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Collage as Thought, Form, and Technology
Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Circular Church
This panel convenes artist-educators across graphic design, illustration, painting, and sculpture to explore a shared premise: all visual art operates as a form of collage. Across disciplines, artists construct meaning by assembling visual elements drawn from observation, memory, imagination, and reference. Framing image-making through collage offers a powerful multimodal lens for understanding how ideas move across materials, media, and contexts.


Extending this framework into contemporary practice, the panel examines generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) imagery as a complex and evolving form of collage. While generative systems synthesize images from vast datasets, technologically mediated processes often obscure source material, raising critical questions around transparency, authorship, and ethics. Unlike traditional practices, where influences may be visible or intentionally integrated, generative AI complicates how images are constructed and understood.


As artist-educators, panelists will also address the pedagogical implications of this shift. How do we prepare students for professional creative practice in a landscape increasingly shaped by AI/GenAI tools? How can educators foster critical, responsible engagement with these technologies while preserving student agency and authorship? By connecting multimodal art practices, visual literacy, and emerging technologies, this panel invites participants to reconsider what it means to make, interpret, and teach images today.
Speakers
avatar for Alaina Plowdrey Forehand

Alaina Plowdrey Forehand

Director of Learning and Operations & Art/Philosophy Adjunct, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts & Saint Leo University
Alaina Plowdrey Forehand (b. 1986) is an American figurative painter, scholar, and educator from Michigan. Her work explores portraiture as a site of encounter, examining how identity, memory, and embodiment emerge through the relationship between subject and beholder. Through layered... Read More →
avatar for Nathaniel Underwood

Nathaniel Underwood

Assistant Professor of Illustration, University of North Carolina - Charlotte
Nathaniel Underwood is an Assistant Professor of Illustration at UNC Charlotte. He received his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and MFA in Painting from UNC Greensboro. Before teaching at UNC Charlotte, he taught life drawing at the Savannah College of Art and Design... Read More →
avatar for Jimmy Rhea

Jimmy Rhea

Assistant Professor of Art - 3D Design and Sculpture, Pensacola State College
Jimmy Rhea received his Master of Fine Arts in 2007 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He worked as a founder for three years at the Inferno Art Foundry in Atlanta, and as a carpenter, after completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of West Georgia. 
... Read More →
avatar for Samira Shiridevich

Samira Shiridevich

Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, University of North Carolina - Charlotte
Samira Shiridevich is an Iranian designer and entrepreneur who explores the complexities of freedom, equity, and agency through design. She holds an MFA in Design and Visual Communications from the University of Florida and an MA in Visual Communications from the University of Art... Read More →
avatar for Caitlin Rhea

Caitlin Rhea

Curator of Education and Public Programs & Sculpture Adjunct, Pensacola Museum of Art & University of West Florida
Caitlin Rhea is the Curator of Education and Public Programs at the Pensacola Museum of Art in Florida, where she offers engaging educational opportunities for visitors of all ages and is passionate about encouraging creative growth in the visual arts. She also works as an adjunct... Read More →
Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Circular Church
  Panel

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