JILL BATEMAN 

Jill is a practicing artist who received Certificates in Painting and Drawing from the Corcoran School of Art and the Washington Studio School. Jill is an active member of the WSS Atelier and is represented by the Foundry Gallery located in Washington, DC’s Shaw neighborhood (foundrygallery.org). Her work is held in corporate and private collections nationally and has been exhibited in various locations throughout the Washington, DC, area. Prior to focusing on her artistic career in Washington, Jill was a congressional legislative aide on Capitol Hill; a designer for a Los Angeles-based interior design company; and an executive recruiter in New York’s magazine publishing industry for clients including Conde Nast, Time Inc., and Esquire Magazine. She holds a BA in French and Economics from the University of Tennessee and studied art at the University of California in Los Angeles. Jill currently chairs the Board’s Scholarship Committee and has been instrumental in developing WSS’s new scholarship program. To see Jill's artwork visit, jillbateman.net. 

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LEE BUTLER 

Lee began taking classes at the Washington Studio School in 2004 when the school was located in Bethesda. As a member of WSS’s Board of Directors, Lee brings a wealth of experience from his 25-year career in non-profit organization management. Lee has extensive IT leadership experience in website and electronic communications design management and strategy. He studied Comparative Literature at Princeton University and was also a student of the Corcoran School of Art. Besides serving as Board President, Lee assists with IT and website issues and is on the WSS Building Committee.

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JEFFREY DENNY

Jeffrey D. Denny is a seasoned communications professional with broad experience working with national leaders and corporate, public and nonprofit organizations, providing strategic and executive communications including speech writing, internal/employee communications, media relations, web materials and leadership consultation.  He was a political appointee in the President Bill Clinton administration as chief speechwriter to U.S. Secretaries of Defense Les Aspin, Bill Perry and Bill Cohen, and then for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala. Jeff then led executive communications at Fannie Mae for 12 years. A four-year US Navy veteran, Jeff began his career as a journalist in Connecticut and Washington, DC, and was a National Magazine Award finalist for two consecutive years and co-winner of the top investigative reporting award.  

A 30+ year resident of Washington, DC, Jeff now is principle of Jeffrey Denny Communications, LLC, serving a range of clients.  He served on the Washington Studio School board from 2012-16, including ultimately as vice chair, and was instrumental in helping to develop the school’s five-year strategic plan.  

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DAVID IBATA

David Ibata is an American painter from the Washington DC metropolitan area. He received his education from the Corcoran College of Art & Design (BFA, 2008) followed by the New York Academy of Art (MFA, 2010). Ibata has been a copyist at the National Gallery of Art since 2012 where he is also a teaching artist for Art Around The Corner elementary school art education program. His work focuses on narrative painting and portraiture and takes inspiration from contemporary cinema, philosophy and life. Recent exhibitions include a solo show 'I See A Darkness' at Transformer Gallery, DC and 'Somewhere near the Inside' at Washington Studio School which he curated. 

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BRIAN KELLEY

Brian is a nationally exhibited artist and lecturer who lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia. Brian has exhibited and taught at schools including George Washington University, the College of William and Mary, George Mason University, Anne Arundel Community College, Prince George's Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the Washington Studio School. Recent exhibition venues include Bowery Gallery (NYC), First Street Gallery (NYC), Muscarelle Museum of Art (VA), Brentwood Arts Exchange (MD) and Capital Arts Network (MD), among others. Since 2018, Brian has served on the City of Alexandria’s Commission for the Arts whose role is to advise City Council with regard to policies that will strengthen the arts and further public access to the arts and cultural matters. He is also a former radio DJ for WCWM (VA) and WIUX (IN). 

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SALLY MCCARTHY

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KIA PENSO

A writer, compulsive reader, and lifetime student of literature and art, Kia Penso has had a longstanding interest in adult learning and its connection to creativity (Hint: they look exactly the same), and it really sped up when she fell in love with drawing and painting. 

 

Kia taught literature and writing to advanced undergraduate students at UC Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies and at Grinnell College; at Santa Barbara City College, she taught writing composition to a diverse mix of students, many of whom were undertaking their education while handling life challenges such as poverty, disability, language barriers, family responsibilities, trauma, and adjusting to a new culture. She managed and wrote for a newspaper in St Kitts and Nevis, and on returning to the United States reported on land use and the wine economy for a small local newspaper in Sonoma County, CA. Since moving to the DC area in 2005, she has supported her literature and art habits by editing reports and publications for international financial institutions in the public sector. She also helps individual authors get their writing projects finished. 

 

She publishes things when people ask her—which she doesn’t try hard enough to make happen. She writes about metaphor; about peacemaking and sacrifice; about literature as a source of theories of human motivation; about what literariness is; and about Caribbean culture and history through the lenses of the other subjects.  She holds a Ph.D. and an MA in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a BA in Literature from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, and an MS in Journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

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PAUL PIETSCH 

Paul Pietsch is a painter based in Washington, DC who received his MFA and a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management from American University. His studio practice incorporates perceptual work from life, conceptually driven use of online mapping tools, and memory; and imagination-generated portraits and landscapes. His interest in mapping sense of place is the unifying theme of his work. By day, Pietsch is the Research Manager at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, where he conducts qualitative research to benefit artists, arts organizations and arts communities around the country. He has taught studio art at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland, served on the board of directors of Art Enables and on the Artist Advisory Council of the Washington Project for the Arts; and runs figure model sessions at Hillyer Art Space and the Washington Drawing Center. To learn more about Paul, visit paulpietsch.com.

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EX OFFICIO

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JILL PHILLIPS 

Jill is the Head of Faculty and Artistic Director of the Washington Studio School. She has been teaching drawing and painting classes to adults and teens at WSS since 2004 and has had the privilege of being a student, atelier member, and member of the board of directors as well. She has taught in museums, schools, and privately for more than 30 years. Jill’s undergraduate degree is from Washington University in St. Louis where she was in the School of Art, studying under Barry Schactman, Bill Kohn, Arthur Osver, and others. She spent 12 years building a graphic design business in Denver and DC before returning to graduate painting classes at George Washington University and the Certificate Program at the Washington Studio School. Her paintings and works on paper have been shown in solo and group shows in DC and nationally, including the Washington Studio School, Courtyard Gallery, Dimock Gallery, Artists Inn Residence Gallery, and Dumbarton Concert Gallery, and are held in private collections across the country.

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MADELEINE SARGENT

Madeleine is a painter, photographer, and arts professional with a background in non-profit and commercial art management. She graduated from Wesleyan University with honors as a Studio Art major, where she studied painting and photography. Madeleine is an active member of the DC arts community and is joining Washington Studio School from her role as Gallery Manager at Calloway Fine Art in Georgetown. Madeleine maintains an active studio practice and is engaged in the DC artistic network as a member of ArtTable. Making art accessible and sharing the arts through public programming is her passion. 

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