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 FACULTY

Sarah Stolar - Chair of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media

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Sarah Stolar is an interdisciplinary artist who works from a vast technical perspective. The breadth of her work includes painting, drawing, multi-media installation, film, video and performance art. She grew up in her mother’s art studio and award-winning art school Schain Studios, and holds a BFA in Painting from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and an MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at the Harwood Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and BGMoCA in Montevideo, Uruguay. www.sarahstolar.com

 

Sarah is the Chair of Fine Arts, Film and Digital Media at UNM-Taos. She teaches Drawing I, Drawing II, Painting I , Painting II, Sculpture, Art Practices I, and Art Practices II. 

 

Email: sstolar@unm.edu

Peter Walker - Film and Digital Media Arts Program Coordinator

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Peter Walker is a filmmaker, photographer and educator. He is also a lifelong student of Aikido, a Japanese Martial Art. Peter grew up in his fathers’ woodworking studio making sawdust. He earned his Masters Degree in Education from the University of Oregon and his Directors’ Certificate from the Asian Academy of Film and Television in New Delhi, India. He honed his filmmaking craft during three years of productions in Malaysia followed by a documentary in Costa Rica. Recently he spent a summer as an Artist-in-Residence at Arquetopia in Urubamba, Peru. He has been teaching media arts for 14 years. https://taoswalkermedia.com 

 

Peter is the Film and Digital Media Arts Program Coordinator. He teaches Intro to Film and Digital Media, Introduction to Cinematography, and Digital Video Production I.

Email: Pedrowalker@unm.edu

Gary Cook - Associate Professor 
Fine Arts Program

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Associate Professor Gary Cook has forty years of teaching experience. Over his career he has taught all levels of painting, drawing and printmaking as well as classes on consciousness, creativity, healing and personal awareness. He has developed programs with visual artists, writers, musicians, dream shamans, dancers and global educators. He teaches for both the art department and the Holistic Health and Healing Arts Program. Four museums, ten universities and fifteen galleries have exhibited his paintings and prints. He earned his MFA at Northern Illinois University and BFA at Michigan State University.

 

Gary teaches Drawing I, Drawing II, Painting , Painting II, and Intro to Printmaking, and Monotype.

Email: gary@unm.edu

Lee Akins - Faculty
Fine Arts Program

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Lee Akins was born in Texas, but grew up in Taiwan.He received his B.F.A. from the Dayton Art Institute, Ohio in 1975 and M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University in Ceramics in 1986. He has taught ceramics for more than 40 years.He has exhibited internationally in Taiwan and Japan and nationally including The Dallas Museum of Art. His work has been featured in ceramic magazines including an article in Ceramics Monthly, August/September 2006. www.leeakins.com

Lee teaches Intro to Ceramics, Ceramics I, Raku, Sculpture, and Drawing I.

Email: lakins@unm.edu

Kelly Clement- Faculty
Film and Digital Media Arts Program 

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Kelly is a self-confessed movie addict who received his M.A. in film production from San Francisco State University in 1990. He has since produced and directed numerous films, videos and multimedia projects and has taught film classes at Minnesota College of Art and Design and UNM-Taos for the past 20 years. From 1995-2003 Kelly was the co-founder and Director of Programming for the Taos Talking Picture Festival. He has also worked with the True/False Film Festival, the Nantucket Film Festival and the Denver Film Festival. Currently he is the documentary film programmer for the Mill Valley Film Festival and the DocLands Documentary Film Festival.

 

Kelly teaches Intro to Film Studies and Beyond Hollywood.

Email: clement8@unm.edu

Paula King - Faculty
Fine Arts Program

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Serving UNM-Taos since 2008, Paula shares her love for working with student learners, art-making, and the study of art appreciation and art history through online education. Paula's experience includes teaching studio art, digital photography, image editing, video production, and new media. She delivers art instruction to learners across the state of New Mexico and beyond. She continues to improve the experience of online instruction through research and training, designing UNM-Taos art courses to Quality Matters Standards. Degrees: Master of Fine Art Studio Art / Art History, Universidad de Guanajuato, Mx., Master of Science Studio Art / Art History, Texas A&M University, Bachelor of Fine Art, Studio Art / Art History, University of Texas, Austin. 

 

Paula teaches Introduction to Art, History of Art I, History of Art II, and Modern Art.

 

Email: pk1ng@unm.edu

Jaime Knight - Faculty
Fine Arts Program

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Jaime Knight is an artist, musician and educator whose practice investigates the radical intricacies of queer subjectivity. Born and raised in Albuquerque, he did his growing up in California. He received his BFA from the University of New Mexico, an MA in Arts Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. His work utilizes drawn and printed material, sculptural objects and installation, and time-based media. Some of his recent projects explore the correlation between the AIDS crisis and nuclear threat of the Reagan era, ideas of queer utopianism and longing and representations of gays in history and contemporary media. jaimecknight.com

 

Jaime teaches Introduction to Photography and Graphic Design.

 

Email: jaimecknight@unm.edu

Adrian Pijoan - Faculty
Fine Arts & Film and Digital Media Arts Program 

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Adrian is a new media artist and filmmaker based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his work Adrian explores the relationship between contemporary anxieties and stories of the paranormal. Sightings of Adrian have been reported at UFO festivals, Bigfoot research conferences, and in the dark recesses of the comments sections of low-view-count YouTube videos. Adrian received his MFA from the University of New Mexico in 2016. Adrian's work has been shown at Silicon Valet; De:Formal; The Sanitary Tortilla Factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Biquini Wax gallery in Mexico City; as part of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts in Vancouver, Canada; and other traditional and nontraditional spaces. https://adrianpijoan.net

Adrian teaches Introduction to Photography, Art and Ecology, and Introduction to Photoshop

Email: ampijoan@unm.edu

Kimberly Thompson - Faculty
Fine Arts Program 

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Kimberly Thompson is a professional goldsmith, who specializes in producing wearable works inspired by cultural relics and sacred geometry. Over the past decade, she has studied numerous techniques from around the world in the classical tradition of metal arts and jewelry fabrication. Through her work as an instructor of small metals and metalsmithing, she passes her knowledge of the craft to the next generation of perspective artists. After receiving her MA in Art History from CSU Sacramento, in addition to her training as an art historian, Kimberly has committed herself to the continual education and promotion of craft-based arts.  She has taught both Art History and Metalsmithing at multiple college campuses throughout California. https://dorisjeandesign.com

Kimberly teaches Jewelry and Small Metal Construction I and Jewelry and Small Metal Construction II.

Email: thompsonkj@unm.edu

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