Through this program, students have the opportunity to meet at least 3 times one-on-one with a skilled CCA alumni mentor over the course of three months. This is a great opportunity to conduct studio visits, get specialized critiques, learn about possible career paths, and gain insight into life after CCA!

Questions? Email our Alumni Engagement Manager at yesenia.aguilar@cca.edu

Asia Kang
(BFA Illustration 2018)

Pronouns: She / Her

Bio: Asia Kang is a San Francisco-based illustrator and visual designer who has worked with clients like Google, Disney, Wells Fargo, Gymboree, and Chronicle Books. She believes art serves as a common language for every kind of human, allowing more opportunities for hope and warmth. She aspires to create moments through her illustrations that feel like a reassuring, overdue hug. During her free time, she likes to experiment with scone recipes, go to used bookstores, and look for chubby fruits in the produce aisle.

What do you do when you're feeling stuck?

When I'm feeling stuck, I like to remember that there are as many ways to be an artist as there are artists. One of my favorite professors and beloved friends, Shannon May, told me this when I was wading through waves of post-grad blues and imposter syndrome. It took me a while to fully absorb this piece of wisdom from her. I often feel like we're all blindly hustling with different expectations from our peers, teachers, bosses, and even ourselves. It's easy to build an idea of what we think is the "best" approach to a career or success. It's necessary to take a deep breath and reassess our needs and wants. It's okay to be inspired by different things. All of us have unique paths and processes. It's vital to honor this. I apply this philosophy not only to my work-related projects, but personal decisions as well.

When I first graduated, I felt pressured to become an accomplished freelance editorial illustrator as most of my professors were A-listers for the likes of the New Yorker or Penguin Random House. I realized I only coveted that path because it was, at the time, the route our curriculum encouraged most, but it wasn't a route I found empowering. I still think the freelancing route is rewarding and marvelous in its own right, but it personally wasn't for me. Illustration falls into a magical, yet somewhat confusing space where it can be fine art and design. It was hard for me to balance the standards of both those worlds in the beginning, but I now realize there are different ways to thrive and shine, and they are all valid. As someone who flourishes best on schedules and regimens, I found a lot of stability through corporate structures, something I once thought was paradoxical for an artist. I loved working with various teams and industries as I consulted and executed illustration and branding guides for clients. This not only afforded me fulfilling things like creative autonomy and a band of wholesome coworkers, but it also offered pragmatic support like health insurance, a consistent salary, and a sustainable lifestyle. I still take freelance clients and commissions on the side, but I enjoy knowing what to expect the next day by having a corporate job. The world needs all kinds of artists and we deserve the space to explore what we love. I recommend taking the time to recalibrate and assess what philosophies are inherently your own vs trained responses. We reclaim a lot more control in our passions when we look inwards and meditate on intrinsic desires instead of external voices.

Keith Criss
(Painting/Drawing 1977)

Pronouns: He / Him

Bio: Since 1977, Keith W. Criss has produced illustration, graphic design, multimedia, and fine art works for a host of corporate, publishing, institutional, and private clientele. The works also include promotional design & video production title design for the award winning indie feature film “East Side Sushi” and promotional video and stills for Edge Innovations /Oceanarium’s collaborative demonstration of a prototype animatronic dolphin. He recently completed a a series of 12 short films to accompany a book by WP313 founder Dr. David W. Gill on ethics and faith in the modern workplace.

Beyond the studio, Keith taught CCA(C) extension courses in traditional approaches to illustration from 1980-82 and illustration incorporating digital media at the Academy of Art University from 1993-94 and 2000. He served as President of the San Francisco Society of Illustrators from 1993 to 1996.

Keith’s fine art, Illustration, & graphic works have been accepted into national and regional juried shows. He has garnered a few awards and honors and is included in the OMCA Collections.

