The Art Center Design College - The College for Smart Artists

Core Faculty

Diane Alire
Diane has been a fine artist and commercial photographer for over twenty-five years. She has also been a photographic educator for the last ten years. Diane’s experience in photography ranges from photojournalism to high-end commercial work and fine art. Before moving to New Mexico in 2001, Diane was the Division Manager for a national product photography studio in Seattle where her clients included Home Depot, Starbucks and J.Crew.

This year she received a merit award from the highly competitive 32nd Annual Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition. Diane’s first book of photographs was published in 2006 entitled “The Cross Garden.” Her work can be found in many collections in the United States and around the world. Diane was recently named Photography Curriculum Coordinator for The Art Center's Albuquerque campus. She continues to teach and show her work locally and internationally.

Deidre Argyle
Deidre has exhibited in venues such as the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California, Works Gallery, in San Jose, California, and The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona. She is the recipient of The Dennis Jones Steel Case Scholarship. She is a founding member of the Zaslow Argyle Group, a small art design collaborative and currently teaches in the studio arts program at The Art Center Design College.

Aaron Barreras
Aaron, a native of New Mexico, is an award winning freelance graphic designer and animator with over 12 years of visual effects experience. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in animation and began by creating detailed 3D animations for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies such as Parke Davis. He soon expanded to product design and pre-visualization, where he created concept animations and patent designs for Metero, a theme park roller coaster company targeting the Japanese market.

Currently, Aaron has over 9 years of teaching experience at The Art Center Design College. His awards include a Telly, three Addy’s, and several top categories in regional film festivals. His previous film credits include “The Boundary of Moab” (2007), “Procrastination” (2005), “Chippie’s World” (2002) and “Albuquerque Fries” (2001), as well as VFX work on the live action film “Spinners” (2008).

Aaron C. Bass
Aaron is a fine artist who works primarily in the printmaking field. He holds a Masters degree from the University of New Mexico and is a Tamarind Institute certified professional lithographer. Recent exhibition (2009 -2010) participation includes South Korea, Japan, Pakistan, India, the U.K. as well as other national showings. In addition to teaching, he has taught workshops in photo-printmaking processes, curated exhibitions, and worked in research and development for the nation’s leading press manufacturer, Takach Press.

Eric Beasley
Born in New York City in 1966, Eric grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he graduated from Northern Arizona University with a BA in art. Eric especially enjoys painting with acrylic paints in particular. Surreal landscapes and images of stars and planets dominate his personal work. Often, Eric would incorporate fiber optic lighting into his painted creations.

Eric started his career in the educational publishing field 1998 and has held the position of Production Assistant with Morgan-Cain and Associates since that time.

Currently Eric is on the faculty of The Art Center Design College where he teaches classes in the Visual Communications Department. Eric enjoys anything relating to astronomy, science fiction, and digital imagery and continues his artistic endeavors digitally with a stylus and graphic tablet.

John Cummins
John graduated with a B.A. in Graphic Communications from Point Loma Nazarene University, in 1990. He continued his education receiving an A.S. in Advertising Design in 1995. From 1997-2004, John worked in the entertainment industry working in post-production for broadcast television. He worked as a digital compositor/visual effects artist for many television shows including Power Rangers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 2 1/2 Men, Malcolm in the Middle, Still Standing and TV movies like 12 Days of Terror. He was also given the opportunity to be a lead compositor for pilot episodes, and worked as an Inferno Artist for commercials. His movie credit includes Minority Report in 2002.

John has extensive experience with Adobe software and Discreet Logic. He also spent a brief amount of time in front of the camera as a commercial actor, credited as main player for an ESPN Gameplay commercial in 2004.

Len Disalvo
Len received a BS in Illustration from San Jose State University in 1993 and has been a professional illustrator and animator since 1990. Working in many formats from newspapers to games, Len has most recently been involved in illustrating the children's book series "The Lima Bear Stories".

Michael Nolan
Michael is an artist based in Tucson, Arizona. He earned his BFA in Illustration in 2002 and in 2006 he completed his MFA in Illustration from the University of Arizona. The next year following graduation, he worked as an adjunct instructor at the U of A and at Pima Community College. For the last year Michael has been teaching full time at The Art Center Design College.

Currently he is producing art from a small space on the east side of town.

Krista Ogden
Krista graduated from the University of Buffalo with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Studies and then went on to receive her Masters of Architecture from University of New Mexico. Krista has been fortunate to contribute to the designs of commercial and residential projects in Upstate New York and New Mexico. She also designed furniture, kiosks, display carts and gallery spaces for a retail manufacturing company based in Albuquerque.

Krista also took part in the establishment of a Design-Build construction company named Ogden Construction. Ogden Construction is proudly responsible for the development of several neighborhoods in the Albuquerque area.

