Visiting Artists for Studio Arts Mini Portfolio Day

September 23, 2025

On Monday, September 22, Perpich hosted two visiting artists: ​Jacob Docksey and Carolyn Swiszcz. Alongside the Perpich Studio Arts faculty, the visiting artists reviewed art portfolios and provided feedback to our seniors in Visual Arts and Media Arts. Their comments served to make improvements and edits for our upcoming Portfolio Day with visiting colleges on Monday, September 29th. The visiting artists will be back this school year to share details about their own art and processes.

“Every year, to assist our students in preparation for Portfolio Day with colleges, we offer a Mini Portfolio day the week before where we invite visiting artists from the community to join the studio arts teachers in providing portfolio personal feedback to each Studio Arts senior,” said Kathryn D’Elia, Visual Arts Instructor and Studio Arts Chair. “This year, each student was able to have two portfolio reviews, advising on what their portfolio is missing, what could be re-photographed, reorganized, or presented differently, as well as what would be added to further tie their work together. We were so glad to have local artists, Jacob Docksey and Carolyn Swiszcz, with us this year, who brought their diverse experience as artists working in hand-drawn animation, printmaking, painting, zine-making, urban exploration plein air painting, and more.”

​Jacob Docksey is a visual artist currently residing in St. Paul, Minnesota. Born in 1994 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Jacob attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout where he attained a B.F.A in Studio Art with a painting concentration. Initially dedicated to oil painting he also creates stop-motion animations with traditional mediums like charcoal and chalk pastel. He pulls inspiration from 20th century artists such as Ashcan School painter George Bellows, for his raw documentation of early industrial America, and Czechoslovakian filmmaker Jan Švankmajer for his surrealistic narratives. Jacob Docksey has shown around much of the US and has received an award in group exhibition at the Gamut Gallery C4W exhibition and annual Prometheus Exhibition at the Furlong Gallery, as well as partaken in the 2018 Survey of Wisconsin Artists at the Charles Allis Museum in Milwaukee.

Born and raised in New Bedford, MA, Carolyn Swiszcz followed an older brother to the Midwest, earning a BFA in printmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Carolyn is renowned for making uncanny yet affectionate suburban landscapes, employing a wide range of painting and printmaking techniques, vibrant colors, and distinctive patterns. Carolyn’s proclivity for experimentation has also led her to create songs, music videos, and animations. She currently publishes a mail-order zine, Zebra Cat Zebra. Carolyn’s work has been exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery in New York, Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, and Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston. Her prints have been published by Highpoint Editions in Minneapolis. She is a recipient of the Jerome, McKnight, Bush, and Minnesota State Arts Board artist fellowships. She lives in West Saint Paul, MN with her husband (photographer Wilson Webb) and their daughter.