Alumni Profiles

Carrie Burr graduated Cum Laude with a BFA in photography in 2002 from the University of Louisville. After graduation, Carrie exhibited her artwork and received grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Woman. She worked in New York and Los Angeles to pursue yoga education and photography. Subsequently, she attended Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont and studied holistic living and building. Concurrently, she studied Ecological Economics with Robert Costanza and Ecological Design with John Todd at the University of Vermont. Carrie's current work pertains to plants, their full meaning, and relationship to people and the planets.

Kenneth R. Crawford, II received his Bachelor of Science in Fine Arts with a concentration in Interior Design from the University of Louisville in 1987. He is the President of Kenneth Crawford Interiors located in Hollywood, Florida. For over 25 years, Crawford has designed restaurants in Japan, France, Canada and the United States. He has designed across the United States, in areas such as Fisher Island, Golden Beach, Turnberry Beach Club, Pine Crest, Porto Vita North and South Towers, Continuum, Woodfield Country Club, Two Liberty in Philadelphia and numerous other prominent locations. Crawford has designed for several high profile individuals, including a member of the royal family of Kuwait and a member of the Marley family. His work has been published in a number of design magazines and on television. He has received multiple interior design awards including Best Designer by Houzz in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

William L. Fischer was born in Louisville in 1918. For most all of his life, Bill had been an artist, beginning at about age 11, and later attended the University of Louisville on an art scholarship in 1937, the first year for the art department. He studied with the world famous muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a year, and where, in later years, he maintained a winter home. Bill's art has been locally acclaimed and exhibited many times over the years. His prominent work has included the design of the stained glass windows at Keneseth Israel Congregation on Taylorsville Road. He was a US Army veteran of WW II, and very early on, worked for the Louisville Courier-Journal and Times in layout and as an illustrator. This was prior to founding and then retiring as owner of the old Fischer's Men's Shoes on Market St. and on Jefferson St., whereupon he became a very successful investor and philanthropist.  During his long career as an artist, he also encouraged and supported young artists.  He established the Bill Fischer Working Artist scholarship fund which funded scholarships in studio art at area colleges and universities including the University of Louisville.  Recently this fund was refocused toward artists beginning their professional careers.  He was also a long-time and consistent donor to the BFA and MFA programs in the Department of Fine Arts. He established the Bill Fischer Senior Project Grant, awarded each semester to the most promising students in both 2-D and 3-D studios based on their BFA review, to aid in the mounting of their BFA Senior Exhibition. He provided underwriting for off-campus BFA studios at Our Mother of Sorrows and was a long-time and consistent donor to the MFA program through his generous and ongoing donations to the MFA Studio Building currently under renovation in Portland neighborhood.

Mallica Kumbera Landrus received her MA in art history from the University of Louisville in 1999. Between 2000 and 2006, she worked on her dissertation on the Portuguese ecclesiastical architecture in Goa and received her Ph.D. from the University of London in 2006. Since completing her PhD, Mallica has been living in Rhode Island and taught South Asian Art and Architecture at several prestigious institutions: Brown University (Visiting Assistant Professor 2007-09), Princeton University (Research and Teaching Fellow 2009, and Director of Global Seminar in India 2010) and the Rhode Island School of Design (Lecturer 2006-2010 and Assistant Professor 2010-2011). Her research interests lie in the study of transnational space and the built environment. Her scholarly interests also include the diaspora and the study of information and objects across constructed and conceptual boundaries.

Sarah Lasley was a Hendershot scholar at UofL and received her BFA in painting in 2004. While in her junior year, she attended the Yale-Norfolk Summer Art Program, a six-week residency for distinguished undergrads across the globe, and in the summer of 2004, she was the youngest to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a prestigious summer residency for emerging artists. Following Skowhegan, she lived in New York working as a studio assistant to a network of professional artists, and in 2006, she entered the MFA painting program at the Yale School of Art. In her first semester at Yale, in an attempt to focus the conceptual aspects of her work, she made the switch from figurative painting to narrative video. She graduated from Yale University with an MFA in painting, with thesis work in video in 2008. She has since exhibited her films all over the world from Los Angeles to New York, Chicago, Alexandria, and Barcelona. She is currently teaching Video Art at Vassar College.

Joe McGee, BFA in Sculpture 1986, was the recipient of the Winthrop Allen Award. Since graduation, McGee has maintained an active exhibition schedule, presented his 2D and 3D artwork in numerous solo and group exhibitions. McGee is working on a new project "Merton Among Us: The Living Legacy of Thomas Merton" in which he conceived and organized the selection of artists and writer/poets to honor the life and work of Thomas Merton for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of his passing. This project is being hosted in 2018 by Spalding University, in cooperation with The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. McGee’s works are in many private and public collections, and he has completed several large commissioned sculptures for Woodford Reserve Distillery. McGee was a recipient of a SAF/NEA Fellowship (1988) and a Kentucky Arts Council Professional Assistance Award (1993). For thirty years, McGee worked at the Speed Museum, the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Kentucky Expo Center.

