Destination: Ballyvaughan, Ireland

During the program [Global Ecologies Studio at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland], I was challenged to reconsider ecology beyond science alone and instead as a relational discipline situated between both human culture and nature. As a dual degree student also studying ecology and evolutionary biology, this new understanding shifted how I understood the world and where art and ecology can meet. This radical shift in perspective was facilitated through intensive reading, art making, and hours of hiking across the Burren’s terraced mountains looking for archeological ruins scattered among orchid meadows, lichen coated limestone, and ancient fossils.

In these experiences, that possessive boiling excitement melted into my bones and became a sizzling transformative energy that lingered long after I returned to Michigan. To this day, my creative work has been fundamentally shaped by this expanded ecological framework. My studies in the Burren laid the foundation for my life long work as an artist where I reckon with my queer identity and human/nature relationships in the Anthropocene through multidisciplinary and research-based approaches to making. In this, I explore where the human and more than human meet in order to find futures beyond crisis full of multi-species flourishing.

Destination: London, England

In 2020, I studied at the University of the Arts London. I specialize in stop-motion animation, a meticulous medium that demands control. In the time before my course, I wanted to find a way to practice my craft without shuttering myself away. My solution was Edison, a lightbulb-headed tourist puppet who explored the city with me. I captured clips of Edison everywhere from Stonehenge to a ferry on the Thames. At first, I worried that an uncontrollable environment would add too much chaos, but I found the movement of clouds and pedestrians added charm to scenes. I captured 25 unique clips with Edison. Scouting for shots led me out of my comfort zone; shooting them helped me let go of control. The COVID-19 pandemic sent me home mid-March, and the first lockdown followed soon after. Once again, I lacked control and feared locking myself away. It was my experience abroad that let me enact a plan: I built Filament, Edison’s homebody brother, who would do lockdown activities with me. I animated Fil daily for 67 days. The short film I made from the clips won awards, inspired a series on a University of Michigan blog, and brought comfort to others stuck at home.

Destination: Ireland

Studying abroad in rural Ireland at the Burren College of Art allowed me to reflect upon my deeply rooted past of what it means to be a man. Influenced largely by the introspective environment at Burren, my work took off in a direction that was unforeseen. I discovered a passion for reimagining my masculine ideals through the act of painting and drawing. I reflected on what it was that made me a man, striving for authenticity at all costs. I struggled to reject the familiar traditional masculinity and embrace the uncertain femininity within me. This was a learning moment for me; I need not reject everything that makes me a man, but rather question, redefine and expand my ideas — a process enunciated through self-portraiture.

Destination: London, England

My experience in London was so impactful and so significant that I still find it hard to communicate exactly how it affected me. I felt so inspired by everything and everyone in the city. I designed several characters based on Londoners that I met (at left is Bobby, a character inspired by a barista at the coffeehouse I frequented), and achieved a level of flow in my animation that I didn’t think possible. London’s creative ideology has stuck with me: beauty is everywhere and in everything.

Destination: Copenhagen

“During my time in Copenhagen, I studied Scandinavian design history both in and out of the classroom. I was inspired by Scandinavian design and its principles of material conservation, functionalism, and designing to tell a story. While there I designed and fabricated the “Curling Chair” (shown at right). I consider this chair to be my masterpiece.”

Destination: Italy

I took two classes; oil painting and drawing but it was the latter that affected me the most. I have drawn all my life but looking back I realize now that I barely understood what it meant to draw, especially observationally, before studying at SACI.

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Destination: Hungary

I spent the summer surrounded by questions about heritage and identity. When I proposed my independent study, I dreamed of finding the answers to my questions about nationality, culture, language, and family. Instead, I found, amid my few answers, a lifetime of questions that has continued to drive my work since.

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Destination: Ireland

I climbed every day I could, spending up to 8 hours in silence, exploring the limestone formations, plants, ruins of churches, and settlements… I now focus on the partnership of words and illustration in my practice and consider time in nature a critical working material.

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Destination: Italy

Though I was given assignment prompts, it was clear that the overarching objective was to take inspiration from anything and everything within our abroad experience.

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Destination: Italy

The photography course I took in Florence found a way into my soul… In my senior work I am able to show non direct emotion and stories in my photographs given the techniques I learned in Italy.

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Destination: Italy

During my study abroad in Florence last summer, I took a darkroom photography course that opened up a new avenue for my art practice. Through my conversations and critiques with my photography professor it became apparent that I was drawn to alternative processes in the world of photography. …I am taking my interest in environmental studies and my recently discovered love for alternative photographic processes and making a body of work using photography and printmaking alternatives that are more sustainable and less damaging to human health than their commonly-used counterparts.

