Faculty Bios — Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

Thomas O'Brien

Thomas O'Brien

NEW INSTRUCTOR! Thomas O’Brien is a landscape painter living in San Diego, California. He received formal art training during his undergraduate studies at the University of New Mexico. Upon graduation, Thomas joined the United States Marine Corps and is currently serving as an active-duty engineer officer. His work often leverages a full-spectrum value scale while incorporating as much color as possible. He emphasizes key elements of a subject through deliberate design choices and thoughtful composition. His aim is to create evocative compositions by combining the major tenets of representational painting.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 9, 2020Thomas O'Brien

Dr. Cliff Oliver

Dr. Cliff Oliver

Dr. Cliff Oliver is an award-winning photographer, past photography instructor for the San Diego Natural History Museum, cutting-edge integrative health care professional and international workshop leader. He created and taught the first 5-day immersion iPhone photography workshop at Hollyhock, Canada’s premier Leadership Learning Center. His images have been on the cover of Wild Bird magazine, on display at Scripps Oceanography Institute, and in multiple first-place finishes in the International Exhibition of Photography Del Mar. The San Diego Natural History Museum’s, Birds of the World centennial exhibition featured several of his images.

Angela LynchSeptember 8, 2020Dr. Cliff Oliver

Susan Osborn

Susan Osborn

Susan Osborn taught art at The Bishop’s School for 17 years. Keeping a studio at home, she works in assemblage, drawing, and painting. Her work reveals a love of energy through line, texture, and color. Susan’s work is in collections in the United States, Denmark, Japan, and Spain. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women (25th edition). Among her many awards, she has received a Visual Artists Assistance Award from the State of California, awards at SDMA, the San Diego Art Institute, Bonita Museum, and Small Image Show.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 8, 2020Susan Osborn

Chris Padilla

Chris Padilla

Chris Padilla is a first-generation American who grew up between Tijuana and San Diego. He holds two bachelor’s degrees from SDSU in Art History as well as Painting & Printmaking. Chris has wide-ranging experience working in the community, including 10 years as the Education Manager at The Art Kids of San Diego County. He is an experienced teaching artist who has worked in printmaking and as a leatherwork instructor at UCSD.

Angela LynchSeptember 7, 2020Chris Padilla

Jared Padilla-Elliott

Jared Padilla-Elliott

NEW INSTRUCTOR! Jared Padilla-Elliott received his Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from California State University, Bakersfield. He graduated top of his department, was awarded Outstanding Graduate of Art and Art History, and was inducted into the Roadrunner Society for top scholars in the university. Padilla-Elliott has experience in after school education and enrichment programs and has held roles at the San Diego Museum of Art and at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. He currently works as an Enrichment Program Site Coordinator at the Preuss School at University of California, San Diego and as a Museum Educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Padilla-Elliott is an assemblage artist with work mainly composed of recycled material and found objects. His work brings the materiality of personal and found objects into focus with 2D and 3D compositions. He has exhibited work at Bakersfield Museum of Art, Harold J. Miossi Gallery, and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Angela LynchSeptember 7, 2020Jared Padilla-Elliott

Sfona Pelah

Sfona Pelah

Sfona Pelah is an award-winning San Diego–based printmaker with many years of experience in the medium. She has an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in printmaking with a minor in photography. Sfona has been teaching fine art and printmaking at UCSD and San Diego Community Colleges for over 40 years. She has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 7, 2020Sfona Pelah

Hans Perez

Hans Perez

Hans Perez is a visual artist and screen printer. He has been enamored with the craft of printmaking and honing his screen-printing skills since introduced to it in high school. In 2005 he began his professional career in custom printing, specializing in water based, discharge, and technical inks. In addition to being a production screen printer, in-house designer, and running his own printmaking business, The Prince of Prints, he has most recently developed an internal print program to test the limitations of traditional printing methods for local craft brewery Modern Times.

Angela LynchSeptember 7, 2020Hans Perez

Victoria Rabinowe

Victoria Rabinowe

Victoria Rabinowe is an American artist, author, international educator, and director of the DreamingArts Studio in Santa Fe. She has taught thousands of artists, writers, and educators around the world to create mythic memoirs and to understand the language of dreams through poetry, prose, and book arts. She is educated at Harvard, Emerson, and Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her artwork has been exhibited across the globe.

Angela LynchSeptember 7, 2020Victoria Rabinowe

Ernesto Rivera

Ernesto Rivera

Ernesto Rivera is a San Diego–based landscape photographer whose work has been featured in local galleries and exhibitions and has had his photographs published in many publications, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Ernesto graduated from California State University, Chico, where he majored in journalism and minored in photography. Ernesto’s first photography job was as the editor of his junior high school yearbook. His current day job is at Southwestern College, where he focuses on digital communications, including photography and social media.

