Meet The Residents
In 2018, The Arts Center started the Accelerator Residency through the Artist Accelerator Program. The Residency continues to grow annually with new residents hosted January – March. Each year residents are chosen for their enthusiasm and potential as emerging artists, creatives, and makers in the region to work on their creative work and creative business.
Current and past residents come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and use a wide array of media including fiber, encaustic, photography, ceramics, and recycled materials. The program is kept small but mighty to boost the success and community between residents. You can learn about our past residents via video and their Artist Bios by scrolling down.
As of March 2023, the program has graduated 19 creatives!
Artist Accelerator Programming
Community & Events
Workshops
Lectures +
Accelerator Residency
A 12-week intensive to start
your future creative business.
2024 Artists
Marie McMahon | Painting
Marie McMahon is a painter based in Eugene, Oregon, who specializes in creating fine art commissions and gallery paintings. Marie’s work features expressive colors, dynamic brushwork, and a unique combination of abstract imagery and realism. Typically referencing flowers, animals, human forms, skyscapes, landscapes, and waterscapes, she aims to evoke the spirit of her subject matter through intuitive expression. Marie values the process of painting and experiencing what she sees. She completes most paintings in one sitting, capturing a fresh and singular experience. Marie aims for her work to enhance feelings of joy, well-being, and connection for customers and viewers.
Camila Godoy | Painting & Illustration
Camila Godoy is a Chilean artist living in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. She started her professional artistic journey in 2022 in Oregon. She teaches art classes focused on inclusiveness in watercolor, colored pencils, inks, and mixed media. Her artwork is joyful and playful and uses loose brushstrokes, vibrant colors, and effects like stains, splatters, and other tiny elements. Her creative process involves a harmonious combination of these pieces to paint flowers, animals, and faces with flowers for hair.
Camille Ainsworth | Fiber Arts
Camille Ainsworth is a fiber artist working and living in Albany, Oregon. A quilt-maker since 2001 Camille began making modern-day Japanese rice bags in 2022. Camille references her mental state at the time of making a piece through careful consideration of fabric combinations and textures. Her’s is a daily practice of hand stitching panels of the modern styled rice bags with Sashiko thread. Camille honors the sacredness of the traditional Japanese rice bags in her practice while drawing inspiration from the eccentric sculptural Kate Spade handbags and outfits of her teens.
2023 Artists
Scott Moss | Painting & Photography
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Robin Weiss | Recycled Materials & Installation
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2022 Artists
Caroline Feyling | Textiles
Caroline Feyling is a textile artist living in Oregon. She received her BFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Caroline creates functional Scandinavian-style weavings that serve to bridge the gap between the contemporary and tradition, as well as the distance between heritage and daily life.
Jessica Rehfield | Illustration
Jessica Rehfield (zi/zey, she/they) is an artist from Juneau, AK. Their paintings, illustrations, and social projects explore the political and identity-based issues that define their life. Their current work is a children’s book that features colorful acrylics paired with Yiddish words and phrases, that seeks to celebrate heritages, combat anti-Semitism, and explore marginalized identity (as a Jewish-American person) using stories and the love of matzoh ball soup. Jessica earned a BLA in Art from the University of Alaska Southeast and MFA in Painting and Drawing from Oregon College of Art and Craft. They live in Salem, OR with their fiancée and a giant cat.
Morgan Barnett | Painting
Morgan Barnett is a painter and botanist living in the Willamette Valley. She holds a BS in natural resources from Oregon State University. Morgan’s paintings are informed by her daily life and passions of plant ecology, mushroom foraging, and herbalism. Morgan’s current work focuses on personal symbolism around homemaking, subconscious narratives, and synchronicities through botanical imagery and surreal landscapes.
