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Although this is a formal website designed to succinctly present my film work as a prospective crew member, I am including several personal bits knowing that they fully inform my disposition as an Art Director. Admittedly, my first pass of this bio was a cold, brief presentation of my work history written in the third-person, but reading it made my skin crawl. Here is a more thoughtful introduction: I am currently based in Portland, Oregon, and have been fortunate enough to live in quite disparate parts of the country. I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, where I grew up playing music, being inundated with local sports, and reluctantly learning a lot about early American history.
I attended undergraduate studies at Loyola University New Orleans to not only study jazz guitar in the country's most musical city, but to also help the rebuilding effort after Hurricane Katrina. It was precisely my immersion in New Orleans, from learning of its weighty, consequential history to dancing in its treasured venues (and engorging myself on its heavenly foods) that sparked my intellectual curiosity and drive to critically engage with objects of culture. The artistic dynamism of New Orleans thus expanded my academic interest from music to include history, philosophy, and film studies.
Immediately upon completing my undergraduate studies I moved to Portland, Oregon to join the inaugural cohort of the Pacific Northwest College of Art's MA in Critical Theory + Creative Research program. During my first year in Portland I was able to collaborate with many wonderful artists, and participate in several arts programs to help familiarize myself with the city. It is the Pacific Northwest's geographic splendor, and the attendant joy I have found in my work that has lead me to remain in Portland for the last decade.
While I still pursue my scholarly interests by presenting independent research at academic conferences, I have found my role as an Art Director to be constructively challenging, and exceptionally fulfilling. Like most people in the film industry I fell into the field fortuitously, but over time I consigned myself to a craft, and familiarized myself with various roles in my department. As an Art Director it is an absolute pleasure to get to interface with everyone on the team, oversee the progression of our goals and, through manifold collective problem-solving, make real the creative vision assigned to the overall project.
It would be helpful to note that several years ago I wrote my masters thesis on sincerity as an aesthetic value in cinema. In it, I considered the pitfalls of postmodern irony, and focused on our culture's recent penchant for more personal films that produce a spectral intimacy with the artist, or, in other words, an affect of sincerity. I want to foreground my curious absorption with sincerity because I believe it is an effective tool to combat both the incessant visual cacophony of modern media, and our society’s (un)ethical primacy on competition over community. My core values, therefore, include a commitment to intellectual humility, mutual growth, artistic play, and meaningful collaboration. Current personal goals that I have include improving my knowledge of Vectorworks and Twinmotion, better distressing materials with paint, and working on my French grammar. In addition to my CV, you can also find on this site a page where I too infrequently post some of my academic writing. I am very thankful for your openness to learn a little bit about me.
