Foundation Studies

No matter what type of artist you aspire to become, you need to start with the basics. Foundation Studies helps you refine fundamental skills like sketching, composition, color theory and sculpture. You'll also practice creative problem solving and hone your computer literacy.

Each RMCAD student, regardless of major, is required to take between 12 and 21 credit hours of foundation coursework during their freshman and sophomore years. With a combination of studio projects and written assignments, you'll be challenged to explore materials, techniques, and critiques in a variety of ways. You'll work with everything from charcoal to software to woodworking tools as you improve your ability to express yourself visually.

Transfer students who have studied basic art concepts at another accredited school may receive credit for all or some of these classes. Please check with your Admissions Counselor for more information.

Sample Course

Visual Design I
This course investigates the language, theories, and practices of color and two-dimensional design in the visual arts. This course familiarizes students with the basic relationships between color and compositional practices such as space, unity, emphasis, balance, rhythm, and proportion.

Department Chair

Jeff Sheppard
MH Art History, University of Colorado at Denver; BA, Regis University; BFA, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design; additional studies at Western State College.

For over 20 years Mr. Sheppard has worked in the field of communications design. Projects he has worked on include publication design, books, annual reports, brochures, and identity programs.

Core Faculty

Jaime Carrejo
MFA, University of South Florida, Tampa; BFA, University of Texas El Paso.

Mr. Carrejo has had exhibitions at The College of Wooster Art Museum in 2009, The Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa in 2006, the Tampa Museum of Art in 2006, The Shaw Center of the Arts in 2006, and other institutions. He is part of a collaborative artist group whose video project, titled Neighborhood Watch, first took place in Tampa in 2006. Take 2 and Take 2½ of the same project took place in 2008 in El Paso, Take 3 occurring in 2009 in Paris, France, and El Paso, and in 2010 the event was held simultaneously in El Paso; Bhutan, South Asia; Paris; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Mexico City; and Denver. Other collaborative projects include National PARK(ing) Day in 2009, and the New Millennial Hanky Code Project in 2007 at the William and Nancy Oliver Gallery, Tampa.

Sandra Jean Ceas
MFA, Fine Arts/New Genres, San Francisco Art Institute; BFA, Fine Arts/Sculpture, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design; AAS, Fashion Design, Fashion Institute of Technology.

Along with practicing her design and artistic skills independently and within large corporations, including Mattel Toys and Calvin Klein, Ms. Ceas has taught, lectured, and written curriculum in higher education across the United States since the early 1970s. She has been honored with a number of national awards and has exhibited her art at many international shows, some with “best of show” recognitions. Presently, Ms. Ceas’s art is focused on process and public intervention. She is represented by SOHO20 Gallery in New York City.

Susan Donatucci Hopp
MA, Sculpture, West Virginia University; BFA, Painting, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Donatucci Hopp recently moved to Denver from Santa Fe, NM. In Santa Fe, she spent 9 years teaching in the Art and Leadership program of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. She also coordinated and managed an afterschool arts program for at risk students on the Pojoaque Indian Reservation just outside Santa Fe. She has shown her work in New York City, Santa Fe, Denver, and Aspen.

Ania Gola-Kumor
MFA, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland, specializing in Painting and Exhibition Design.

Ms. Gola-Kumor is published in 100 Creative Drawing Ideas, and in Mixed Media Big and Small. Her art has appeared in numerous publications including Art Space and ART news and has exhibited in New York, London, New Mexico and Colorado. She has exhibited at the Inkfish Gallery in Denver, Urfman Gallery at Colorado State University, Sena Galleries East in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Fred Dofman in New York and the PowerPlant Visual Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has held solo shows in London, Toronto and throughout the Rocky Mountain region. She has also worked in the areas of exhibition, interior and stage design.

Irene McCray
MFA, Visual Art, Vermont College; BFA, Colorado State University, Painting.

