Craig Nelson
Director of Fine Arts/Printmaking

Mr. Nelson depicts figures, landscapes and various environments in rich, vibrant oils. His subjects relate directly to his personal life. Mr. Nelson's devotion to his art is evident in the lush orchestration of brushwork, weaving mood and emotion in each of his pictures. Since 1990, he has shared his knowledge with the students at the Academy of Art University.

Peter Schifrin
Director of Fine Arts/Sculpture

Mr. Schifrin has taught sculpture and drawing classes at the Academy since 1993. He received his BA from San Jose State University and his M.F.A. from Boston University. He has received several large-scale public commissions, including bronze coyotes in downtown San Jose, the bronze "Firefighter" in San Ramon, and the nine-foot bronze "Wounded Man" for the city of San Mateo's Performing Arts Center. Although his background is in figurative and portrait sculpture, Peter now creates intimate and heroic-scale 'Vertical Poems,' which are stylized narrative totems in ceramic clay.

Margaret Keelan
Assistant Director of Fine Arts/Sculpture

Ms. Keelan earned her BA in fine art from University of Saskatchewan and MFA in ceramic sculpture from University of Utah. She has exhibited her sculpture throughout the U.S. and Canada and received many awards. Her work has appeared in "The Craft and Art of Clay" by Susan Peterson, Ceramics Monthly, and most recently, "500 Figures in Clay, Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form".

Margaret has worked with variations and permutations of clay and the figure for 30 years. Currently she is exploring how clay can mimic other materials and how the weathering of stone and wood can be a metaphor for a life being lived.