Beyond The Classroom
The Arts Council has welcomed art teachers from across the Brazos Valley to our main gallery to showcase artwork from their collections. Community members are invited to come and experience each artist’s distinct artwork styles, get to know the inspiration behind their work, and enjoy art from across the Brazos Valley!
Dates: August 1st – September 12th
Locations: 4180 Gallery & Bradfield Gallery of Fine Art
Join the Arts Council for a reception celebrating the opening of Beyond the Classroom!
Date & Time: August 7th | 4:30PM
Locations: 4180 Gallery & Bradfield Gallery of Fine Art
Meet The Artists
01
Thomasin Aleman
Thomasin Aleman is an artist and educator based in Bremond, Texas. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, from Texas State University, she began her career in education at Cesar Chavez Middle School with Waco ISD. She leads the Varsity art program at her school and her students brought home 14 medals in the Jr. Vase art competition this past school year. While she is primarily focused on painting, Thomasin enjoys working with a variety of mediums.
02
Blake Allen
Blake Allen is a 28 year Art Educator and Administrator. Currently serving as an Assistant Principal for Bryan High School, Blake has taught Art to Middle and High School Students in Waco and Groesbeck and served as Interim Fine Arts Director for Bryan ISD in 2006. Even while moving out of the classroom, Blake has kept his finger on the pulse of the visual and performing arts by conducting a printmaking workshop for the local chapter of the Texas Art Education Association as well as serving as a scenic artist and appearing in cameos for the Bryan High School Musical.
03
Mindy Austin
As a lifelong learner and lover of the arts, Mindy studied art and dance at Texas State University. She earned a PhD at Texas A&M in Educational Human Resources. Mindy enjoys the creativity and problem-solving of being an artist. She taught art in CSISD and was constantly amazed by the creativity of our students. In retirement she has focused on painting in acrylics and oils. Mindy enjoys plein air and studio work.
04
Jami Bevans
Jami Bevans is a veteran teacher with 36 years under her belt. She started at A&M Consolidated and retired in 2020. She missed sharing her love of art and went back into the classroom in 2022 at Allen Academy. She currently enjoys all mediums but at present is concentrating her efforts with acrylic. A firm believer in sharing knowledge, she has been on the board for Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) serving from 2009 to 2021, been a long time member of the Brazos Valley Art Education Association and is currently a Distinguished Fellows for TAEA.
05
Kelsey Boe
Kelsey Boe is an artist and art teacher, actively sharing the joy of art to students across the Brazos Valley. She has taught Pre-Kindergarten through High School, and is inspired by the creativity of her young artists. Treasuring every opportunity to make art accessible to everyone in the Brazos Valley, she has taught students at One Day Academy, Bryan ISD, ILTexas, KOR Education School, The Arts Council of the Brazos Valley, and more! Her personal art is inspired by the joy and wonder shared with her by those incredible artists!
06
Richard Bradford
Richard Bradford is an art teacher at Arrow Academy where he has been teaching for the last 8 years. He and his wife are celebrating 27 years of marriage in August and have four wonderful children. Richard has traveled the world including living in Thailand for two years. He loves when he gets a opportunity to eat Thai food and speak Thai.
07
Cynthia Castillo
Cynthia is a Texas native, but an Army brat who was raised in Alabama. She has a BA in ceramics and a Master of Art History. Cynthia is a lifelong learner, an award-winning and exhibiting artist, art educator, and college professor. Her passions are art history, creating, working with mixed media arts, being in nature, and travel.
08
Teri Clark
Teri has been an elementary art teacher for 17 years, with 31 years of teaching experience. She began as a classroom teacher for 14 years and eventually found her way to her true calling of teaching kids how to create and make art for themselves. Teri’s goal in the art room is to help her students to know that they are an artist. Their classroom is their studio, where they are safe to explore, make mistakes, solve problems, and learn to grow their brain in all areas of their life, not just in art.
