Above paintings by Jill Alexander
"Art of the Educator" celebrates the artistic talents of art teachers in New Jersey. Inspired by a recent exhibit at the MOMA featuring art teachers from NYC public schools, art629 curator Brittany James wanted to create a similar themed exhibition for New Jersey art teachers. As an artist and educator herself, she is aware that balancing both careers can be challenging at times, but she finds that bringing her artistic identity into the classroom can also create a contagious passion and excitement for art making and learning.
Art education is crucial for developing well-rounded individuals and fostering a more creative and engaged society. It provides numerous benefits, including enhanced cognitive skills, emotional development, and improved academic performance. Art education also plays a vital role in promoting cultural awareness, collaboration, and critical thinking.
In current times, arts education is facing cuts and funding issues in many schools, leading to reduced or eliminated programs. This is often due to budget constraints and a shift in educational priorities towards other subjects. The impact on students can be significant, limiting access to creative outlets and potentially affecting their academic and social-emotional development.
This exhibit bring awareness to the prominent role teachers play as inspiring artists who are promoting the importance of art education for students of all ages.
Art of The Educator Features the Following Artists:
Frankie Mainieri
Geanna Merola
Jill Alexander
Jude Harzer
Kristin Künc
Louis Esposito
Meagan Impellizeri (Meagg. E. Moon)
Victoria Steel
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
FRANKIE MAINIERI
Frankie Mainieri (b. 1965, Long Branch, NJ; lived and works in Oakhurst, NJ) Attended Stockton University in Galloway, NJ, receiving a BA in Fine Art in 1991.Mainieri won two awards upon graduation; the Kriegleman Award for best graduating art student and the university’s Purchase Award for his painting “Uncle Hank”, which is on permanent display at Stockton hanging in the Arts & Sciences wing. Before becoming an art teacher at Long Branch High School, he worked as a staff artist for an event planner and was a colorist for Archie Comics. After working for 25 years as a teacher in Long Branch, Mainieri will retire in June to pursue his painting career. Mainieri’s paintings have been included in group shows in Philadelphia,PA, Hudson NY, Asbury Park, NJ, Red Bank, NJ and the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, NJ. His painting “Monty Hall” recently won first place in the Monmouth Art Alliance’s 38th Annual International Juried Exhibition in Red Bank, NJ
Geanna Merola retired from teaching photography and the history of photography at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey, in 2020.
GEANNA MEROLA
Geanna Merola is a photography-based artist. She lives in Ocean Grove, NJ and has studios in her home and in Asbury Park. She has exhibited her work in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. She has received multiple fellowship grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and an NEA/Mid-Atlantic Regional Fellowship. She completed a Mid-Career Fellowship at Princeton University where she studied with Emmet Gowin and the late Peter C. Bunnell. Merola’s work is included in private, public, and major corporate collections and has also appeared on CD covers for Deutsche Grammophon records as well as book covers for works of fiction and poetry.
Jill Alexander is an award-winning educator, artist, and illustrator who teaches at Wall High School. In 2021 she received Monmouth County's Outstanding Educator in Visual Arts award. In 2025 she was the recipient of the Art Educators of New Jersey's 2024 High School Divisional Award. She teaches AP 2D Art, Drawing & Painting , and Digital Illustration.
JILL ALEXANDER
My work is rooted in transformation—both personal and universal. As a mixed media artist, I explore the interplay between emotion, memory, and the natural world, often through vibrant female portraits that celebrate color, renewal, and life.
This particular body of work emerged after a pivotal trip to Brussels in 2021, shortly after the world began reopening from the pandemic. It was a time of awakening for me—my first trip abroad since the loss of my mother in December 2020 and a period of deep personal grief. Against the warnings of others who said it was too soon to travel, I went anyway. In Brussels, the organic curves of Art Nouveau architecture, the stained glass windows, and even the decorative chocolate tins felt like a balm. I found beauty again, and in that beauty, I found life. These paintings are a reflection of that resurgence—a celebration of movement, nature, and emotional revival after darkness.
Since then, travel has continued to feed my work each year. A one-month journey through Northern India in 2022 inspired the portrait of an Indian woman; a series of Southeast Asian-inspired women emerged after my 2023 travels; and a piece created following my 2024 trip to South Africa added yet another layer to the story. These works don’t merely document the places I’ve been—they reflect how those places made me feel. They are emotional landscapes translated through color, texture, and form.
If you looked at my earlier work, you’d see photo-realism: people painted directly from photographs taken during my travels. While I value those pieces, I’ve grown beyond them. They were beautiful, but they stopped with me—they were replications of what I saw. This new work is about the deeper impressions, the lasting feelings. The women I paint are often surrounded by flowers, light, or intricate textures—but they are also surrounded by metaphor. They are embodiments of emotional states, cultural impressions, and moments of healing. They carry a quiet strength and dignity that reflects the essence of my experiences. This work is no longer just about seeing—it’s about feeling. It’s about translating a life lived fully, with open eyes and an open heart.
A certified K–12 Visual Arts Educator, Jude Harzer has taught in the Brick Township Public Schools for over two decades, receiving many honors including Teacher of the Year (2005, 2020) and District Teacher of the Year (2020). She currently teaches at both Brick Memorial and Brick Township High Schools.
