Instructors
Summer of Art courses are taught by award-winning instructors who are practicing professionals, many of whom teach in Otis College's undergraduate and graduate programs. Contact with these instructors provides a glimpse into the working lives of professional artists and designers and introduces you to many career choices in art, design, and related fields. See the faculty bios below for more information about our instructors.
Summer of Art Instructors
Beverly Bledsoe
Beverly Bledsoe is a Southern California artist who earned an MFA in Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy Art,1981, and a BFA in Printmaking and Sculpture from Cleveland Institute of Art,1979. She has taught Life Drawing and Drawing at Otis College of Art and Design since 1999. Ms. Bledsoe has taught Drawing, Painting and Printmaking at numerous colleges and Universities in Southern California and Texas. She has won various awards in Printmaking and received a cultural grant from the America Center in Helsinki, Finland. Ms. Bledsoe has had one person exhibitions in Los Angeles, Houston, Texas and Helsinki, Finland. She has been included in numerous national exhibitions.
Michael Bonitatis
As the founder of the global, virtual, international animation studio, ‘Animation Libation Studios’, Michael Bonitatis runs the animation studio with a pathway from education to employment. While producing animated short films he created the international independent animation channel on the Roku platform ‘Animation Libation.’ Additionally, Michael has collaborated with industry veterans from Disney, Dream Works, Sony, and Nickelodeon to develop multiple projects. Michael served as animation director for ‘Slope of the Curve’; an animated short featured on CNN money. Michael has been a professor of CG and traditional animation production for over a decade at local colleges including East and West Los Angeles College, The Art Institutes, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton and The Los Angeles Film School as well as on ASIFA’s Animation Educators Forum Steering Committee. Michael holds a M.F.A. for Animation & Visual Effects from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Most recently Michael created the ‘Student Animation Showcase’ in collaboration with ASIFA Hollywood to promote recently graduated student’s animation short films. Michael is the co-founder and festival director of ‘The World Animation Celebration’ partnered with Sony Pictures Animation and Animation Magazine.
Robert Dobbie
BFA in Illustration, Otis College of Art and Design. Mr. Dobbie is a freelance illustrator, who draws inspiration from painter Edward Hopper, Classic Disney, Film Noir and James Ellory. Clients include Hurley, American Airlines, Intel, Fox Family Channel, AFLAC, Snack King, and Murphy Design. Adjunct Professor, Communication Arts Department, Otis College of Art and Design.
Marjan Hormozi
MFA University College (Slade School), London; BFA University of North London. Ms. Hormozi studied at Chelsea School of Art, London. A distinguished figurative draftsman and painter, her exhibitions include Factory Place Gallery, Los Angeles and Newcastle Polytechnic Gallery, Newcastle Up-On-Tyne, G.B. She is a recipient of the Artist in Residence Award, North East London Polytechnic and the Cheltenham Fellowship, Cheltenham College of Art. She currently teaches in the undergraduate Foundation department.
Kwesi Kennedy
Kwesi Kennedy an artist and educator whose specialty is in the area of animation, illustration and design for entertainment and games. A graduate of Howard University School of Fine Arts and the North Carolina School of Design, he has been working as an artist in the Los Angeles area for over twenty years. With a start in internet graphics and design, Kwesi began to animate for steaming entertainment and was a part of the early boom in original content for the internet while working at Atom films. From there he went on to teach at various schools in the areas of animation, design and photography while at the same time working as a freelance and full time artist for companies involved in the production of animation for entertainment, games and education.
Martin Kline
Martin A. Kline has done many things in the entertainment industry including Senior Visual Effects Art Director for Sony Pictures Imageworks as well as spending many years as a feature film production illustrator for special effects units and principal production, and as a first unit art director on Jurassic Park and Forrest Gump. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he studied at Otis Art Institute, in Los Angeles, where he was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship for the study of Fine Art Lithography at Tamarind Institute, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At Walt Disney's theme park design group, WED Enterprises, he eventually rose to show designer, participating in EPCOT design and Fantasyland redevelopment. His interest in science fiction led him to work in motion picture special effects and he joined Apogee to work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Dune and Firefox, among others. Marty is a member of the Art Directors Guild and a charter member of the Visual Effects Society. Most recently, he was given the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illustrators branch of the Art Directors Guild.
