Meet MPA’s Faculty

David has taught design, drawing, and painting for 24 years at Marymount University and has been an adjunct faculty member at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. His paintings, digital video and digital photographs are included in national and international collections, both private and corporate. Since 2000 his digital videos and video collaborations have been exhibited in venues including Senegal, Egypt, South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, France, and the U.S. He has shown at the McLean Project for the Arts. David teaches the Drawing & Painting Studio at MPA. http://davidcarlsonart.com/index.html

Naomi earned her BFA, Magna Cum Laude, in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MFA in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches drawing and painting as adjunct faculty at both Marymount University and Montgomery College. Naomi teaches Drawing and Painting to both adult and youth students at MPA. www.naomichung.net 

Sharon completed an MFA degree from Queens College, CUNY and an MA from New York University. She was an adjunct professor at the Corcoran College of Art + Design for 11 years and at American University for 14 years. Prior to that, Sharon was Principal Instructor in the Education Department at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City for 5 years. Sharon is MPA’s ArtReach Director and conducts workshops in schools and senior centers, and leads school tours in our galleries. She teaches MPA Summer Camps and Painting and Mixed Media classes at MPA. Sharon is the ArtReach Director at MPA.

Caroline teaches Botanical Illustration at MPA. She is a native northern Virginian with an AA from Marymount University, a BA in Design and MFA in Fine Arts from American University. Working in various media, and specializing in etching and botanical illustration in watercolor, she has worked as an artist for over 30 years. She has also taught clothing construction and design in the Fashion Merchandising Program at Marymount University. Caroline earned membership to the American Society of Botanical Artists, and has exhibited and lectured at Green Spring Gardens in Fairfax County.

Rula Jones is an interdisciplinary artist whose work centers around a single theme of identity. Her work incorporates intriguing juxtapositions of iconography from Americana, the West and Middle Eastern cultures to evoke dialogue on multiculturalism, internationalism and humanism, and explores paradoxes in an increasingly global society. Since graduating from Marymount Manhattan College in 2000, she has worked within a number of aspects in the fine arts, including exhibition, curatorial and education. She has been awarded several awards, exhibitions and residencies. Recent accolades include: an artist feature in the January issue of the Aesthetic Apostle, Chicago, Illinois 2019; group exhibitions at Moving Lab, Venice, Italy, 2019, and at Loosenart, Gallery Millepianai in Rome, Italy, 2019; an artist residency at the Centre Pompadour in Northern France in July 2018; and a finalist for Critical Mass, Photolucida, Portland, Oregon, 2018.

Joyce Lee has been painting in in a variety of styles and subject ranges including realistic still life, portraits and detailed landscapes in oil. Currently, she is working on reinterpreting Korean traditional painting using cephalopod ink and water color on rice paper into oil paintings. Using a more modern or western medium she is hoping to present traditions and customs that are getting lost with the pace of life today. As people are focused on “what’s next”, I would like to present an opportunity for people to reflect on “what was”. This is a new challenge for me and I look forward to sharing my journey. As a part of her symbolism study of her Korean Ancient paintings, she would love to relate and study her flower artworks into symbolic meaning of many different countries. For example, peonies are know as the flower of wealth and honor in ancient China and Korea. I am hoping to find “what other meaning for each object around our daily life” from my paintings. Joyce lee has been exhibited at: Korean Embassy in DC, Herndon Art Gallery, Mclean Art Festival, Chevy Chase Art Festival, Arlington Art Festival, Art League Gallery in Alexandria, Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Reston Community Center in Reston, Jo-Ann Gallery in Reston, Herndon Community Center in Herndon, National Gallery in US Geological Survey in Reston, Great Falls Library, The Artists’ Ateliers Gallery in Great Falls, Elan Magazine, Blick’s Catalogs, Persephone’s Daughters Magazine.

Tom was one of the original instructors placed to teach at MPA by the Corcoran College of Art + Design, and is an adjunct professor at George Mason University. Tom completed his MFA at the University of Chicago and his work has been shown throughout the U.S. He has also exhibited through the Art in Embassies programs in Cuba, Costa Rica, and Tanzania. Tom’s work is in many private and corporate collections across the U.S. Tom teaches Figure Drawing, Foundations Drawing classes, and Painting classes at MPA.

Marise completed her MFA at Catholic University and has studied with a number of prominent Washington, DC artists. She also completed work at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in computer art, digital video, and 3D animation. She was an adjunct professor of Drawing, Digital Imaging and Photoshop at the Corcoran College of Art + Design and has taught at Catholic University. Her work has been shown nationally and is in numerous private collections, and has exhibited at McLean Project for the Arts. Marise teaches Drawing, Figure, Yupo, Mixed Media, and Photoshop classes at MPA. http://www.mariseriddell.com

Pamela Saunders, a natural creative who has a passion for teaching art, has been bringing her unique art program “Young  at Art” to McLean children since 2004. At Brooksfield School, she has been the Art Specialist for 15 years. “Miss Pam” offers art enrichment classes to students from Franklin Sherman, Kent Gardens, Haycock, Lemon Road, Chesterbrook and Longfellow. Teen art classes and adult “sip and paint” style classes have been among her most recent additions. Pamela lives in McLean with her husband and two children and enjoys travel, photography and visiting art exhibitions.

Kerry brings the classical-atelier based Vosler Young Artists’ Studio to MPA for the first time in August 2016. She has taught drawing, portrait, figure and plein air painting for many years. She teaches regular classes and workshops at the Kerry Vosler Studio & Atelier in Tampa, Florida and nationally. She received her formal art training studying directly with master instructors, including Daniel Greene, Robert Liberace, Lois Griffel & Judith Carducci. In 2010 Kerry founded the Vosler Young Artists’ Studio, A Classical Atelier for children under eighteen in Tampa, Florida. Kerry has been the Florida Ambassador for the Portrait Society of America since 2005. In 2012 she was appointed faculty to the Portrait Society of America’s Annual Portrait Academy, Miami, Florida. Kerry is also a board member of the Southern Atelier Classical Art School in Sarasota, Florida. www.vosleryoungartistsstudio.com

Jordan Xu is a contemporary painter whose works can be best described as colorist and conceptual realism. They have been shown in many galleries and art venues around the DC metro area. He combines the vibrant colors of the impressionist style with his broad, fluid brushwork. His paintings often present the lives, passions and cultures of people from all over the world. While he is a representational painter, he would sometimes depict surrealistic, whimsical images that takes the audience to a world of fantasy. He has been teaching painting around the metro region for over 10 years.

Lubna works in watercolor and silk, and finds both to be quite similar. With over 30 years of painting and teaching experience, these mediums allow for a certain type of wondrous fluidity and animation which she finds exciting and challenging. Lubna belongs to The Potomac Fiber Arts Guild, Washington Calligraphers Guild and Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery. She currently teaches watercolors at the Reston Community Center and The Art League in Old Town Alexandria. She has participated in various Fine Art shows for many years in upstate NY and after moving to Virginia in 2011, she show cases her work in McLean, Great Falls and Old Town Alexandria. Lubna teaches Calligraphy and Decorative Lettering, Watercolor, and Botanical art classes at MPA. www.elzyart.com