Early foundations in fine-woodworking and pottery were my foray into art making. Working both the second & third shifts on loading docks and as a janitor for over a decade, while gradually pursuing my undergraduate studies, also significantly influenced my interests as an artist. Later graduate work led to an MA in Liberal Studies from the University of Miami, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The combination of these experiences help provide practical, historical, critical and theoretical frameworks for my artwork.
Some of my individual work has been featured at the Torrance Art Museum; the Frost Art Museum; the Union League of Chicago; Art Monaco; Scope - Basel, Miami & New York; and in ArtPulse Magazine.
As a 2014-15 recipient of an Arts, Science & Culture Collaborative Initiative Grant from the University of Chicago, I was teamed up with a Physicist, Martin Scheeler, to explore what tactile experiences might look like as digital information. This included designing and making our own crochet hook that digitally logged all motion of the crochet process in three dimensional space. This hook was then also used as a tool, or controller, to manipulate a video projection of the crochet process in real-time as one was using it. Together, we also developed a jacket, humorously coated in prickly flex sensors, that was designed to measure the pressure, varying intensity and duration of an embrace. Martin then wore this “hug-jacket” to an exhibition and sampled as much data as possible by asking complete strangers for a hug.
In late 2017, a string of conversations with Neuroscientist & Software Developer turned Artist, Mike Hadley, led to the founding of the art collective Encoded Objects. Together, we explore how information and technological tools can help us visualize time, human experience, and our connections to, and impacts on, the environment in meaningful ways. This fruitful collaboration has led to participation in group exhibitions at the Lowe Art Museum, the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum in Maryland, Plexus Projects in Brooklyn (as part of Creative Tech Week), and the CICA Museum in South Korea. In 2019, we received a public art commission to produce a one-year living art piece for the Materials Research Institute through the Campus Arts Initiative at Penn State University in State College, PA.
Both my personal art practice and work with Encoded Objects have a foundation here in Pompano Beach, FL. When not working on art projects, I also teach 3D Design and Art History part-time at Broward College; and can often be found at home cultivating our wildlife & butterfly certified garden while hanging out with family & feline friends.