Originally from the Aloha state, Keith W. Criss lived abroad throughout his youth — from Japan to Germany. Those multi-cultural experiences provided a foundation to forever enrich and influence his present day creative perspective and endeavors.

What was your first paying job?

I’ve spent almost the entirety of my post CCA(C) creative days as a freelancer. May not be exactly the first, but quite early on in my career—in 1977 I received a commission from Laney College in Oakland to create a pencil portrait of the illustrious activist and founder of the Gray Panthers : Maggie Kuhn.

Daniel Dallabrida
(MFA 2011)

Pronouns: He/Him

Bio: "In 1987, I was told I had 18 months to live. Now, after 34 years of not being dead, I want to know why."

Like many of his generation, Dallabrida abandoned an imagined life path to confront the AIDS epidemic, fighting to ensure survival. Initially, he struggled to save his community and himself. Over time, his focus became international. By 2001, Dallabrida was building HIV medical infrastructure in Rwanda and South Africa. Then, approaching fifty and severely burnt out, he needed to understand this experience and share his excavations. In 2003, Dallabrida initiated an art practice with a move to Italy, pursuing his heritage's art, culture, and language. There, he apprenticed at a Venetian family foundry and initiated his academic study of art in Florence. In 2011, Dallabrida received an MFA from California College of the Arts. Over the years, he has been a resident artist at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Singapore's LaSalle College of the Arts, Fondazione Pistoletto, and Kala Art Institute. Dallabrida's art has been presented in Milan, Rome, Florence, Oakland, New York, Singapore, Kansas City, Aspen, and San Francisco. He lives with his partner in San Francisco and Tuscany.

"I am a survivor. And, I am a story-teller, un bel bugiardo. My research into the survivor's journey takes me back through layers of history to the era of epics and to the materials, techniques, and tales of those times. I create ceramic tablets and artifacts, where the sheer panels between past and present, myth and history, life and death form one universal language. My art offers an opportunity for the viewer to consider their own lives. Starting with seductive and mysterious surfaces, I introduce a place where interior and exterior worlds commingle — where cycles of violation, grief, and communion can find resolution. The complexity and depth of ceramic present a medium where a story can be told in literal and abstract ways. With the materials adding their own vocabulary, my art tells stories for the viewer to uncover.”

One reality I wish I’d known sooner.

The unspoken secret of art school is that only ten percent of art school graduates make a living from their artwork. The rest of us make a good living amortizing the skills and talents we developed studying at art school. Ask every artist and professor you can: "What does your income stream look like? How has it changed over the years." You don’t have to ask them for dollar amounts. Just ask percentages. You will develop a much more practical picture of the paths and choices artists make to continue their practice. And, then you can plan accordingly.

Larissa Erin Greer
(MFA 2012)

Pronouns: She/her

Bio: Larissa Erin Greer (MFA 2012) is an artist, writer and creative director. She works on creative development and innovation projects with companies like IDEO, Facebook, Williams-Sonoma and Levi's, in addition to helping dozens of startups and small businesses. Larissa's work focuses on the everyday, and her practice is centered around creating stories, systems, products, experiences and processes designed to delight, inform, connect and strengthen the communities they serve. Her time spent studying studio art and design at CCA has greatly informed her process, where she seeks to investigate the unknown and build a better future. http://www.hologramstudio.co

Best piece of advice you received from a professor/mentor? 

Make a bad first version. Put all of your worst, messiest, most cliche ideas into that first version... get them all out of your system. If it's bad, throw it out—but if it holds a kernel of truth, make another version. Keep making new versions until it's polished up just the way you want it. (Thank you forever, Steven Leiber)

What is a topic you could talk about for 15 minutes without any time to prepare beforehand?

Making things. I can always talk for hours about the creative process without any preparation whatsoever.

