Patricia Bellan-Gillen received her B.F.A. from Edinboro State University, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, in 1975, and an M.F.A. in printmaking from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in 1979. She has been awarded two grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and one from Carnegie-Mellon. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. In her prints, Bellan-Gillen combines unrelated objects into still-life arrangements that encourage viewers to reexamine their perceptions. She is the Dorothy L. Stubnitz Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she teaches a variety of classes including Foundation Drawing, Concept Studio, Painting and MFA Seminar.
*Excerpted from Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection, published by Harry N. Abrams Inc.