Clare Hirn received a significant scholarship to attend the New York Academy of Art – Graduate School of Figurative Art, located in Manhattan. The curriculum continues to focus on strong foundational skills for working “realistically” from life and the figure.
After graduating with her masters in painting and drawing in 1990, Hirn worked for a mural design firm in NYC, learning the techniques of working large scale. Upon returning to her hometown of Louisville, KY she pursued both mural work and her personal painting, participating and receiving awards in many regional shows. Hirn’s fine art murals and paintings grace many homes, businesses, and public spaces and have appeared in numerous publications.
Shohei Katayama is a Japanese American artist who explores the space between light and dark, life and death, beauty and danger, nature and man. His work includes line drawings, sculpture, and installation art.
Katayama received his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award by the International Sculpture Center, the Frank-Ratchye Fund for the Art at the Frontier Award, and a finalist in the 21C Artadia award, among others. His work has been exhibited nationally, and internationally in Venice, Italy; New York; Portland, OR, and more. Katayama has participated in residencies in Norway; Brazil; NJ; Tough Art Residency Program in Pittsburgh, PA, and at the Asia Institute Crane House in Louisville, KY.