Amy Ortiz, visual artist The Body as Canvas: Manipulations of the Female Form Amy Ortiz has a passion for all genres and mediums with a visual component, like music, performance, and arts of the body (fashion and body decoration). She is keenly interested in the cult of personality, and how an artist's interaction with their audience becomes the main component of their work, when the artist's greatest work is his or her self! Amy studies contemporary art; a subject which is in constant flux and motion. Emerging artists, and artists on the fringe will be the next generation's cultural arbiters. Ortiz graduated with a BFA in Ceramics and Sculpture, and an MA in Contemporary Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Ph. D in Art History/Material Culture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her specialty is the study of Outsider, Visionary, Self-Taught, Intuitive, and Vernacular traditions in American Art. She teaches art history and art appreciation at McHenry County Community College. Raue Center's Artful Women Series: Celebrating the empowering work and lives lived by women in the arts. Artful Women is dedicated to exploring current issues in a format that will enrich, inspire, educate, and entertain the community.