She/Her http://www.mercurialstudio.com andreabagdonart@gmail.com Drawing/Painting, Interdisciplinary In-person, Online, Hybrid mentor BIO Through the mediums of paint and experimental video Andrea Bagdon’s hybridized practice examines the symbolic order of femininity and its relationship to the contemporary cultural programming of the female-identifying psyche. She has exhibited her paintings and experimental videos nationally and internationally– including exhibitions at the College of Art Association Conference in Chicago, IL, Fringe Bath Arts Festival in London, United Kingdom and the Project Gallery V in New York, New York. Her paintings were selected to appear in New American Paintings West Issue, No. 156. In addition to being a practicing artist, Andrea was an instructor at Colorado State University, and is currently a College Board advanced placement art instructor for a college preparatory high school in the Twin Cities. Andrea received her BFA from Northern Arizona University in 2014 and her MFA from Colorado State University in 2021 and is a member of the Northern Warehouse Artist Collective in St. Paul. TEACHING PHILOSOPHY & MENTORSHIP My role as a mentor is of equal importance to having an active studio practice. I focus on demystifying art making as merely an academic exercise and reiterate that having sustainable practice is more rewarding when it is on the pulse of contemporary art culture and in dialog with the community it surrounds. My goal as a mentor/educator is to foster a supportive and collaborative relationship by understanding my mentees' individual goals so that I can provide them with academic articles, texts, and artists to research to help broaden their visual language. I also focus on having engaging studio visits, introducing mentees to art communities within the twin cities area and encourage them to apply to exhibitions within their community and beyond. This approach helps graduate students get plugged into art communities and gives them the tools to contextualize how their work relates to historical and contemporary art practices.