The People
Meet the people of the Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation! Join us in building an arts community.
Staff
Rene Hall Eldredge
Director of Public Relations
René spent seven years in Los Angeles, CA as a member of the cast and crew of the NBC/Walt Disney Pictures hit television show "Scrubs". René also worked for ABC, CBS, and Buena Vista television and has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild since 2001.
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Stevie Kesner Ricks
Creative Director
A native of Texas, Stevie obtained her BA in Art and Education at Trinity University, San Antonio, and obtained her post-graduate studies at Trinity, Sam Houston State University and St. Mary's University. She taught in the NEISD for ten years, where the art program was recognized as the most outstanding art program in the State of Texas.
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Jane Wilson
Office Manager
Jane has been managing the office, dealing with administrative logistics, class scheduling and student registrations since the Foundation opened for classes in Fall 2006. Originally from England, where she received her B.A. in English Literature from England's Kingston University, Jane has a background in administration and management. Jane moved to San Antonio with her Texan husband in 2002. She and her husband have three sons, two cats and a dog. She recently became a US citizen.
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Faculty
Gina Adams
Gina Adams' studio in York, Maine provides a window into her world. Artifacts representing her mixed heritage, including lace, beadwork, dolls, and handmade clothing abound in the space, side-by-side with the tools of this encaustic artist. Her working environment reflects the synergy between personal history, cultural influences, and the encaustic medium that drives her work.
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Sylvia Benitez
Sylvia Benitez is a nationally known, installation artist whose work has begun to explore landscape painting within the context of a site-specific agenda. She is the recipient of two Pollock-Krasner awards, an AICA award, and two National Endowment for the Arts Visiting Artist Awards. Benitez has conducted over 60 community based mural workshops along the eastern seaboard. She recently relocated to Seguin, TX, where she lives with her husband and white cat.
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Brad Braune
Brad Braune is a native Texan who received a degree in Architecture from Texas Tech, where he also studied Art. He worked for a time as an artchitect, winning awards while working for prestigious firms including Ford Powell & Carson before turning to painting full time. His work is well-known throughout the country and many area natives will remember his painting of a longhorn cow with a balloon tied to her horn which was commissioned as the first Texas Folklife festival poster. He lives and works in San Antonio Texas. His website features recent work.
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Roberta Buckles
Roberta is an MFA graduate from UTSA with an emphasis in painting. Her oil paintings are large, colorful and spirited, focusing on color, light and reflection, riding the border between realism and abstraction. Her interest in the abstract nature of perception and her never-ending fascination with reflection and distortion led her to this focus. You can see some of Roberta's work on her website and here.
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Pat Farley
Pat Farley graduated from Harris Advertising Art School in Nashville, Tenn. She was resident artist at the David School of Basic Art in New Orleans for 20 years.
Private showings of her work included The French Quarter Gallery Membership.
Her many years of experience as an art teacher, and consultant, make for a perfect fit at the Majestic Ranch Arts Foundation. Her specialty is pencil, ink, charcoal and pastels.
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Jamie Donaldson
Jamie Donaldson is a nationally recognized woodturner from Georgetown, Kentucky. His work can be found in many public and private collections, and also on his website.
The following are some of Jamie's woodturning accomplishments:
- Demonstrator at 5 AAW symposiums
- Frequent regional demonstrator in the Midwest, South and Southeast US
- Woodturning instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School
- Scheduled SWAT demonstrator - 2009 Wichita Falls
- Instructor at Woodcraft stores in Louisville and Lexington, KY
- Two-term past President of the Kentucky Guild of Arts and Craftsmen
Julie Gibson
Julie Gibson earned a BFA from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. She is an award winning teacher, has taught workshops in photography and digital imaging, and worked very successfully with troubled inner city youth for many years. Her photographic work has been published and features specializations in nature and portrait photography. Now living in the beautiful hill country, she also volunteers altering photographs for a herbarium website in which the hill country flora is being catalogued.
