I love teaching because I love learning through community. Not only am I continually inspired by the creativity and perseverance of my students, I find the best way to truly comprehend a subject is through teaching that subject. Should you have the opportunity to present on a topic, teach a workshop, or embark on any similar educational pursuit, I highly recommend you say yes. It may be a lot of work, but will help you make new connections you won’t soon forget and give you confidence and expertise.
The University of Houston Downtown stands out for its small-class sizes, its enthusiastic and sincere students, its supportive staff and faculty and its engaging programming.
You’ll be most likely to find me downtown at Phoenicia (for the best salad bar!), Jones Hall (home of the Houston Symphony), and the Julia Ideson Building (part of the Houston Public Library).
Some of my favorite spots in Houston are Glenwood Cemetery (a beautiful place steeped in local history—be sure to check out Preservation Houston’s regularly-scheduled walking tours), Govinda’s Vegetarian Cuisine (all you can eat Indian food with a rotating menu), and Texas Art Asylum (a thrift store full of art and craft supplies). Now through mid-summer, it’s breeding season for the yellow-crowned night herons, great egrets and snowy egrets. Though you can see these majestic birds all over the city, they gather to nest on North and South Boulevard in the highest branches of the live oak trees. My husband and I love to walk these streets at dusk when the birds are most active. Look for white splatters on the red brick walkway and you’ll know you are close!
My guilty pleasure is spending hours rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel while eating over-priced fancy cheese.
My most memorable summer was spent as a college intern at Glimmerglass Opera in beautiful Cooperstown, New York, where I photographed performances and events. One of the four operas that season was The Pirates of Penzance, and I had so much fun during rehearsals quietly singing along. If there is a production of Pirates in Houston, I’ll be there!
This summer I’m looking forward to engaging in slow-making. As a long-time knitter, I’ve expanded my fiber arts practice in the past few years to also include spinning (making yarn from plant or animal fiber), weaving, and most recently, broom-making. Part of my practice is focused on knitting as a medium for graphic design, and I’m excited to expand this research in the near future.
Next semester I’ll be teaching Graphic Design II on Mondays and Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. (Shoutout to all my amazing students from the pre-requisite course, Graphic Design, this semester!) I look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new designers in the fall. I will also be teaching two courses at the University of Houston Main campus — Intermediate Graphic Design and The Arts in Society, which is an interdisciplinary course centered around the humanities in Italy.