Steve Jones
(BFA Graphic Design 1992)

Pronouns: He/Him

Bio: Steve Jones is an award-winning graphic designer/artist. He is the Principal of Oakland-based plantain studio hybrid, multi-disciplinary design studio. plantain attempts to merge design processes, disciplines, fundamentals and theory to produce a strong, dynamic, thoughtful and cohesive design solution. Every element must relate to the next in order to produce a design that is memorable and makes your heart thump. We feel that the work should be original, or at least an engaging spin on the familiar.

Working primarily with nonprofits and community based organization, plantain studio's philosophy and approach to graphic design combines the personal with the formal—a place where function and form meet metaphor and allegory. We seek a balance between design and life, the individual and the collective.

My West Indian background also influences my outlook on the world. plantain’s work is a fusion of culture, politics and ideas—intended to help fill the cultural void within the current design landscape.

Best piece of advice you received from a professor/mentor?

Doing work for close friends or family should be free, or not at all.

What is a topic you could talk about for 15 minutes without any time to prepare beforehand?

Being Black and graphic design

Vernon Keeve III (Trey)
(MFA Writing 2013)

*remote only

Pronouns: He / They

Bio: Vernon (Trey) Keeve III is a doctoral candidate in the Teaching of English Program at Columbia University, Teachers College. They previously taught in a continuation school in Oakland, California. Their book Southern Migrant Mixtape (Nomadic Press) was the recipient of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 2019. Their research interests include curating trauma-informed writing spaces, introducing vulnerable populations to the experience of critical and multicultural pedagogies, and shifting power dynamics in educational spaces.

What was your first paying job?

My first paying job was as a substitute teacher when I was 18 years old. At one time, the only requirement for becoming a substitute teacher in my hometown was to have some college credits. I went home after my first year of college and was subbing classes with people I literally shared classes with the school year prior. Students were doing any and everything when I was "in charge". My former chemistry teacher even asked me for a hall pass, because he thought I was still a student myself. I even had to tell the government teacher to re-quiz his class, because EVERYONE cheated under my watch.

What do you do when you feel stuck?

When I'm feeling stuck I tend to seek out opportunities for growth. You can say that is why I am in graduate school, yet again. When I'm feeling stagnant, I'll submit my writing to various journals. I'll apply to fellowships. I'll seek out professional development opportunities. I'll just seek any opportunity I can find that will assist me in not feeling like I'm in the doldrums. Feeling stuck is a liminal space--a space to figure out our next step/steps.

What is a topic you could talk about for 15 minutes without any time to prepare beforehand?

When I was a teacher for Oakland Unified School District, I was tasked with teaching U.S. History along with English Language Arts. I do not have any educational background in history or the teaching of history. My teaching credential is for English. I had to do so much extra homework to give my students a multicultural perspective of U.S History. I read Howard Zinn. I ordered desk copies of various history textbooks and read them. A topic I can talk about over and over is Nathaniel Bacon and the birth of American demagogues. I wish Drunk History on Comedy Central was still a thing, because I would have loved to have been a feature on that show, trailing on about how much of a jerk Bacon was.

Tracy Ren

(BFA Ceramics 2018)

Pronouns: She / They

Bio: I am a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator based in Oakland, CA. I take a craft based approach to making my work, thinking always of things in relation to lineage, transformation, process, intimacy, and touch while holding the endless wells of grief and joy that reside within these phenomena.

Drawing inspiration from my experiences as a highly sensitive, queer, neurodivergent, second-generation Asian-American person, I often utilize imagery from research into my ancestry in combination with imagery drawn from my immediate surroundings. Architectural motifs, domestic symbols, rituals, spaces, and objects are used as metaphors that take shape through sculptures, paintings, photographs, and installations to highlight the ways in which we simultaneously and reciprocally create, activate, and are held by one another both within and across space and time.

