CSSC Instructors

  • Taylor Apostol

    Taylor Apostol earned her BA in Studio Art at the University of Vermont and MFA in Sculpture at Boston University. Two years studying in Florence and Carrara, Italy ignited her passion for marble carving and plaster casting.
    Apostol has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Studios at MASS MoCA, and Sias International University in Xinzheng, China. She currently lives and works in the Boston area.

    www.taylorapostol.com 
  • Anne Brisson

    Anne Brisson is a self-taught artist who is skilled in a wide variety of mediums including watercolor, acrylic, collage, painting, color pencil, pastel, clay, pulp paper and papier maché. Although she has been painting and drawing for over 30 years, she has crafted her sculptural methods in the last 15 years. Her pieces are built on her talent in figurative clay modelling and her love of all things paper and vintage. This mixture helps produce pieces that are both whimsical and realistic in their own way. She has shown at various galleries across Canada, and has many international collectors of her work. Anne currently resides in Montreal. Anne holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, a Bachelor of Urban Design, a Bachelor of Adult Education in Creativity, and is currently finishing a Masters of Science of
    Creativity.

  • Fred X. Brownstein

    Fred X. Brownstein was educated at San Francisco Art Institute, where he received his BFA. Fred lived and worked in Italy as a figurative sculptor for 16 years. His contemporary figurative sculpture and public commissions have been exhibited in Italy, Canada, and the U.S. Working in bronze as well as marble, Fred brings a traditional approach to his carving instruction.

    www.fredxbrownstein.com 
  • Ben Caldwell

    Ben is a nationally known metalsmith and fine artist who exhibits in art shows and galleries all over the country and has been featured in many national publications including Southern Living, Cottage Journal, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, Town & Country magazine, Glass on Metal magazine, along with many others.

    www.benandlael.com 
  • Ray Ciemny

    Metal Artist Ray Ciemny is the owner and founder of Artisan Iron. From his workshop/studio in Groton, he has been crafting exquisite custom architectural, landscape and sculptural metal works for more than 20 years. In addition to his inventory of projects gracing fortunate homes and businesses, Ray has also produced commissioned public art. He is represented by Three Stones Gallery in West Concord, Massachusetts.

    www.rayciemny.com 
  • Karen Deets

    Stained glass artist Karen Deets, a graduate of College of New Jersey, has been creating in glass for over 40 years, including residential installations and panels, collected throughout the world. She currently works from her studio in West Castleton, Vermont, experimenting with innovative techniques, and exhibiting at the Brandon Artists Guild.  

    www.karendeets.com 
  • Philippe Faraut

    Philippe Faraut received his degree in woodcarving and the construction of French fine furniture from Germaine Sommeillier in Annecy, France, his boyhood home.  After establishing residence in the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia, he developed an interest in modelling the head in clay.  An avid traveler, Philippe's destinations have allowed him the opportunity to study the cultures of many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, thus influencing his work in portraiture.  In 1996, he relocated with his wife to the Finger Lakes Region of New York.

    Philippe has created numerous works ranging from six-inch porcelain figurines to over life-sized monuments in both stone and bronze and has exhibited his sculptures in various galleries and national and international competitions.

    For over twenty years, Philippe has traveled throughout the US and abroad to teach sculptors and aspiring sculptors how to render portraits and figures in clay at private studios and institutions including the Grand Central Academy in New York, Ringling School of Art in Florida and Pixar in California.  In addition, he has studied forensic facial reconstruction and anaplastology, and lectures at universities and medical conventions in the US and Europe on expressions and the aging process of the face.

    www.philippefaraut.com 
  • Kerry O. Furlani

    Kerry O. Furlani is a sculptor known for her expressive slate carvings of incised and burgeoning forms. She gives life to her work using mallets and chisels, traditional methods introduced to her while training at the Frink School of Figurative Sculpture, in Stoke-on-Trent, England, in the late 90s.

