Hanna Guilfoyle

My name is Johanna Guilfoyle, but I go by Hanna. I have been an artist and educator for my entire life, volunteering at summer art camps with local organizations such as The Creative Alliance and the Baltimore Clay Works as soon as I was old enough. When I graduated with my BA in Studio Art from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, I took a job teaching middle school at St. Francis of Assisi School in Baltimore City, MD.

For three years, I taught Art K-8, Spanish 6-8, and Science 5-7. I continued making my own work and building my portfolio while I taught, experimenting with making my own pigments and inks in my printmaking work.

In 2018 I decided I wanted to get my MFA and I enrolled at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, with a concentration in Printmaking, where I switched the focus of my work to independent publication and explorations of the physical body through my use of encaustics, culminating in my published thesis entitled “Rope Language”. During my time at CSU, I taught Printmaking 265: Intaglio and Relief, and I discovered my true passion for college teaching.

At a college level, I could dive so much more deeply into the subjects I am passionate about and share that knowledge with my students, hopefully imparting them some of my passion and enthusiasm by tailoring my teaching to meet their own needs and circumstances. Seeing my students master something new, be it a new word or concept in Spanish, or a new and difficult technique in Printmaking, has been my most rewarding experience. When I graduated from CSU, I began working printing books at an independent publishing company and teaching art classes on the weekends with the Portside Art Center. It was at this point that I decided I was not done learning, and decided to pursue my Ph.D. at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, where I plan to continue my research in the philosophical implications of independent publications and feminine writing.

I currently work as a Graduate Admissions Advisor at Post University, helping students enroll and start their own graduate school journeys.