Creative Illustration: Fantasy, Figures, & Folklore

Zachary Rhoades is a multi-dimensional visual artist with extensive experience in studio- and post-production. Zachary has used his over twenty years experience in TV production, working roles in conceptualization and writing, through studio production, and extensive work in post-production and graphics, to hone his abilities at two-dimensional animation, three-dimensional animation, and properly using the fourth dimension – time – to communicate effectively with the audience.

With work that focuses on narrative and communication in both entertainment and education, Zachary’s work is of particular interest in today’s fast-growing distance and remote learning fields. Either remote or in-person Zachary has worked on projects or taught courses in Studio Production, Team Production, Post-Production, Storyboarding, Animatics, Character Design, 2D and 3D animation, Comics and Visual Storytelling, Digital and Photo Illustration.

Dr. Sutters was a K-12 art educator in an urban school district and also taught at an international school in São Paulo, Brazil. He attained his doctorate degree from the Ohio State University receiving national recognition for his dissertation. He currently serves as the Director of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in Art Education at George Mason University and is an Associate Professor in the School of Art as well as an Affiliate Faculty in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). He recently completed a two-year term as the Faculty Fellow for the SACSCOC Reaffirmation Committee and also another two-year term as the Stearns Center Faculty Fellow for Faculty Writing Support.

Dr. Sutters is published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has presented his research at the state, national and international level in Brazil, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He served as the Chair of the Professional Learning through Research (PLR) working group of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Research Commission and in other capacities within NAEA. He served on the review board of Art Education and Visual Arts Research and has been a contributing member of the Data Visualization Working Group. His research focuses on pre-service practices, teacher licensure, national demography data, comparative studies/Brazilian studies, and theories pertaining to space and place. In 2019, he received a competitive grant from the National Art Education Foundation pertaining to his academic genealogy project and data visualization. In the summer of 2022, Dr. Sutters was selected to participate in the School for Art Leaders at Crystal Bridges, AK, and also was appointed to a two-year term with the NAEA Research Commission and he also attended the annual meeting in Park City, UT. He also was awarded an Emerging Administrator Fellowship from the National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA) and will attend the annual conference in October,

He teaches numerous courses in the MAT program, is the Advisor for the NAEA Student Chapter, and mentors students on their research capstone. His studio practice and background currently centers around printmaking and he co-teaches a summer graduate course called Print/Paper/Books. He is the School of Art Liaison and an Advisory Board Member for the Mason Community Arts Academy, where he also teaches Portfolio Preparation courses in the summer for high school students.

Ms. Ouerghi has drawn and told stories from a very young age and pursued a career in art as a result. She graduated in 2013 with a degree in Media Arts & Animation with a focus in Illustration & Storytelling. Since then she has been a freelance illustrator, a teaching assistant at GMU as well as The Art Institute of Washington. Ms. Ouerghi is also the Volunteer Coordinator of H Street Festival and a Silver Level sponsor for Stop The Stigma (Texas Chapter) which provides counseling to those in need.