Faculty

Kim Bach

Kim Bach was born in Queens, NY and raised in Central and South America, Kim is the child of a military attaché. After constant artistic exposure within her family (her aunt was the well-known abstract expressionist, Lee Deffebach) and in college in California, Utah and New York, Kim Bach arrived in Hudson with a Fine Arts background and a mother who was eager to close up her tea shop in Park City, Utah.  VOILA!  Verdigris Tea was born. Since 2006, Kim has immersed herself in all things Hudson. In no particular order, she’s co-hosted a sidewalk chalk contest for children, a sock auction for the benefit of the homeless, a few author’s lectures, a flower show, lighthouse benefits, Bard classes on the history and varieties of tea, and tea and chocolate tastings too numerous to mention. Once, when a car drove up on the sidewalk and smashed through her front window, she commissioned a local artist (Earl) to paint the temporary plywood sheathing that filled the space for several days. Now retired from the retail world, she can be found in her Hudson painting studio, or on the Board of a local non-profit, or off walking long distance pilgrimages in Spain. Kim’s rescue dog, Pekoe, has contributed to the community as well – raising money for the Hudson Dog Park through cookie sales. 

Tim Ebneth

Tim Ebneth is a contemporary abstract painter and designer residing in Columbia County,     New York. A New York City native, he created installations at luxury retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman’s, Gucci, Barneys NY and Studio 54 while attending art school. Tim was a sought after set designer and interiors stylist for fashion editorials, advertising and commercials. Ebneth studied Fine Art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and The Art Students League. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, NY. Tim Ebneth’s artwork has been exhibited throughout the Hudson Valley; New York City; East Hampton, NY; and juried and invitational exhibitions.

Mary Flinn

Teaching at ASCC for Adult classes as well as the Art of Summer Children’s Program teacher

Mary earned her BFA at the Swain School of Design, New Bedford MA and her MFA at Queens College in NYC. Mary has been teaching children since the 90’s in programs such as the D.A.R.E. Program in NYC at the Bronx Housing Project, and at the Ancient Oaks Farm creative arts program in Baltimore MD. She organized and taught art classes at the Bapuji Orphanage in Mysore India with the children at the orphanage for many years. She has had three solo exhibitions at The Prince Street Gallery in NYC, and at numerous group shows. Two-person shows include the Joyce Goldstein Gallery in Chatham NY; Baltimore City Hall,, and at Dartmouth College ,Hopkins Center curated by Ben Moss, as well as numerous inclusions in the Jason McCoy drawing challenges.

David Lesako

David Lesako received his degree in Art Education from Penn State University. He taught for 30 years in public school and on the college level for 8 years at Waynesburg University in. PA.  He has taught and exhibited his artwork as a landscape painter in watercolor, pastel, oil and he has a gallery in Ghent, N.Y.

David is the Volunteer Gallery Coordinator of Art School of Columbia County.

Tia Maggio

Tia Maggio, a native New Yorker, was formally trained in graphic design and advertising at Pratt Institute, she went on to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to study fine art and art history. Even before then, this pastel artist was immersed in the world of art. Her mother, Patricia, attended the Rhode Island School of Design and was a painter and her father, Joseph, “a weekend watercolorist” had his own interior design firm in New York and London. After college, Tia was the director of sales at her father’s firm, during that time she opened and managed their corporate office in London. Later she partnered with her friend Sonja, another Pratt graduate, to form Sontina Graphic Design, where their mainstay was designing company logos. When children came along, Tia left the corporate world and turned to watercolors and from there to pastels. After advertising she enjoyed the looseness –freedom- of fine art. “I like the immediacy of pastels because you can manipulate them with your fingers – and don’t have to wait for paint to dry! I could never really tell you what colors I use, I just reach for them instinctively, like cooking without a recipe – a pinch of this, a splash of that… Creating my art is a personal and intuitive process for me. I don’t like to intellectualize and wax on about my paintings. I start a visual story and let the viewer finish it. Nothing is more pleasing than to hear someone say, ‘oh that reminds me of…’ or ‘this painting makes me feel…’ My creation becomes their story by evoking an emotion or a memory.”   Currently she resides in the bucolic Berkshires, a place that has provided much inspiration. Her pastels of sloping Piedmont hills and skies have been exhibited locally in Northern Virginia and New York City, and are in private collections in the U.S., Italy, Southern France, and most recently, Guatemala