Chan Koak
Chan Koak, BFA in Illustration/Fine Art, Otis College of Art and Design. Ms. Koak is an illustrator and graphic designer whose work has been exhibited in group shows. She has recently self-published her first illustrated children’s book. Ms. Koak is currently working as a graphic designer and illustrator for children's books and teaches in the Foundation department at Otis College of Art and Design.
Laura London
Laura London is an exhibiting fine artist based in Southern California working in the medium of photography and digital video. Her artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows nationally and internationally. The work is also included in many collections both private and corporate. She is the recipient of two Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Grants, for which she created both a permanent and a temporary art installation. Press coverage of her work includes reviews and features in the LA Times, LA Weekly, Huffington Post, Time Out New York and Artillery Magazine as well as other publications. She currently teaches photography at Otis College of Art and Design. She has also taught at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and many other visiting artist and guest lecture appointments. She received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts and her BFA from the University of Arizona. Her artwork has recently been shown at LSH Colab Gallery Annex and Chimento Contemporary Galleries in Los Angeles, California.
Eduardo Lucero
Since 1993, Eduardo Lucero has been producing fashion shows/events that feature his clothing line's vision. His shows are known for their strong visionary flair and ability to remain ahead of the status quo, incorporating a huge range of inspiration. As an innovator, he has been instrumental in building a fashion week in Los Angeles from when there was none. He was the one recruited by SMASHBOX Studios to help them in their first foray as a fashion show venue. And the same with IMG, and most recently Boxeight Productions and DTLAFW. Besides showing consistently during fashion week LA for almost twenty-five years, he has also exhibited in New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C. and internationally in Hong Kong, Peru, and Mexico, where he has a mentorship program with young student designers and a commitment to help grow that nation's fashion profile.
Markus Maciel
Markus Maciel, BFA in Toy Design, Otis College of Art and Design. Currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of the Toy Design program at Otis College. Previously worked as the Director of New Brands Design at Razor. Mr. Maciel also worked at International Toy as Director of Product Development and Senior Engineer and Manager of the Digital Training Center at Mattel.
Susanne Manheimer
@smartdesign is the Santa Monica-based design office of Susanne Manheimer. For the previous vigorous and exuberant 20 years, Susanne has been recognized for her work by its elegance, sophisticated humor, style, and wit. Her knowledge, understanding and respect for innovative design, is incorporated in her invention of new design approachesSimplicity and directness of communication are the main elements of her style. Her work makes people smile, laugh, and…think. Today, she divides her time between running the studio, teaching, and lecturing to corporations and schools on the importance of The Democratization of Creativity™ as well as Conceptual Thinking and Problem Solving. Susanne graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA in design. Susanne, a native New Yorker, worked in "The City" as a Creative Director for Tiffany and Co. where she was awarded a Certificate of Distinction for Typography, Creative Director for Bloomingdales by Mail, Revlon, and also The Museum of Modern Art, to name a few. Disney called, and she moved to California to work for Disney + Co. as Creative Director for the Disney catalogue. Susanne has a history of success mentoring young designers, both in academic roles and as an industry leader. She has been described as a “needle in a haystack,” a conceptual designer who is creative yet has strong business acumen.
Joe Micallef
Joe Micallef (who goes by Cogspa, which stands for Cognitive Space) runs a video production studio in Torrance, has a background in CG animation and is the author of "Beginning Design for 3D Printing". He received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California (USC) film school in 2008. In addition to teaching at Otis Extension, he teaches design, web development, and animation at Pasadena City College. Joe has recently released several new NFT collections featuring whimsical hand-drawn characters, 3D renderings, and generative art. He is skilled in Houdini, Zbrush, Blender, Maya, Photoshop, and Procreate. His artistic work combines AI generative art, analog art, interactivity, music, and electronics in various ways. In his spare time, he builds synthesizers. youtube.com/c/joemicallef
Robert Nichols
MFA, Painting, Laguna College of Art and Design; BA, Art History, Univ of California at Santa Cruz. Internationally exhibited painter: Faculty of Fine Arts Lisbon, B Minus Studios, Q Art Salon, Idyllwild Arts Gallery.