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Lawrence Jennings
Lawrence is an artist, instructor and freelance writer for ARTL!IES who works in San Antonio, Texas. He received his MFA in Painting from UTSA in 2002. His abstract paintings, sculptures and videos have been included in solo and group shows in San Antonio and The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art.
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Lisa Kerpoe
Lisa Kerpoe is a fiber artist who focuses on creating art cloth, wall hangings and monoprints. She hand-dyes fabrics and then uses a variety of techniques including screenprinting, stamping, metal leaf and hand stitched beading to create images on the dyed fabric.
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Divy Nelson
Divy Nelson has been a working, professional singer for 24 years.
She is the creator of the "Six Point Vocal WAVe Method," a highly effective and guaranteed vocal empowerment method, and is founder of Voices Unlimited, a school of voice offering vocational training programs for singers, private vocal study and corporate programs nationwide.
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Susie Monday
Susie Monday makes art cloth and art quilts in her hilltop studio near Pipe Creek, TX. Her vibrant contemporary fiber art is inspired by the region's cultures, natural beauty, stories and archetypes. Often incorporating both her own fabrics and ethnic and vintage cloth into her work, her voice is clear and distinct -- a goal she has for her students, as well. She has won numerous local and regional awards, and is a member of Texas Originals, the state's select group of craft artists, and artisans.
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Frankeen Price
Frankeen Price, a resident of Tapatio Springs in Boerne, Texas, has been expressing herself through art since 1970. Frankeen's formal training as a Registered Nurse provides her with an ongoing quest for knowledge, and the ability to see the fullness and depth of life; its joys and sorrows. Using both water media and oil, she brings these characteristics and insights into her work.
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Michael Saul
Michael Saul relocated to San Antonio from Fort Worth in 1974, in order to attend school at the Southwest Craft Center. There he studied under four masters until 1979, when he left to open his own studio and gallery, Michael Saul Pottery.
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Phil A. Simpson
Phil Simpson is a landscape-sensitive sculptor who masterfully forms steel that responds to the environment through sensuous and elegant expression. Created in forged and fabricated steel, his works are found in corporate, museum, university and private collections throughout the United States.
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Desiree Schanding
Desiree Schanding earned her MFA in Imaging Arts from the Rochester Institue of Technology. She has also completed a Graduate Certificate in Non-toxic Printmaking and can teach both Photography and Non-toxic Printmaking. Desiree received her BFA from The University of Texas at San Antonio in 2004. She is represented by the Robert Hughes Gallery San Antonio. She lives in San Antonio, TX with her husband Zack.
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Bob Tiemann
A working artist since 1958, Austin born, Robert Tiemann has taught for over 35 years, not only at Trinity University but also UTSA, Southwest School of Arts & Crafts, Alamo Heights High School and Harvard University. His work has been shown and is in collections worldwide. He divides his time between San Antonio and Fort Davis, and Maine.
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Vicki Stephens
Vicki Stephens was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and received her early education in Washington State and Michigan. Moving to Louisiana after high school graduation she worked in the manufacturing industry for many years. During these years, her childhood interest in art found expression through drawing and painting. In 1987, after graduating studies in Graphic Arts at the Shreveport-Bossier Technical Institute, she worked in the commercial printing industry for 12 years.Read more
Rachman Ulmer
Rachman is self-taught, drawing his lessons from his life experiences. He is an avid learner with a natural curiosity. To follow through this lyrical path of creativity with Rachman, you would encounter an instrument maker, vintner, restaurant designer, furniture sculptor, rock climber, musician, environmental planner, exhibit fabricator, symphony and opera stage manager, educator and husband, and father of 4.
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Connie Young
Connie Young is currently teaching art at Bandera High School. Her program includes photography, drawing, digital art and AP 2-D classes. She has taught art in the public schools since 1977. Her art work depicts the Hill country in 35mm and digital images. Connie encourages her students to use the cameras to capture the images of their surroundings. Her personal work is displayed in local galleries and exhibits. She lives with her family in Bandera.
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Board of Directors
