After returning to Iowa following my military service, I completed Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees at DMACC, where I led the Environmental Science Club, served as Circulation Manager for The Chronicle, and served on the Earth Week Committee. I later earned my BFA with honors in Studio Arts and Graphic Design from Grand View University, where I also served as Vice President of AIGA's student chapter.

I worked as the full-time Artist & Designer at Firetrucker Brewery, creating everything from beer can illustrations to spatial storytelling. After two years of freelance design, I pursued graduate study.

I earned my MFA in Integrated Visual Arts at Iowa State University, where I taught Design in Context and Exploration in Art while developing increasingly interdisciplinary work that bridged research, printmaking, installation, sculpture, and socially engaged practice.

Since completing my MFA, I have continued teaching at the university level while expanding my practice beyond the studio through renovation, preservation, and interdisciplinary making. Today my work moves fluidly between research, design, fine art, and hands-on fabrication, each informing the others.

Making Meaning with a Blowtorch

Execution is not the assignment.

I don't teach art in the traditional sense. I invite people to think, to feel, and most importantly, to believe their thoughts and feelings matter.

Everything begins with this truth. Concept comes before execution. Art doesn't need to be flawless to be real. It just needs to be true.

The first spark isn't line, form, or color theory. It's Dada. Absurdity. Rebellion. Unmaking. It's the moment you realize meaning can be torn apart and rebuilt your way. Not to dismiss technique, but to free expression from the fear of not being good enough. That fear kills more ideas than failure ever could.

When you realize your job isn't to impress, but to communicate. To echo. To signal. To be felt.

That's when it gets good.

That's when it gets honest.

This forge isn't a classroom. It's a heat source. Not a production line for portfolio pieces, but a crucible where identity is tempered, contradiction is welcome, and your weirdness has weight.

This is for anyone who's been told to tone it down. For anyone who's been called too much, too messy, too loud, too strange. For anyone who's ever been told to wait until they're good enough.

You don't have to wait.

You don't have to shrink.

You only have to show up and mean it.

Art can be your weapon or your blanket, your whisper or your war cry. What matters is that it's yours.

And that you gave it breath.

After the Flame

The fire eventually settles. The work doesn't.

You don't need permission to begin. You only need the match you've been carrying all along.

This is still the forge. Not everyone is ready for it, and that's okay. Let the system squirm. Let the rules tremble a little. You didn't show up to blend in. You showed up to burn honest.

There is still room for velvet shields. This isn't about protecting yourself from the fire. It's about learning to dance inside it.

The goal was never perfection. It was honesty. You don't have to be the best. Just brave. Just true.

And never forget: your weirdness is not a liability.

It's the whole damn spell.