    Her work has been exhibited throughout Vermont, New York, and Washington DC, and is in the collections of the Shelburne Museum, in Shelburne, VT, and the Slate Valley Museum, in Granville, NY. Her slate carvings were selected for Sculpture 2010, an exhibition juried by Ryan Hill, curator at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

    In the winter of 2011, Furlani received a grant from the Vermont Arts Council to return to the UK and study in Wales with a master letter carver.

    Furlani’s slate-wood furniture collaborations are featured in Lark design series publications: 500 Tables and Lark Studio Series: Table.

    For over a decade, Furlani has been teaching slate carving workshops and offering public demonstrations of relief and letter carving at schools and community events, in and around Vermont.

    www.kerryofurlani.com 
  • Zoë Marr Hilliard

    Zoë Marr Hilliard received her B.A. in dance and sculpture at Smith College, and has since been working as an independent
    artist, dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist in Vermont. Her recent work includes installation and site-specific performance pieces at SculptFest and S.P.A. Gallery's On the Planet, as well as dance performances with Vital Spark North and Cradle to Grave Arts. One of Zoë’s missions in life is to help children find their creative voices and have trust in their own artistic ideas. She has worked toward that end in her dance instruction at VT Center for Dance Education and Castleton State College; her work as an educator at Castleton Elementary School, Fort Hill Center for Early Childhood Education, and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art; and through her workshops for teens and children through Rutland City Public Schools, Rutland Recreation, Castleton Recreation, Stone Valley Arts (Poultney Children’s Art Studio), and the Castleton Free Library.

  • Evan Morse

    Evan Morse is a sculptor, working primarily in clay, plaster and stone. He received a B.A. from Wheaton College and M.F.A. from Boston University. Morse has additionally studied in Florence and Carrara, Italy, where he gained experience with traditional sculpture techniques, including stone-carving. His figurative works have been recognized with two grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Morse is a two-time recipient of the Dexter Jones Award from the National Sculpture Society, which is awarded for work in bas-relief. In addition to his studio practice, he has completed several large-scale public art commissions. Morse lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

    www.morsesculpture.com 
  • J. Angus Munro

    J. Angus Munro has taught studio arts in stone, glass, metal, and wood for over thirty years, beginning his career teaching at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (UrbanGlass) in NYC. His classes have been with students from Parson’s and the New School, NYU, Pratt, FIT, Hunter College, and Columbia University, in NYC, Vermont College, in their Masters of Fine Art in visual art program (now Vermont College of Fine Art), Castleton State, Green Mountain College, Goddard College, in Vt.
    His own work crosses boundaries of disciplines, using earth, art, and energy work, casting, carving, and painting, to create many object and objectless works of art. It uses any medium including social sculpture in process facilitation. He holds the degree of MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College.

  • Ryder Owens

    Ryder Owens has a BFA in sculpture from the University of Montevallo and was an Artist in Residence at the Vermont Marble Exhibit in Proctor for ten years. He is cofounder of Petra Terra, Inc, which specializes in historic stone masonry and conservation.

  • Gary Parzych

    Gary Parzych pursued a dual BFA degree in Sculpture and Art History at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. As a sculptor, he enjoys learning and practicing the hands on, physical efforts of working with metal, stone, and other materials. As an art historian, he values the academic side of the process, and continues to question and analyze. During his time at MassArt, he studied metal casting and fabrication extensively. He has since continued to work with Bronze, Iron, Copper, and Aluminum for various applications. Gary has worked on projects from full size castings to a functional furnace designed to melt iron at 3000 degrees. His knowledge of metal working led him to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Studio where he worked on monumental projects as a metal fabricator. He continues to create his own work and enjoys teaching those who are eager to learn. 

    www.garyparzych.com 
  • Rick Rothrock

    Rick Rothrock is a professional sculptor and holds a B.S. in Education, a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture, and studied stone carving at Pelicani Blasco Studios in Italy. He has been active in the arts for over 40 years exhibiting internationally and represented in various corporate, public, and private collections. Rick has created several major public artworks, many of which are listed in the Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog. Several of his large sculptures can be seen on the grounds of the CSSC.

