I come to illustration from a Fine Art and Liberal Arts background. In my undergraduate studies, my focus was in drawing, painting, and printmaking; but my sense of humor and playfulness led me toward the field of illustration. My initial inspirations came from the gig poster and screen-printing scene of Chicago, and eventually broadened to illustrators like Julia Rothman, Maira Kalman, and David Hughes.

Illustration appealed to me through the use of text and research, problem-solving, and conceptual thinking. At the same time, I always felt the drive to make work that serves as a reprieve from the heavy, serious, and abstract usually found in this sort of work. I strive to focus on humor, surprise, delight, and beauty.

My most recent work focuses on the experience of surprise provided by roadside attractions, and the road trip culture that accompanies their discovery. The context of my pieces derive from personal stories of road trips made with my family, which has become a way of honoring my father, who recently passed away. After losing my father, the project has become as much about the stories in between the roadside attractions, as it is about the attractions themselves.

My thesis exhibition will focus on one of the longest road trips made by my family: from McHenry, Illinois to Seattle, Washington. As a whole, the exhibition will show a family’s journey along I-90, the over-the-top moments as well as the quieter, more subtle moments. Still wanting to embody the surprise of coming across an absurd roadside statue, I intend to use illustrated works of various sizes, allowing a play of scale and proportion.

For me, the road trip provides an appropriate metaphor for daily life—sometimes monotonous, sometimes sublime, with occasional surprises (welcomed and otherwise)—but the interruptions and surprises are what make the trip worth taking.