GCHS - Alumni Art Newsletter - Spring 2023

Alena Sceusa

Alena Sceusa is a Textile Designer, Fine Artist and Illustrator based in New York. As a Textile Designer, she strives to create bold, colorful patterns with personality. As an artist, Alena draws inspiration from everyday life such as people strutting through the streets of New York City or architectural structures from her travels. Sceusa states on her website, “I like to balance color and light and use them to portray a mood throughout my work. I am proficient in all Adobe programs and also possess strong traditional drawing and painting skills.”

Alena has a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University and an Associate’s degree in Textile/Surface Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. When she isn’t designing or painting you can find her at museums, enjoying a cup of coffee, vintage shopping or hanging out with her pets.

“I find infinite joy in being able to design for a living – whether it’s drawing whimsical animals or rendering bright and fun towels for a summer day it’s a great feeling to see my work come to life!”

Deirdre McGrath

Product Designer

Deirde a Product Designer with a Master’s in Integrated Digital Media from NYU and experience in Technology, Healthcare, and Media industries. She is skilled at sketching, wireframing, prototyping, storyboarding, visual design, and addressing problems. Dierdre also has experience in Accessibility and Creative Coding. She is creative thinker who loves imagining future experiences for people, and creating beautifully designed products. Contact Deirdre at dmcgrathdesign1@gmail.com

Antoinette Nicholas

Antoinette is an architectural designer at a firm that specializes in facade restoration in NYC. They survery and inspect buildings for to make sure the facades are not falling apart and hitting pedestrians. Knowing technical drawing is pretty integral for drawing details and surveying buildings.

Antoinette has worked as a designer at an architectural firm making digital drawings, renders, and models for clients.

Outside of work, she crochets and tries to attend figure drawing sessions as much as she can. Antoinette hopes to get back to woodworking and painting sometime soon!

Architectural Design

Andrew Abballe

Art and photography classes at Garden City High School were a very formative time in Andrew’s youth and has guided him to the path he is on now. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2015 with a BFA in Film/Video. Since then, he has been freelancing as a Director of Photography, which is the head of the camera and lighting departments on film sets. Andrew has shot two feature length films, many short films, music videos, and commercials in his seven years working professionally. When Andrew’s not working, he regularly does photography, since the pandemic he has taken up woodworking, allowing him to further his skills in design and craftsmanship. More of Andrew’s work can be found on his website at www.AndrewAbballe.com.

Tim Eschmann

Tim has spent the last 5 years working and doing creative marketing for Apple Music, Apple TV & Apple Card’s website. He also freelances and illustrates for bands, brands and local business’s on the side. Tim is currently developing a clothing brand that he is planning to launch in the spring. Look out for it!

MERIDETH SHINE

“I really found a passion for photographing people and love, and weddings allow me to do both in a fast pace, ever-changing environment.”

Merideth Shine has continued with photography both professionally and for personal enjoyment! Her current “9-5” is being Tweezerman’s Digital Content Producer, serving as the in house studio photographer. She creates the content you see across their digital media campaigns, primarily on Instagram and emails. When she’s not in the studio, she is photographing weddings and engagements!

Demaria William

Fine Arts Painter

Demaria works at Universal Limited Arts Editions (ULAE), where he creates landscape prints and paintings. He works on the final cataloge raisonne, where he sees the cancellation and preservation of intaglio plates.

He has worked with many famous artists such as; Jasper Johns, Charline Van Heyl, and Wyatt Kahn.

EMILY OLENIK

“Over the past few years, I have worked to grow my audience, experiment with different artistic techniques, and learn how to successfully run a business. The support I have received has been overwhelming and has encouraged me to remain motivated in my artistic endeavors. While it can be challenging at times to balance school and a business, it has been an extremely rewarding experience. I am excited to see how my art continues to grow and look forward to challenging myself by trying new things.”

ABIGAIL COX

“I'm in my senior year of college. I have accepted a full time job with the architecture firm HKS where I will be working on healthcare and well as sports and entertainment design. I am currently working on a thesis which is a community recreation center that can convert to a natural disaster shelter.”

Catherine Falco

Gallery Sales Associate

After graduating from Adelphi University in 2021 with a BFA in Studio Art and Art History, Catherine Falco was accepted into a three month residency program at ESKFF in Jersey City, NJ for the fall of the same year. Excited to follow this opportunity, she moved to Hoboken for an easier commute. After her residency, Catherine continued to live in Hoboken and began renting her first art studio at MANA Conteprary, working as a bartender to sustain herself and her practice.

After a year and a half of working in hospitality, she has found herself wanting to be more involved in the art world even in her day job, so she recently accepted a sales position at Aicon Gallery in NYC. This job allows her to interact with artists and their art daily, as well as travel to art fairs and exhibitions internationally, all while maintaining her studio practice. Since AP Art, art has been a guiding force for her life and she’s delighted to see where it takes her next.

“Relationships can enhance and destroy. My art is a documentation of fragmented stories and memories from my past that linger in my day to day life.”

MARY BLUME

Key Lighting Artist at MPC

Professionally, Mary has been working on visual effects for major motion pictures. She is a lighting artist at MPC, matching the lighting from movie footage onto CGI elements then integrate it into the films. Most recently, Mary worked on Dungeons and Dragons Honor among Thieves.

COLIN WALSH

Colin is the marketing chair for his fraternity. He uses his art and design skills to create large grahpics for different fraternity events.

