central Michigan university
2020 – 2021
In the fall of 2020 I moved to Michigan to be the Barstow Artist-in-Residence at Central Michigan University, and was hired as Fixed Term Faculty to teach in the spring 2021. As the AIR, I created a new body of work in my studio, installed a solo show at the University Gallery, gave an artist talk, joined the Faculty Critique Committee for art majors, and taught a series of cyanotype printmaking workshops with art students. In the spring, I taught three classes for undergraduate students of all levels: Advanced Photography, Photography Lighting Studio (Intermediate), and Digital Design Foundations.
Advanced Photography
Spring 2021
An individualized studio experience and seminar-based class for the advanced photography student, Advanced Photography emphasizes independent work through long-term independent projects, critiques, and the creation of a portfolio. This is an advanced level art course focusing on the development of projects and concepts, contemporary ideas in photography, and professional practice. Digital photography is treated a tool and framework to explore ways of making images and objects as visual language to communicate ideas. The class is intended to help each student develop their voice as an artist, find their place within the larger art and photography community, and prepare for the next step in their career.
Student Work
photography lighting studio
Spring 2021
Photography Lighting Studio is an intermediate studio course in fine art photography with an emphasis on technical refinement, conceptual development, and professional presentation. This course builds on the foundation created in Intro to Digital Photography and expands the photographer’s tool kit by covering the use of artificial light in the studio and digital compositing techniques in Adobe Photoshop. The course will cover studio strobe lighting techniques, operating flash kits outside of the studio, editing RAW files, organizing photos in Lightroom, using layer edits and layer masks in Photoshop, and making photographic prints. Emphasis will be placed on photography’s role as an art form, more than on commercial photography. The assignments are designed to strengthen both technical and conceptual skills.
Through a series of long form projects and shorter technical exercises and workshops, the course is meant to broaden students’ concept of what photography is and how photographs function in our lives. Students discuss how photographs communicate information about a given subject and the meaning behind individual photographs. Photoshop and Lightroom are taught as tools to help communicate larger ideas and enhance photographs. The emphasis is on becoming a stronger and more intentional photographer.
Student work
DIGITAL DESIGN FOUNDATIONS
Spring 2021
This course is an introduction to elements and principles of design, creative problem solving and visual literacy as it applies to digital media. Students investigate ways to use Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator to explore visual concepts like shape, form, texture, color, line, value, etc. Assignments address how to develop technical skills in the Adobe programs to help gain sophisticated visual vocabularies. Lectures, demos, presentations, and in-class critiques encourage students to develop ways of looking, talking about, and critiquing art and design. As a foundations class, students are encouraged to build and understand their own artistic practice, and what role art might play in their future professional careers. In short—this class serves as a safe place to lay a foundation for an art making practice that will help each person find the way they make art, and why it is important to them.
Student work
cyanotype printing workshops
Fall 2020