JUDE HARZER
Jude Harzer is an award-winning artist who lives and works in New Jersey. Her figurative paintings are inspired by childhood, memory, and the power of thought to shape identity and transcend circumstance. Working primarily in oil, and more recently in mixed media soft sculpture and digital media, she creates psychologically charged visual narratives. Adolescents often appear in her work as observers and guardians of intergenerational stories and internal mythologies. The third of six children raised by a single, visually impaired mother, Harzer’s life experience has profoundly influenced her visual language. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1987 and her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2013.
Harzer has exhibited her work in solo and group shows worldwide. Her paintings are included in both private and public collections, and her writings and artworks have appeared in academic publications. She has completed several prestigious artist residencies, including Elsewhere (Paonia, CO), The Rensing Center (Pickens, SC), Arte Studio Ginestrelle (Assisi, Italy), Estudio Nómada (Barcelona, Spain), and Casa Padula(Padula, Italy), where she continues to explore new forms and themes. Jude is also the proud mother of two grown children, who continue to inspire and influence her work.
Since 2021, Louis Esposito has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Art at Monmouth University and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art at the Borough of Manhattan Community College since 2019.
LOUIS ESPOSITO
Louis Esposito's work stems from his love of traveling and finding solitude in nature. His drawings and paintings evoke his memories, experiences, and direct observations of the landscape. His art also reflects a deep gratitude for the Earth, inspired by his spiritual connections to places that
resonate with him, such as his northern NJ backyard or his property in Tucson, AZ. Louis was born in New Jersey in 1993. He has exhibited widely, most recently at the ShirleyFiterman Art Center (NYC), Big Happy Gallery (NM), Sedona Art Center (AZ), First Street Gallery (NYC), and Visionary Art Collective (NYC). He holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from RiderUniversity (2011–15) and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting from the New York StudioSchool (2015–17).
Meagan Imperizelli is a teacher and owner of Over The Moon Art Studios in Asbury Park, NJ
MEAGAN IMPELLIZERI
(MEAGG E. MOON)
Meagan is both a teacher and an artist currently based in Asbury Park. She is a college professor, and full time-artist who recently opened her own studio collective. She holds a BFA with an emphasis in art education. Her work is predominantly non-objective and explores material for material’s sake. She regularly uses music, and the synesthetic experience generated by the sound, as a starting point to create a subjective constraint. She aims to transform sound bite, song, and its immersive cognitive experience into visual imagery. Her latest works explore ethereal and moody sound through graceful, fluid forms. All paintings are created with alcohol based inks via an intuitive painting process. Meagan's work is generated with the intention of transferring her own psychological experience of "seeing sound" into a tangible image so that the viewer can share in her sensory experience.
Victoria Steel is a teacher and Dean of ÀNI Art Academy in Red Bank, NJ
VICTORIA STEEL
(b. 1994) Victoria Steel is a contemporary realist fine artist and Dean of ÀNI Art Academy America. Victoria’s artworks can be found in private collections across the United States and have been exhibited within venues in areas such as NYC, Tulsa, and Philadelphia. Most notably, in 2021, her work was featured in the exhibition Women Painting – All Over the World at the MEAM Museu Europeu d’Art Modern in Barcelona, Spain.
Victoria was born in Miami, Florida, but was raised mostly in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Victoria Steel is an alumna and graduate of Ani Art Academy Waichulis. She now resides in Highlands, New Jersey, with her artist husband, Kevin Moore.
She has taught various art classes and workshops in and around the area. She has also acted as Gallery Director and Art Consultant at a local contemporary art gallery, during which she maintained two pop-up locations in New York City.
Kristin Künc is currently a teacher at Thompson Park Art Center in Monmouth County. In the past she has taught at The Barn Studio in Millville, NJ , multiple studios and schools in Oyster Bay, New York including the Stevenson Academy of Fine Art, and The Grand Central Academy of Art in NYC.
KRISTIN KUNC
Kristin Künc paints in a traditional manner known as contemporary realism, the works are lush indicators of unadulterated domestic settings —showcasing children, mothers, middle class interiors, beautiful objects painted in vacuums of beseeching colors and cool light. These tactile and sensorial revels lead to examinations of how people/women situate themselves psychologically in present contemporary culture and lend a nod to– the personal is the political. She has had a diverse career in the arts. She studied painting and sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and furthered her studies with apprenticeships. Primarily a portrait painter, represented by Portraits Associates, she has won numerous awards and her work is collected throughout the country. Her work has been featured in publications such as Artist Daily, Fine Art Connoisseur, Craftsy, The Figurative Artist's Handbook, and featured on the TV show Madam Secretary. It is also housed in the Bennett Collection. In addition to painting she has promoted the work of other artists by curating many large scale art shows at Gowanus Ballroom, as well as the National Arts Club. Additionally she has worked as the role of project manager for the fabrication of public sculpture at Serett Metalworks. She is currently serving on the board as treasurer of New York Artists Equity Gallery in NYC and is accepting commissions for the upcoming year.
My work explores the depths of family and individuality as told through the feminine perspective. Using nostalgic interiors and figures in solitude or in a conversation I question ideals of the status quo and what that means for the future. Through minimalist settings, calm domesticity, and beautiful objects—including the figure at home—I delve into the idea of family, love and all its complicated connotations.In conventional family