Ameila McIsaac

Amelia McIsaac is an artist and craftsperson living in rural New York, who is deeply passionate about creating beautiful and useful items from natural materials. She spent her formative years attending college with her mother as her mother got a B.S. in design. During that time, Amelia got the full benefit of watching her mother and her classmates create art in so many ways, while Amelia made a little nest underneath the loom and listened to the wonderful rhythm of threads being woven into cloth. Amelia has since earned her own B.A. in fiber arts. She feels that we understand our world more thoroughly when we create with our hands, we become better problem solvers and more resilient. As she creates, she experiences a great sense of peace, happiness and satisfaction. Amelia leads workshops and classes for folks of all ages and walks of life,  exploring diverse disciplines such as traditional feltmaking, paper making and paper art, spinning, weaving, puppetry, embroidery, basketry, sewing , plant dyeing and anything else that entices her curiosity. We can all make useful things with the materials we have at hand.

Peggy Reeves

Peggy Reeves is a mixed media artist living and working in Berkshire Co., MA. Her studio practice employs many of the methods and techniques of printmaking, painting and alternative process photography. She has an MS in Education and spent over 30 years as a high school art teacher in NY and MA. Her work is represented by 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, NY and is in the collection of the Berkshire Museum.

Michael Saltz

Michael Saltz started spending time in Columbia County in 1952. For almost his entire professional career, Saltz was a senior producer for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in all its iterations prior to it becoming the PBS NewsHour. For most of those years, he traveled throughout this country and various hotspots around the world. His experiences and views about what he saw are recounted in his memoir, The Winding Road: My Journey Through Life and the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. In addition, a group of essays titled Down the Rabbit Hole: How We Got to the January 6 Insurrection are available on Amazon.com. Currently, he publishes occasional essays about politics, culture, and life at https://michaelsaltz.substack.com

Lizbeth Shelley

Lizbeth Shelley has a BFA from Arizona State University where she studied painting, textile design and ceramic sculpture. She has an MA in Art Education from New York University. For the past 27 years Lizbeth has taught art at a progressive K-8th grade independent school in New York City while pursuing a career as a painter with an art studio in Copake, N.Y.. Her most recent “house series” conveys the essence of each painted structure through her use of color, texture, and brushstroke.

Carrie Tuccio

Bob Watkins

Bob Watkins has always been interested in the fine arts. When he was 11 years old, he went to the Metropolitan Museum and was impressed by the Rembrandt portraits, “I felt like the eyes followed me”! This experience remained with him, and became the foundation of his fascination with art. Bob became a potter after studying and attending workshops. He was able to move to the beautiful Berkshires and was a successful potter for 17 years. He painted florals and landscapes on white porcelain, so it was a natural progression to paint with oils on canvas when he was ready to explore other areas of artistic expression. Bob says, “My landscapes are an attempt to capture the effects of fading light. The elusive hours of dawn and twilight, when light is just washing over the landscape, are the most interesting to me. –that intrinsic something that is never definable, but always recognizable when seen. Since we all have an internal sense of landscape, many of my paintings come from memories of things I’ve seen and thought to be interesting. I am fascinated by low light conditions when the landscape dissolves into misty half-seen forms. On any given day, I could be painting from life, my imagination, photo references, or any combination. After my initial inspiration, I rarely refer to my reference. Something internal takes over, and the painting becomes the force which directs me. My still lifes are done from life. Artists have the gift to make people see the underlying beauty and poetry in everyday life, and to make ourselves and others aware of the wonders of being alive. The joy of being an artist is being able to take the time to explore the things that interest us personally and share that vision with others. Bob has extensive teaching experience and we welcome him to ASCC.

Shera Weintraub

Shera Weintraub is a Board Certified Art Therapist and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Massachusetts). Shera has had a passion for art making and believes strongly in the healing powers of self-expression through visual art. Shera attended the University of Vermont where she studied Studio Art and Photography. She has worked in museums, as an art teacher for adults with developmental disabilities, and as a therapist for various communities including adults with dementia, children is residential schools, and children and adults in outpatient settings. Shera focuses her art making on the process and emotional expression of creating. She loves to work with film photography, collage, water color, and nature art! When not making art, you can find Shera exploring nature or reading a good book.