Create a magical interactive device, poster and a handbook.

Create a system of packaging design for a family of three related products. Cut down mailing tubes were used to create containers, galvanized chimney flue caps for bottoms and tops, and leather for handles. There is a concertina for a vegetable garden, herb garden and flower garden. Each package is composed of a concertina, seed packets with planting instructions and hand-drawn illustrations, hand-cut copper garden stake and, at the center of the concertina, a wooden dibble for making holes for seeds. 

Design a garment and a publication that introduces and promotes the garment. A garment that is mainly a piece of visual communication, secondarily it can be worn as clothing or an accessory. It is without overt use of letterforms.

The River City, Richmond, Virginia, has a city-wide network of cobblestone alleys. No matter the demography, the alleys, in their cracks and crevices, collect discarded material. Within each concertina page there is a letterpress printed map of the location of an alley and a glassine collection pocket. Impressions of discarded material collected from each alley were printed on shipping tags using a Reliance Iron Hand Press. The resulting impressions are reminiscent of Werkman druksels. The concertina was stabilized with a hand-cut layer that represents the railroad trestles, also a part of the Richmond cityscape. Finally, a box was created and distressed to look like something discarded. Limited edition of three.

An identity mark for an apparel and promotion company whose clothing and events are a representation of carpe diem and hard work. Its target audience is made up of teens and young adults who are encouraged to pursue higher learning and set long term goals with hopes of self-betterment and goal achievement resulting in community empowerment.

Choose a house, any house but make sure that you can experience the house in many ways. Tell a story about the house, make fiction. Complement it with some sort of found essay or writing. Who lives in the house; what do they smell, taste, feel with their fingers and minds, hear and see when they first open their eyes in the morning—how do you organize a book or publication using the senses.

This is Depero, a polymath. The project was created in Illustrator and represents both 2D and 3D design elements.

Create a VCUArts Graphic Design departmental brochure designed to appeal to the prospective student. It will contain information regarding mission statement, departmental philosophy, curriculum and faculty bios. It will also contain information about the urban campus and the city of Richmond, Virginia. A poster will be folded and placed in a pocket created within the brochure. 

Includes work with graphite, ink washes, line studies with marker; (some with marker and wire), color studies using gouache, and a piece on black using white charcoal.

Paintings created with acrylics on canvas. The pieces range in size from 24"x24" to 4'x5'. The piece painted on painter's drop cloth measures 4'x9'.

The paintings of children were commissions. Others serve as a journal to record various trips to Italy.

Murals created for YMCAs, and residential and commercial clients.

Smoking Room

Pediatric Dentist’s office

YMCA Lobby and Child Watch area

YMCA Lobby

Drawing in Italy; Florence, Siena, and Venice.

Julie Chen, internationally known book artist and book art educator, conducted a workshop at Penland School of Craft - “Artists’ Books: Ideation in Action”. One of the exercises was to create an accordion book using the pochoir (stencil in French) technique and to regard all surfaces as opportunities for content.

My accordion book was dedicated to the style of Theo van Doesburg, one of the founders of the De Stijl movement of the 1920s. Through his manifesto, he called for the synthesis of art, design and architecture. This movement was linked with the Bauhaus.

The paper vessel became the means for carrying with me the knowledge gathered at Penland School of Fine Crafts.The studio was Unusual 3D Paper Techniques taught by Melissa Jay Craig.

My father and grandmother gave me the freedom to explore the fields and woodlands of our southeastern Virginia farm and to be a part of the process of ordinary daily farm life. This early introduction to the freedom of investigation has led me to always look for new things and have the confidence to pursue them. They also imposed the idea that the things we produce should reflect our earnest effort to achieve perfection. Those early experiences continue to influence my attitudes and intentions today.

When I remember those experiences, images come to mind; then other things come to mind that can’t be seen but are present, a smell, a taste, a sound, a feeling; each layer coming together to complete the memory. When I respond to the memory in the present moment there is another overlay; maturity and new knowledge. The details begin to blur and disappear as they become a part of a bigger picture. Now the details are not so important. What remains guides my process and the way I handle materials and tells me when I'm done.

I studied paper making at Penland School of Fine Crafts. These collages are made from hand made papers using the techiniques I learned there. This series of abstract collages was created using deckles and paper pulp with inclusions such as shredded wheat straw, corn shucks, and shredded newspapers and cardboard. Sometimes, I added natural materials for another dimension.

My collages are framed in shallow shadow box frames that are 18 x 24 in. Each collage is mounted on a linen covered panel and attached carefully in a way that allows the natural deckle edges to appear to float. Each framed piece receives a paper backing and a label describing the types of paper used, my name and a QR code linked to my portfolio website.

