INSTRUCTOR BIOS


Instructor Dale Evans 
Dale C. Evans:  Watercolor Painting and Drawing

Dale teaches beginning to intermediate watercolor and drawing. Although he taught a general painting class in the late 1980’s, his watercolor and drawing instruction at MCAC began in 2012.

Dale received a BFA in painting from Herron School of Art of Indiana University in 1970. The need to create is very central to Dale’s being. He states, “I must be working on, or at least planning a project to feel fully alive. To live is to create.” Dale’s goal is to celebrate our beautiful Illinois landscape in all its seasons and to help others find the joy of creation.

In addition to painting, he is a luthier who builds folk instruments. His instruments can be found all over the country and even overseas. He most enjoys challenging students to try new ideas and techniques. While he believes nature to be the greatest teacher, he also enjoys introducing them to the past masters of the mediums. Defining a goal and finding creative ways to meet it is the theme of all his classes.

Instructor Sarah Hurley

Sarah Hurley: Ceramics 

Sarah has been practicing the craft of ceramics since 2012. As of 2018 Sarah started making contemporary tableware under the name Fire and Feldspar. In 2021, she spent a year intensively teaching art to kids and adults through various local organizations. Sarah is also a local chef, specializing in pastry. While not in the kitchen, Sarah enjoys spending time outdoors tending to her vegetable garden.


Instructor Erin Furimsky 

Erin Furimsky:  Ceramics
Erin Furimsky is a studio artist and educator in Normal, Illinois. She received a BFA from the Pennsylvania State University and an MFA from the Ohio State University. Furimsky has exhibited her work nationally and internationally; reproductions of her ceramic work have been featured in numerous books and catalogs. As an educator, Furimsky has been a featured presenter at national workshops, as well as serving as a visiting professor at ISU and HCC. Erin recently began a ceramic jewelry line called Relish Ceramics.  

Instructor Claire Hedden 

Claire Hedden: Ceramics

Claire teaches ceramics at MCAC. She's taught ceramics intermittently for fifteen years, including the last several at MCAC.

After first working in clay during high school, Claire went on to studying ceramics earning her BFA and MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and a Post Baccalaureate degree from University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth. Since then her artistic career has included furniture making, teaching youth, college students, and adults ceramics, curating, and developing her own ceramic studio practice.

Claire enjoys the communal aspect of ceramics most- the sharing of ideas and techniques as much as the friendships that develop. She revels in the mystery and science of ceramics learning from both failure and success.

Instructor Kirsten Heteji 

Kirsten Heteji: Ceramics

Kirsten recently received her MFA from Illinois State University and her BFA at Alfred University in 2013 where she began her investigation in ceramics. She has received awards for her work shown at University Galleries and Mclean County Arts Center.

Kirsten has been awarded several scholarships to continue her education by taking workshops at art centers such as Anderson Ranch, Arrowmont, Peter’s Valley, Watershed and Oxbow. She was a resident artist at Natchez Clay in historic Natchez, Mississippi in 2014 and Watershed in Maine in 2016. Over the years, she has assisted artists Amy Santoferraro, Mindy Lighthipe and Jan Brandt in their studios. She has taught several hand building, surface design and general art classes to various age groups throughout her career as an artist. Kirsten has shown in various art fairs, juried shows and exhibitions across the US. Currently, she resides in Bloomington, IL with her loving partner.

Instructor Doug Johnson 

Doug Johnson: Acrylic & Watercolor Painting

Doug Johnson graduated from Normal Community High School and Illinois State University. He holds a masters degree in Studio Art from ISU. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Northern Illinois University.

Trained in printmaking and painting, he exhibits his across the midwest.  Recent solo exhibitions include the Madden Arts Center in Decatur, Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Heartland Community College in Normal, and the Hub arts center in Rushville.  His work can be seen on his website. He considers himself to be a "painterly realist", meaning he values how the paint is applied as much as what is being depicted.  Johnson's artwork is included in many public and private collections.


Instructor Jeremy Langston 

Jeremy Langston: Water-Mixable Oils, Acrylic Painting & Drawing

Jeremy teaches acrylic painting at MCAC. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts from ISU and has taught all ages of artists from summer camps to the university level.  

