2013
This piece is "Point of View" which is a gif of photos taken from every seat in the back row of a baseball stadium.
2014
This is a logo I designed for my resume.
2014
This collaboration uses data from the DIvvy Bikes to pinpoint where each demographic of bike riders will most likely be found.
2013
This is a work in progress image from a font styles book focusing on Helvetica Neue and New Baskerville.
2014
This series is a work in progress for a mock advertisement for an artist's exhibition.
2013
This is a poster for the Tadao Ando gallery in the Art Institute.
2013
This is "Champion," a photo project.
2012
This artist's book is called "Collections."
2012
This project is "January First," and is a photo of dumpsters filled with calendars, representing how obsolete the past can be.
2012
This project is called "Accident" and it's a photo of a series of objects that were each discovered by accident.
I am from Baltimore, Maryland. My background in art started in painting and drawing, and I took the one design class at my high school. There was a program for high schoolers called the Maryland Summer Center for the Arts, a government funded program that required a portfolio review to get in. I showed my work and was accepted, but what I truly appreciated about the program was you could take whatever classes you wanted once you got there. I focused mostly on printmaking, but I took one more design class, and learned Photoshop and Illustrator. I went for two summers in a row, and a teacher recommended I check out SAIC. I chose SAIC’s program over MICA, the Maryland Institute College of Art, because of this school’s interdisciplinary nature. I’m glad I didn’t go to MICA, because I didn’t choose to “commit” to Visual Communications until my second semester here, and I might have been more trapped in printmaking had I chosen MICA. I enjoy taking Visual Communications classes, but I also am compelled to continue taking classes in printmaking and Art and Tech. I’m applying for portfolio review at the end of this semester, with intent to pass, and then I want to graduate with a focus in Visual Communications, and eventually become involved in social design in Chicago.
In terms of artist’s work I admire and off of which I base my art practice, I enjoy Charlie Barton’s work, mostly form-wise, a Baltimore based printer, and Ryan Duggan, a Chicago based printer, mostly I admire his form too, Jean Shin, a New York sculptor, whose work I admire for its form, as well as its content and context in which she makes her work, Paula Scher, an American graphic designer, who I again admire for all three, form, content and context, Golan Levin, an interactive programmer, where my interest lies mainly in his form and content, Fernanda Viega and Mark Wattenberg, a team of data visualists, and George Aye, a Chicago based social designer, whom I admire for form, content and context. This group of artists has been fluctuating for a while, but these eight designers have stayed on the list since they’ve been added.
I’m a graphic designer now, but I think I fit into the art world in a very static way right now, I’m not changing anything, I’m not making any decisions, at work I just do what others tell me to. I’d like to be more involved. The direction in which I’m headed involves more purpose and not necessarily power or authority over other people, but power and authority to make decisions about a project from start to finish.
I’m staying at SAIC because in two years I’ve started to grow a suitable portfolio, and built an understanding of what I could do with the skills I’m learning, and see other people using their skills to accomplish their goals, mostly by way of the Visiting Artist’s Program, which has been very valuable to me. I would love to turn my portfolio into a stunning one, and effortlessly complete menial tasks like creating clipping paths and preparing data, so that I can focus on things like the purpose and outcome of a piece. I understand details are important to the overall result though.
I’m a graphic designer influenced by printmaking and digital art, and interactive art, and social design, but I want to be a social designer who uses graphic design to actually do something empathetic and life changing.
My proposed plan for my continuation at SAIC is to graduate from the Visual Communications department, hopefully with a position in the graphic design field with opportunities with which I can spawn a future.