    Rick is a long time instructor of stone sculpture workshops at The Carving Studio. He has been a frequent participate in SculptFest, curator of SculptFest'11, one of the five feature artist in the Marble Sculpture Symposium at CSSC, and was instructor for the California Sculptors Symposium 2017.

    www.rickrothrock.com 
  • John Tidd

    John Tidd received his BA in Chemistry from Middlebury College where he also studied design and printmaking. He has studied welding in London and the U.S., putting his talents to work to create sculpture and in manufacturing snow-grooming equipment for the ski industry. His studio in West Bridgewater, Vermont is filled with bins of interesting steel shapes that he will share with his workshop participants.

  • Nora Valdez

    Nora Valdez, born in Argentina, has been living and working in the United States as an artist since 1986. In 1982, she graduated with the title of Professor of Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts in San Luis, Argentina. In 1984, she moved to Perugia, Italy, where she further developed and exhibited her work. In 1985, she started working in marble in Zaragoza, Spain, in a studio funded by the city of Zaragoza.

    Her work has been exhibited internationally in Europe, Asia, North, Central, and South America, including numerous international Sculpture Symposiums. She has more than 15 permanent Public Art pieces around the world and in the US. Valdez is the recipient of many awards and has been funded nationally and internationally. She has been a member of Boston Sculpture Gallery since 2012.
    Nora Valdez’s work is part of the permanent collection of The Fitchburg Art Museum, MA, The Art Complex Museum, MA, The University of Massachusetts permanent art collection, Boston and The Changchun World Sculpture Park and Museum, China, among others.

    www.noravaldez.com 
  • Bill Wolff

    Bill Wolff grew up surrounded by trees and the collapse of the manufacturing economy in rural upstate New York. Prior to moving to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, he spent four formative years in Japan and three years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, all the while observing, producing and exhibiting sculpture made primarily from discarded tree parts.

    Since an early experience working on a landfill in the early 1990s, and literally watching the sun rise over a mountain of garbage, Wolff’s work has been a direct response to consumer culture. He holds an MFA from Louisiana State University and an MA in Wood Sculpture from the Tokyo University of the Arts.

    He has worked as an educator since 2009 and has been carving his work since the mid-90s. He is currently an Assistant Professor and head of the sculpture area at Salisbury University on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

    www.billwolff.net 
  • Jiannan Wu

    Jiannan Wu (b.1990) is a Chinese born, New York-based artist specializing in sculpture. He is an adjunct faculty of New York Academy of Art, an Elected Member of the American National Sculpture Society, a member of the American Medallic Sculpture Association, and the World Economic Forum Global Shaper of Dalian Hub. Jiannan Wu received his BFA Degree in Sculpture from China Academy of Art and his MFA Degree in Sculpture from New York Academy of Art. Through formats of sculpture and wall relief, Jiannan Wu presents the theme of contemporary urban life and social events such as politics and sports with a focus on realism and a strong narrative.

    www.jiannanwu.com 
  • Jim Zingarelli

    Jim Zingarelli (B.F.A. Pratt Institute, M.A. Trinity College, Ct., Nicoli Botteghe Artistici di Scultura, Cararra, Italy) is a painter and sculptor who has been teaching art for over 40 years.  He has taught at The Barrington Center for the Arts (Wenham, MA), The Salzburg Institute,(Salzburg, Austria)as well as The Orvieto Semester (Orvieto,Italy) and The Carving Studio & Sculpture Center (West Rutland,VT). His work has been exhibited at The Kingston Gallery (Boston), The Andrea Marquit Gallery (Boston), Pepper Gallery (Boston), 3S Artspace (Portsmouth, NH), Vorpal Gallery (NY), Dartmouth College, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Attleboro Museum. He resides and works in Amesbury, Massachusetts. 

    www.jimzingarelli.com