Jeremy owned and was the sole painter for a mural and decorative painting company in Denver from 2000-2015 over which time he painted hundreds of murals of varied subject matter such as landscapes, portraits, animals, textures and trompe l'oeil surfaces.  Jeremy recently led a group of youth painters in a public mural project at the Washington Street tunnel in Bloomington and two smaller mural installations on the ISU campus.  He loves helping artists gain the skills they need to see their visions come to fruition, whether through abstract art or representational.  

“All modes of painting interest me,” he says when asked which type he prefers. “I just love the feeling of taking a vision and making it a reality and all of the challenges that come with that. It never gets boring yet always seems to be a meditative and fulfilling process.”  Jeremy works with oils, acrylics, inks, and resins primarily.

Instructor Mandy Roeing

Mandy Roeing: Pastel

Artist Mandy Roeing joined MCAC in 2017 as the pastel painting instructor. She is passionate about her medium and loves sharing it’s amazing qualities with others! Teaching has been very rewarding for her, and she is continually inspired by the growth it provides both to her and students.

Mandy began her art career in 2001, when her love of animals and passion for painting merged through commissioned pet portraits. She enjoys capturing the individual personality and spirit of animals in a piece that connects a person to the bond they share with their pet every time they see it. The beauty and tranquility of nature are the fuel for Mandy’s creative practice, and she loves translating the emotional effect the land and sea have on her into a permanent work to share with others.

Mandy earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina in 2004. She is the Vice President of the Illinois Prairie Pastel Society and an active member Illinois Art League. She is also a past president of the Pastel Society of NC. Her work is frequently on exhibit and is in numerous private collections throughout the country and abroad.

Instructor Dave Templeton Dave Templeton: Drawing

Dave received his degree in Art Education at Illinois State, but after serving in the military, having several other jobs (including substitute art teaching), then retiring from State Farm, he thought his chances to teach art had long passed. Then, along came MCAC and a chance to teach adult daytime drawing. He’s only taught for a few sessions, but has enjoyed it very much. One of his favorite parts of the job is “watching the light come on” when someone realizes that, yes, they can draw with only a few lessons and they get better and better. On his own, Dave enjoys drawing and working in pastel and oil paints.




Instructor Amy Yeager

Amy Yeager : Drawing & Painting

Amy earned a BA in Scientific Illustration from Clark University, and an MFA in Drawing & Painting from Illinois State University. She discovered a love for teaching while in grad school and has taught at the college level for 3 years.


Amy is dedicated to her studio practice. Though she works primarily in gouache and colored pencil, she is experienced with multiple traditional and digital 2D media. Amy’s work is detailed and meticulous.  She is drawn to the complexities of the ground and relishes the process of capturing interwoven twigs and grass, fur, feathers, leaves, and endless constellations of tiny stones.

In the classroom, Amy works with students to bridge the gaps between their eyes, minds, and hands, aiding and encouraging them until they get their visions on paper (or canvas)


Jenni Bateman : Drawing & Watercolor Painting

Trained and educated in the fine and applied arts, digital design, and as a creative editor, Jenni says of her work, “My passion for art-making began as a young child and continues to spark passion in my professional career as a maker and educator. My work is most noted for watercolors, textiles, silk painting and tiny snippets of papers. I teach. I coach.”

Jenni’s artwork is represented by numerous galleries, specialty boutiques and museum shops, and enjoys engaging in classes and workshops with students across the country. 


Instructor Heather Evert

Heather Evert:  Fiber Arts 

Heather Evert has been teaching workshops in Japanese temari embroidery and other embroidery styles with MCAC since 2015. She is mostly self-taught, but is also a student of temari author Barbara Suess and is certified with the Japan Temari Association. She has been stitching in various forms (knitting, sewing, embroidery) since childhood, but with a focus on temari the past seven years. She was an Artisan Resident at MCAC in November 2018 and November 2019.

Heather enjoys the challenge of "drawing with threads" to make stylized representations of items from nature.  She finds creating images one small stitch at a time to be a roller-coaster of moods: restful while stitching the pattern, thrilling while designing a pattern and finishing a piece, and gratifying when finding the right stitch or thread texture for the job. Her favorite part of teaching embroidery is watching students transition from struggling with the techniques to the point of understanding how to use the stitching to create the images they want.







Mission Statement: We encourage and promote the appreciation, study, cultivation, development, and practice of art for the benefit of all the people, cultures and communities of McLean County. 


    
        "This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts"

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software