Project Description
Title: Fine Arts Department Chair
Teaching: Middle School Techniques in Drawing and Painting, Integrated Arts, High School Photography, Digital Studio Photography, AP Studio Art: 2D Design (Photography)
At PALCS Since: 2006
Education: Bachelor in Fine Art and Photography, Tyler School of Art at Temple University
Master of Photography and Fine Arts Education Certification, New York University’s International Center of Photography
Brief Biography: Mrs. Okcuoglu is a fine arts educator and fine art and portrait photographer who resides in the borough of West Chester with her husband two daughters. Mrs. Okcuoglu has been teaching middle and high school art and photography for the last twenty years, as well as camp and adult programs. She has developed curriculum and created new classrooms in the private, public and charter school “brick & mortar” and online environment. At CPFA, she has initiated AP (advanced placement) coursework and has opened a chapter of the NAHS (National Art Honor Society). She is a member of the NAEA, PAEA, and CAA. Mrs. Okcuoglu’s fine artworks are photographic images; often digitally altered, painted, and collaged. Her work has been in gallery exhibitions throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Recent works include a wide variety of fine art and commercial photography techniques. Her large scale works are computer altered photographs concerning the human body and human’s connection to nature. Her most recent works are “traditional” still life imagery, incorporating paint and photography, echoing the work of Dutch Master 17th century paintings. In recent years her work was chosen to be in the Perkins Center for the Arts, The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, and Project Basho in Philadelphia. Mrs. Okcuoglu operates a portrait photo studio called The Photo Room.