Hold Close (Tsunami Essay)

In the midst of the initial batch of headlines coming out of Japan, I found myself viscerally compelled to respond in some way. Perhaps on the second or third night after the tsunami hit, I had jotted down some notes about an initial idea for this piece, before going to sleep. I couldn’t sleep, and…

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In Print!: Mind the Gaps

Another piece sees print this month, this time “Mind the Gaps” (which I first posted here) specifically created for my advisor Ruth Vinz’s (and co-author David Schaafsma’s) text Narrative Inquiry: Approach to Language and Literacy Research. My piece serves as the final chapter, initially a sort of “fable for the future” (as Ruth terms it)…

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In Print!: Maxine Says

While I’m in a bit of a slowdown on comics-making (mostly due to my organizing the upcoming conference on Creativity, Play, and the Imagination at Teachers College), there’s an upsurge of my work appearing in print of late. I thought I’d share a few links to the publications and to the work. First up my…

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of consequence

Continuing my attempt at a weekly comics piece for Robbie McClintock’s course… Not sure i’m going to make the weekly part. But still going to work through some ideas conceptually and visually as I go. – Nick

learning pathways (untitled)

This term, I’m sitting in on my advisor Robbie McClintock’s final  course – a look back at his formative educational experiences. I set myself a small goal of making a short piece inspired by something that occurred in the class or the reading. I include the quote from Robbie to start it off, and then…

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The Shape of Our Thoughts

Subtitled, “a meditation on and in comics,” “The Shape of Our Thoughts,” is an exploration of how comics work, what their potential for conveying and exploring meaning is, and a tiny bit on implications for art/and comics education. It’s intended as a journal article and culled from material from my dissertation proposal. As this visual-verbal…

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Dissertation Preface to Unflattening

My dissertation proposal was handed in this week and defense is around the corner. I prepared this preface for it – which gives a hint at where i’m heading with the dissertation itself, “a visual-verbal inquiry into curiosity” – that is a comics narrative as academic dissertation. In starting this with a nearly all verbal…

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Five Critical Senses with professor Tim Eatman

This piece was produced for and with Professor Timothy K. Eatman, of Syracuse University and the director of research for Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. In the midst of a conversation in which Tim was taking me through his presentation on the five critical sense of engagement, i was struck by his use…

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Mind the Gaps- Narrative Research as Drawing…

This piece was created for my advisor Ruth Vinz’s forthcoming book on Narrative Research, co-authored with Dave Schaafsma. Given that i just finished it and that it’s going in a book, there may be some changes before the final, final version. Essentially, it’s a piece about approaching research using a metaphor of seeing, or drawing,…

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My Evolution

As a final project for Visual Explanations – thinking about the concept of visual analogies in comics with colleague Andrea Kantrowitz. Created this quick overview of how my process has developed over the last few years and what issues i’m interested in exploring in the medium. – N Excerpts from my work include: “Security“; “Show…

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quilt of student stories

I was asked by Erick Gordon head of TC’s Student Press Initiative (SPI) to do a comic corresponding to the project they were doing in 5 schools with all English as a second language students. SPI works with schools and students to produce books of their own writing. This group of students came from all…

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Sketching

This piece is prepared for a project for Dr. Barbara Tversky’s Visual Explanations course in collaboration with Andrea Kantrowitz. Full citations to follow.