Portfolio Book
About Me
I am a graduate of at Bloomsburg University, with a BA in Art History and Art Studio, with concentrations in Photography, Graphic Design, Fiber Design and Printmaking.
I was born in Wexford, Ireland, and moved to Lansdale, Pennsylvania at four years-old with my parents and two sisters. I regularly travel back to spend time with my family that still lives there. Because of my regular travel, I have been given the chance to see more of the world than other American students my age.
Since coming to Bloomsburg in August 2015, my personal plans have changed many times, and I was on staff at The Voice Student Newspaper for four years; writing articles, taking photographs, and designing pages. Every April, I have participated in a wearable art show called PADME, meaning Personal Adornment Day and Make-up Extravaganza. This event was started by two Bloomsburg University professors, and I’ve loved exhibiting wearable art in the show every year. I have participated in the show for four years, and have received Best-in-Show Wearable Art and two Honorable Mentions, as well as being able to design the print program for the past two years. The performance element is not particularly something I do, but making wearable art is a side project I enjoy a lot.
Work I’ve created throughout the academic year has been regularly shown in the department’s Student Summer Showcase, as well as student-themed shows like Identity and Presence.
I blend my work between all four of my concentrations to express my emotions; depression, anxiety, loneliness, fear, and longing to belong. My pieces dive into my mental health issues, and personal experience of leaving my home in Ireland to come to America.
Process is an important element in my work. How a piece is finished sets the tone for how viewers interpret the meaning.
Screen printing my photographs and digital designs onto fabric and paper is my solution of getting my work to an endgame. The true beginning happened while I was working in the darkroom where I learned the extra work that went into an image can change the tone. I learned the element of the human touch.
Film photography has taught me if one element of developing film was not done correctly, an entire roll could be destroyed; or so I thought. By underexposing while shooting, playing with the temperature of the water I used while developing film, or per-maturely exposing light-sensitive paper to small amounts of light.
Using programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are tools I use instead of paper and pencil. When drawing, my hand is shakey and unsteady, but using a program to control my line allows me to develop a design without the viewer getting detracted by uneasy lines.
Working on fabric has taught me the importance of the material, fabric with plain weaves can be so different like a design printed on an unbleached muslin responds differently than a design printed on white canvas due to the severity between the dimension of the weave.
Serigraphy is a hand-pulled screen print, and it has taught me that “perfect registration” is not always the answer. By printing in shapes of color and one color half-tones, slightly off registration is an aesthetic to show the hand touch of an original hand pulled print.
Prints that are based on photographs have layers of ink, building up ink from light to dark.
Upcoming Exhibitions
... pending ...
Past Exhibitions
MAY 2020
Exit Show 2020, Gallery at the Greenly Center, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA
JANUARY 2020
Member Exchange Show, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
OCTOBER 2019
Presence, Gallery at the Greenly Center, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA
MAY 2019
Selected Student Summer Show, Haas Gallery Bloomsburg, PA
OCTOBER 2018
Identity, Gallery at the Greenly Center, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA
JULY 2018
Expanded Visions, The Ware Center,Lancaster, PA
MAY 2018
Selected Student Summer Show, Gallery at the Greenly Center, Bloomsburg, PA