Graphic Design projects; based in Florence, Italy.

These images were created as projects in Imaging classes and Study Abroad in Italy.

Letterpress Project

Design 3 letterpress posters using linocut for printing:

Large poster—the fish— 20" x 30"—1 ink color

Medium poster—the skeleton and the soul—16" x 24"—2 ink colors 

Small poster—the flesh—11" x 17"—3 ink colors

Print editions of 10 for each poster.

Process:

Large poster - the fish

Purchased 2 shad fish approximately 18" long from a local fishmonger.

Direct-printed the fish by inking the fish and placing a piece of rice paper over the inked surface and pressing on the paper as I moved my hands over the contour of the fish.

Used the resulting print as a transfer onto my lino. Cut the lino choosing which areas of the print transfer I would cut and which areas I'd leave for printing. Cut one whole fish transfer and a half fish transfer which was necessary for me to accomplish the desired arrangement for my poster design. Also had to consider that I needed three passes on the press.

Medium poster - fish skeleton and fish soul

Cooked 1 of the fish until the flesh fell from the skeleton. Salvaging the skeleton, let it dry then scanned it and used the resulting scan as a transfer to lino. Also created another linocut by cutting the lino in a shape that would float within the skeleton; this would represent the soul of the fish.

Small poster - fish flesh

Cut the second fish into steaks.

Photographed each steak.

From the photographed images created transfers for my lino.

1 lino for the background - pink

1 lino for the marbling - pearl white

1 lino for the blood details - red

French Paper Company 100 lb. Speckletone Madero Beach was used for printing.

This was a collaborative project created for the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), Richmond, Virginia. Maquette and box were designed and produced by VCU Professor Sandy Wheeler (MFA 1993) and Carole Harrell (BFA 2014). Laser cut by Big Secret. Video produced and edited by Tyler Kirby.

https://vimeo.com/148363172

Coop furniture designed for a coop which will be home to six young pullets: 2 Black Australorps, 2 New Hampshire Reds, 1 Barred Rock and 1 Buff Orpington. 

I studied glass fusion at Tidewater Community College’s Visual Arts Center. Here I had access to all of the equipment I needed to explore the glass fusion process. These pieces represent what I was able to accomplish.

This apartment is an artist's studio. The design goal is to update the original kitchen to allow it to function both as a kitchen and a work space for the artist; lots of work surfaces and storage for cooking and entertaining that can also serve as a place to design and create. A library is included for research necessary in the design process.

Project:

Develop a Design Firm. Find a property that is for sale in the desired area. Acquire floor plans. Renovate the property based on original floor plans. Use Chief Architect to create a new floor plan.

The building I chose is located downtown Norfolk, Virginia and is a  10,640 sq. ft. structure built in 1912. I created the design firm space on the lower level and added a loft apartment above. 

Design a Reggio-Emilia styled preschool, an identity mark, collateral piece and scale model. The design must reflect the philosophy of the school. Revit was used to create the building design. 

One of the major distinguishing features of the Reggio Emilia Approach to education is the focus on the classroom space itself. Through purposeful, functional, comfortable, natural, and beautiful design, the Environment becomes the third teacher (teachers and parents being the first two). A quality classroom environment invites, inspires, and facilitates learning and growth in every nook and cranny of the classroom. No space is wasted

The Project: Period Residential

The Potato Factory is a bed and breakfast located in Connecticut, situated in a small town that boasts theatre, many shops and galleries, lovely restored homes, interesting restaurants, scenic river views, boating and fishing and is close to New York City.

I was challenged to design in a space that would have no traditional stud/wall board construction or interior doors. I used the frame of the building and all of its structural components, but created individual spaces using furniture and non-traditional walls.

The space tells the observer how it works. All systems are exposed; duct work, electrical conduit, electric boxes, plumbing lines. The building itself is constructed of brick exterior walls with the upper level and ceilings being supported with a network of metal beams and posts, and 6”x12” wooden floor joists made from reclaimed wood; all exposed.

I was responsible for designing the lobby, dining room, entry level bedroom and the loft suite spaces.

Created in Revit Architecture software, hand rendered in watercolor

Project: Lake Archway

Make proposals to a builder for changes in floor plans and front elevation of a spec house used in the Lake Archway community.

I created a 1/2” scale model of the space, a new floor plan, a rendered front elevation and rendered perspective drawing of the great room. Also provided were furnishing/finishes boards for the kitchen, the great room, dining room and foyer.

Project: Commercial Interiors/ Retail

Glass Studio and Gallery

Created in Revit Architecture. Hand rendered in watercolor.