Fine Arts

Professor Alecia Rossano is a classically trained figurative sculptor from Seattle. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Scripps College and her Master of Fine Arts from the graduate school of the New York Academy of Art. She has also studied in Florence, Italy, which inspired her love of Renaissance and baroque art. Her work has been shown in Seattle and New York.

Before teaching at DigiPen, Professor Rossano taught 3D modeling and animation as well as art history and figure drawing at Henry Cogswell College. She was also the producer for student projects at Mesmer Animation Labs in Seattle. In 2006, she was selected to teach a sculpture workshop for teens at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle.

Currently, Professor Rossano teaches art history, figure drawing and figurative sculpture at DigiPen. She believes strongly that art is a teachable skill and enjoys sharing her knowledge with all students with a passion to learn. She is particularly excited to see how the next generation of artists will apply classical techniques and knowledge to work created in new media.

For more information about Professor Rossano, visit aleciarossanosculptress.blogspot.com.

Bill Hooper is a figurative painter living in Seattle. After graduating with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, he had the opportunity to study with several different figurative artists, including Dan Thompson, Robert Liberace, Charles Miano, and sculptor Stephen Perkins. In his work, he tries to bridge elements of abstract color with his classical figurative training. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Baltimore, Barcelona, New York, Portland, and Seattle. His artwork is shown in both private and public collections in the United States and Europe.

Hooper began teaching anatomy and figure drawing at DigiPen in 2018. He firmly believes that talent is the ability to work hard.

A native of Syracuse, NY, Michael Lorefice is a Seattle-based artist and educator. He holds a BA from Colgate University and an MFA from the Memphis College of Art.

Lorefice’s training comes out of the liberal arts tradition, where he concentrated on two-dimensional work – painting, drawing, printmaking, and design – combined with art history, literature, and philosophy. In addition to being a featured artist in the esteemed publication New American Paintings, he has exhibited his artwork in solo and group shows in museums and galleries internationally, including the Graphic Arts Institute of Oaxaca, Mexico; Archer Gallery at Clark College, Vancouver, WA; Second Floor Contemporary and the Memphis College of Art in Memphis, TN; John F. Peto Studio Museum in Island Heights, NJ; Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, AR; and Interstitial Theatre, Project Diana, and South Seattle Community College Gallery in Seattle.

Lorefice’s personal work stems from the observation of everyday things. This carries over into his teaching at DigiPen, where he instructs students to train their eyes and translate these acute observations to the page. Lorefice has been on the faculty since 2012, teaching a range of classes related to drawing, painting, color theory, and art history.

David Longo grew up on a dairy farm in Connecticut. At an early age, he had a passion for drawing and painting, coupled with a love of video games. When Donkey Kong hit the arcades in the early 1980s, he became enraptured by 8-bit graphics, leading to many drawings of pixelated characters on graph paper. It would be over a decade before his love of art and games would converge again. He went on to receive a BFA in illustration from Pratt Institute in New York City. Upon graduating, he worked as the studio manager at a graphic design firm in Manhattan while doing freelance illustration on the side.

As a gamer, Longo was acutely aware of the evolution of video games in the 1990s with the ever-increasing visual fidelity and sophistication of gameplay. In 1996, he began his 20-year adventure in game development, creating illustrations and characters for the third installment of Bungie Software’s Marathon series. In 1999, he made the trek out to Seattle to work at Monolith Productions as the lead 3D artist for the critically acclaimed No One Lives Forever. He moved into the art director role for No One Lives Forever 2, F.E.A.R., and Gotham City Impostors. In 2012, he co-founded Blackpowder Games with a small group of ex-Monolith employees, releasing their first game, Betrayer, in 18 months with just six-and-a-half employees. After a short stint at ArenaNet, Longo joined DigiPen full time to help up-and-coming students become tomorrow’s exceptional game artists.

