Reuel Arts

During my last year of college I worked part time as an illustrator for the college drawing, ink-washing and watercoloring images for their publications, promotional materials and special events. It was exciting to see these images incorporated into posters, campus papers and periodicals. I liked the push-pull relationship of the more organic ink or paint and the hard lines and perfection of the design. It was during this period when I first fell in love with illustration -- just before I finished my degree in fine art!

The firecenter was a web portal with an online weekly magazine focused on the arts, culture and . I did most of the illustrations for the site which meant I scrambled to paint, draw, manipulate photos and rework core images. Being a low-budget operation I found a lot of ways to reuse, recycle and rework a good illustration once I had it in my hands -- different croppings, black and white versions, etc. During this period I learned the value of illustration in a new way and became more convinced than ever that there is an expanded place for it in the digital age.