Utopia is a permanently installed mural within Prussing Elementary School in Chicago made in collaboration with 6th-8th graders throughout the 2021-22 school year. The students explored the concept of utopia by asking: Where have we come from? Where do we want to go? What do we take with us? What do we leave behind?
The background map is a collaborative collage of digital maps students created marking places of importance from their past, present, and future overlapped to create a communal map. Circles inspired by pivot irrigation are abstract representations of what is and is not included in our collective Utopia through patterns representing categories to students determined thorough writing activities. Sculptures of ordinary objects are placed like pins on a map near odes written to acknowledge the importance of these items as a reminder to honor the small stuff around us that collect memories.
This project made possible through a partnership between Urban Gateways and the Creative Schools Fund and a collaboration with Nikki Woloshyn.
Each summer since 2022, I've had the opportunity to spend a week at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota leading a group of teens through a design process to create an individual piece of art to be installed within the grounds for the season. This has taken shape with sculpture focusing on power tools and structure and banners made of fabric learning hand and machine sewing techniques. Each summer, the teens explore concepts and how to represent them within their design choices while learning new tools and making techniques. Each summer, I am reminded of the importance of giving teens space to have their voices heard and intentionally supporting them through the process to explore their ideas deeply and with joy.
Personal Identity is a permanently installed mural within Prussing Elementary School in Chicago made in collaboration with the graduating class of the 2019/20 school year. Students created large scale portrait transfers created with images of themselves exploring how we are part of a broader community. Portraits are placed on a washed background of color representing self - local community - broader community and words associated with those concepts. I Am From poems follow the outline of the portraits along with highlights associated with personal strengths.
This project made possible through a partnership between Urban Gateways and the Creative Schools Fund and a collaboration with Nikki Woloshyn.
Personal Metamorphosis is a permanently installed mural within Our Lady of Grace Elementary School in Chicago created throughout the 2023/24 school year. 3rd-8th graders explored the idea of big change in three parts: Before - During - and After.
Moving from left to right across the main staircase of the school, a symbolic background color represents each phase of change with a layer of timelines expressing the emotion of moving through change. Shapes representing our three stages move from solid to translucent showing the notion of the future becoming clear. Faces designed by students in profile looking in profile towards the future, facing forward during change, and in profile looking back on the past mingle with haiku poetry written by the students about change they have experienced.
This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events through the Individual Arts Grant and was a collaboration with Nikki Woloshyn.
Along with large scale work, I engage young people as an Artist in Resident through smaller projects exploring different topics and materials resulting in 2D and 3D work. I also had the privilege of working for four years as a part-time classroom art teacher leading K-8th graders through process-based projects.
Higher Education Instruction
Along with mentoring Loyola University Chicago students in the prop shop and working in higher ed on theater productions, I also teach Teaching Artist courses in Theatre and Visual Arts Pedagogy at Loyola. In these courses, students get introduced to organizations through site visits, learn how to plan an inquiry-based residency, have the opportunity to observe programs in action, and get hands-on experience teaching an activty of their design.
I also teach props-focus classes and workshops where students learn the process and role of Props Designer and Artisan through hands-on activities with scripts and set dressing exercises. I've taught these courses at Loyola University Chicago and Roosevelt University.