Ms. McCray has exhibited at: National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts and Santa Fe International Academy of Art in New Mexico; Denver Art Museum and Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts in Denver; Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, Colorado; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Sangra de Cristo Art Center, Pueblo, Colorado; Cañon City Fine Arts; Boulder Center for the Visual Arts; UMC Gallery at University of Colorado- Boulder; Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, Colorado; Pacific Grove Art Center in California; Oakland Center for the Arts; Berkeley Art Center; and San Bernardino County Museum. She was an exhibiting member of Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, California and Pirate, a Contemporary Art Oasis in Denver. She has shown at Peyton-Rule and William Havu Galleries in Denver and is currently represented by Sandra Phillips Fine Arts. Prior to her tenure at RMCAD, she was on the faculty of Santa Fe International Academy of Art, Santa Fe Community College, University of Colorado at Denver and Front Range Community College.

David Mesplé
MA, Fine Arts, California State University, Sacramento; BA, California State University, Sacramento.

David Mesplé exhibits in public and private nonprofit museums and galleries nationally and internationally with more than 25 one-person exhibits in California, Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kentucky. He was honored in a two-person show with Rembrandt van Rijn in 1997, is the recipient of the Innovation In the Arts Award, the Grumbacher Gold Medal for Watercolor, grants from the Xerox Foundation and Canon USA, and has been featured in PBS specials, texts, and numerous arts periodicals.

Nikki Pike
MFA, University of South Florida; BFA, Sculpture, University of Colorado at Denver.

Ms. Pike’s research and arts practice focuses on sustainability in housing and food systems, presented in a contemporary arts context as social sculpture and community outreach. In addition to a ten-year exhibition record, including Art Basel 2007 and The Contemporary Art Museum of Tampa, her work can be found in the permanent collection at the Children’s Museum of Tampa.

Bruce Price
MFA, Maine College of Art; BFA, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

Mr. Price is a fine art painter concerned with emergence theory, western subjectivity, and ornamentation. In addition to solo shows in New York City, Mr. Price has exhibited paintings and installations in Denver, Mexico, and China. Mr. Price teaches design, experimental drawing, painting, and modern and contemporary art history.

Jeff Weihing
MFA, Sculpture, American University; BFA, Sculpture and Drawing, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

Mr. Weihing is a Denver-based sculptor. His current series of works is influenced by theoretical physics. He interprets these theories and gives form to formless ideas. He has curated several exhibitions, including “Home Show” at Venti Sei Gallery in Rome, Italy.

Adjunct Faculty

Phil Harris
MFA, The School of Visual Arts; BFA, Illustration, Rocky Mountain School of Art + Design.

Justin Jensen
MFA, Painting, Colorado State University; BFA, Illustration, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

Kimberlee Lynch
BFA, Visual Communications, Kendall College of Art and Design.

Ms. Lynch was the art director for 5280 Publishing, Inc, and responsible for production of 5280 Denver’s Mile High Magazine and Mile High Weddings. She designed and illustrated the covers, ads, editorials, and all collateral material. The Society of Illustrators has published her illustrations, and she has published several books featuring full-sized illustrated patterns for the stained glass windows that she designs.

Wes Magyar
BFA, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Wes Magyar is a painter whose work is included in the collection of the Denver Art Museum. His paintings utilize the figure to explore the dichotomy between globalization and the hierarchy of the individual in western culture. He exhibits regularly in the Denver area and is represented by Plus Gallery.

Quade Paul
BA, Drawing, Colorado State University

Teddy Schmedeke-Lee
BFA, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

A professional fine artist and portrait painter since 1975, Ms. Schemedeke-Lee is the recipient of multimedia and figure awards in watercolor, pastel and oils. She teaches traditional degree classes in life drawing. She has taught for North Jefferson County Recreation, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, and Foothills Metropolitan Recreation and Park District. Her work is represented by the Arrowhead Gallery in Golden, Colorado.