Education
Ph.D. Art History and Criticism. Dissertation: “A Cultural Trade? Canadian Magazine Illustration At Home and in the United States, 1880-1960.” Stony Brook University (2014).
Supervisor: Michele Bogart; reader: Raiford Guins; external examiner: Brian Rusted. Minor in Early Modern print culture, supervised by Joseph Monteyne.
Graduate Certificate in Cultural Studies, Stony Brook University (2009).
M.A. Joint Programme in Communication and Culture. Thesis: “But is it Art? The Construction and Valuation of Illustration by Victoria’s Island Illustrator Society.” Ryerson and York Universities, Toronto (2006). Supervisor: Ed Slopek; advisor: Lorraine Janzen Kooistra; advisor: Anna Hudson.
Certificate in Multimedia for Macintosh, Vancouver Community College (2000).
B.F.A. Studio Practice. Thesis solo exhibition: “Free From the Art World,” Dynamo Gallery. Emily Carr University, Vancouver (1999). Instructors: Landon Mackenzie, René Van Halm, Ken Wallace.
Diploma of Visual Communications, Medicine Hat College (1990).
Other Publications
Books
A Cultural Trade: Continentalism and Canadian Illustration, 1880-1960. In progress; based on dissertation.
History of Illustration. Edited by Susan Doyle, Jaleen Grove, and Whitney Sherman (Fairchild Books/Bloomsbury, January 2018). 648 pp.
Oscar Cahén: Life and Work (Toronto: Art Canada Institute, September 2015). e-book; print edition 120 pp.
Walter Haskell Hinton, Illustrator of the Popular American West (Knoxville: Ewing Gallery, University of Tennessee, 2010). 88 pp.
Book Chapters
“Oscar Cahén: The Early Years” and “Oscar Cahén’s Vulgar Modernism,” In Oscar Cahén (Beaverbrook, 2017).
“Crossing the Line: Canadian Satire of the Pretty Girl North and South of the 49th Parallel.” In The History of Graphic Satire in Canada, From the Colonial Period to the Onset of the Cold War, edited by Dominic Hardy, Annie Gérin, Lora Senechal Carney (McGill-Queens University Press, forthcoming).
“Too Posterish? How Arthur Heming Got Lost in the Woods of Canadian Art.” In Arthur Heming, Chronicler of the North, edited by Cassandra Getty (London ON: Museum London, 2012): 40-47.
Articles
“The Illustrator as Public Intellectual,” introduction to the Journal of Illustration Vol. 4 Issue 1 (Spring 2017). Forthcoming.
“Bending Before the Storm: Continentalism in the Visual Culture of Canadian Magazines,” Journal of Borderlands Studies, in press.
“Oscar Cahén’s Vulgar Modernism,” The Devil’s Artisan: A Journal of the Printing Arts, Number 79 (Fall/Winter 2016): 3-38.
“Drawing Out Illustration History,” Revue d’art Canadienne/Canadian Art Review (RACAR), Vol. 40, Issue 2 (Fall, 2015): 115-129.
“Netting Jellyfish: A Point of View on Illustration Research From The United States and Canada.” Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, guest edited by the Illustration Research Group. Vol. 4, Issue 3 (June 2012): 287-307.
“A Castle of One’s Own: Interactivity in Chatelaine Magazine, 1928-1935.” Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 45, Issue 3 (Fall 2011): 166-187.
“Towards Illustration Theory: Harold Rosenberg, Robert Weaver, and the ‘Action Illustrator’?” Art Criticism, Vol. 24, Issue 1 (Spring, 2009): 69-84.
“Listening Eyes.” Visual Communication Quarterly, Vol. 15, Issue 1 (Jan 2008): cover; 121-128.
Projects
The History of Illustration Project
I am a founder of this grassroots collective (92 members) devoted to furthering Illustration History and illustrators’ education. In 2012 with Whitney Sherman (MICA) I conducted a survey about the need for a book on the history of illustration and its form and content. This led to my editing of The History of Illustration (Bloomsbury, 2017), 648 pp, with Sherman and Susan Doyle (RISD). It will be the first college textbook on the subject, comprising contributions from over 40 experts writing 29 chapters. Although weighted to American and European works, it surveys illustration from prehistory to present around the world and introduces key issues and theories relating to the visual culture and communication of illustration.
The Illustration Research Network, International Illustration Research Symposia, and Journal of Illustration
In 2011 I began collaborating with the Illustration Research Network, a group of illustrators teaching in the UK who are combining Illustration Studies and theory into their practices and classes. I became the North American liaison and an Associate Editor when we launched the Journal of Illustration in 2012. In 2015 I recruited the Rhode Island School of Design to host the 6th Annual International Illustration Research Symposium, and assisted with the management of the conference. In 2016-2017 I am editing Vol. 4 of the Journal.
Canadian Graphic Arts Research Centre and Archive Project
In a 2015 article titled “Drawing Out Illustration History” (Revue d’art Canadienne/Canadian Art Review) I proposed that a research centre for the preservation and study of Canadian design, illustration and comics be established. I have since been speaking to artists and designers, other historians, and collectors to ascertain the locations of archives not yet in institutions, and generally raising awareness about the need. I have also been feeling out funding models and donors. I am pursuing this initiative in conjunction with my adjunct appointment at York University.
