Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, I currently live in Columbus, Ohio, where I work as an artist, graphic designer and college art instructor.
I graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2003, where I studied Illustration, Fine Art and Art History, and where I now teach. I've also taken graduate-level courses studying art crime. I have given several classes and lectures on the subject.
I live with two cats named Jasper and Mugsy. They have a knack for finding weird things in my basement that I've never seen before.
Artist Statement
My drawings reconnect with the magic of nature by reimagining the past. The animals in my drawings represent the primitive, emotional or mysterious parts of our humanity that have been obscured by the veneer of civilization and technological advancement. I often choose extinct or endangered animals to feature in my drawings. In some drawings, like those in the Dead Monarch Masquerade series, I pair an extinct animal with an assassinated monarch, such as Czar Nicholas II or Marie Antoinette, who are shown wearing costumes of extinct animals. Generally, though, animals in my drawings are meant to emphasize nature's delicate preciousness, how human interference has threatened our planet's beauty and diversity, and how, by turning our backs on nature, we have lost connection to our ancient heritage.
I like to play with surrealistic juxtapositions of animals in a man-made environment - sometimes posing as a person or replacing man-made technology - to illustrate the ways people and animals are similar but also to create unusual, humorous or vaguely unsettling images. In my Whaleplanes series, I replaced warplanes with dolphins and whales, trading inventions of destruction for a mythical pacifist alternate reality where peaceful ocean mammals float harmlessly above the landscape. In other drawings I focus on times when human history clashed with natural history, such as Extinct Birds, which shows birds that have gone extinct as a result of direct human interference. I depicted the birds dressed in clothing that was fashionable during the year that they went extinct as a way of visually connecting the animal's history with our own.
Daguerreosaurs reimagines a past where humans and dinosaurs coexist; I've drawn famous Americans from history posing with their dinosaur companions.
In other drawings, I envision an alternate universe where animals have taken the place of humans, like in my Explorers and The Gilded Age series. For The Gilded Age, I replaced the human subjects in the photos with animals as a way to illustrate character traits - such as fearful, enigmatic, mournful, dominant or pitiable - that we often also associate with animals. The animals in these drawings become visible manifestations of these traits underneath the domesticated "gilding" that humans have cultivated to mask their primal, animalistic nature.
Dodos auf der Flucht poetry book illustrations \ 03.2018
I had the honor of illustrating a book of poetry written by German poet Mikael Vogel. It was a dream project; he and I both are passionate about animals.
Dodos auf der Flucht (Dodos on the Run), a collection of poems about extinct and endangered animals, is available here.
Extinct Birds postcard collaboration \ 09.2014
Before I was commissioned to illustrate Mikael's poetry book, he and I collaborated on a postcard project. He wrote poems about several of the extinct birds in my drawing series and then created postcards which he then distributed in cafés and coffee shops around Berlin.
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Teaching Experience
I've taught college-level art classes at my alma mater, CCAD, since 2008. Some of the courses I have taught include:
- Figure Drawing
- Intro to Design and Color
- Digital Design and Typography
- Design and Visual Culture
- Art Crime: Heists and Forgeries
Honors Seminars:
- Art at Risk: The Illegal Antiquities Trade
- Defeating the Ideal: Art & Propaganda
Solo Shows
2021: Children of Melusine, at S.Dot Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.
2020: Drawings, at the Bexley Public Library, Bexley, Ohio.
2018: Ministers of the Kingdom, at the Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio.
Magic Realism, at the German Village Society, Columbus, Ohio.
2014: Drawings, at the Bexley Public Library, Bexley, Ohio.
2013: Explorers, at the Explorers Club Restaurant, Columbus, Ohio.
2008: I Could Swear I Saw a Light, at the Ohio Art League Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.
2007: Drawings, in a business space in the Short North gallery district, Columbus, Ohio.
2003: Oneiric, Senior Thesis Exhibition, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio.
Group Shows
2021: Carbon Bonds, a 2-person show with Katy Paull, at Blockfort Studios, Columbus, Ohio.
2019: Canned Heat, at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California.
2019: Laluzapalooza: 33rd Annual Group Show, at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California.
2018: Columbus Open Studio and Stage Tour.
2017: Hit the Hop, at Studios on High Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.
2016: Columbus Open Studio and Stage Tour.
Monsters in America, at One Mile Gallery, Kingston, New York.
The Renegade Craft Fair, in the Prime 8 Art League booth, Chicago, Illinois.
2015: The Creature Show, at Don Drumm Studios, Akron, Ohio.
The Renegade Craft Fair, in the Prime 8 Art League booth, Chicago, Illinois.
2014: 3rd Annual Prime 8 Art League Event, at the Chop Shop, Chicago, Illinois.
Happy Together: A Wedding Exhibition, at the Cultural Arts Center, Columbus, Ohio.
Impact-Influence, a CCAD CE faculty exhibition at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio.
2013: RAW Cincinnati presents: Elevation, at Bogart's, Cincinnati, Ohio.
2012: Art for Life Auction for the AIDS Resource Center Ohio, hosted by the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio.
From A Different Flock, at the Ohio Art League Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.
2009: New Narratives: Paintings by Ohio Artists, at the Ohio Arts Council Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio. Curated by Dominique H. Vasseur, European Curator at the Columbus Museum of Art.
2006: Brian Williams & Paul Richmond: Recent Works, Worthington Municipal Building, Worthington, Ohio.
Participated in staff art exhibition, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio.
2005: Emerging Artists: A Collection, Legend Gallery, Zanesville, Ohio.
2004: The Dreaming: Works by Katy Schepers and Brian Williams, in a business space in the Short North gallery district, Columbus, Ohio.
The Ohio Art League Fall Juried Exhibition, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio.
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Freelance illustration work
I'm represented by Illozoo, the illustration agency. For editorial, advertising & book illustration projects, contact Illozoo at www.illozoo.com.
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