More specifically, and most recently, my work has been a means through which I can imagine and materialize the connections I have with a country, a culture, a family, and an ever changing concept of self that feel at once an immediate part of my being and some things distant, intangible, and abstract. It is one way I have been filling in the blanks of my own story, with hopes that others like me might feel touched or seen through my doing so, and that together perhaps we might co-create a nuanced understanding / visual map of the complex, multivalent, and inherently melancholic nature of the Asian-American / human experience that is beyond the limitations of language alone.

The materials I use reflect my subject; clay is turned to often for its ubiquity (we all know what it feels like to hold a ceramic pot), its rich cultural history, its sensitivity to touch, its propensity to remember, and the alchemical nature of the ceramic process. Most other materials I use are found and repurposed, imbued with their own energy and history, and serve as a way to connect my personal experiences to the world around me.

As a whole, my creative pursuits serve as a personal compass within the continued processes of physical, spiritual, historical, political, and subconscious wayfinding. It is a means through which I can celebrate and uplift members of my community who have been made to feel unsafe, overlooked or underestimated, and an opportunity to playfully pursue the creation of knowledge, beauty, and connection through joyful experimentation.

What was your first paying job?

My first paying job was in high school - I worked at a Maggie Moos which is an east coast chain of ice cream stores

What do you do when you're feeling stuck?

When I’m feeling stuck I either let myself rest or try to take in work by other artists (visual artists, music, craft, dance, anything that’s interesting). Sometimes a walk through Chinatown is just the inspiration I need. Connecting with friends and being in conversation with them about their process is helpful too.

What is a topic you could talk about for 15 minutes without any time to prepare beforehand?

I could talk about astrology forever. I also know a lotttttt about ceramics

Kelly Lei

(BFA Industrial Design 2018)

Pronouns: She / Hers

Bio: Throughout Kelly's time at CCA (BFA Industrial Design 2018), she has always been intrigued in learning Interaction Design and Design Research as a way to complement Industrial Design. When it was clear that Design Research most oftentimes led the way, physical and digital design became tools to help her execute holistic user experiences.

After CCA, She joined Ford Motor Company's Research Division down in Palo Alto's Stanford Research Park designing experiences with future technology. Shortly after, she transitioned to Ford's Autonomous Vehicle Division (self-driving cars).

Currently, on paper, she's a "designer" at Samsung. But both her team and her believes strongly that you have to be able to wear multiple hats and at the same time, be really good at the value you bring to the table.

Designing on the cusp of future technologies means she can't always build things with existing tools or methodologies. There are mental models and frameworks she could use, but honestly, everything is somewhat a moving target and needing to adapt is what keeps her challenged everyday.

What do you do when you're feeling stuck?

What I do when I'm feeling stuck: This is probably not the best "by book" example, but for me, I stop working. I go out and play some sports, then come back and continue after a nice clean reset shower.

Carl Edward Mongan

(BFA Animation 2020)

*remote only

Pronouns: He / They

Bio: Hi there — My name is Carl Edward. I graduated from CCA in spring 2020 with a BFA in animation. At CCA, I focused on storyboarding, as it was the part of the animation pipeline that combined my favorite things — composing a frame, telling a story, and character performance. After CCA, I moved to LA county and worked a number of odd jobs during the height of the pandemic, before landing a trainee position at Nickelodeon. I worked on the SpongeBob Universe spinoffs (The Patrick Star Show and Kamp Koral). I was offered a chance to board on the upcoming Big City Greens movie, and I took it! That was a year ago. Now, I’m working at Disney TV full-time on the Big City Greens tv series as a storyboard artist.

What was your first paying job?

My first paying job was working at Knott’s Berry Farm theme park as a games attendant (permanent carnie) when I was 16.

What do you do when you're feeling stuck?

When I’m “stuck” in any number of contexts, I go for a walk to clear my head. If walking isn’t an option, I focus on my breath. Taking deep breaths calms the nerves and resets your anxiety.

What is a topic you could talk about for 15 minutes without any time to prepare beforehand?

A topic I could talk about for 15 minutes without any time to prepare is the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Hm, I should rewatch those.