“Humanity’s desire to observe and record our own image is on display in the tradition of figurative sculpture. Training in the discipline provides a unique opportunity to replicate what we see in three dimensions. I am grateful to have obtained this classic and timeless cornerstone of fine art’s education along with my MFA at the University of Oregon. A career of working with the figure in sculpture has proven to be an unending delight and inspiration … creating something that occupies space and possesses form as we do, while shaping its environment and our experience in turn.“ 

Ellen Tykeson, MFA ’76 

Nick Dong, MFA '02, is a conceptual metalsmith, mixed-media sculptor, and socio-commodity engineer. From a multidisciplinary maker/craftsman practice he founded studioDONG, and leads a team to produce experiential sculptures, objects, and installations combine an advanced knowledge of materials and techniques with a goal of engaging an audience’s experience beyond the optical.    As a Taiwanese-American, Dong identifies himself as a 21st-century continuation of Wen-ren 文人, the Chinese cultural lineage of intellect-scholars, in which each work is a quest of self-evolution, a vehicle of sharing philosophy.  By carefully integrating scientific and handcrafted components, supernatural movements, light, sound, and various interactive or situational strategies, Nick's work produces a fully immersive event, only complete once a viewer steps into the space and an encounter is initiated. 

Nick Dong, MFA ’02
www.instagram.com/studiodong/  

Chang-Ae Song, MFA ’08, is a Korean-based contemporary artist. She holds a BFA in Korean Painting (1995) and her first MFA (1997) from Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, Korea. In 2008, she earned her second MFA in Painting & Drawing from the University of Oregon in the USA, where she was awarded the School of Architecture & Allied Arts Dean’s Graduate Fellowship in Art. Song completed her Ph.D. in Oriental Painting at Hong Ik University in Seoul in 2012. Song has received several grants and fellowships, including the Korean Art Council (2021-2023), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2011), and Anderson Ranch Artists-in-Residence Program (2009). She has been honored with awards such as the 1st Prize in Korean painting at the 17th Grand Art Exhibition of Korea at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Kwachon, Korea (1998). Her works can be found in several public collections, including the National Museum of Contemporary & Modern Art and JejuMuseum of Contemporary Art in Korea, and Tacoma Art Museum in Washington in the USA.

Chang-Ae Song, MFA ’08 www.instagram.com/changaesong/ 

Cara Tomlinson’s, MFA ’93, abstract paintings, drawings, and sculptures focus on ecologies and relationships between human and non-human bodies. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and received numerous grants and residency awards, including the Ucross Foundation, Millay Colony for the Arts, Monson Arts Fellowship, Ford Family Foundation Grant, Mellon Foundation Engage Grant, and an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission. Tomlinson researches and teaches traditional and experimental art practices, with an emphasis on art and ecology of place, and painting as a hybrid practice. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. 

Cara Tomlinson, MFA ’93 www.instagram.com/cara.tomlinson/ 

Sarah Nance, MFA ’13, is an interdisciplinary artist based in installation and fiber. She explores entanglements of geologic processes and human experience in archived, constructed, and speculative terrains. Her time spent living in the geologies of Oregon, Iceland, eastern Canada, and the Driftless Area has been significant in the development of her research, much of which continues to be based in these regions. Nance is currently Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Art at SMU in Dallas, TX. Her work has been performed and exhibited widely, including venues in China, France, Canada, Iceland, South Korea, Germany, and Italy, as well as in the US.  

Sarah Nance, MFA ’13 www.instagram.com/sarahenance/ 

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