Visual Arts

Patrick Bell

Samantha Buker ’00

Samantha Buker is a Baltimore-based writer, editor and artist of 7 Veils Studio. She curates a monthly music seriesThrive Music Live at local art spaces. She also serves as vice president of Occasional Symphony. Her visual work ranges from watercolor to photography and has been featured on BmoreArt.

Geraldine Butler ’96

Geraldine Butler is a Maryland-based painter whose work is inspired by nature. Butler received her BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, where she now teaches painting two days a week. Butler is also a former TWIGS instructor. Butler’s work bridges the gap between abstract and representational painting challenging established ideas of what paintings are classified as, and in doing so, diversifies the type of art her viewers can relate to. Butler’s paintings are both abstract and representational, founded on Butler’s love for these two seemingly different types of painting, and following many years of working directly from observation. Butler has participated in several group and solo exhibitions throughout the country and abroad over the last two decades, and she also participates regularly in art festivals throughout the region.

Joe Giordano

J.M. Giordano is an award-winning photojournalist based in Baltimore and co-host of the photojournalism podcast, 10 Frames Per Second. His work has been featured in American Photo magazine and his clients include The Wall St. Journal, GQ, The Observer New Review Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, The Baltimore City Paper, i-D Magazine, Discovery Channel Inc., Rolling Stone, XLR8R. His work from the Struggle series is in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and the Reginald Lewis Museum. In 2015, he was short-listed for the National Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Prize. In 2018, he was selected as the Best Photographer in Baltimore by the readers of Baltimore magazine. Instagram: @jmgiordanophoto Twitter: @jmgpix

Suzanne Gold

Suzanne Gold is a queer interdisciplinary scholar and writer studying hair as a catalyst for creative and scholarly inquiry. Through her international art collective HAIR CLUB, she investigates how hair relates to our personal stories and collective social and cultural experiences. Her writing ranges from fiction and essays to poetry and illustrations, often blending forms, material, and genre. Her scholarship has appeared in Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), The Smudge Paper, and is forthcoming In the Sensual World. Her first book, ALLTALK, released in 2022, is an exploration of the mindscapes we traverse in encounters with art, through poetry and illustrations. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress, KID NOIR, was recently recognized by Uncharted Magazine’s 2023 Novel Excerpt Contest. She is the Inaugural Writer in Residence with the University Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University for the ’24-’25 academic year.

Amber Rhein

Amber Rhein is a printmaker, artist, and designer currently living in Baltimore, Maryland. Originally from the mid Hudson Valley in New York, Amber came to Baltimore to receive her BFA in Printmaking, with concentrations in book arts and graphic design, from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Today Amber is the Pressroom Manager at Gilah Studio in Baltimore and teaches digital design and printmaking at Baltimore School for the Arts. In her personal works she focuses on exploring interactions of color, memory, feeling/touch and most importantly a consistent adventure through grief.

With printmaking’s deep history of chemicals and material waste, she also believes in maintaining a sustainable print practice with scrap material from the letterpress shop along with greener practices in the classroom. Her work has been featured in exhibitions and print exchanges across the US, UK, and beyond. She has been featured in catalogs by both Paul Laidler and Cynthia Nourse Thompson. She is in the collections of the Maryland Institute College of Art, the University of the West of England, and Dolphin Print and Press in Baltimore, Maryland.

Laurent Hrybyk ’96

Laurent Hrybyk is an illustrator, designer, game developer, and animator. In 2015, he earned his MFA in illustration practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He now lives in the Baltimore area working as a full time graphic designer and illustrator. His clients include Boston Globe, Washington Post, Wired Magazine, The Atlantic, BBC Focus Magazine, The Bold Italic, Baltimore magazine, Backchannel, Isthmus, Williamette Week, The New Atlantis, MICA, Atomic Books, Muddy Waters, Johns Hopkins Health Review, Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine, American Journal of Bioethics, Father Daughter Records, and ATO Records.

Kirsten Rook

Kirsten Rook is an artist working primarily in fine metal and mixed media. She is a jewelry designer, metalsmith, and mixed media sculptor. Rook teaches 2D and 3D Design, Sculpture I, and Mixed Media. She has conducted master classes and is a former TWIGS instructor. Rook earned her bachelor of fine arts degree with a minor in metalsmithing from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She also studied at the Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy.

Rook has exhibited nationally at galleries such as the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA; Nancy Sachs Gallery, St. Louis, MO; the Roseberg Gallery at Goucher College, Baltimore; the Segal Gallery at BSA; and the Baltimore Jewelry Center.

In addition to her work as a professional artist and instructor here at BSA, Rook taught for more than 25+ years and was the program coordinator for the MICA Jewelry Center. She is a founding member and current instructor at the Baltimore Jewelry Center.

Volker Schoenfliess

Volder Schoenfliess teaches Ceramic I and II at the Baltimore School for the Arts. He is one of the founding member artists of Baltimore Clayworks, and he is a graduate of Towson University with a bachelor’s degree in art education. In addition to being an instructor with Clayworks and BSA for decades, he also teaches at the Jewish Community Center at Owings Mills. His narrative figurative ceramic work illustrates a wry sense of humor and whimsical take on human nature. Exhibition of note: Gloria & Sonny Kamm Teapot Collection, “Red” Baltimore Clayworks, MD, “Ashes to Art” San Francisco, CA.