Education and learning come in many forms. This is the account and documentation of a path through formal education with informal education always being present. Exploration, curiosity, and the desire for knowledge and creativity have provided a fullfing start in a life long journey of learning. Thank you to everyone that has been part of my education so far.

One of the most remarkable things about people is their ability to learn. Through our lives we collect and store an immense amount of knowledge, and it is our ability to access that knowledge when we need it or want it that makes us human.
It is my belief that learning is an experience that we engage with and through this engagement we form who we are presently. Learning is much more than the act of gathering knowledge. It is what we take from that knowledge and how we interpret it and use it. It has to deal with how what we have learned impacts our lives in the present and the future. My plans are not for my education to end after college but rather for it to continue. The informal education is something that will be relevant to my career as a graphic designer. I plan on teaching design at the college level someday and continually learning from my future students and from all that surrounds me.

To view the art work created and produced within the Hartford Art School curriculum, click on the name of the class.

About the Hartford Art School
I still remember taking my first tour of the Hartford Art School. My parents and I were suprised to find out that an art school like this was in our state. After being accepted at the majority of schools that I applied to, I chose the Hartford Art School. It was a smaller school, had good facilities, and some great people who made me feel welcome and demonstrated how they would like me as part of their community of creative people and artists. I ran into the head of the graphic design department at an event and ended up talking to him for an hour about the program, that became the final turning point where we realized what the school truly had to offer.

The paragraphes below is how the Hartford Art School describes themeselves.

The Hartford Art School provides a professional studio-based education within the context of a university that encourages a liberal arts experience. Our goal is to prepare students to be capable, knowledgeable, and prepared to enter the professional artistic domain with an understanding of the visual arts in relation to other human endeavors, and to become creative, contributing members of society.

The Hartford Art School adheres to no single philosophy or style of art. Through curriculum, exhibitions, visiting artist programs, and particularly through its resident faculty, the School fosters a diversity of influences and experiences. The breadth of artistic and educational philosophies, combined with our facilities, creates a close community of active art students, and an environment that is challenging and supportive.

About the University of Hartford
The Hartford Art School resides within a larger educational institution, the University of Hartford. This provides a beneficial environment by creating a smaller community of artists within the larger context of a university, with students in other schools and majors surrounding you.

The paragraph below is how the University of Hartford describes themselves.

At the University of Hartford we provide a learning environment in which students may transform themselves intellectually, personally, and socially. We provide students with distinctive educational experiences that blend the feel of a small residential college with an array of academic programs and opportunities characteristic of a large university. Through relationships with faculty and staff dedicated to teaching, scholarship, research, the arts, and civic engagement, every student may prepare for a lifetime of learning and for personal and professional success.

Freshmen Year Photographs
Throughout the year, I photographed the ordinary and special moments of our first year college experience.
Selected memories can be seen here from our first year at the Hartford Art School.

High School Work and Experience
In 2008, I graduated from Chase Collegiate School and was awarded the Alberta C. Edell Head of School Award for outstanding qualities that have been demonstrated by distinguished accomplishments during his time at the school. There I participated in Model United Nations and created an online video channel for the school. For the Highlander Theatre Company at the school I was the theatrical lighting designer for their main stage productions for three years. I am responsible for the design of the Green at Chase project which placed over twenty signs around the building to inform the community about the environmentally friendly features of the building. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and thanks my friends, teachers, and parents for being part of it all.