At the age of 9, Peter Moehrle immigrated with his family from West Germany to Toronto, Canada, in 1966. He showed an interest in drawing and painting from an early age. But it wasn’t until high school that he knew he wanted to be an artist. After high school, Moehrle enrolled at the Ontario College of Art, where he studied fine art and graduated with honors.

While he was working at his first job at a picture framing shop, a customer who worked as a voice actor for animated films suggested he pursue a career in film and referred him to a friend. That friend turned out to be one of the three owners of Nelvana, the largest animation studio in Canada at the time.

Since 1980, Moehrle has made his living as a background painter, becoming supervisor of his department after three years of working in animation. In 1986, he became the supervisor of layouts as well. His job allowed him to work on various animation projects for television and film.

In 1995, Moehrle joined Disney Feature Animation in Florida as a senior background artist and worked on feature films like Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, and others. Since Disney closed their studios in Florida, he has done development work for studios like Sony, Starz, IDT, Core (Canada), Hibbert Ralph (UK), and Miramax (UK).

Today, Moehrle teaches young future animation artists at DigiPen and maintains his skills by doing freelance work for the occasional studio in his spare time.

Lisa Meighan is an award-winning associate architect with over 30 years of experience in design, research, product development, presentations, training, and teaching. She has a five-year degree from Oregon School of Design (with an emphasis on historical architecture) in Portland, Oregon, as well as 2 years of engineering studies from both Portland State and Oregon State Universities.

Meighan has obtained the title of Certified Green Professional by the NAHB and has worked with hundreds of clients in the United States and Canada. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and her design of Eagle Point Retreat in Canada won the CHBA National SAM Award for Custom Home of the Year in 2014.

Meighan is currently an architectural contractor for Lindal Cedar Homes (LCH) Dealers, a position which includes all levels of design, continuous research of markets and trends, and the development of new designs for distribution to over 120 LCH dealerships. Prior to this, she was the product development manager for LCH Corporate, which involved designing 60+ new homes for a network of dealerships in four countries, re-designing top selling models, and teaching at architectural workshops.

Meighan enjoys teaching architectural spaces, design, and lighting at DigiPen. She feels an architectural background in construction materials, building technologies, and iconic structures is helpful and important to the career paths of DigiPen students. She also feels that the courses focusing on ancient civilizations are good for both world building and art.

Kristin Frost is a visual artist and adjunct art professor living in Bothell, Washington. A Seattle native, Frost attended the University of Washington from 2003-2007, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Painting and Drawing. In 2013, she received her MFA in Studio Art from Claremont Graduate University in California. She has been the recipient of the Fernandez Prize, the Albert B. Friedman Grant, the Claremont Graduate University Art Fellowship, numerous travel and materials grants, and first place in Brea Art Gallery’s Made in California exhibition, awarded by juror Rebecca Morse, MOCA. In addition to DigiPen, she has taught at Seattle Central College and Gage Academy, as well as many colleges throughout Southern California.

Frost has exhibited her work widely around the West Coast in both solo and group shows. In 2014, she held two solo shows at Apothecary Gallery in Pomona, California and LGT! Curatorial in Fullerton, California. In 2016, she was in a three-woman show at Norco College Art Gallery in Norco, California. In recent years, she has participated in many group shows around the Los Angeles area and most recently at the DigiPen faculty group show ”Modern Mythology” at the Bellevue Art Museum.

In her work, Frost merges drawing, painting, and collage to make mixed-media pieces that focus on the interaction between realism and abstraction. Pairing traditional media like watercolor, gouache, graphite, and ink, with unconventional materials such as colored tape, found objects, and wax, she creates imagery that is inspired by her surroundings, photographs, and memories.

Currently, Frost teaches drawing, painting, and art history at Gage Academy and beginning art classes at DigiPen. She enjoys working with the talented and inspiring students at DigiPen and the supportive BFA faculty team. She is proud to be a DigiPen Dragon!

Selected Publications:

• New American Paintings Issue 111, March/April 2014
• Studio Visit Magazine Issue 20, January 2013