Our experiences shape our understanding of the world around us. From the traumatic to the everyday, we are constantly adjusting and fitting moments into our schema, the data organization systems within our brain. This is the idea from which my work arises. I focus specifically on how trauma and loss affect a person. These kinds of experiences happen suddenly, and our brain gets to work figuring out how to understand and cope with the events that transpire. However, they do not fit nicely into any existing system. It is jostling. The new experience makes us reassess how we interpret the past and present. Emotions spill out in an unexplained way, triggered by a physical object or memory, and other times there are no clues as to what connection your brain is making. The reconsolidating that happens to a person mentally after trauma and loss change how one acts, sees and remembers.

Plexiglas, my medium of choice, is key in communicating the process one undergoes as they heal and are forced to redefine oneself. At this time, one is fragile and recollecting all the moments that now need to be reordered with this new data in mind. Plexiglas mirrors the self in its resilient yet breakable qualities. It is transparent and rigid yet plastic and distorting at times. Like humans, Plexiglas is easily manipulated. We assume our beliefs, morals and memories are rigid and strong, but in reality, they are quite pliable and subject to change. This is why there are differing perspectives on the significance of historical events or why eyewitness accounts of the same event can be contradictory. In my work, I layer and manipulate transparent Plexiglas causing the viewer's field of vision to be distorted functioning similarly to the invisible layers that get placed on a person as they go through life. These moments form the altered lens through which we view our past and present. Though I am working from my own lived experiences, my work allows a viewer to read it uniquely through their own lens. It activates one’s schema and opens the conversation about our perceptions and what has shaped them.

Artist Statement

EDUCATION

MFA 2022: Studio Art, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

BA 2012: Studio Art, Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL

TEACHING INTERESTS

Foundations, Digital Arts, Mixed Media, Installation

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA, Fall 2024 - Current

Limited Term Faculty

• Spring 2026:

  • ART 1010 Drawing 1 - in-person instruction

  • ART 2030 Computers in Art- in-person instruction

  • ART 4171 - Senior Exhibition Seminar

  • ART 4172 - Senior Portfolio Presentation

• Fall 2025:

  • ART 1020: 2D Design - in-person instruction

  • ART 2030: Computers in Art- in-person instruction

  • ART 1010: Drawing 1 - in-person instruction

  • ART 1010: Drawing 1 - in-person instruction

  • ART 3111: Aqueous Media - in-person instruction

• Spring 2025:

  • ART 1020: 2D Design - in-person instruction

  • ART 2030: Computers in Art- in-person instruction

  • ART 2030: Computers in Art- in-person instruction

  • ART 3023: Figure Drawing - in-person instruction

• Fall 2024:

  • ART 1010: Drawing 1 - in-person instruction

  • ART 1010: Drawing 1 - in-person instruction

  • ART 1011: Drawing 2 - in-person instruction

  • ART 2030: Computers in Art - in-person instruction

Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, Fall 2022 - Summer 2024

Adjunct Faculty

• Summer 2024

  • ART 1000: Art Appreciation - online instruction

• Spring 2024

  • ART 1030: 3D: Form & Space - in-person instruction

• Fall 2023

  • ART 1020: 2D: Design & Color Theory - in-person instruction

  • ART 1030: 3D: Form & Space - in-person instruction

• Spring 2023

  • ARTS 3680: Environmental Art - in-person instruction

• Fall 2022

  • ART 1020: 2D Art and Design Foundations - in-person instruction

  • ART 1030: 3D Art and Design Foundations - in-person instruction

Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, Fall 2020 - Spring 2022

Teaching Assistant II: Instructor of Record

• Spring 2022

  • ART 1020: 2D Art and Design Foundations - in-person instruction

  • ART 1030: 3D Art and Design Foundations - in-person instruction

• Fall 2021

  • ART 1020: 2D Art and Design Foundations - in-person instruction

  • ART 1030: 3D Art and Design Foundations - in-person instruction

• Spring 2021

  • ART 1020: 2D Art and Design Foundations - in-person, split room instruction

  • ART 1030: 3D Art and Design Foundations - in-person, split room instruction

• Fall 2020

  • ART 1020: 2D Art and Design Foundations - online instruction

  • ART 1030: 3D Art and Design Foundations - split instruction online/in-person

Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, Fall 2019 - Spring 2020

Graduate Teaching Assistant

• Spring 2020

  • ART 3430: Print, Paper, Book Arts II - in-person, transition to online

  • ART 4330: Print, Paper, Book Arts III - in-person, transition to online

• Fall 2019

  • ART 2430: Print, Paper, Book Arts Intro - in-person instruction

• ART 3235: Materials and Making - in-person instruction

COMMITTEE, SERVICE & OUT-OF-CLASSROOM CONTRIBUTIONS

• 2025-2026 Assessment Committee Secretary

• 2024-2026 Scholarship Committee Member

• 2024-2026 Foundation Committee Secretary

• Photo Search Committee Member

• MAT Search Committee Member

• Annual Safety Inspections

• Major Day Experience Recruitment Initiative

• Juror for Turner Center High School Art Competition

• Juror for Annual Wearable Art Show

• Juror for Lowndes High School Spring Art Competition

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

• Thank-A-Teacher Note, 2024-2025

• Carole Ann Ryan Fine Arts Prize recipient, 2012

• Elizabeth Caine Art Award recipient, 2012

EXHIBITION RECORD

Solo Exhibitions

• 2022 Perplexions: Perceptions, Plexi & Prose, Contemporary Gallery, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

• 2012 Thesis Exhibition, Woodcock Gallery Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL

Duo Exhibitions

• 2022 Harmon & Nelson: Perceptions, The Erman B. White Gallery, El Dorado, KS

Group Exhibitions

• 2026 You Think You Know Me: VSU Faculty Exhibition, Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, Valdosta, GA

• 2026 Pet Art, Gallerium, Biafarin Online Exhibition,

• 2022 Outlook: An MFA Showcase, Fine Arts Gallery, Georgia Southern-Armstrong, Savannah, GA

• 2021 Possibilities, Sulfur Studios, Savannah, GA

• 2020 Outlook: An MFA Showcase, Contemporary Gallery, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

• 2020 Spontaneity, Rosengart Gallery, Statesboro, GA

• 2019 Matter, Sulfur Studios, Savannah, GA

• 2018 Women’s History Month Alumni Show, Woodcock Gallery Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL

• 2014 Group Exhibition, Urban Arts Collective, St. Louis, MO

• 2011 An Opening Without Groucho Marx, Woodcock Gallery Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL

CV