Portrait by Mark Andresen.
My artwork has been in a variety of media: initially book works, then drawings, and collage/constructions. While in the Boston area in the late 1980s/early 1990s, I produced full scale, life-sized drawn portraits I alternately referred to as “The Neographical Survey” or “The Geophysical Survey.” These were featured in exhibitions including the Boston Center for the Arts, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, Fitchburg Art Museum, and 9 Artists/9 Visions at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in 1991. A selection of my artist books are in the Franklin Furnace/Museum of Modern Art/Artists Books collection.
Since the mid-2000s, I’ve focused on a series of hand die-cut constructions called “Trypophilia.” These have been included in a number of juried group exhibitions nationally. I’ve had solo exhibitions at HallSpace in Dorchester MA in 2022, the Baron and Ellin Gordon Galleries in Norfolk MA in 2008, and the Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth MN, 1999. Work from both series are included in public and private collections primarily in New England and New York.
My critical essays on graphic culture first appeared in the influential (and controversial) magazine Emigre from 1996 to 2005. I’m author of two book collections of my work, Process Music: songs, stories, and studies of graphic culture (Onomatopee Projects, 2022), and Volumes: Design Reviewed Remixed Revealed (Set Margins’, 2025). My writings have appeared in Emigre, Print, Eye, Étapes, and Idea magazines; the books The Graphic Design Reader, Culture Is Not Always Popular: Fifteen Years of Design Observer, Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design, Graphic Design and Reading, Thought Experiments in Graphic Design Education, and The Education of a Graphic Designer volume 2; plus the online journals Design Observer, Voice: AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, and Speak Up. I wrote the forward for Stefan Sagmeister’s ggg Books monograph, and the official bio for the British music group Cornershop.
As a designer, I’ve worked freelance predominantly for education, arts and cultural organizations alongside self-initiated projects. I produced The News of the Whirled, my novel in the form of 4-issue limited-edition magazine, for which I was principle writer, editor, designer, and imagist. NOTW received awards for excellence from the American Center for Design and AIGA, and is in the collection of Goldstein Museum of Design at the University of Minnesota.
As curator, I’ve organized Queer’D: Works by Contemporary LGBTQ Graphic Designers with Cathleen Rhodes: Baron & Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA in 2026; DesignHer: Works by Contemporary Women Graphic Designers with Melissa Warp: Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, and Baron & Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at ODU in 2021–22; Mount: Baron & Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, ODU, 2013; Repurposes with Garland Kirkpatrick: Baron & Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, ODU, 2010; Stefan Sagmeister: a graphic designer with Jiwon Lee: Baron & Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, ODU, 2008; Emigre in Norfolk: Old Dominion University Gallery, Norfolk VA, 2005; Adversary: an exhibition (of) contesting graphic design, touring exhibition: Loyola University, Colins C. Diboll Gallery, New Orleans, LA, University of Iowa Design Gallery, Iowa City, IA, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly MA, Old Dominion University Gallery, AIGA National Design Conference, Washington D.C., Zero Station, Portland, ME, Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2001–04; LWD: MassArt alumni/æ in 3D fine arts, Main Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 1992.
I’ve been an artist in residence/visiting artist/speaker/guest critic at or for Cranbrook Academy of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art, California Institute of the Arts, Vermont College of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding, Kookmin University (Seoul Korea), University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign, Central Michigan University, Montserrat College of Art, Phoenix Design Week, along with presentations and papers given at conferences sponsored by AIGA, College Art Association, University and College Designers Association, and others and elsewhere.
I’m currently the Professor of Design at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. I also taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and as an adjunct at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. I’m also a member of the founding Editorial Board of the academic journal Dialectic, and served on the Steering Committee of the AIGA Design Educators Community.
MFA 1996: Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Design
BFA 1983: Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Ceramics