09
Richard Davison
Richard R. Davison Jr, a professor emeritus of the College of Architecture faculty at Texas A&M University, was born in Marlin, Texas in 1953. He received a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M in 1975. After graduation he pursued his career in art, obtained a BFA and MFA from the University of California at Irvine in 1976 and Washington University in 1979, respectively. Davison has established himself as one of the major artists in the state and distinguished himself nationally by having been featured in several national exhibitions, including “Superficial: An Exhibition About the Surface of a Painting” at the Art museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; “Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum Industry in American Art”, a five museum touring exhibition curated by Francine Carraro; “Texas Art for Russia”, Invitational Group Exhibition, organized by Art League of Houston, curated by internationally known artist, Frank Williams. Davison has also been a recipient of several awards, both as an artist and as a teacher. Most notably, he received the Texas A&M association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement award in Teaching and honorary induction into Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society, Alpha Alpha Chapter, Texas A&M University. Furthermore, his work has been featured in solo exhibitions, including, recently, an exhibition titled “Heavenly Architecture” at The Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas.
10
Robyn Glass
Art teacher for 14 years in public schools. Currently teach Art at Iola High School. Have taught all ages – K-12. BFA in Studio Art, 2002.
Freelance dinnerware and textile designer for 5 years. Married 24 years, two sons. Work in all 2-D media, mainly drawing, painting, and paper-cut
11
Christine Grafe
Christine Grafe is a native of Pennsylvania who served in the US Army before attending Texas Tech University. There she earned a BFA in Art Education graduating summa cum laude. She has been teaching art for 34 years, 32 of those in College Station, TX.
12
LeAnn Hale
LeAnn is an artist, art educator, and the founder of the Purple Turtle Art Studio in Bryan, Texas. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University (1993) and an Art Education Certification from Sam Houston State University (1999). LeAnn’s mission is to nurture creativity in children, helping them express themselves confidently through art. She launched the Purple Turtle Art Studio in 2000, offering a wide range of programs, from after-school classes to homeschool art education, special needs programs, adult sessions, and corporate events. Before founding her studio, she taught art at Johnson Elementary School, where her contributions played a role in the school’s recognition as a Blue Ribbon School. LeAnn has also been actively involved in various summer art programs and consistently hosts popular Summer Art Camps at her studio. She worked as a classroom art instructor for One Day Academy from 2017 to 2022. LeAnn is known for her strong community engagement and partnerships, hosting annual art exhibits in Downtown Bryan and showcasing her students’ work at the Downtown Art Fair. She has facilitated art programs for teens in the Juvenile Justice System and collaborates with Texas A&M University on interdisciplinary projects blending science and art.
13
Sara Jordan
Sara currently teaches Art 1, Art 2 Painting, Art 2 Drawing, and Partner Art at College Station High School. She is originally from Saratoga, TX. She has always drawn since she was a child and returned to avidly drawing later in high school, drawing friends and subjects from magazines like Sports Illustrated and National Geographic. Sara attended Sam Houston State University and earned a Bachelor’s of Art with Highest Honors in Studio Art and minored in Art History and Spanish. She has taught for 11 ½ years. She has also traveled to various countries for missions and has created art inspired by those locations and even got to teach art on one trip!
14
Ariel Kellogg
Ariel has been an art teacher for 16 years. She finds joy in creating art, usually paintings of her son or dabbling in fiber art making. Ariel’s work focuses on preserving her personal relationship experiences and memories with family members by recreating moments in time.
15
Brent Maxwell
Maxwell was born in Corpus Christi, TX but grew up in Odessa, TX. His formal art training began at Odessa College. Maxwell transferred to the University of Texas at Austin where he received a BFA and MFA. He continued working construction in the Austin area as well as west Texas, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. Maxwell returned to school in order to gain his teaching certificate, and then (proudly) taught in Texas public schools for 28 years. Since retirement in 2016, Maxwell has been pushing paint around for my own endeavors.
