BIO

I'm not too good at describing exactly what I do, but "visual thinking" seems to be the best fit. I'm an illustrator, sure, but I'm also a teacher of creative process. For the past 25 years, I’ve taught illustration at Rhode Island School of Design, where I also served seven years as Illustration Department Head and three years as Dean of Fine Arts. It's a great place to be.

My teaching and writing explore the intersection of illustration, literature, design and semiotics, and my client list includes major corporations and cultural/educational institutions and such as The Tate Museum, MIT, Brown University and Brandeis University, as well as regional and national magazines. From 2011-2017 I was the illustrator for Annenberg VUE, published quarterly by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. My work has been recognized by Print, How, American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators, The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the University & College Designers Association (UCDA). I’ve exhibited and published both nationally and internationally and held artists residencies in the US, Ireland and Italy.

While at RISD, I served as Chief Critic for the European Honors Program in Rome from 2007-09 and was a faculty mentor for the Salama Foundation's Emerging Artists Fellowship in the UAE. In service to the illustration profession I was Education Chair for ICON7: The Illustration Conference, and ICON8's Vice-President. In 2015 RISD hosted the Illustration Research Symposium: Illustrator as Public Intellectual under my co-leadership.