Archives: Instructors

The Custom Post Type for Instructors

News & Events

News & Events

Mary Ellen Carrier

Mary Ellen is a lifelong artist who built a successful career as an Advertising Designer, channeling her creativity into visual storytelling. Over the past decade, she has combined her love of travel and photography with a passion for watercolor painting.

 

A Signature Member of the prestigious National Watercolor Society, Florida Watercolor Society, and Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, Mary Ellen is widely recognized for her bright, bold, and contemporary still-life watercolors.

 

Her work has been featured in numerous juried exhibitions, including Orlando CityArts, the Orlando Science Center, the Center for Health & Wellbeing, and the Mount Dora Center for the Arts. Enthusiastic and deeply passionate about creative expression, Mary Ellen continues to inspire through her vibrant and imaginative watercolor paintings.

News & Events

Matthew Brown

Matt Brown is an artist and educator who has spent nearly a decade teaching art in his hometown of Orlando. Once known as the Candle Guy, he is now a certified K-12 art teacher who has taught hand-building ceramics, wheel-throwing, sculpture, drawing, and painting throughout his career – and believes his students are his greatest works of art.
~
Teaching is a way for me to give back to the community that has supported my own creative journey throughout my life. I teach by example and view the studio as a collaborative space where everyone learns, grows and celebrates the life-changing power of art, together.
The lesson I hope every student learns is that they too can be inspired, shaped, and formed – just like our own creations, we can become our own works of art. By bringing their ideas to life, students realize their power to create real and beautiful things from nothing – sometimes just an idea, and maybe a handful of mud.
I’m both an artist and a teacher. As a teacher, I try to see my students in the same way they learn to see themselves: like a fresh ball of clay. As an artist, I try to help each ball of clay become their own little pot – and, as an art teacher, I hope that every little pot grows up to be a potter.

News & Events

News & Events

Victoria Camera

Tori Camera is a Florida native and multidisciplinary artist. Tori is deeply engaged in ceramics and community art education.
She studied Fine Art and Photography at Valencia College and Daytona State College before earning a Bachelor of Science in Photography from the University of Central Florida. Her passion for the arts was encouraged early on in her middle school Advanced Art class, where she was introduced to a range of mediums including ceramics.
Tori began teaching creative workshops in 2021 at Piante Design in Winter Park and eventually became the studio’s lead ceramics instructor. There, she developed and led a variety of classes focused on hand building, wheel throwing, and surface design.
As a teacher, Tori prioritizes creativity, experimentation, and accessibility. She encourages students of all skill levels to explore, play, and find joy in the process of making.

News & Events

Vera Gubnitskaia

Vera Gubnitskaia is an artist, a writer, a freelance editor, and a former librarian. She has studied, worked, and created art in Russia and the United States. Gubnitskaia is currently a studio artist at Crealdé School of Art and a member of the Central Florida Watercolor Society. Gubnitskaia constantly explores and experiments. Her body of work includes paintings, drawings, and sculpture. She participates in numerous art exhibits, serves as a judge in exhibits and competitions, contributes her art to fundraising events in Central Florida, and is active in the local creative community.

News & Events

News & Events

Emma Pittelman

Emma Pittelman is a potter and artist from Woodstock, New York, where she fell in love with pottery at 14 while attending the Woodstock Day School. Influenced by the work of her late great-uncle, Seth Duberstein, an accomplished potter known for his landscape-inspired glazes, Emma draws creative inspiration from both vast landscapes and intricate details found in nature.
She initially studied film and photography at Sarah Lawrence College but soon realized pottery was her true passion. With plans to pursue a Fine Arts degree in pottery, she took a gap year and temporarily moved to Orlando, where she met her husband and decided to stay.  Emma attended Valencia College in Orlando, where she continued taking pottery classes and earned her Associate of Arts degree. She joined Crealdé’s fellowship program in the pottery department and found the artistic community she had been searching for.
Emma has taught pottery since 2019, offering classes for adults and children. She emphasizes critical thinking and creativity, guiding students through hand-building, wheel-throwing, and surface design while teaching them to critically assess their forms and refine details to achieve a meticulously finished and visually cohesive piece. Known for her problem-solving skills and ability to break down complex techniques, Emma enjoys helping students bring their visions to life and believes in making pottery accessible to all.

News & Events

Joan Sanchez

Joan Emanuelli Sanchez is a Contemporary Realism Artist from San Juan, Puerto Rico, who now resides in Orlando, Florida.
His distinctive personal style emanates from passion and emotion which portrays numerous perspectives on a variety of subjects in oils, bringing to life, scenic landscapes, interior scenes, portraits, still life, and everyday people. Much of his subject matter reveals a deep contrast of harmonious colors and bold compositions. With the artist’s interpretation, he welcomes his viewers into his personal visual journey.
He was a student at Crealdé School of Art, Winter Park, Florida (2016 to 2020), where he later was granted a Fellowship in the Painting and Drawing Department (P&D). In January 2019 he was selected as a Studio Artist in the same department. He completed an Associate in Arts with a Pre-Major in Fine Arts at Valencia College in 2021.
The Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens Emerging Artist Program selected him as the first Emerging Artist for the Winter Park Paint Out 2018. In 2016, he was awarded 1st place in the 35th Juried Student Exhibition at Crealdé School of Art in the Painting & Drawing category. He has participated in various exhibitions such as “Tapestry – Americas United” at Banco de Brasil, “Emerge” at the Showalter Hughes Community Gallery, and “Evolving Identities,” Keepers of Heritage, at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens a collective art show of Puerto Rican Artists. Also, he has been part of the NOAPS International Exhibition Spring Exhibit in 2021. His first individual exhibition was presented at New Concept Gallery in Orlando, FL with great acceptance from the public in 2021.
His spirit and dedication have taken him on a beautiful journey in which he is totally submerged.

News & Events

Donald Kratt

Donald Kratt is originally from Michigan, and has degrees in Finance and Computer Science. He has developed commercial insurance, legal, electronic signature and speech recognition applications, and has been a Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer in software companies. He has been photographing since the 1970s and will happily allow you to view the Kodachrome slides he took then. He previously served as a fellow in the Crealdé photography department, and has had darkroom prints displayed in 30+ US galleries and exhibits.