Fine Arts Faculty

Our Fine Arts faculty encourages students to take risks, to reveal their thoughts, to be inventive and supportive of each other. As noted professionals in their own rights with extensive records of exhibiting their work, our instructors seek to help students become active members of the global artistic community.

Department Chair

Rebecca Vaughan
MFA, Carnegie Mellon University; BFA, University of Colorado at Boulder; foreign study at Bernardinus College, Netherlands and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada.

Rebecca Vaughan has exhibited sculptural installations, mixed media conceptual projects and installations in the Colorado region, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico and Canada. Publications include the Chicago Art Journal and KnitKnit. Ms. Vaughan has also received state grants from the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities and the Ohio Arts Council. Her research centers on gift economies and the cultural and biological methods by which we regulate and maintain our social relationships. Her work explores the unique resonance between organisms and the manners in which they embody the concepts of distribution and networking.

Department Heads

Rebecca Vaughan, Sculpture
See above.

Gary Emrich, Photography + Video Art
MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; BA, Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Gary Emrich owns a successful film production company. He has been a fine arts instructor at Metropolitan State College and the University of Colorado at Denver. His work has shown in three Denver International Film Festivals as well as the Atlanta and Dallas Film Festivals. He has received two individual arts fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts, grants from WESTAF and the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Denver Art Museum, the State of Colorado and the City of Denver Public Art Collection. He has a 25-year exhibition history across the country and is represented by the Robischon Gallery in Denver.

Clark Richert, Painting
MFA, University of Colorado; BFA, University of Kansas.

Mr. Richert’s group and solo gallery exhibitions span 25 years. In addition to public and corporate commissions, his work can be found in the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Wichita Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Amoco, Container Corporation of America, and many others. Currently, Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery in Denver, Cornell DeWitt Gallery in New York, and Linda Fairchild Gallery in San Francisco represent Mr. Richert’s work.

Core Faculty

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 has been on the faculty of Santa Fe International Academy of Art, Santa Fe Community College, University of Colorado at Denver and Front Range Community College.

Martha Russo
MFA, University of Colorado at Boulder; BA, Psychology and Developmental Biology, Princeton University.

Teaching experience: Princeton University, Massachusetts College of Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Russo was a recipient of the Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award. Her interest in art, kinesthetics, movement, athletics, and developmental biology and psychology began during her undergraduate years; she intensified her investigation, and focused primarily on issues concerning the body, during her graduate work. She also studied in Florence, Italy. Ms. Russo has received numerous grants and awards, including a Colorado Council for the Arts Artist Fellowship Grant. She exhibits her work nationally and internationally, in Colorado, New York, California, China, Mexico, Peru, and Palestine.

Adjunct Faculty

Russ Anderson
MFA, Sculpture/NewMedia, Rutgers University.

Kathy Andrews
MFA, Ceramics, Ohio University; BFA, Ceramics and Sculpture, Lake Erie College.

Ms. Andrews is an independent art curator and art advisor. She has served as gallery director/curator at Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Center for Visual Art and the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. She has served on the Board of the Colorado Wyoming Association of Museums and is a member of the American Association of Museums.

Patricia Becker
MFA, Columbia University School of the Arts BFA, Printmaking, Rhode Island School of Design.

Mark Brasuell
MFA, Painting/Sculpture/Intermediate Arts, University of Denver; BFA, Painting/Drawing/Jewelry, Texas Tech University.

Randy Brown
BBA, Texas Tech University.

Mr. Brown has been an artist and arts advocate in the Denver community for more than 25 years. His current work is a documentary project in Sumatra and Borneo, focused on the impact of resource development on village culture, in partnership with the University of Denver Department of Anthropology. He is a recipient of a MacDowell Colony for the Arts Fellowship (residency), a Villa Montalvo Artist Residency and a MacArthur Foundation Travel Grant. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Invisible Museum and is President of the Colorado Artist Coalition. His works are in private and public collections including the Denver Art Museum.

Conor King
MFA, Photography, Pratt Institute; BFA, Photography, University of Colorado at Boulder.

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.

Jennifer Miller
MFA, Studio Art, Maryland Institute of Art; BA, Art, Bethel College.

Damon Mohl
MFA, Painting and Drawing, University of Colorado; BFA, University of the Arts.