My Creative Life - Age 18-22

When I went to art school I wanted to be a photojournalist. My mom was a journalist for a local paper throughout most of my life and I wanted to do what she did, but tell those stories through images. In the photo department I encountered the same thing: little desire to master the technical. I could never remember what an F-Stop was or what it did or how to change it. I needed my detailed notes every time I did any developing or changing things in Photoshop. I also needed community, and my experience in that department felt isolating but that was partially because I felt way behind my peers in what knowledge I should already have and the drive to learn it.

Here’s a good example: Our second term of school students were allowed to pick their classes. The general rule was that you should take one lecture, one foundations (i.e. Drawing I, 3D Design, Color Theory), and one class in your major. So, that second term that’s what most of my peers did. I instead wanted to explore other mediums (also I was scared) so I took a lecture and two foundations courses. Then in our second year most students were taking one lecture and two courses within their major. I started taking two lectures and some of the pre-requistes for a photo degree, but not really any actual photography classes that would contribute to a career in the photo industry.

This piece was called "To Raise a Dead Elephant" and was done for a film class. I was really proud of this series. I took photos along the Georgia/South Carolina border and then used old political saying as the titles.

For a photo color theory class, I started incorporating embroidery onto my photos. Tumblr had just come out when I made this and it was the most 'liked' original content I ever posted. Simpler times....

It wasn’t until I took an Introduction to Printmaking class that I found a medium that checked off a lot of boxes. I found community in those studios. I found so many diverse processes within the medium to keep me interested. The printmaking classes were all organized the same with three projects and one final so I never got stuck on a project for more than a couple of weeks. I thrived in that environment and I attribute so much of my success and my personality to the people I shared those spaces with as an undergraduate student.

This was one of my first attempts at lithography. I did a small series of posters for my friend's arts group.

I eventually blended photography and printmaking making these large photogravures of clouds and embroidering over them. I was in a very intense Joni Mitchell phase so this is called "I really don't know love, at all." I also destroyed an etching felt when I made this and I still feel really bad about it.

I still wasn’t good at the technical. But I had so much delight and joy in learning new techniques that it didn’t even occur to me that I should be mastering anything. I graduated with a degree in Printmaking with a career path now turned towards teaching. I wanted the excitement of learning something new and the confidence that comes with that learning to be passed on to other college students.