PLAYA Alumni

As an artist, I curate information collecting images, textures and forms, physically and in my mind’s eye as I move through this world. In my current art practice I use fiber and mixed media to depict abstracted landscapes, obscuring and controlling viewpoints...

Daniel Mayer is an Arizona artist, educator, and fine press publisher who investigates the intersection of language and art resulting in artist’s books, experimental prints, and award-winning public art. Mayer’s personal studio works are a fusion of cultural identity,...

South African. MA Social Sculpture 2007. Member Galley 114 Co-op. Collaborations include GPSEN- Think Tank, SSRU- Agents of Change. Visual Art Practice Exhibited SA, USA, UK.

Lola is a creative producer and writer who has an intense fascination with the way that shifts in food culture reflect and influence larger cultural moments. The intersection of art, food, the environment, and public engagement is her favorite place to linger. She has...

Richie is an archaeologist who specializes in the first peoples of the Great Basin, with a particular focus on Oregon. Specifically, he studies stone tool technology, organization, and chronology to inform on broader cultural and social patterns, diversity, and...

Katelyn McDonough is pursuing her PhD in Anthropology at Texas A&M University. Her dissertation research bridges ecological and anthropological approaches to investigate how plant communities and human diets have changed over the past 13,000 years. Katelyn’s work...

Ingrid L. Taylor is veterinarian, writer, and poet who lives in Las Vegas with her Newfoundland dog, Winston, and her black cat, Olive. Her fiction has appeared Dies Infaustus, Legs of Tumbleweed, Wings of Lace: An Anthology of Literature by Nevada Women, Gaia: Shadow...

Emily Cohen is a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in ecological design and community planning.  She is intrigued at the balance between art and science, built and natural, chaos and order. Her focus at Playa involves creating a field guide to climate change...

Pato Hebert is an artist, teacher and organizer. His work explores the aesthetics, ethics and poetics of interconnectedness. He is particularly interested in space, spirituality, pedagogy and progressive praxis. His projects have been presented at Beton7 in Athens,...

I began making photographs of the landscape in Cape Cod at the age of 16. Growing up on a sparse, thin spit of sand surrounded by ocean anchored my spirit to the land. Driving west to school in San Francisco I was awed by the vastness of the American West. My feelings...

With a exciting background in ecology and fine art artist Shane Koehler has traveled the world teaching environmental education, designing and making environmental landscapes and creating wildlife conservation themed watercolor paintings. He has worked for notable...

Historian Tracy J. Prince, Ph.D. is a Research Professor at Portland State University's American Indian Teacher Program, a Fulbright Specialist (Malta), and the author of 4 books (Notable Women of Portland, Portland’s Slabtown, Portland’s Goose Hollow, and Culture...

Allen Braden is the author of a poetry collection A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood and a chapbook of poems Elegy in the Passive Voice. Former poet-in-residence for the Poetry Center and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he lives in Lakewood, Washington.

Owen Gump is a Bay Area-based visual artist working with photography and related media. His work examines the relationship between built environments and nature, focusing on the landscapes of the Western U.S. and their representation of cultural ideologies, past and...

I have written poems for a long time. Since 1987 have taught school children poetry writing and publishing, at various times, in seven states. I make books, broadly defined; have worked with music, poems, and dancers. I build things with wood—cabinets, tables, a cedar...

Corwin Levi is a mixed media, project-based artist whose practice centers around transforming ideas into experiences. He has shown and curated across the country and been awarded fellowships and artist residencies both here and internationally. Residencies include the...

Ethan Cornell is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He received his education at the High School of Art and Design, NYC and the Parsons School of Design. Since graduation he has studied also at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice and...

Lehuauakea Fernandez is a mixed Native Hawaiian interdisciplinary artist from Hilo, Hawaiʻi. She has participated in several group shows in Portland, Oregon, most recently the 23rd Annual Recent Graduates Exhibition at Blackfish Gallery. Through a range of craft-based...

Adam is a landscape architect, artist, urban planner and designer. His most recent activity is founding Out of Office Architecture - a practice engaged in architectural prototyping, citizen dialogue and circular economy. Adam is also one of the driving forces behind...

I’ve had my heart broken through loss, I’ve never met my father, I knew hunger when I was young, stole both food and money, I’m learning the guitar, I’ve been wiggle-your-toes-in-love with someone, I was known for my moonwalking skills in my youth, I stopped to look...

Josh Lefkowitz received an Avery Hopwood Award for Poetry at the University of Michigan. His poems and essays have been widely published online and in print, including The New York Times, Electric Literature, Washington Square Review, The Millions, The Rumpus, as well...