Anna Divinsky, MFA
Anna Divinsky is the lead faculty member for the Certificate in Digital Arts program offered by the School of Visual Arts at Penn State. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh's Studio Arts Department. Teaching face-to-face studio courses informs and inspires her approach to online teaching.
Divinsky received a bachelor of arts in studio arts and art history from the University of Pittsburgh, and a master of fine arts in printmaking from Penn State. In her work, she explores relationships between body, nature, and fiber. She uses silk as well as other fiber materials to create paintings and site-specific installations that invite viewers to touch and observe the work on an intimate basis. Obsessive repetitions of pattern and mark-making consistently inform her work.
Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, Divinsky's art is also inspired by the memories of her childhood and immigration to the United States.
Ian Brill, MFA
Ian Brill's work focuses on the accumulation of form through process. Through the creation of interactive, performative and multi-sensory environments, his work considers boundaries of becoming (versus being) and our immersive relationship with technology. His work and writing have been presented internationally at conferences, festivals, and galleries. Currently, he teaches at Penn State's World Campus and the Community College of Beaver County in Pennsylvania.
Jamie DiSarno, MFA
Jamie DiSarno received a dual bachelor of fine arts in painting and sculpture from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 2005 and a master of fine arts in new media at Penn State in 2010. She has attended the Virginia Commonwealth University's Summer Residency Program in 2006, the Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside: Residency in 2010, and the Philadelphia Art Hotel Residency in 2011. She has exhibited in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
DiSarno has also screened her work through ArtGrease: Television by Artists. In addition to teaching several courses in the digital art certificate program for World Campus, she is an adjunct instructor at Jamestown Community College in New York State. She lives and works in Buffalo.
Lori Don Levan, D.Ed.
Dr. Lori Don Levan is an instructor in Penn State's School of Visual Arts. She is currently teaching ART 001: Introduction to the Visual Arts and ART 020: Introduction to Drawing. She holds an EdD in art education from Teachers College Columbia University, a master of science in administration and supervision with a visual arts focus from Bank Street College of Education, and a certificate from Parsons School of Design, all located in New York City. Additionally, Levan holds a BFA with K–12 art teaching certification from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Levan has taught all levels of art to young people and adults in a variety of settings and has devoted her life to the teaching of art and related subjects. Levan believes that “the act of making art is a special way of creating meaning in this world and that doing so gives us experiences that have unique qualities that can't be learned in any other way.” She has also taught courses on the college level to undergraduates and graduate students with artistic themes that connect to women's studies, oral history, art education, outsider art, and visual culture.
Dr. Levan is an active artist who uses photography, mixed media and installation to explore issues concerning the nature of the photographic image, the body and beauty and memories lost and found. As a feminist and scholar supporting the emerging field of fat studies, Dr. Levan has contributed to research intersecting arts, humanities and sciences. Her work calls into question the assumed perceptions of fatness related to socio-cultural landscapes and has been shown in New York City galleries and surrounding venues.
Leanna Rosas, MFA
Leanna Rosas is an MFA graduate in print and media arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Her studio work is concerned with issues relating to consumption and consumerism in contemporary society and, within this broad area of concern, there is particular interest in identity, individual behavior, and the effects of capitalism on the individual and society at large. She has exhibited nationally and her work is represented in several collections.
Rosas has worked as an art instructor, studio artist, and professional designer at the California Institute of the Arts, the Community Arts Partnership, Self-Help Graphics, and College of the Canyons, all on the U.S. West Coast. She also maintains Rosas Studio, a private art and design studio practice and is currently an instructor in the area of new media at Penn State in the School of Visual Arts.
Rosas is also in constant collaboration with Carlos Rosas, Penn State new media art professor. Much of the work resulting from their partnership seeks to explore means in which one identifies with the continually evolving conditions within a technology-driven culture. She is also currently directing an ongoing collaborative web project, emitto.net, an online archive and cultural resource.