PAIGE PRYOR

Paige has been continuing her interest in art in college. She has taken painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking all in her freshman year.

OLIVIA GUARNIERI

Olivia graduated from Vassar College in 2020, where she studied English, Media Studies, and Studio Art. At school, Olivia participated in the art department’s biweekly critiques, while working as the art model coordinator and interning for a few literary agencies. Her senior thesis centered around object-oriented ontology, and it really developed and furthered my interest in physical “things” and the specificity and obscurity they hold. Now living in Philadelphia, Olivia has a remote job at a publishing company and concentrates a lot of her thoughts on her creative work. This work has been taking the form of not-solarge, three-dimensional structures, made of common materials like wood, cardboard,

paper, and string. Olivia has been thinking about trying to construct visual “sentences” that are sparse and inconclusive and that hint at grammatical structures and symbols. She’s shown her work at a few gallery spaces— Vox Populi in Philadelphia, PA, Creative York in York, PA, and the Czong Institute of Contemporary Art in Gimpo, KOR—and she’ll be attending a residency at Arts Letters & Numbers in Averill Park, NY this spring.

Gallery Artist/ Remote Publishing

Anton Connolly

Gallery painter

An emerging artist driven by the modern edge, pop culture and history. Anton Connolly Dorbrolezhin’s paintings are original and fresh, at times with a hint of satire. In place of an expected career on Wall Street, Anton is pursuing a welldeserved spot among New York City’s next generation of profound and hungry artists.

Anton graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in American Studies. Originally from a small town outside of Moscow, born just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Anton immigrated to the United States at 10 years of age. Anton was drawn to art and media as a mode to find a voice he could own.

Seventeen years later, Anton has an impressive repertoire of pieces that draw from our values as children and as adults, and represent a world perceived by a true outsider-turned-insider. Anton’s art thrives on the bare and uncomfortable, taking what our culture has celebrated and stripping it raw.

Anton has an active interest in inviting the world to help continue his process. Deviating from the common mold of a self-involved and stubborn artist, Anton creates for others to create: his work, ranging from bare and naked to boldly dynamic, calls for an ongoing conversation of human values and the continued building of a cultural perspective.

The Gaze, 60"x70", acrylic on canvas

Wallis Day, 2019. 60" x 72"

Dinner Time, 2021

Erin Cunningham

Brand Strategist

Erin’s full time job is as a brand strategist, which allows her to continue flexing her creative muscles during the branding process. But, Erin has also been working freelance as a bridal, editorial, and SFX makeup artist for the past 5 years.

Kristen Andron

Fashion Designer

Since graduating from GCHS, Kristen went on to the Fashion Institute of Technology in where she got her degree in Fashion Design with a concentration in special occasion fashion. Now, she is a freelance designer creating custom dresses for clients associated with brands such as Miss Universe, The Bachelor, Sports Illustrated, and more. Kristen also worked on the design team at Jovani, a prom and pageant brand, where she designs fabrics, prints, and beading patterns for dresses.

Veronica Agarwal is a Cartoonist and Illustrator from NYC. She graduated from SVA in May 2016 with a BFA in Cartooning. She loves plants, summertime, dogs and her 3 cats! Her work focuses on mental health, coming of age stories, and friendship.

“I have been working as a designer in branding and in tech. I used to work in small design studios and brand agencies, and now I work as an Art Director for Meta, Facebook’s parent company. In my free time, I still keep a sketch book and draw my friends or surroundings from time to time. My latest creative endeavor outside of work is crochet! I have been crocheting clothes (mostly for myself) to wear throughout the pandemic”.

“My main profession is making graphic novels. Alongside that, my partner Lee and I do school visits and talks (zoom and in person) with kids about how we made our book! I also do assistant work for other cartoonists, attend conventions (less so since COVID), and do freelance illustration work for companies or individuals.”

Veronica Agarwal

Dana Famigletti

KM Kylie Mara

Kylie Mara

CLUB MONACO

FASHION DESIGNER

KM

TIFFANY LIANG

Physician Assistant

Art Commissions & Medical Illustrations

ELISABETH CLARKE

Art Director

Elisabeth has worked in the field of Graphic Design for 10 years now. She currently is an Art Director at Macy’s orchestrating on-figure and still photography for digital and print. In Elisabeth’s free time she likes to watercolor, write, sew and always exploring new creative projects.

LIANN NEWBY

Freelance & Co-Founder of Loose Screw Productions

As an art teacher, I believe that passion is the driving force behind any successful artist. Without passion and loving the creative process, making art loses its authenticity. At Garden City High School we are lucky to have talented artists as art teachers and mentors for students of all ages with specialties in a variety of media. It is important for us to encourage students to discover and explore their passions, and guide them in developing their skills. Through passion, students can find their own unique voice and create work that is truly meaningful to them. Art teachers instill this drive in our students and hope that it follows them into college and careers. By fostering creativity, we empower our students to think outside the box and develop their own individual artistic style. While creativity and passion are vital, it is also important for students to learn the basics and fundamentals of art. This includes techniques and materials. By teaching students these foundational skills, we prepare them to succeed in the art world and help them understand the context of their own work. Balancing passion, creativity, and industry standards is key to guiding our students towards becoming successful and fulfilled artists. It has been our pleasure to watch the success of our students who have continued to achieve a career in the arts. There are a variety of careers in the arts, and having a solid knowledge of the fundamental art skills will take you to these careers and it all began with the Garden City Art Department.

Shawn Uttendorfer