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Destination: Denmark

In the summer of 2018, I studied abroad at DIS in Denmark to study furniture design. During the course, I not only acquired great skills of woodworking and Scandinavian design concept but also learned how to respect one’s own culture and art.

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Destination: France

I was blessed to study documentary photography in Paris, France during the summer of 2019, and it was one of the most moving artistic and cultural experiences of my life. Photography was a new medium for me… My time in Paris revealed to me a love for photography and a different way to integrate the human experience into my work.

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Destination: Argentina

From May – June 2018 I participated in the R.A.R.O. International Artist In Residency Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During my time at R.A.R.O. I created an animation, My Demon and Me, derived from a series of large scale paintings that dealt with the topic of sexual violence. My international experience has greatly influenced my current artistic practice.

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Destination: Sweden

I studied Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden to expand my knowledge of Scandinavian design and my practice as an interaction designer. Through an HCI course called Embodied Interaction, I was exposed to phenomenology theory—the study of consciousness and experience. For the first time as a designer, I applied philosophical discussion to research—in the form of field studies, bodystorming, etc. My class was taught to observe and simulate experiences before designing artifacts to facilitate them.

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Destination: China

This trip inspired me to address my multicultural identity in my senior IP project. I do not believe my project would have been as strong if I had not experienced the beauty of Chinese life and culture, and recognized that I am not excluded from that world. By learning more about the meanings behind Chinese iconography and infusing them with American symbols, I began to reclaim my own narratives.

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Destination: Denmark

Before my time abroad, I was a graphic designer with a goal of making the “best,” most usable design – however, Copenhagen showed my how to make design my own, and with that, make it valuable. This dichotomy of individuality and design, existing in this flat colorful world are ideas that I use in my own art today.

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Destination: Japan, Gabon

While touring facilities for adults with cognitive disabilities [in Shigaraki, Japan], we spent time working with local clay. Our only directive was to play with the material. I found myself calling the work that came out of this process “doodles.” This playfulness further broke down the “isolated studio” model. I learned to embrace open and relaxed making, focused less on a rigidly defined end-product and more on enjoyment of the process.

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Destination: France

My five week study abroad studying documentary photography in Paris, France, taught me more about process, about being uncomfortable and flourishing in that discomfort, about the human condition, navigation, being lost in translation, asking for permission, being denied permission and how to constantly be looking- through my eyes and the lens of my camera.

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Destination: Gabon

In short, my time in Gabon has taught me to be a better artist and designer because of my exposure to different audiences, practice with real world implementation, and inner pressure to share my challenging experiences via art. I continue to work towards artistic expression that leads to introspection in myself and others.

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Destination: Japan

My study abroad trip to Shigaraki, Japan, was the catalyst for my budding passion for Asian studies and design. Every activity, landscape, ounce of culture, and most importantly, every person that I interacted with along the way changed how I would approach the rest of my college experience.

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Destination: Japan

During my five months in Japan, I learned the basics of storyboarding, character movement, stop-motion animation photography, and Protools sound mixing, all of which became integral techniques in the execution of my senior integrative performance project.

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Destination: Denmark

In 2015, I traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark for a 3-week urban studies course to study how design played a role in Denmark’s urban landscape. After the class had finished, I wanted to stay longer …I landed an apprenticeship at a local cargo bicycle shop called Benben Cykler.

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Destination: Denmark

While I was studying abroad at DIS in Denmark, I discovered sustainability as an absence and awareness of new consumption rather than a recycling of the old. Up until this point I had understood sustainable practices to be centered around repurposing materials to make new material, like recycled paper and plastic. The Danish lifestyle highlighted thoughtful consumerism, seeing a product through, repairing and reutilizing, until the end of the object’s life.

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Destination: Ireland

I carry images of places I am connected to around with me. I put them up on my studio wall, on my bedroom wall, and use them for the background image on my phone. In the Burren I wanted to make a connection between those places and the space I occupied while being there. The images range from ocean views in California, to tree lines in Montana. The images landed on the grass of the Burren with a sense of physicality.

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Destination: Eastern Europe

While studying abroad and travelling around Eastern Europe for 6 months I became fascinated with how our brains work in remembering past events and how these memories affect our identities. The different family customs, cultural events and expectations of each new companion defined an aspect of who they were.

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Destination: China

Looking back, the experience feels sacred, like a meditation where I imagine myself sinking deep into the ocean, overwhelmed and then rising towards the sun in warm freedom. This trip opened me up.

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Destination: Germany/The Netherlands

I was interested in a study abroad program with the School of Social Work in Berlin and Amsterdam because it focused on engaging with various communities to learn about community enhancement art projects, non-profit sex work organizations, and juvenile justice.

