Expressive Arts

Born and raised in El Paso, TX, Bryant was exposed at an early age to a vast amount of cultural diversity and musical performances. He quickly gained interest in becoming a musician and educator, and has since pursued this passion. His careers began at the age of seventeen when he was asked to perform with his first professional ensemble and later that year becoming the youngest Track Trumpeter in the horse racing circuit; a position that is televised live nationally and internationally every week. After maintaining that position for three years he felt the need to start his path towards becoming an educator, shortly thereafter he took on the role of Head Mariachi Instructor for the Court Youth Center and created the Mariachi program for Gadsden Middle School and Gadsden High School in Anthony, NM. In 2009 after many years of performance in two of the largest and most well-known Mariachi ensembles in the Southwest and Mexico, Bryant founded his own professional group Mariachi Raices de America. Since then he has successfully lead the group to  winning many awards and gaining prestigious recognition throughout the region. Beginning his career at WNMU, Bryant has worked his way up from an Adjunct Instructor to his current position as Music Program Coordinator. With the support of University Administration Bryant has taken Mariachi Plata from its modest beginning of four students to the now continually growing and award-winning ensembles of the Southwest.

Expressive Arts

Courtney is currently the Associate Professor of Ceramics at Western New Mexico University.  She obtained her Master of Fine Arts degree concentrating in ceramics from The Pennsylvania State University and her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree concentrating in ceramics with a minor in art history from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.  Courtney Michaud exhibits her work nationally and has been teaching ceramic art at WNMU for 6 years.  Michaud is also the currently serving as the department chair for the Expressive Arts Department at Western New Mexico University.

Expressive Arts

Originally from Chicago, Ed Brandt received a BA from Lewis University concentrating in both fine art and graphic design. Upon graduation he began a career as a graphic designer, founding his own company five years later, serving clients from diverse industries nationwide. Returning to school to pursue a graduate degree in the fine arts, Ed received an MFA from The University of New Mexico with a focus in painting and drawing. Upon graduation, he helped found UNM Art’s graphic design concentration while serving as Professor of Practice. With an active studio practice, Ed explores the space between studio making and commercial practice. Employing a designer’s vocabulary, he seeks a means of expression that expands the definitions of both. With the use of graphic elements, he reacts to influences of visual communication. This imagery occupies active, visceral spaces that incorporate abstracted marks and unintended discovery. The resulting compositions acknowledge art making as an experiential and reactionary act as much as it is deliberate. A space that allows for recognition of the systematic form of design and a desire for creative voice.

Expressive Arts

Matt Drissell is an Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at Western New Mexico University where he leads courses in 2D studio art. He has an M.F.A. in Painting from the New York Academy of Art and a B.A. in Art from Wheaton College. Before making his way west, Matt previously taught at Dordt University in Iowa for 14 years. Named a 2015—16 Artist Fellow by the Iowa Arts Council, his current projects consider human interaction with the environment. For more information, visit Matt’s website: https://www.mattdrissell.com.

Expressive Arts

Michael Metcalf ‘s attraction to smooth, fair curves began with the several boats he built before attending Skidmore College. There he focused his technical skills and aesthetics toward creating sculpture, and received a B.S. in Fine Arts. He studied sculpture and architectural structures at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture. He has been an artist in residence at the Gutman Center in New Hope, PA and the Delfina Studio Trust in London, England. In the summer of 2010 he expanded his cultural awareness while teaching sculpture in Xi’an China. Metcalf’s work appears in collections throughout the United States and in Europe. He creates his unique sculptures, using bronze, wood, stone, and stainless steel. While the configurations and materials may be diverse, they all sustain his sense of form, which implies graceful force, but still maintains calculated stability. Since 1995 Metcalf has been teaching sculpture at Western New Mexico University and creating sculpture in Silver City, New Mexico. While much of his laminated wood and bronze work relates to smooth fair curves, he also pursues technical innovations, and unique processes for creating his graceful forms – his current spline and stone sculptures use his patented process. Metcalf’s sculptures reveal investigation into form with both organic and geometric surface transitions. All of these works explore the relationship between curves and how a combination of simple curves creates a complex form, which evokes tension, movement, and beauty. The New Mexico environment has had a powerful impact on his work, as he now blends parts of the New Mexican landscape with his graceful style. In 2007 he completed two nearly thirty-foot tall sculptures located on Louisiana Avenue on each side of I-40 for the City of Albuquerque. The Positive Energy of New Mexico was an ambitious two year project which further reveals Metcalf’s exploration with man-made vs. organic materials in an environment where one can contrast the Sandia Mountains with the Albuquerque skyline while viewing the work which represent earth, civilization, spirit and beyond. His latest work Speculation seems to defy gravity by suspending two granite boulders from a central crescent stainless steel spire in a site overlooking the Rio Grande in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Expressive Arts

