View all syllabi, Fall 2023–current.
As a teacher, my goal is to help students develop clarity in their concepts and an understanding of illustration as both a professional practice and a method of inquiry. An important touchstone is illustration’s capacity for worldbuilding: the ability to construct new spaces and possibilities through drawing, where the primary constraint is the relationship between imagining and making.
Bringing my research interests into the classroom
I use creative visualization exercises to encourage students to approach imagination as an active process that supports the development of a personal language. Selected student work was featured in a peer-reviewed presentation in July 2026 at the national ICON13 Illustration Conference. Images © the artists.
Home Is: Illustrating Objects of Memory, 2024/25/26
A cumulative exhibit of more than 50 student illustrations exploring the question ‘What is home?’ through layers of meaning embedded in a single “memory object.” Students practice storytelling within a nonlinear compositional structure. A collaboration with the Queens College Linguistics Department. On long-term public display in Queens Hall. Images © the artists.
Portrait: Person and Place, 2024
Nineteen portraits exploring identity through connections to place, created by undergraduate illustration students. This project asks students to construct a narrative through organized compositional arrangement. Scheduled for long-term public display in Queens Hall. Images © the individual artists.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration
Student Choreography Showcase, 2025/26
Collaboration with Prof. Edisa Weeks (Dance) to integrate Illustration Portfolio students into the Student Choreography Showcase. Students developed posters promoting the individual performances of sonder (2025) and Perceptions (2026), which were exhibited at Goldstein Theatre. Images © the artists.
Collaboration with Maria Pio, co-director of the Godwin–Ternbach Museum, to develop an educational coloring book. Two recent alumni helped establish the visual direction and created sample illustrations. Illustration II and Illustration Portfolio students selected objects from the museum’s collection and created illustrations for inclusion in the final coloring book, published by the museum in Spring 2026. Images © the artists.
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The Bakkhai, 2025
Collaboration with Prof. Meghan Healey (Theatre) to integrate Illustration Portfolio students into the Queens College production of The Bakkhai, where they developed in-world political graffiti used onstage as scenic elements and online as promotional materials. Images © the artists.
Theatrical Composition and Gesture for Illustrators, 2023–2024
In-class workshop developed with theatre director Kelly O‘Donnell, designed to connect the language of narrative across disciplines. Featuring actors Imani Pearl Williams and Kelly Letournou.
Fall Dance Concert, 2024
Collaboration with Prof. Edisa Weeks (Dance) to integrate Illustration Portfolio students into "Unfolding: Fall Dance Concert." Students developed posters promoting the individual performances, which were exhibited at Goldstein Theatre. Four illustrations were selected by the Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance as the official posters for the concert. Images © the artists.
Standalone classroom exercises
Cyanotype with Stencil, 2024/25/26
In this exercise, students create cyanotypes from original paper stencils paired with organic elements gathered from campus. These are layered onto paper that has been pretreated with photosensitive chemicals. Students then expose the paper with a handheld UV light and wash off the chemicals in the classroom sink to halt the exposure process. After the paper has dried, students can finish their cyanotype illustrations any way they wish.
Utopia Parkway literary journal
Utopia Parkway is Queens College’s student-led undergraduate literary journal, hosted in the Department of English. In Dec 2023 I volunteered to serve as co-faculty advisor alongside Prof. Ryan Black (English), with a goal of expanding the journal’s relationship to visual art. That work has included recruiting design students to the editorial team; mentoring student editors in editorial collaboration; and leading design and production of the Spring 2024–Spring 2026 issues. The journal has given many illustration-focused students their first opportunity to see their work professionally published.I consider this advising role to be an extension of my teaching.
Four design students served on the editorial team this year, one of whom took on the responsibility of editor in chief. Two of these editors collaborated on the cover illustration. The interior features art from 15 design students and recent graduates. We also started a Utopia Parkway YouTube channel for hosting time-based media contributions.
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Two new design students joined the editorial team this year, one of whom illustrated the front cover. This issue features art from nine design students and recent graduates, including the journal’s first multi-page visual narrative, presented in double-page spreads.
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Two design students joined the editorial team this year, one of whom designed the front and back cover. This issue features visual art from 11 design students, including the journal’s first animation (presented as still frames paired with a QR code linking to the video).
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