About
Administrative Experience
Served as department chair from 2012-2020. Experience demonstrates the ability to delegate, prioritize and make timely, transparent and collaborative decisions to support the diverse faculty within the department. Art & Design offers 5 undergraduate degrees and 2 graduate level degrees. As department chair initiated changes to undergraduate studio degrees for: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Fine Arts to meet student learning outcomes.
Credits for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Sciences in studio art degrees were aligned to offer breadth in the student’s arts experience, as well as, the opportunity for the student to complete a minor within the 120-credit degree limit.
Changes to the distribution of general education credits and alignment of art credits created a professional degree to support the focus area of concentration within the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Credit changes moved the degree from 136 to 120. Students can complete the professional degree in 4 years.
All undergraduate studio art degrees meet the 120 credits, 4-year, institutional degree expectation. Students can pursue a degree which best matches their skills, academic efforts and professional aspirations.
Teaching Experience
Parker Palmer notes, “Teaching takes courage and cannot be reduced to technique. A good teacher evolves and learns to weave the fabric of their discipline between themselves and the students.”
As educators our mission is to develop students who can express their ideas and organize their thoughts in oral and written communication. We want our students to master concepts and knowledge; to develop a level of expertise within a major. To employ objective, rigorous reasoning; and integrate elements that go beyond problem solving by using analytical and intuitive skills. We want them to work effectively, and creatively in diverse groups. As teachers, we encourage them to explore and use technology and transfer their knowledge to new trends. We hope they will remain curious and continue to learn as they become successful members of society.
As a graphic design educator, my primary goal has been to provide students with an education that emphasizes unique, creative, and technically appropriate approaches for solving design problems. Creativity is encouraged, nurtured and blended with rich and diverse educational experiences in an atmosphere of shared respect. My classroom environment supports engaged learning opportunities between the teacher, and the student, fostering a continual, reciprocal process, of growth and examination.
Creative Work
As an artist and graphic design professional, my creative interests stem from many sources of inspiration—popular culture, science, history and current events. Events around me impact my art. As an artist, I translate my observations into concrete images by exploring the connections between content, illustration and message.
My work tends to use snippets of appropriated texts to build contextual meaning. These bits of text help ground the viewer to the experience or feeling being expressed. These snippets also give the novice viewer a place to start within the visual dialogue.
The serendipitous connects between these snippets push my ideas beyond the information given, and engages the viewer to create their “own” interpretation.
My digital work, as well as, foil monotype pieces continue to explore these connections and concepts.