Jane Morgan received her BFA from the University of Louisville in 1994. In 1998, she founded the Plein Air Painters of Kentucky with a small group of artists. The group has now grown tremendously with members from Louisville and surrounding cities. In 2006, Jane opened her own gallery to further promote the ideal of Plein Air and to showcase the work of the members of the Kentucky Plein Air Painters. The Jane Morgan Gallery is now representing ten Plein Air Artists. Her gallery is located at 4838 Brownsboro Road.

Joyce Ogden, received her BFA from the University of Louisville in 1986.  She received an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington and has exhibited throughout the southeast. Ogden has been the recipient of grants and awards that include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Program, the Kentucky Foundation for Women Sallie Bingham Award, the Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council.  She is a founding member of ENID, a Louisville based women sculptors organization.  She has been reviewed in regional as well as national publications. Ms. Ogden is Professor of Art at Spalding University and the Kentucky School of Art at Spalding in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bill Porter, a native Louisvillian, attended the University of Louisville as a Hite Scholar and graduated from the Hite Art Institute.  After serving in the US Army, he completed a Master's Degree in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute.  Mr. Porter's thirty-eight-year career in automobile design began at General Motors Styling in 1957.  While Mr. Porter was Chief of GM's Advanced Design Studio in the early 1960's, he designed the 1968 Pontiac GTO prototype.  Later he was the head of the Pontiac Studio and responsible for the 1968-72 GTO and 1970-73 Firebird and Trans-Am.  Prior to retiring from GM, he ran the Buick Studio and is credited with the design of the 1995-99 Riviera and Riviera Silver Arrow, the Park Avenue and the 2000 LeSabre.  During those years he helped develop a new vocabulary of forms in the automotive industry, not only from a mechanical standpoint but also from a visual viewpoint.  Mr. Porter continues to influence automotive design, teaching a new generation of designers at Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies.  he has also published a history of the Willys Corporation for the Toledo Museum and a catalog for The Alliance of Art and Industry.

Guinever Smith received a BA in painting from the University of Louisville in 1984 and an MFA in painting from the University of Cincinnati. From 1988 to 1993, she taught painting, drawing, and two-dimensional design at U of L. In 1993, she founded the Studio School in Louisville, where she is now the head instructor in drawing and painting. Her work has been featured in a variety of exhibitions. Some of the more recent ones include Language of the Land: Contemporary Landscape Paintings of Kentucky and Ecuador in Lexington, KY and Quito, Ecuador; the Cambridge Art Association National Prize Show in Boston; and a solo exhibit entitled Small Horizons at the Heike Pickett Gallery in Versailles, KY. Collections, where her work can be found, include those of Bellarmine College, the University of Kentucky Art Museum, Brown-Forman, Commonwealth Bank, and the University Club at U of L.

Kelly Wacker received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Louisville in 2002. She is currently Associate Professor of Art at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. In 2010, she was named University Scholar and was nominated for the CASE Professor of the Year award sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. While Wacker's teaching expertise spans Baroque through contemporary periods, her special interest is in Land Art and ecologically oriented art. Her research examines the transformation of this modernist movement from its inception in the 1960s and 70s, typified by massive earthworks emphasizing the role of the individual, into the ecological and social-activist art that represents the current period. She has wide-ranging interests and has edited an anthology, "Baroque Tendencies in Contemporary Art" (2007), and has written essays on diverse topics including David Bowie's reflections on postmodern contemporary art trends and geopolitics in the work of Mel Chin. She also curates exhibitions for Florida State University and for Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis.

Dona Wong, the author of The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics, is a graduate from UofL with a BA in graphic design. She received her MFA from Yale and completed her thesis on information design. Dona is the former graphics director at The Wall Street Journal, where she was responsible for setting the graphics standard for all feature and breaking news graphics. Previously, Dona served as a business graphics editor at The New York Times. Her book is currently being translated into Chinese, German, Spanish, and Japanese. She lectures widely on the topic of information design and presentation graphics.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AND RECENT GRADUATES

Sally Hazelet Drummond, MA 1952 • painter, Germantown, NY

William Porter, BA 1954 • auto designer, GM (retired), Detroit

Sam Gilliam, Jr., BA 1955, MA 1961 • artist, Washington, D.C.

Joseph Fitzpatrick, MA 1957 • Professor, University of Kentucky

Alma Lesch, MA 1961 • fiber artist; instructor, Louisville School of Art

Tom Marsh, BS 1960 • potter; Professor, University of Louisville

Laura Volkerding, BS 1961 • photographer, San Francisco, CA

Mike Power, BS 1965 • Founder, Power Creative, Inc., Louisville, KY

Gwen Heffner, MA 1977 • Information Specialist and Curator, Kentucky Artisan Center, Berea, KY

Mark Hall, BA 1977 • printmaker, and Chair of Fine Arts, Maryville College, TN

Robert Stagg, MA 1979 • artist and art educator

Sara Frederick, MA 1979 • potter, Louisville, KY

Laura Ross, MA 1980 • Ceramicist; 2015 Governor's Lifetime Achievement in The Arts award winner

