After Macalester

1980s

• 1989

  David Wells, ’89, received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995.

  Beth Bogle, ’89, founded Fish & Bee, a creative company offering imaginative, modern clothing and home designs for children, women and families, as well as a  hands-on studio program for collaborative art and design experiences.  She received a Master’s Degree in Design + Apparel at the University of Minnesota in 2007. She designs unique children’s clothing through Fish & Bee Studio, formerly eecee bb in Linden Hills, Minneapolis. Her work incorporating children as their own custom clothing designers was featured on Twin Cities Live television program in 2010.

  Emel Sherzad, ’89, exhibited paintings at St. Paul’s Unity Unitarian Church in  2021. His paintings are also on view at The Khyber Pass Restaurant in St. Paul, featuring Afghani food and international music, which he owns with his wife, Masooda. The restaurant was voted 2019 Best Middle Eastern Restaurant in the Twin Cities by City Pages and listed in Zagat’s.

• 1988

  Shannon Rolle Dittbrenner, ’88, is a metalsmith and jewelry designer. She received her MFA in painting from the University of Iowa, Iowa City in 1998 and taught drawing at Pasadena Community College.

  Matt Pawlowski, ’88, is the Owner/Artist at Significant Productions in San Francisco. He exhibited work in a group show at Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, in 2020. He owned and operated ESP Gallery in San Francisco from 1997-2000. He graduated with an MFA in painting from the University of Minnesota in 1994. Pawlowski’s work has been displayed in numerous shows at Circa Gallery in Minneapolis. His work was in “Proof” at Southern Exposure in San Francisco in 2011, and he had an exhibit at Circa Gallery in 2008. To see more of Matt Pawlowski’s work, visit matthewpawlowski.com

• 1986

  Judith Altobell, ’86, exhibited in a retrospective of past Jerome grant recipients at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis in 2008. She was a recipient of the 1998 McKnight Ceramic Artists Fellowship in Minnesota and a Jerome Foundation project grant in 1991. Her work was included in “The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture” at the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth in 2000. Her sculpture is represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek WI.

  Annie Kuhn, ’86, is a freelance writer and illustrator. www.anniekuhncreates.com

• 1984

  Rick Swearer, ’84, organized the print studio for and was a board member of ArtOrg, a cooperative artists’ studio and education center in Northfield, Minnesota. He is currently glass blowing with the Anderson Center in Red Wing.

• 1983

  Monica Rudquist, ’83, is a noted ceramist and an Assistant Professor of Ceramics, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN. She received a Master of Fine Arts, in  Ceramics in 1985 from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She had a solo exhibit at the Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI, 2019. She received a 2013 Minnesota State Arts Board Grant and a 1995 Jerome Project Grant. She had work in the “30/30” exhibit at Lillstreet Gallery in Chicago in 2006. To see more of Monica Rudquist’s work, visit monicarudquist.com.

  Clark Wiegman, ’83, Is a nationally recognized sculptor and maker of public art. He created blue train, a work of public art, commissioned by St. Louis Metro for the Blue Line at Vandeventer Bridge. An illuminated railing acts as gateway between two neighborhoods, commemorating homeless people who have died on the streets. The piece features a brush aluminum silhouette of a train traveling south, with the notes of “St. Louis Blues” along the train “cars” in blue-tinted acrylic. “Carbon footprints 2008,” is an environmental artwork and wayfinding system at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. “Departure 2004” and “Suspension for Branch Avenue Station was created for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. “Ole’ 2005” was a suspension and low relief sculpture for the Rosegarden Branch Library in San Jose, California. “Wingfern 2006,” illuminated wayfinders for the South 188th Street runway tunnel and can be seen at SeaTac International Airport in Seattle.

• 1982

  Julie Branch, ’82, is a fiber artist. She attended Yale University.

  Mary Altman, ’82, is the Public Arts Administrator for the City of Minneapolis . She partnered MPR and the City of Minneapolis to work together to raise the profile of public art in the city. “Sound Point” is a new interactive audio tour that allows visitors to use their mobile devices to access stories about works of public art in Minneapolis. See her thoughts on Art and Development.

  David Bogen, ’82, received his BA in philosophy from Macalester and his MA and PhD in sociology from Boston University. He is currently the Vice President Academic + Provost at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. From 1997-2007 he served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College in Boston.  From 2007-2011 Bogen was the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the author of Order Without Rules: Critical Theory and the Logic of Conversation (SUNY Press: 1999) and, with Michael Lynch, The Spectacle of History: Speech, Text, and Memory at the Iran-Contra Hearings (Duke University Press, 1996). His most recent work focuses on social, organizational, and perceptual issues in the design of computer mediated interactive environments.