Mesa Arts Center instructors are professional artists and experienced educators offering a wide variety of topics throughout the year.
Metals and Jewelry Instructors
Polly Smith- Jewelry and Metals Lead Instructor
Polly Smith directs the programs for the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Studios and the Sculpture Studio. She has a BFA, emphasis in Metalsmithing from Arizona State University and an MFA, emphasis in Metalsmithing and Sculpture from New Mexico State University. Her work is an examination of the tensions present at the intersection of human creation (society) and the body (nature).
Jewel Clark- Resident Artist
“The event which sparked my love for metals and jewelry making was a singular one. I was a teenager and had the privilege of seeing the jewelry of Rene Lalique in person in a small show at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. It was the first time I had seen high art with psychological impact that was functional and impeccably made as well as drop dead gorgeous. I was immediately enthralled and from that moment on I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
I’ve been very fortunate to be able to work in metals and teach metals most of my adult life. I love the many aspects of metalworking: design and function, problem-solving, technical skill, creativity and the creation of something beautiful and meaningful. My main focus in metals has always been jewelry. I love the intimate scale and the preciousness and beauty of the materials. You usually have to go to a museum or someone’s home to see art but with jewelry, it is presented to the world every time someone wears it out their door. I love that.
You can read more about me and see my work at my website
Jonathan Brown-Resident Artist
“I am currently an Artist in Residence and part-time Instructor at the Mesa Center for the Arts Jewelry Department. I received my BFA in Art Studio from University of New Mexico and received a MFA in Metalworking from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ.
In addition to teaching classes at Mesa Center for the Arts, I have experience teaching Jewelry and Metalworking classes at Arizona State University and Santa Fe Community College.
While not teaching, I spend time creating small-scale sculptural objects and not so functional jewelry out of brass, bronze, silver, nickel, and glass. I enjoy exploring relationships between interior and exterior space and well as relationships between minimal sculptural forms and organic forms. My “most often used” metalworking techniques are soldered construction, hollow-form, forming and casting.
Major influences on my work include a fascination with interior spaces and machinery stemming from a love of old ocean liners. Also influencing my work are a sense of the theatrical, a love of old films, and long walks in the English countryside and all the things one may find in the English countryside such as long winding paths, old graveyards, crumbling buildings and ruins, and natural gardens.
I create small works that present, for me, alternative realities or possibilities by representing fictive worlds. These works also address one’s sense of memory, whether it is real or perceived. It is with intention that the various thematic components contained within my work are somewhat ambiguous in nature, as I prefer that others interpret my work on their own terms.”
Lynette Andreason-Resident Artist
Lynette Andreasen was raised in Tucson, Arizona. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Metals and Jewelry in 2006, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Metals and Jewelry at Arizona State University in 2010. Lynette’s work has been shown extensively in galleries across the United States including, Facèré Jewelry Gallery, Heidi Lowe Gallery, Shaw Gallery, and Mobilia Gallery. Recently, her work has been published in the 500 Necklaces book from Lark Publications, American Craft Magazine, and Art Jewelry Magazine. Lynette is also an educator and has taught metalsmithing classes at both Arizona State University and Phoenix Center for the Arts. Lynette is currently an artist in residence at Mesa Art Center in Mesa, AZ.
Learn more about Lynette at her website.
Terri Jo Kinnison- Instructor
“Most of us are collectors. We find some thing we want to acquire; we enjoy learning about and sharing with friends. This collecting habit is certainly true for me. For as long as I can remember I’ve collected decorative, functional tools, as well as art glass and decorative metal objects. But, mostly I collect information and the hand skills of how tools are used and how glass and metal objects are created. These skills and their creations are what I enjoy sharing with others.
Most of my pieces tend to reflect the simpler designs of the Arts & Crafts style or the geometrics of Art Deco. Surface textures are of great interest, especially when they help to show the handmade nature of a piece. The materials used are chosen for their working characteristics and aesthetic value more than for their perceived preciousness. I tend to favor traditional or rarely used older techniques. But like artisans of the past, new technologies that allow for safer or more predictable outcomes are welcomed.
Each piece is hand made, in a small studio, where the hammering is sometimes answered by the woodpecker that insists on trying to nest in the outside wall. Most of my pieces are created using specialty techniques I have recently learned, or those that have held my interest over time. Currently my interests are focused on creating surface textures and patterns on metals; especially the creation of engraved geometric patterns (engine turning or guilloche) using a 1900’s era mechanical engraver called a straight-line engine. Enamels or unusual stones are sometimes added for color or to highlight a surface texture. My goal is to create decorative adornments for people and the places they live and work.”
Ingrid Donaldson- Instructor
“I have always been fascinated by the intricacies of the natural world. I express my artistic voice with a variety of colors, textures, and learned techniques. I have been working in the glass field since 1995 and the metalsmithing field since 1997.
Science plays a major role in both of my working mediums. With a background in the sciences, I enjoy incorporating the psychological aspects of the human experience while balancing the physical beauty of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I have found that the duality of the natural world, so perfect yet imperfect, lends itself well to the expression through glass and metals.”
Learn more about Ingrid at her website.
Bob Bortfeld- Instructor
Bob is lapidary instructor at the Mesa Arts Center. He studied under Doug Duffy at the Arizona Mining and Minerals Museum and has been shaping stones of every type for many years for jewelers.