Faculty Profiles

Jessica Plattner, Instructor

Education & Credentials:

• MFA - Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, 2001
• BFA - Washington University School of Fine Art (currently Sam Fox School of Art & Design), St. Louis, 1995
• Fulbright Scholarship, 2007-08

Began teaching at MHC: 2014

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Jessica Plattner is a mid-career Canadian-American artist with a passion for painting, teaching, and travel. Before coming to MHC in 2014, she worked as a full-time, tenured professor at Eastern Oregon University. During this time she received a Fulbright Scholarship to La Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico, where she created a new body of work and taught a class (in Spanish!) on Self-Portraiture. Other artist residencies include the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, the Vermont Studio Center, and Studio Art Centers International (SACI) in Florence, Italy. Travelling and getting to know different cultures, landscapes, and people has always been an important inspiration to Plattner's life and work. 

Recent exhibitions of Plattner's work include "On the Surface" at Gallery at 501 in Sherwood Park, Edmonton, and "The Other Life" at Art Center East Main Gallery in La Grande, Oregon in 2023. Previous solo exhibitions at the ASA Gallery in Calgary, the Art Gallery of St. Albert, the Okotoks Art Gallery, and the Esplanade Art Gallery in Medicine Hat, along with many group exhibitions. Her work is held in the public collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA), the City of St. Albert, the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, as well as several college collections in Canada and in the USA.

Jessica Plattner loves teaching. To her, there is nothing more alive than an art studio filled with creative students learning and working together. Students in Plattner's classes can expect to be pushed gently to reach their true potential and find their own unique voice as an artist. Plattner works hard to develop engaging assignments with demos and extensive slide shows, and she expects her students to work hard in return. 

When she is not teaching, Jessica can be found painting in her studio, walking her dog, or spending time with her daughter.

You can learn more about Jessica Plattner and her work at her website jessicaplattnerart.com.