Mural illustrated by Stephanie Papaioanu and documentation of a session as part of the Disruptive Tech Program I ran for executives.

Partner and Executive Design Thinking exercise for a client - Vanguard

Design Thinking exercise with AI as a thought partner for executives

Design Thinking Exercise for executives with AI as a though partner for a fictitious commercial product.

In preparation for the collaboration with poetry, students responded to music at 15 minute intervals.  The students rotated 4 times, requiring the subsequent marks to be a response to both rhythm and the mark-making of another artist.

 As part of a collaboration between the sciences and the arts, this work represents light bending around the earth and sun - a theory which has yet to be explained.

This student collaborated with a neuroscientist whom she had been creating a case study for as part of a ‘Gifted Program’ analysis.  Her actual research was embedded into the illustration of the scientist.

A collaboration between my drawing students and the dept. of Creative Writing.  This work was a response to a poem listed below:

Love, at 20 Years of Age
5 a.m. Light from the streetlamp
stretched inside the window,
and you woke me-
urgently-to say
“we need to talk
about next year’s
Christmas cards!”

even though it was January seventeenth
and there was no snow.  Then you smiled,
fetchingly,
rolled back over and into the night, whispered
“sorry, just dreaming.”

Now awake, I watched the streetlamp
click, light off, replaced
by sun, rising.  I caught that breaking dawn-
held it, afraid to ever let it go.

Response to the poem listed below:

Hold the Button
Driving by the graveyard, one cross sticking out
shiny marble, grey and white
more grey than white
I should be paying attention to traffic.
Unable to take my eyes off of it.
My grandma always told me, “Every time you pass a cemetery hold on to a button”.
Sounds silly, but I always do it.
that smooth cold touch,
my coat button comforts me.
About the size of a penny,
tiny holes of nothing.
What meaning does a button have in death?
I give it meaning.
The button finds its place in between my fingers.
I am quiet, praying to myself,
and my grandmother smiles back as she enjoys the ride.

Skins/Exteriors

  Questioning the concept of exterior surfaces and the idea of a ‘skin’, students had to create a work which highlighted their concept.  This student pinpointed the skins of public spaces.

Subjective Portrait

  A conceptually simple assignment which introduced students to the use of color through complementaries.

 Fragmentary in nature, students were required to create a composition out of 3 different sessions of thumbnail drawings.  Exploring the environment around them, this student could work in a narrative, a background to foreground, or an amorphic schema using a 6-color minimum.

This student’s ideas originated in the realm of dichotomy and tension - questioning the form and function of everyday objects.

This student’s concept highlighted ideas of beauty and the role of plastic surgery in contemporary society.

This work was a response to the poem listed below:

Ode to the Sofa
It had sat proudly against the wall,
the worn sofa decorated
in floral patterns of cream,
brown, orange, and green,
permanently scarred with spilt Kool-Aid,
grape juice,
and pink lemonade.

The sofa was a sanctuary
for a frightened young girl.
Behind it, the perfect spot to hide
from those that were seeking her.

It watched many reruns of “I Love Lucy”,
and remembered when it was worthwhile
to get up early for Saturday morning cartoons:
like Bugs Bunny, Rescue Rangers, and Winnie the Pooh.

Now, she watches
as her dad pours the flammable liquid.
He throws the match and runs
as the couch engulfs into flames.
All that is left is a burnt frame in the wet grass
that is no longer comfortable
or safe.

  Building off of a lecture on iconography using Panofsky and McCloud as references, students were required to create their own language of icons which illustrates/questions their own identity.