Carrie Patterson
Carrie Patterson is a visual artist working in Leonardtown, Maryland. Her artwork considers how color, form, and line metaphorically measure the human condition as experienced through the body. She is particularly interested in architectural forms and their relationship to landscape. She earned a B.F.A in studio art from James Madison University and an M.F.A in painting from The University of Pennsylvania. In addition she was a student resident at The New York Studio School where she worked with second generation abstract expressionists: Charles Cajori, Mercedes Matters, and Rosemarie Beck. Her artwork has been exhibited across the country with solo shows in New York City, Philadelphia, Virginia, and Minnesota. She is a Full Professor of Art at St. Mary’s College of Maryland where she teaches drawing, painting, Color Theory and Art for Educators. Currently she and Environmental Studies Professor Barry Muchnick, have created an innovative curriculum for SMCM that combines community, art education, sustainability, and design. Working collaboratively, SMCM students and local high school students will build two Tiny Houses. Patterson’s artwork can be seen at www.carriepatterson.com.
Barry Muchnick
Barry Muchnick is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he helped launch the school’s new Environmental Studies major and serves as Director of the Environmental Citizenship Speaker Series. His teaching and scholarship are concerned with how natural and cultural forces interact to form our ecosystems, experiences, imaginations, and institutions. Following a joint undergraduate degree from Emory University in Psychology and Philosophy and a certificate in Wilderness Management from University of Montana, he earned a M.E.Sc. in Conservation Ecology from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Ph.D. in Environmental History from Yale University. He teaches a range of introductory and upper level courses that examine the complex interactions of people and their environments across time as well as an Applied Sustainability Practicum aimed at creative, environmental problem-solving. His latest project is a hybrid seminar-studio arts class in collaboration with Art and Art History Professor Carrie Patterson and several local organizations to apply principles of sustainable design and community-based, integrated environmental arts education to the construction of two tiny houses.