Resumé

Visuals are my vocation

QUALIFICATION SUMMARY

  • Master’s level training in rigorous research-based digital visual content production and curation, archival practices, proprietary CMS, and metadata standards

  • Very familiar with image curation, copyright permissions, licensing, and stock image services

  • Most recently worked as an Image Editor evaluating, selecting, and editing images for System1, the umbrella company for HowStuffWorks.com and affiliated content sites

  • “Trivia Master” for the Total Trivia mobile app for its first two years. Responsible for researching, fact-checking, creating, and editing ALL trivia questions in diverse categories totaling over 50,000 written and 5,000 image-based trivia questions

  • 10 years of significant image-based remote work experience, 8 years of contract work for web-based companies

 
 

SKILLS 

Expert level art and culture-based research, image editing, and Photoshop skills. Extensive experience with Adobe CC Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects), copyright, metadata standards, database development, and archival best practices for digital content. Experienced 3D visualizer using photogrammetric and digital modeling techniques. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Natural problem solver, curious, creative, flexible, and easy to work with. Self-motivated, organized, and generally prefer individual work; yet, am also a good listener and welcome open communication and feedback to continuously improve my work.

Image Editor,
System1

December 2018 - July 2019

Selected images based on copyright requirements and System1’s content standards—with an eye for image quality and contextual suitability—from various proprietary and open online image catalogs for commercial use on affiliated websites. Edited images to enhance display quality and meet resolution standards, then uploaded them to their proprietary CMS along with basic metadata. Kept meticulous records of all images in Google Docs. Worked independently in a fast-paced, detail-oriented environment while in contact with content managers via Slack to ensure quick implementation of feedback.

trivia master,
Total Trivia

September 2016 - October 2018

Created over 5,000 image-based trivia questions in 6 diverse categories, including selecting editing, and entering all photos into their proprietary CMS. Researched and wrote over 50,000 trivia questions in 20 categories over 2 years as the exclusive trivia content writer for the Total Trivia mobile app.

MSC international heritage visualization,
Glasgow School of Art

2014-2015

Major research project combined rigorous research with numerous visualization techniques (digital photography, digital illustration, 3D modeling, animation, film production) to create an animated short film that reveals the story of an artwork, from its creation by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, an influential Scottish architect, to its near-destruction in a fire in 2014, in order to demonstrate how technology can both an artistic and scientific tool to enhance restoration work. A 100+ page thesis accompanied the film.

mphil digital humanities and culture,
Trinity College Dublin

2013-2014

Core internship project culminated in a technical white paper for a small Irish non-profit to use as a roadmap to develop a major online photographic exhibit (with a searchable public digital archive) of more than 2,000 photographs that celebrates their 30-year-history.

Thesis project developed a theoretical framework that explored the intersections of current epistemological theory with digital art and culture practices, which was then used to analyze five mobile apps made by leading international art museums and identify best practice methods and weaknesses. Applied findings to create a prototype interactive app to help users understand the fundamentals of Bulgarian Orthodox Art.100+ pages of written work accompanied the interactive app prototype.

Balkan Heritage Foundation and Field School

2011-2013

 

As the only native English speaker on staff, I primarily worked remotely with a team of archaeologists to write and edit educational and promotional materials for web and print use as well as correspondence and grants for their international archaeology and art conservation field schools in Bulgaria and Macedonia. I also collated and analyzed participant data, created and edited graphics for web and print use. I also participated in several field schools including “Fresco-Hunting” (photographing medieval church art in remote locations in western Bulgaria) as well as excavation and restoration of pottery excavated from the ancient Greek colony Apollonia Pontica (modern-day Sozopol, Bulgaria

gracefaerie designs,
digital graphic design
and web master

2007-2011

 

As part of a small three person operation to produce and sell patterns for Japanese ball-jointed doll clothes online, I was responsible for designing all print media, digitizing pattern graphics, photographing all merchandise for promotional use and preparing digital media for archiving. I also designed and maintained the company's website and helped develop the company's branding.

double-major Art History & Studio art,
University of Minnesota-
Twin Cities

2007-2009

 

For me, art is as much about the process as the product. My studio art focus was in black and white film-based photography. Unfortunately I have not yet digitized my work, especially since much of it was made through manipulation in the dark room, and therefore is not captured within the negatives themselves. The ceramics class I took the last semester of college was also transformative. For me, no other art form was equally challenging-and-rewarding. I hope to explore the medium more in the future.

Taking inspiration from Picasso’s quote, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist,” I concentrated my art history studies on the western canon, the foundation of which much of our visual world is still based on today. My study of antiquity focused on Egyptian art, which fascinated me since I was quite young. I took particular delight in learning about innovation during the Renaissance such as Brunelleschi’s dome (the first free-standing dome in the western world since antiquity), and how much of what we take for granted, like realistic painting, took ages to perfect. Baroque art, especially the dramatic flair of “extreme chiaroscuro” (as our beloved Professor Stoughton drilled into our heads while studying in Rome) and decentralized composition introduced by Caravaggio and embraced by other favorite painters Rembrandt, Georges de la Tour, Honstorst, Velázquez, and Ribera actually made me look forward to going to class in the morning. The entire lecture Prof. Ostrow (who later became my thesis adviser) dedicated to Italian Baroque fountains will forever hold a special place in my heart. Their artistry and whimsy, while also being feats of engineering that were once critical to daily life, make them marvels of humanity to me. Other “special topics” art history classes in the Visual and Material Culture of Popular Music, the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, and the History of Printmaking in the Western World helped me build on my foundation knowledge and further develop my critical thinking skills to analyze and appreciate other forms of visual art and culture. While certainly not a lucrative path, what I have and continue to learn through an art history lens is priceless.