PSU Magazine Spring 1990

She also directs the Pl ays- in-Progress series which offers staged productions for up-and-coming playwrights. Past honorees have included Oregon Literary Award winner Carol yn Gage and award winning pl aywright Karen Boettcher– Tate. Sean Six, fo rmer student , plays the "Newcomer" teenager, Buck Franci sco, on telev ision's "Alien Nation." Doug Soesbe ('7 1 BS , '76 MA), a Hollywood screenwriter, is working on a three-picture dea l with Tri-Star Pictures . He is a former story editor for Tri-Star and Uni versal Pictures . Soesbe is also a published noveli st. Gaynor Sterchi , lecturer, is a Willie Award winning profess ional actress who has appeared with Seattle's Intiman and Empty Space theaters, as well as in numerous roles in Portland . She appeared in the Oregon Shakespeare Festi val Portland production of "Si x Characters in Search of an Author" and played the lead in "Noises Off." William Tate, fac ulty member since 1968, is a respected dramaturg. He has been dialect consultant fo r several loca l theater productions. Dorothy Velasco, former student , is an award winning playwright. Her play "Pioneer Patchwork" was produced as a part of the New-Plays-in- Progress series . Visual Art Howard Ben Tre, fo 1111er student , is an internationally known sculptor whose cast glass work has been di spl ayed in 45 exhibits from New York to Tokyo . Bet Borgeson ('78 BS) is a colored pencil arti st. She lectures, exhibits, and conducts workshops in the use of co lored pencil illustration nationall y. Her art instruction books are di stributed internationally. Byron Gardner, fac ulty member since 1966 , is a Northwest painter and printmaker renowned for his landscapes of New Mex ico and the high desert. His work has been shown in Oregon, Washjngton , Cali forn ia and Ari zona. Hi s "Monument Valley Series" of monoprints is part of the permanent Grunwald Collection , Center for Graphic Art , UCLA . James Lee Hansen, retiring fac ulty member, is nationally recogni zed for hi s monumental bronze and stainless steel sculptures . He initiated the renaissance of the lost-wax method of bronze casting on the West°coast. Yoshiro Ikeda (' 70 BS) is head of the cerami cs department at Uni versity of Kansas , Manhattan. He ex hibits nationally and is the frequent winner of prizes and awards. The students Arts Union paid tribute to retiring professors James Lee Hansen (left) and Byron Gardner with an exhibition oftheir work in February. Gardner specializes in landscape paintings of the high desert, and Hansen is recognized for his monumental bronze figures. Mel Katz*, fac ulty member, has bee n recognized for hi s abstract sculpture , and hi s pl ans fo r a contemporary arts museum in Portland . He was a co-foun– der of Portl and Center for the Vi sual Arts. Claire Kelly-Zimmers, faculty member, is an art historian whose research efforts in Modern Art have expanded the cur– riculum at PSU and whose interest in women in the visual arts has benefited the Portland arts community. Michihiro Kosuge, faculty member, is acclaimed in the Northwest for hi s sculpture and landscape design, and recentl y received notoriety during the install ation of a major sculpture in L. A. 's Japantown. John Monti ('8 1 BS) is an internationally celebrated painter whose works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. He has exhibited in national museums and galleries in Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D .C. Rev iews of his work have appeared in the New York Times, Art News , and Village Voice. Bill Plympton ('69 BA) is a nationally syndicated political cartoonist. Hi s cartoon books have been published by Smyrna Press; Holt , Rinehart , Winston; and Doubleday. He created an award-win– ning film " Boomtown,,. written by Jules Feiffer. Laura Ross-Paul* ('61 BA) is a famili ar painter in the local arts community. She exhibits at Portland 's Laura Russo Gallery and has been included in the Oregon Bienni al Exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum . Emily Young, fac ulty member, is one of the pioneers of computer art in the Portl and area , and is a consultant in thi s capacity for Apple Computers and Tektroni x. She was recently named 1989 Oregon Art Educator of the Year. D * These artists and programs were recently applauded by The Oregonian in year-end and end-ofthe decade articles celebrating the arts. All the artists listed have been singled out by the media or by their departments for the talent and expertise they bring to Portland State students and audiences around the country. PSU 11