2021 Artists
Jill Myer | Painting
Jill Myer is a visual artist whose work explores natural landscapes through the use of mediums such as plant matter, wool, beeswax, and watercolor pigment. Myer works with watercolors for their simple but beautiful layers and subdued color palette, but also dives into bright fully textured, and tactile encaustic paintings. Myer grew up in Montana and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Montana in 2000 with an emphasis in painting and photography. After living in Alaska for many years, Myer now lives in Newport, OR with her husband and their dog, Simon. Jill’s Instagram
Citlalmina Xochitl Rios | Photography & Poetry
Citlalmina Xochitl Rios is an Indigenous photographer and poet. Rios is a Marine Corps Veteran from the San Gorgonio Pass and San Bernardino areas of California. She pulls her focus from what she knows as a veteran, a mother, and from the socioeconomic and cultural experiences of her youth. In 2019 and 2020, she was part of the University of Oregon’s World Poetry Night and a poem of hers is being published in the upcoming edition of The Sand Canyon Review. In 2021, she will attend the College of Creative Studies in Detroit where she will focus on photography. Citlalmina’s Instagram
Cora Freyer | Painting
Born in Dusseldorf, Germany, Cora Freyer has been a professional artist since 2005. She holds a B.F.A from the Art Institute of Chicago and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Freyer exhibited at Museum Kunstpalast, Duesseldorf and presently her paintings are at the Austin City Hall, TX. Freyer’s focus lays on painting, drawing, and digital-image alterations. She uses a variety of media including, oil and water-based paint, ballpoint pen, and chalk/charcoal. Freyer’s figurative work centers around the depiction of the female and her roles in society while her landscapes investigate the combination of abstracted elements with realism. Cora’s Instagram
Eileen Hinckle | Painting
Eileen Hinckle has been working as a mural artist since 2012. She grew up in the Willamette Valley and is currently based out of Corvallis, Oregon. Her painting style is influenced by the seven years she spent living in South America where she learned from and participated in diverse communities of muralism and street art. Hinckle draws inspiration from her time spent exploring the forests and especially the jungle in South America. Her artwork is a visual exploration of the reconnection between humans and nature. In addition to murals, she makes paintings on canvas and mixed-media artwork. Eileen’s Instagram
Jess Felix | Ceramics
Jess Felix earned her BFA in Sculpture in 2004 from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. Exploring clay as a modeling material in school opened her to the world of experimentation and love for ceramics. She has exhibited in urban galleries in and around Melbourne, Australia, and in various group shows in the United States. Felix’s current series of Ceramic sculptures pay tribute to women climate activists/scientists which emphasize a message of interconnectedness and urgency. She also makes functional handbuilt pottery that incorporates her drawn designs, carved textures, and added appendages which lend her pieces fun and tangible dialogue. Felix teaches visual art and clay classes for kids and teens locally in and around Corvallis, OR. Jess’ Instagram
Caitlin Rose | Dance & Choreography
Caitlin Rose is a dance instructor and choreographer who creates dance for stage, film, and site-specific works. Rose began her technical dance training at the age of seven and started choreographing at the age of sixteen for small recitals and plays. In 2018, she received her bachelor of science in dance from Western Oregon University after receiving three awards in academic excellence for choreography and research in dance history. For her artist residency, Rose is choreographing and directing a short dance film in the contemporary dance medium about religious trauma. Caitlin’s Instagram
2020 Artists
Kristie Potwora | Painting & Printmaking
Kristie (Johnson) Potwora holds an MFA and a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Oregon and a BA in Art Education from Humboldt State University. She is a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI) and Print Arts Northwest (PAN). She teaches art courses at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. She lives on 16 wooded acres in rural Oregon where she keeps a small flock of pet chickens. These chickens have inspired her to begin work in egg tempera and work towards writing and illustrating her first children’s book. As a member of the Artists in Residence group, Kristie is thrilled to be part of this wonderful community of supportive and creative artists and excited to finally embrace the work she’s always longed to do. Website: Kpotwora.com
Margot Dedrick | Painting
Margot Dedrick is an artist living and working in Corvallis. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from St. Olaf College (2006) and a Masters of Science in Arts Administration and Museum Studies from the University of Oregon (2018), where she was the recipient of the Laurel Award Curatorial Internship at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Margot’s current work explores childhood memories by depicting whimsical creatures in abstract, colorful compositions using watercolor, ink, and acrylics. For this artist residency, Margot is most excited about the opportunity to be surrounded by other artists, learn from working professionals, and to have a studio space outside of her home.