Karen Spears, BA 1981 • artist; Professor, Eastern Kentucky University

Greg Chann, BA 1983 • sculptor, New York, NY

Joe McGee, BFA 1986 • artist and curator

Joyce Ogden, BFA 1986 • artist; Professor, Spalding University

Michael Ian Kaye, BA 1987 • graphic designer, teacher, creative director and business leader, New York, NY

David Helm, BA 1987 • graphic designer and educator, Portland, OR

Kenneth R. Crawford, II, BSc 1987 • interior designer, President of Kenneth Crawford Interiors, Hollywood, FL

Rod Miller, Ph.D. 1988 • Associate Professor of Art, Hendrix College, Conway, AK

Matt Landrus, MA 1988 • author/art historian, Oxford University, UK

Dona Wong, BA 1988 • information graphic expert, author, New York, NY

Beth Torstrick, BFA 1994 • textile designer, New York, NY

Kathleen V. Jameson, MA in Art History, 1995 • Director, James A. Michener Museum 

Paul Burns, BA 1996 • Communications Director at Louisville Free Public Library.

Brent Dedas, BFA 2001 • Associate Professor of Painting, Western Kentucky University

Lisa Simon BFA 2001 • artist

Kelly Wacker, Ph.D. 2002 • Professor of Fine Arts, University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL

Elmer Lucille Allen, MA 2002 • artist, recipient of numerous awards

Carrie Burr, BFA 2002 • photographer; Owner of Carriemarieb Photography

Dan Barczak, BFA 2003 • Senior Designer, Fischer Design, Cincinnati, OH

Kendrick Gholston, BA 2003 • Associate Director of Student Development, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Irina Ivanova, BFA 2003 • Designer, Graphis.

Guy Kelly, BFA 2003 • Art Director, F+W Publications, Cincinnati, OH

Irina Ivanova, BFA 2003 • Senior Designer at Pepsi Snacks, NYC

Dan Barczak, BFA 2003 • Creative Director/Partner, Hyperquake, Cincinnati, OH

Matt Weir, BFA 2004 • Sculptor, Louisville, KY

Kyle Vice, BFA 2004 • Designer for Philips Healthcare, Boston, MA

Rebecca Norton, BFA 2004 • painter

Cynthia Norton, MAT 2004 • performance and multimedia artist

Sarah Lasley, BFA 2004 • New Media faculty, Indiana University, Bloomington

Maiza Hixon, MA 2005 • Curator of Collections, Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, Santa Barbara, CA

Jennifer Maravillas, BFA 2006 • Illustrator/Designer, Brooklyn, NY

Julie Leidner, BFA 2006 • artist, 2015 Mary Alice Hadley Prize for Visual Art winner, Louisville, KY

Carrie Neumayer MAT 2007 • illustrator and art educator. Executive Director at Girls Rock Louisville

Jesse Levesque, MA 2008 • Director and Curator, The Ground Floor Gallery, Clinton, WA

Mo McKnight Howe, BFA 2008 • artist and Gallery Owner, Revelry Gallery, Louisville, KY

Michael Etter, BFA 2008, MAT 2012 • Art Educator, Jefferson County Public Schools

Douglas Miller, BFA 2009 • artist, Louisville, KY

Joey Yates, MA 2009 • Curator, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY

Scott Soeder BFA 2010 • award-winning illustrator and designer

Sara Pitt, BFA 2011 • designer, developer, artist. Owner of SP Creative, Louisville, KY

Jessi Eichberger, BFA in 2011 in 2D studios • film and television costume designer.

Tess Payton, BFA 2012 • educator, artist, Program Coordinator, Governor's School for the Arts

Cecilia Xi Zhang, MA 2012 • Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago

Jordon Lance Morgan, BFA 2012 • artist

Jessica Bellamy, BFA 2012 in 2-D Studio and Graphic Design • founder of GRIDS, The Grassroots Information Design Studio. 

Marcus Siu, BFA 2012 • Gallery Director and Curator, Asia Institute Crane House

Rosalie Rosenthal BFA 2013 • Visual Artist

Rosalie Rosenthal, BFA 2013 • photographer

Rebecca Insko, BFA 2014 • Interior Designer, Swope Design Group

Zhe Dong, MA 2014 • Ph.D. candidate, University of Virginia

Rebecca Insko, BFA 2014 • Interior Designer at Swope Design Group, Louisville, KY

Kendall Herdelin, BFA 2014 • Graphic Designer, Kindred Healthcare, Louisville, KY

Robyn Gibson, BFA 2014 • painter

Stacey Reason, MA 2015 • Executive Director at Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY

Sandra Charles, BFA 2015 • painter

Tracey Eckersley, Ph.D. 2016 • educator

Kathryn Harrington, BFA 2016 • photographer

Miranda Becht, MFA 2017 • artist and art educator

Tom LeGoff, MFA 2017 • Director of Photography, School of Creative & Performing Arts (SOCAPA), New York, NY

Marie-Elena Ottman, MFA 2017 • artist and art educator

Eileen Yanoviak, Ph.D. 2017 • Speed Art Museum

Miranda Becht, MFA 2017 • installation artist

Autumn Lindsey, BFA 2017 • painter, ceramicist

Douglas Miller, MFA 2018 • artist and educator

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