Walter Santucci
Walter Santucci, BS, Broadcasting and Film, Boston University, is an animator, puppeteer and filmmaker who has created work for and with such comic luminaries as Monty Python’s Graham Chapman and Margaret Cho. He recently produced animation and puppet segments for Attention Deficit Theater for the CW Network (starring Jaime King and produced by Sarah Michelle Gellar). For over ten years Walter has taught animation at various colleges and universities.
JT Steiny
BFA, Otis College of Art and Design. Freelance Illustrator, painter, comic artist, cartoonist and book illustrator. Clients include Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Smart Money, Forbes, American Airlines, Rolling Stone, Hollywood Reporter, LA Weekly, Sony Records, Virgin Records, Rhino Records, Warner Bros Records, Capitol Records, UCLA, St. Martin's Press, Rock the Vote, Jim Henson Prods, Saban Entertainment, Klasky Csupo. Assistant Professor; Illustration, Otis College of Art and Design.
Mayuka Thais Nagasawa
Mayuka Thais, BFA, Otis College of Art and Design. A contemporary artist, Miss Mayuka is a bilingual multi-cultural artist, edutainer and art educator who specializes in teaching International School and multi-national students. She has led songwriting classes for at-risk youths involved in San Fernando Valley's NPO Youth Speak Collective Program. At the age of ten, she won her first Art Award from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. A published Art Educator, she is the recipient of Eco Arts Awards for her songs and music videos on animal conservation and ecology.
Norland Téllez
Norland Téllez was born in Managua, Nicaragu¨a in the early seventies, growing up in an artistic family that managed to survive the turmoil of a civil war that ended in 1979. As a consequence of the volatile situation that followed, his family was forced to migrate to the United States in search of a better life, free from the threat of war and economic hardship. Making good on his artistic promise after his arrival, Norland went on to attend CalArts on a full scholarship. Soon after, he joined the Walt Disney Studios in Florida during the production of Beauty and the Beast (1992) as one of the youngest animation trainees the studio had ever had. From then on, he has enjoyed a fruitful career in the animation industry, working in feature films as well as television, including a series of independent projects. While working as an animation professional, having graduated from CalArts, Norland continued to pursue his education further. Already flourishing as a teacher in the fields of animation and conceptual design, including story development, he became interested in philosophy and psychoanalysis around the study of world mythologies. In keeping with this pursuit, in the early 2000s, Norland embarked on a graduate study of mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. This intensive research and multidisciplinary approach allowed him to focus my dissertation on the Popol Vuh, the Sacred Book of the Quiche-Maya, which he is also currently translating and illustrating for a new up-coming edition, where he reintroduces the famed “Book of the Counsel” as the Wisdom of the Peoples. Norlandtellez.com
Daniel Toney
Daniel Paige Toney is a designer, illustrator, and fashion historian. With a BFA in both graphic design and Illustration & Painting, as well as a MFA in Fashion Design; Daniel approaches the design process from a multidisciplinary approach. Daniel has worked for numerous designers and stylists in the LA area, the most notable including Michael Costello and B. Akerlund. Daniel has had the opportunity to sketch and design for internationally recognized fashion houses, including Dolce & Gabbana, Balmain, and Manish Arora. At Otis College of Art and Design, Daniel has taught Fashion illustration, Fashion Design, Digital Design for Fashion, as well as Studio & Construction for Fashion in the Summer of Art program. Daniel will also be teaching History of Costume this fall. In addition to his design work, Daniel is an award winning fashion illustrator with his high concentrated fashion watercolor illustrations found on the walls of LA ateliers as well as in digital fashion publications. Instagram: @danielpaigestudio