Angela LynchSeptember 7, 2020Ernesto Rivera

Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts

Robin Sanford Roberts is an artist and theatrical scenic designer working in models and mixed media. She has designed scenery for multiple theaters including The Old Globe, San Diego Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, and Broadway. She holds a degree in architecture from LSU and an MFA in scenic design from UC San Diego. She also studied at the École des Beaux-Arts at Fontainebleau and at Sir John Cass School of Art, London Polytechnic. Robin currently teaches in the undergraduate theater department at the University of San Diego and at Art on 30th.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 6, 2020Robin Roberts

Griselda Rosas

Griselda Rosas

Griselda Rosas, born and raised in Tijuana, examines Mexican culture and looks at identity, gender mores, and ethnicity. Her work is described as postcolonial, casting a spotlight on the often violent merging of Spanish and indigenous cultures. Currently a San Diego Art Prize recipient, her work was on display across the county, in 2020, at Balboa Park’s San Diego Art Institute, the Oceanside Museum of Art, and Lux Art Institute in Encinitas. Rosas received an MFA from San Diego State University.

Angela LynchSeptember 6, 2020Griselda Rosas

June Rubin

June Rubin

June Rubin has been teaching art for over 30 years. She is a graduate of both University of California Los Angeles and Art Center College of Design with degrees in Art & Cultural Anthropology. She has an art studio in Liberty Station, Point Loma. She loves teaching art to kids—sharing her enthusiasm for art and encouraging everyone's creativity.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 6, 2020June Rubin

Sibyl Rubottom

Sibyl Rubottom

Sibyl Rubottom holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was awarded European Honors and studied in Rome for a year. For over 25 years Sibyl made fabric art for the interior design trade. She is former proprietor of Bay Park Press, which was a small fine arts press specializing in limited edition artists’ books and fine intaglio prints. Sibyl is currently manager of the Print Studio at the Athenaeum Art Center. Sibyl’s books are held in numerous collections, including the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, John Hay Library at Brown University, Sterling Library at Yale University, Geisel Library (Mandeville Special Collections) at UCSD, the Malcolm A. Love Library at SDSU, the Athenaeum, and various public and private collections.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 6, 2020Sibyl Rubottom

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz is a Chicana artist who resides in San Diego. She was raised in Los Angeles and Northern Arizona. Ruiz has a strong connection with nature and often uses natural objects like rocks, shells, leaves, and sticks in her weavings and sculptures. Ruiz is figure painter, sculptor, and weaver. Best known for her blanket series, Ruiz portrays couples standing or lying under colorful Mexican blankets. Geometric patterns and bright colors are reiterated throughout her work. Her travels to over 22 countries have influenced her work, especially the patterns that are primarily derived from Latin American textiles.

Angela LynchSeptember 5, 2020Katie Ruiz

Anne Saitzyk

Anne Saitzyk

NEW INSTRUCTOR! Anne Saitzyk has been teaching painting and drawing for nearly 30 years, mostly at Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design Extension, as well as Otis College of Art and Design and Barnsdall Art Center, with some workshops across the United States and internationally. She received her MFA in painting from Claremont Graduate University and a BFA in illustration from ArtCenter College of Design. In Anne’s teaching, exercises and references to art history as well as contemporary work are meant to educate students in the foundations of art and inspire us to move beyond our habitual approaches and take a creative leap. She co-founded Contemplative Creativity Lab, a monthly gathering of artists exploring the meditative mind through art practices that was active for 10 years. She’s been teaching her classes online for the past few years and perhaps surprisingly, it’s been very effective in deepening participants’ artistic skills and maintaining a community of artist-students.

current instructorAngela LynchSeptember 5, 2020Anne Saitzyk

Esteban Saltos

Esteban Saltos

NEW INSTRUCTOR! Esteban Saltos is an Origami interpreter and designer with 25 years of experience. He's been invited as a guest speaker and exhibitor to origami conventions in over 10 countries worldwide.

Angela LynchSeptember 5, 2020Esteban Saltos

Sage Serrano

Sage Serrano

Sage Serrano is a San Diego native who received her MFA in painting and printmaking from SDSU in 2021 and her BA in visual arts studio with honors from UCSD in 2015. For her, drawing is a meditative process that helps her recollect and reflect on personal experiences. Her research is a culmination of studio experimentation, line, body, play, collecting the self, bookmaking and papermaking. She is currently teaching drawing at SDSU and printmaking at San Diego City College. She also teaches bookmaking workshops throughout San Diego and is a member of the North American Hand Papermakers.

Angela LynchSeptember 5, 2020Sage Serrano

Claudia Strenger

Claudia Strenger

Claudia Strenger is originally from Colombia, where she studied Graphic Design. Her studies carried her to live and work in places like Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eventually ending up in San Francisco, California, where she spent several years working as a graphic designer for Toyota and Apple. While living in SF (in 2010), Claudia took her first calligraphy class with Friends of Calligraphy and absolutely loved it! She was surprised and impressed by the amount of time that it takes to learn, to practice, and to create—truly a labor of love.

Angela LynchSeptember 4, 2020Claudia Strenger

Lauren Siry

Lauren Siry

Lauren Siry is an artist, curator, and director of 1805 Gallery in San Diego. Siry received a BFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She holds a master’s degree in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. As a practicing studio artist, Siry has completed studio fine art programs at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Studio Arts College International in Florence, with a strong focus on drawing and painting the figure.

Angela LynchSeptember 4, 2020Lauren Siry

Anna Stump

Anna Stump

Anna Stump is an artist and arts educator living in Twentynine Palms and Los Angeles. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Occidental College and her MFA at San Diego State University. She is currently developing an artist residency and arts center in the High Desert.

Angela LynchSeptember 4, 2020Anna Stump