About

I am a designer and artist based in Ames, Iowa. I earned a BFA from Iowa State University in Studio Art with an emphasis in Metalsmithing. After working as a jeweler, enamelist, and instructor for several years, I decided to shift directions. I enrolled in two Master of Fine Arts programs at Iowa State University. In 2018 I graduated with dual MFA degrees in Graphic Design and Integrated Visual Arts. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Teaching in graphic design at Iowa State University.

I am interested in the power of graphic design to shape and be shaped by society. My graphic design research interests include design ethics, semiotics, typography and decolonizing graphic design history.

My mixed-media art explores habitual sorting and foraging. Each project begins with something left behind; an object or an image. Like all humans, I surround myself with things: things of necessity, things of luxury, things to accomplish tasks, things to make me comfortable, things to remind me of something. I am interested in the inherent community engagement of every object: the way it was made, the people who made it, and the way our commodities classify and standardize us. My artwork is informed by visual analysis and re-working of these appropriated objects as I explore class and gender stereotypes, capitalism, and my own assumptions of how we can be defined by generic belongings.

I have exhibited my jewelry and artwork in galleries and retail shops across the country, from North Carolina to Oregon, including Rosalux Gallery, The Textile Center, and The Walker Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota; The Morton J. May Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri; The Bedouin in Sisters, Oregon; Unfurl in Portland, Oregon, and The Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa.