BIOGRAPHY / RESUME
Dayna Peterson Mason was raised in a very small town in the Midwest (Battle Ground, Indiana, population: 806). Though several of her six siblings had attended a few college level classes, she was the first in her immediate family to complete a college education. She began her education at Anderson University and continued at Purdue University where she graduated with her Master’s of Art in painting and drawing in 1978. As a graduate student she received generous scholarship support and held the position of ‘instructor of record’ in a number of introductory classes. It was there that she discovered that the role of an educator was creative, fulfilling, and often surprisingly challenging. She continued as an art instructor at Mesa Community College in the Phoenix area, and eventually settled at Riverside Community College in 1989.
Professor Mason has served as the Art Department Chairperson and is currently the Department’s Academic Senator at Riverside Community College. She continues to instruct primarily drawing, painting, and figure composition classes. As the Art Club advisor for over a decade, she was instrumental in developing numerous scholarships, video and library holdings, curriculum, certificates, gallery exhibitions, guest artist workshops, field trips, and various publications. She was honored as an outstanding educator in "Who’s Who Among America’s Educators". Additionally, she lead a program of classes in Oxford, England (1995), and Florence, Italy (1997 & 2003), with Riverside Community College’s International Study Abroad program Students are able to live and study art for an entire semester in a new and stimulating cultural settings.
Professor Mason continues to develop and exhibit her work (painting, drawing, photography, digital prints). Recently she memorialized her father’s capture and internment during World War II as an American P.O.W. with an exhibition of paintings and a publication entitled Dad’s Story, Robert Thor Peterson, WWII - MIA, POW. A year later the book was translated into German and incorporated into a larger publication, combining Peterson’s memories with that of Austrian, Roman Hojka. Mr. Hojka, then just a boy, witnessed the air strike and the subsequent destruction of Peterson’s plane. Americans had inadvertently bombed Hojka’s village during a mission that was intended to destroy a munitions factory where Hojka’s father worked. As a result of the research the two met in 1999.
Additionally, Professor Mason has worked for the past 15 years as a composite artist for various law enforcement agencies during which she has been involved in numerous high profile cases (American Journal, etc.). Recently interviewed for the television series, The New Detectives, Mason reviewed how her work was instrumental in the investigation. The edition focused on the case of the female serial murderer, Dana Sue Gray, whose story is also explored in the book, To Die For, by Kathy Braidhill, which also includes a visual of the composite drawing used in the investigation.
Most Recently, Mason has been exhibiting her photographic works, which are typically digitally enhanced, manipulated, collaged, or altered to form the final piece. Much of the subject matter includes imagery from her family history, her adult children, or her travels both here and abroad. She continues to celebrate her student’s accomplishments and success as many have gone on to numerous and prestigious educational institutions and exciting careers in the arts. She states, “Feeling as though I have made some small contribution to someone else’s happiness, success, or fulfillment is what keeps me striving to be better at what I do . . . and stay engaged! Sounds trite, but I like thinking I might actually make a meaningful contribution and make a difference.”