Sabra Comins | Mixed Media & Writing
Sabra Comins grew up at the end of a dirt road in Anchorage, Alaska. She spent much of her time submersed in nature, where she felt most at home. Sabra’s love of nature steered her to earn a Master of Environmental Management degree at Portland State University (2000). Her love of self-expression engaged her in ceramics and writing. She received grants for public art, completed the Institute of Children’s Literature course, Writing for Children and Teenagers, and had a ceramic sculpture show at the J. Crist Gallery (Boise, ID 2004). Sabra loves being an Artist in Residence for its guidance, education, and most of all community.
Shagufta Mulla | Painting
Shagufta Mulla, DVM is a wildlife artist living in Independence, OR. After a 20-year career as a small animal veterinarian, she changed paths in 2019 to pursue her lifelong passion for art. In contrast to her authoritarian upbringing, her oil and acrylic paintings celebrate individuality. Largely self-taught, Shagufta’s work frequently depicts a solitary subject, with birds, in particular, representing voice and freedom. Her work has been in the Salem Art Association’s Salem Salon show (2019), The Art Center’s 8 x 8 show (2019), and at Keizer Art Association’s Celebration of Flowers (2019) where she was awarded third place for her painting, “Steadfast.” She has also contributed work to Chintimini Wildlife’s annual art auction, Art Is Wild (Corvallis, 2019.) She enjoyed speaking with the public about her work during her residency at The Arts Center.
2019 Artists
Justin Lodge | Painting
Justin Lodge is a artist and educator living and working in Albany, Oregon. He was born in Chardon, Ohio in 1976. Justin holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design (2005) and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Cleveland Institute of Art (2000). Justin has found most significant about the residency so far is the opportunity to show his work both in the gallery and in a publication. These opportunities have given him the impetus to focus on producing and defining his work in a way he has not before. He has also benefited from being in communication with other artists, both in the studio and at the lectures. The lectures on professionalism and the business of art have given great information and set a tone for how to get yourself and your work out in the world. Justin’s Website
Kimberly Long | Ceramics
This opportunity has opened a whole new world to Kim and her work. Growing up in Pueblo, Colorado she was fortunate enough to be surrounded by local artists. The Sangre de Cristo Arts Center invited school-age students to engage with the arts and the artists. This left a lasting impression on her to always create and make. Kim is excited to be a part of a program with an encouraging community again. After recently moving to Corvallis, her imagination started to run wild and anytime she looked outside, she began to understand the origins of folklore. Getting to work at The Arts Center provides an artistic development opportunity that she never anticipated. Kim is eager to grow professionally, artistically, and confidently with an inspiring community. Kim’s Instagram
Tara Robinson | Painting
Tara Rodden Robinson, Ph.D., is an artist and illustrator. A biologist by training, she presents natural organisms with biological realism while expressing emotion and narrative through color and subtle anthropomorphism. When asked what she valued most about being an artist in residence at the Arts Center, she said, “As someone who works at home, I love coming to the Arts Center every day to be part of a community of creatives. I love meeting people and sharing our stories. Most of all, I value the opportunity to contribute to the lives of others through sharing my art and my love of nature.” Tara’s Website and Blog
Claire Elam | Ceramics – Peer Mentor
Claire grew up with a very close relationship with nature and small communities. These relationships developed throughout her adolescence and when it came time to leave for college she followed the course and chose to go somewhere very small, in the woods, and community-focused. Claire is excited to be mentoring Kimberly Long and sharing her ceramic knowledge in such a close and intimate manner.
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