As an associate professor and faculty of the Interior Design department, Krista is encouraged to share her professional experiences with students and is committed to the high standards of The Art Center Design College.

Lucas Sanchez
Lucas first began working in the media industry as a news/commercial editor. He worked for Univision as a Technical Director and with an ABC affiliate as a Sound Technician and Commercial Editor. After working in the news business for four years he went back to school to focus on Computer Graphics. After School Lucas moved to the greater Los Angeles area and worked for an Interactive agency producing interactive 3D environments, working for clients such as the Universal Technical Institute and Bosch Tools.

Lucas moved back to his home state of New Mexico in 2008 and began teaching part time while he worked for Northrop Grumman creating interactive 3D training for various government agencies. Lucas now teaches full time.

Natalie Solomon
Natalie graduated with a B.A. in English and a B.A. in History from Eastern New Mexico University. She continued her education receiving an M.A. in Education from the University of St. Thomas. Natalie’s experience as a writer and educator began 8 years ago as the Editor-in-Chief of the El Portal Literary Magazine for the Eastern New Mexico Community. She was twice awarded the Departmental Award for Excellence in English during her academic career. She has done freelance editing for organizational consultant and motivational speaker Ron Chapman’s books What a Wonderful World and Seeing True.
Natalie received her M.A. in Education from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, where she graduated with honors. Her career as an educator has included working as a private tutor, high school teacher, and managing a learning center. She moved back to New Mexico in 2009 and is now core faculty in the General Education department.

Mano Sotelo
Mano has worked as a freelance artist for over 10 years. His experience includes magazine and book illustration, corporate identity, product development, catalog and book preproduction. His paintings have been exhibited in both juried and invitational shows. Mano worked for several years as a production manager and graphic designer within the graphic arts, printing and publishing industries. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Otis Art Institute Parsons School of Design and a Master in Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix. Mano has taught at The Art Center Design College since 2001.

Tory Syracuse
A native of Flagstaff, Arizona, Tory received a BA in English from Northern Arizona University, and an MFA in Creative Writing and MS in Urban Planning, both from the University of Arizona. She teaches in the General Education and Landscape Architecture programs and has worked in many capacities as an environmental educator and urban planner in the non-profit and public sectors. Tory has taught students of all ages, from kindergarteners to college seniors, and in many settings, from the mountain trails of California to the studios of The Art Center Design College. She continues to work as a freelance writer and loves running and biking through the urban and natural wilderness around Tucson.

Jeffrey Tobin
Jeff completed undergraduate studies at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), earning a Bachelor of Environmental Design. He was privileged to complete a semester at London`s prestigious Architectural Association during the `hay-day` of the international design group known as Archigram. Jeff moved to St. Louis to enroll in Washington University`s Master of Architecture program. With degree in hand he relocated to New York City and five years later became a founding Principal in the New York-based international design firm Mancini-Duffy.

Successfully completing his license exam, Architect Jeffrey Tobin was fortunate to work with many Fortune 500 clients involved in award-winning projects. During his twenty years with the firm and focusing efforts on becoming a preeminent tenant improvement/ corporate office designer and project manager, Jeff completed projects in London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Boston, as well as the New Jersey/ New York metropolitan area.

Now residing in Tucson, Jeff enjoys the outdoor activities of the desert southwest and is an enthusiastic member of The Art Center faculty.

Elisa Valdez
Elisa is a graduate of The Art Center Design College Albuquerque where she received both her Associates in Advertising Art and Bachelors in Graphic Design, finishing both degrees with honors. She has been practicing Graphic Design professionally for seven years, working in the design field as Art Director, Marketing Associate, Production Manager, Web Developer and Print Broker. She has worked with such national clients as Go Fast Energy Drink, Para Gear skydiving outfitters and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. Her local client list has included all of New Mexico's ski areas, Santa Fe Outlets, the City of Albuquerque and the Breast Cancer Resource Center. Her awards include two Gold Addy Awards, on the local and regional stages and a National Silver Addy. She currently has fours years of teaching experience at The Art Center Design College.

Phil Young
After nearly 30 years in the animation industry, Phil started teaching at a time when he felt the need for a shift in careers. Armed with a BFA in Illustration from Cal State University in Long Beach, CA in 1977, Phil began an illustrious career in animation. Without knowing what the future would bring, Phil started in the character animation trainee program at Disney, which was very small at that time. He stayed with Disney for 25 years working on projects such as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and 15 other screen credits as a character animator.

In 2002, Phil left Disney to work at Dreamworks and Warner Brothers before leaving California to teach at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Phi earned his Master’s Degree in Sequential Art and then headed back out west were he settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a faculty member at The Art Center Design College since 2007, Young teaches classes in animation, fine arts and illustration.