As a child, Jim grew up in Yosemite National Park. There, he and his brothers played in a place with no boundaries. Their bodies and imaginations charged forward as they explored warm meadows, cool pine forest and granite outcroppings. Dressed in nothing more than shorts, they would strike out with hand-hewed bows and arrows to parts unknown to discover what the day had to offer. What Jim found, during those summers of play, was his soul. In the high country of Yosemite Jim soaked-in a landscape that John Muir described as “seemingly not clothed with light, but wholly composed of it.” Over years, that light has continued to live in Jim to illuminate, with a sense of wonder and joy, the natural and human altered landscapes that surround us. For most of his twenties and early thirties Jim was an outdoor play bum. He lived to backpack, rock climb and kayak. When Jim is in the wilderness the sun does not simply shine on him, it fills him. During this time, Jim attended Humboldt State University where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Planning. The real world work from this degree, though, proved to be too bureaucratic, too mind numbly gray. Determined to regain his world of light, Jim went back to school to pursue a studio art degree in photography. Jim graduated from San Jose State with a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography. He has taught photography at numerous colleges and universities in California and is currently Associate Professor of Photography at Western New Mexico University in Silver City. Jim’s work has been exhibited nationally. Jim loves to explore the world with his film and digital cameras. His eye is drawn to both natural landscapes and human altered landscapes. In these landscapes he experiences the impermanence of man: That all human effort – our dreams, hopes, loves, fears, frustrations and finally understanding of life will ultimately fall back to earth.

Expressive Arts

Erin Monet Wheary received a BA in Sculpture and Printmaking from the University of Puget Sound (2013) and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (2018). She is an interdisciplinary artist whose studio practice is rooted in three-dimensional artmaking. Her recent exhibitions include an invitational at the Female Artists Club in Brussels, Belgium, a commissioned site-specific installation at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and a solo exhibition at the Hartwig Gallery in Escanaba, MI. Artist residencies include Chateau d’Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France (2020), where she received the Denis Diderot [A-i-R] Grant, and Vermont Studio Center (2018), where she received the Vermont Studio Center Artist Grant. In December 2023, she partook in the artist residency at Casa Taller El Boga, Mompox, Colombia. Wheary is currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Western New Mexico University. Before this appointment, she taught at the University of Puget Sound and Swarthmore College.

Expressive Arts

Applied Music Lessons

Expressive Arts

TBA

ART

Cynthia received her BFA in Drawing from New Mexico State University in 2014 and her MFA in Drawing from the New York Academy of Art in 2016. During that time, she discovered a passion for teaching and inspiring the next generation of artists. She taught at Uplift Preparatory in Fort Worth Texas followed by her current positions at Deming High School and Western New Mexico University in Deming. She strives to impart the same fundamental principles and technical focus in her teaching that was integral to her own growth as an artist.  Being born and raised in Southern New Mexico she was profoundly shaped by the landscape and the people there. In her own work, she explores the concept that memories are inextricable linked to the places in which they are formed. Life stories and experiences are the threads that weave our identities and she aims to visually capture this intricate idea in her work.

Expressive Arts

Stacey Heim is the Curatorial Assistant for the Art Department at the Albuquerque Museum. Heim’s work includes supporting exhibition research and planning, including preliminary design layout; maintaining records for the museum’s artist files and incoming acquisitions. Stacey also assists with ongoing cataloging projects and online eMuseum exhibitions. In 2008, she received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wisconsin, where she studied printmaking. During her time in Madison, she was a collaborator with Tandem Press, the professional fine art printmaking studio and art gallery affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. Heim previously taught courses in printmaking, art history and art appreciation at Western New Mexico University located in Silver City. During her time at the Western New Mexico University Museum as Assistant Director she found a deep appreciation for museum work. In addition to her current museum work, Stacey is glad to have the opportunity to teach WNMU art students again this semester in an online History of Art I course.

Expressive Arts

TBA

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Applied Music Lessons

TBA

Expressive Arts

Music

A native of New Mexico, Neil Swapp grew up in Luna and graduated from Reserve High School after which he received a Music Education Degree from New Mexico State University and a Master’s Degree in Trumpet Performance from the St. Louis Conservatory of Music.  After the completion of his degree he returned to New Mexico to begin his teaching career.  Neil spent 7 years as Director of Bands at Cibola High School in Albuquerque and 17 years as Director of Bands at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces followed by 4 years as the Chair of the Music Department at New Mexico School for the Arts. Under his leadership, his ensembles have been recognized throughout the state and nation for their superior performance level by winning numerous competitions and festivals including an unprecedented 7 State Marching Championships. During his tenure, the Mayfield High School Band was a regular finalist at Bands of America Regionals.  His Ensembles have also participation in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade as well as international performances in England and China. In addition to teaching at Western New Mexico University, Neil also serves as the Executive Director for the New Mexico Music Educators Association.  He is also a regular guest clinician and conductor throughout the state.  He also serves on numerous state councils and committees including the New Mexico Music Commission, New Mexico Advisory Council on Arts Education, New Mexico Activities Association Activities Council, and the NMMEA Music Education Task Force. Neil also judges music competitions throughout the Southwest. Neil is also co-founder of the Southwest Music Academy, an organization located in Las Cruces that offers out of school supplemental music instruction to elementary, middle school and high school students.  He continues to serve on the board as President.

Expressive Arts

Applied Piano Lessons

Expressive Arts

Expressive Arts