierre's outputs include publications and lectures.

Thomas Como

Professor - Sculpture
thomas.como@sru.edu
724.738.2341
Art Sculpture Building

He received his B.F.A. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and earned his M.F.A. from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. Professor Como's primary teaching responsibilities include all levels of Sculpture, Basic Studio Drawing and some Art History. Thomas exhibits internationally, nationally and regionally. Thomas maintains professional connections to several national and regional art organizations including the Society of Sculptors, the International Sculpture Center, and the National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts.

Heather Hertel

Associate Professor - Painting
heather.hertel@sru.edu
724.738.2338
Art Building

Heather is an artist and educator. After graduating from Mercyhurst Preparatory School, Erie, Pennsylvania in 1991, Heather continued as an artist and a rower at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, studying painting under the direction of Jerome Witkin and receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting, 1995, and a Master of Science in Art Education in 1998. In 1995, she was a Syracuse University Rhodes Scholar nominee and received the Abbie Bigelow Award of Courage from the Syracuse Rowing Team. She then lived in Miami, Florida, coaching rowing for the University of Miami 1995- 97, and trained for the U.S. National Windsurfing team. She returned to Western Pennsylvania to complete her Master of Fine Art in Painting, 2003 at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where she also instructed Foundation courses 2004-06.

Heather has been given the Circle of Mercy Award from Mercyhurst Preparatory School for exceptional service in the arts. Moreover, art endeavors have taken her to the Santa Reparata International School of Art, Florence, Italy in 2002, and to art residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Virginia 2007, and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont 2008.

Her paintings are in many private collections spanning the globe from Brazil, South America to Montreal, Canada. She also enjoys racing on the J35 sailing vessel, Magic, with her family. Currently, as Assistant Professor of Art in Painting at Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, Heather continues teaching at the collegiate level, while also painting and exhibiting regionally, nationally, and internationally.

www.hhertel.com

Katherine Mickle

Katherine Mickle Faculty Photo Associate Professor - Photography
katherine.mickle@sru.edu
724.738.2337
Art Building

Katherine Mickle currently teaches all levels of Photography in the Art Department at Slippery Rock University. Prof. Mickle continues to serve on numerous departmental, college, and university-wide committees. She exhibits regionally and nationally. She is a member of the College Art Association and the Society for Photographic Education. Katherine is also a member of the Silver Eye Center for Photography and the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. Katherine received her MFA in Photography from Ohio University. She holds her MA with a major in Photography and minor in Painting from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Katherine received her BFA from SRU with a second major in Spanish. For one semester, she studied overseas at the Universidad de Sevilla, Spain.

Kurt Pitluga

Assistant Professor - Art History
kurt.pitluga@sru.edu
724.738.2659
Art Building

Kurt Pitluga received his B.A. in Art History from Edinboro State College in Pennsylvani, and earned his M.A. and Ph.D in Art History from The Pennsylvania State University . He has taught art history at the Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania since 1996. His dissertation, The Collegiate Architecture of Charles Z. Klauder investigated the institutional designs of this prominent Philadelphia architect. Klauder was known as the "Dean of College Architecture" in the early twentieth century and Dr. Pitluga continues to research this topic. Dr. Pitluga is currently an at-large member of the SECAC (Southeast College Art Conference) Board . He is also the Program Director for the 2015 SECAC conference to be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For the last ten years at Slippery Rock, he has guided students to various destinations around the world during the university's spring break. Countries include England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece and Peru.

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Jon Shumway

Professor - Digital Media
jon.shumway@sru.edu
724.738.2714
Art Building, room 003

Jon Shumway has been teaching at SRU since 1998 where he teaches the Digital Media courses as well as courses in a variety of other studio areas. As a video artist, he has exhibited his works in galleries and film & video festivals locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Shumway's videos have been exhibited at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Pittsburgh, PA, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, The Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, OH, Not Still Art Festival, New York, NY, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, Ohio Independent Film Festival, Cleveland, OH, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Artist's Television Access Gallery, San Francisco, CA, and Mobius, Boston, MA. Shumway is active in the local film and video community. He has been instrumental in the establishment of the Harry M. Warner Festival of Short Film and Video where he has served as a Curator since the festival's inception. He holds a BA from Luther College, Decorah, IA and an MA and MFA in Intermedia and Video Art from The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.

Barbara Westman

Associate Professor - Printmaking/Fiber Art
barbara.westman@sru.edu
724.738.2345
Patterson Hall, room 134

Ms. Westman completed her education in Poland, BFA in Visual Communication, dual BFA and MFA in Fiber Art and Printmaking (University of Arts, Poznan). While a student she was a recipient of a four year scholarship. She spent two years living in London, U.K. attending South Thames College and gaining experience at an interior design company, where she fell in love with textiles. Since 2002 has been living in the USA.

Her artworks reflect interest in natural and man-made world where the richness of textures, structures and forms in our environment are constant inspiration. Over the past years she has participated in many juried national and international shows, group shows, solo shows and presented at conferences. She also was a juror for regional and national art exhibitions. Her artworks are in private and museum collections in the USA, England, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Bulgaria, Portugal, Spain, Poland and France.

Westman is an Associate Professor of Fiber Art and Printmaking at Slippery Rock University. She engages students in studio activities stressing the openness to the world beyond the walls: active participation in exhibitions, community projects, conferences and educational travel. In 2013 Westman initiated an annual collaborative fiber art project with Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland. She oversees the international exchange program in the Art Department.

Member of Southern Graphics Council International SGCI, Mid-Atlantic Print Council MAPC and Associated Artists of Pittsburgh AAP.

Travelling is her passion and a way of finding new inspiration. Her art works and exhibition list can be viewed at www.barbarawestman.com

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