16
Lisa Miller
Lisa L. Miller taught Art at Bremond ISD for 20 years and since retiring in 2019 has switched gears and now teaches adults watercolor painting at her studio, The Laughing Parrot, located on Main Street in Bremond, TX
17
Renee Richards
Renee is an artist who really enjoys oils but on occasion likes to play with other mediums and media. This time she did a bit of everything and while she had a pretty clear understanding of where she wanted to end up, it was a definite journey getting there.
The image is a study in lighting and the way it spills over brass and it plays with the rhythm, pattern and movement found in the valves of a French Horn. Hopefully the viewer enjoys getting lost in the texture and rhythm as much as Renee does. (if you happen to be musically inclined hope you are immersed in a deeper way and this hits an even more special note.)
18
Hannah Sanders
Hannah is a follower of Christ, wife, mom, teacher, artist and writer. She loves all things book-ish, afternoon tea, and growing things that bring butterflies and hummingbirds to her yard. Hannah is happiest in the mountains and when surrounded by tall trees. The outdoors is where her next idea for art or poetry is usually born. While she doesn’t currently teach art, Hannah does love weaving her love for art into her classroom. Hannah’s art and poetry can be found on Instagram @hannahsanders.art
19
Katie Shirley
Katie Shirley is a life-long Bryan resident and self taught artist. Katie began her teaching career in 2022-23, following a year of volunteer work with Ms. Lisa Urban at St. Joseph Elementary in Bryan. Her efforts as a volunteer and educator helped earn St. Joseph School a District of Distinction title awarded by the Texas Art Educators Association. Currently exploring various themes with acrylic paint on larger scale canvas, she enjoys playing with the more whimsical storytelling side of art, focusing on settings and introducing characters. Katie is also a master at crochet, proficient in knitting, sewing, weaving, and various fiber arts, jewelry design and fabrication, fluid art, figure drawing, sketching, and paper crafts. She has been active in the local art culture; creating, displaying, and selling works across the Brazos Valley (and beyond) since the year 2000.
20
Lisa Urban
Lisa Urban is currently living and working in Bryan, TX, where she teaches 6-12th grade art at St. Joseph Catholic School. Lisa has been an artist since childhood, learning from an early age the power that art can have on one’s life. She grew up in Salina, KS and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS.
21
T.W. ‘Pops’ Vanya
“T.W. ‘Pops’ Vanya has been painting since 2000 but that’s just recently. His career has not always followed the way of the artist; a Houston Police Officer, as delivery boat crew in the yachting industry, a cabinet maker, an iron worker, a life guard and a few other pursuits along the way lead interestingly enough, to the world of western art. He and his wife Kathy now make their home in the rural community of Somerville in central Texas. Their home is 117 years old and they live close to the cattle, horses, ranches and cowboys he loves to portray. He makes the statement that “God granted me the ability to put onto paper and canvas that which I can see. The fact that my avocation and vocation are the same is God’s grace provision; therefore, let the work begin.”
22
Thomas Welch
Thomas Welch, currently working as an art teacher at Sul Ross Elementary, finds his daily interactions with Pre-K through 4th-grade students to be a continuous source of inspiration and joy. Having always been drawn to art, Thomas constantly seeks new outlets and techniques to express his creative vision. Thomas enjoys experimenting with resin and other mediums, translating his ideas into tangible forms. His work is deeply personal, often reflecting current aspects of his life and aspirations. Recently, Thomas has found immense joy and inspiration in his relationship with his son, Charles, who has become a central muse in his artistic journey.
23
Sabra Wilhelm
Sabra deLyn Wilhelm is the owner of deLyn Atelier, a small fine art & teaching studio in College Station. She loves making art and sharing that love with others. Sabra earned her BA in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma and started working in the Public Programs Department at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Later, she received her Teacher Certification in Secondary Art from Texas State University. Sabra has spent 11 years teaching Art and Life Sciences in public schools across Texas. She is now teaching Art History part time at KOR Education School and out of her private studio, as well as working towards her AFA degree through the Tohono O’odham Community College.