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Destination: Chile

…my study abroad experience was in the country where I was born, raised and left a decade ago. In this trip the known because unknown and I opened my eyes to a reality that was too uncomfortable to face earlier in my life.

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Destination: Denmark

My four years in Michigan were a search for courage and inspiration. The most important experiences were the times I went abroad. During my journeys, I have found not only confidence but also passion for photography, video, and food. These revelations only became to clearer to me while I was abroad.

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Destination: Italy

Studying abroad in Florence during the summer of 2013 has been the most enriching experience of my life. I enrolled in a Renaissance art history class that filled each week with ten hours of monasteries, cathedrals, and museums. In my free time, I would return to the Bargello, the Uffizi, and the Galleria Palatina to sketch the works that caught my attention during class. Having the opportunity to be in their physical presence for an extended amount of time gave a new dimension to my understanding.

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Destination: Ireland

The Burren, Ireland trip in the city of Ballyvaughan was an enlightening experience. My artistic work has transformed with a strong emphasis on natural history’s relationship with human history and the way the two subjects manipulate one another. The more I learned of the Burren’s history, the more creative connections I made while conceiving my abstract animation. My animation tells the ecological story of the Burren while connecting religious transition, deforestation and The Great Famine of Ireland into one concept.

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Destination: Ireland

Through my study abroad experience in Ireland, I was able to discover the intimate proximity of the history that is literally buried beneath our feet. For the first time, geology became a platform for artistic expression, building upon my past interest in rock formations for their tactile and visual qualities. I discovered a way of seeing and engaging with my surroundings, a method of making and writing that I’d developed throughout my undergraduate education, now brought into a new level of clarity and focus.

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Destination: Zanzibar

I began to notice beautiful gates and other bits of metal work that were scattered throughout the city. I realized what really inspired me was this opportunity to take an up close look at a making culture -­‐ a culture where hand making is still a necessity as opposed to a novelty -­‐ and how these ideals differed from the consumer driven realities in my own country.

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Destination: Japan

Being in Tokyo for Spring semester of my Junior year helped me to make connections and expanded my fascination with creating immersive interactive environments. Studying abroad was a critical foundation for the work I made during my senior Integrative Project.

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Destination: Denmark, Sweden, & Finland

Prior to studying abroad, I wanted to be an industrial designer, and I chose the Danish Institute for Study Abroad simply to add furniture to my repertoire. However, I fell unpredictably in love with chair design and therefore spent my entire thesis investigating seating, materials, and furniture.

I no longer want to design for industrial production — I want to work on my craftsmanship to try and achieve the level of craft I witnessed throughout Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The projects that I have planned for the coming years stem from the same honest materials, joinery, and aesthetics that I fell in love with while studying abroad.

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Destination: Costa Rica & Cuba

…returning to the United States, I was most struck by the hollowness of the refrain that the government cannot afford to provide healthcare, education, food, and housing for its people. It is a question of priorities, not resources: we have the money, what we currently lack is empathy. Directly experiencing the divide between Latin America and the US planted this idea deeper than any textbook ever could. My art has evolved along with these experiences, as I’ve tried to deal with some of the complexities surrounding radical social change.

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Destination: Tanzania

The best word I can use to describe the soil of Tanzania is magical. The iron-rich red soil was unlike anything I had ever seen growing up in Northern Michigan, and it still has a power over me that I cannot seem to describe with words. Naturally occurring with the perfect percentage of clay, the soil is mixed with water and spread thick over a network of woven branches by the local Maasai women to build the walls of their homes. In my brief but unforgettable three weeks in rural Tanzania, we used the smooth red soil in the same ways as the Maasai, mixing it with cow manure and water to make an adobe mixture …to build fuel-efficient wood-burning cookstoves, designed with exhaust systems to remove smoke from the homes (and eyes and lungs) of the women.

I started IP this past fall not expecting to be influenced by my trip to Tanzania… but in my second semester started to experiment with terra cotta, an iron-rich red clay body with a distinct orange glow when fired.

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Destination: Ghana & India

During my community engagement program in Ghana, I confronted my race, and found space to learn about a history I had always been connected with, but never felt connected to. During my semester in India, I found a voice. Surrounded by people similar in appearance, but shared few of my identities, I found space to grow my own truths and learn from others first hand.

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Destination: Tanzania

…what I have come back to time and time again about my experience in Tanzania is how similar we all are at our core. We are all human beings with hopes, fears, desires, all incredibly complex individuals and at once simple in our connection. It sounds so simple, something that I always knew, but before Tanzania didnʼt truly understand.

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