Brian joined the department in 1985. He currently serves as the Director of Graduate Programs in Studio Art and as the coordinator for both the undergraduate painting and drawing programs.

psycho-mythological narrativesthat explore the transitional, tentative moments that occur between times of purposeful activity. In an age that is often categorized as being in a perpetual state of crisis he seeks, by monumentalizing the ordinary, to encourage the viewer concentrate on the richness and importance of direct human experience.

Brian's most recent paintings, Stonehenge Series (28 small oil paintings) will be on exhibit this fall at the Apex Gallery of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City South Dakota. Last year they had been shown at the Vandiver Gallery, Anderson University, Anderson, South Carolina from February 22 through March 24, 2011. Brian is currently working on 13 larger paintings in the Stonehenge Series for a spring 2013 exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum.

in January of 2009 McGraw-Hill released a second edition of Brian's introductory perceptual drawing text, Drawing from Observation. It containes a new chapter on pictorial composition, 100 new student images, 93 new technical illustrations, and 25 new master work images.Brian wrote, illustrated, designed and produced the production ready manuscript for both editions of this book. It is generously illustrated with UM student drawings from our ART 101 course. This book was also translated into Short-Form Chinese in 2006 and published out of Singapore.

Over the past eleven years Brian has been presenting papers at national art conferences. Starting in 2001 he presented a paper titled "Preserving the Post-Medieval Mindset" for a CAA panel in New York on the importance of perceptual drawing in the 21st Century. In 2002 he presented a paper titled "Sacred Geometry in Ancient Art and Architecture" for a MACCA panel in Lincoln, NE on The Artist Geometer. In 2004 Brian presented a dissenting paper at the MACAA meeting in Minneapolis, MN for a panel on innovative uses of digital technology in Foundation Art Programs" titled "Is the Technological Cart Pulling the Pedagogical Horse." In 2005 Brian chaired a FATE panel at the CAA in Atlanta, GA titled "The Emperor's New Clothes: Are the Recent Developments in Foundations Art Curricula as Silly as They Seem?" In 2006 Brian was asked to reprise his paper on technology at the FATE Biennial in Columbus, OH. That same year he presented a paper titled " titled "Denuding the Curriculum" at the MACAA/SECAC conference in Nashville, TN for a panel on the role of figure drawing in the 21st Century. In 2007 Brian pressented a paper for a FATE panel at CAA in New York City titled "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness" that stressed the importance of traditional studio training in an age that privileges the the de-skilling, dematerializing approaches favored by postmodernism. In 2009 Brian presented paper at the CAA in Los Angeles titled "Why Art ain't N'art" and two at the FATE Biennial in Portland, OR , "Leonardo's Legacy" and "Art before N'art". In October of 2009 Brian presented a paper at the SECAC conference in Mobile, AL on the use of digital technology in traditional studio practice titled "Digital Disegno: Confessions of a Computer Addiction." In the fall of 2010 Brian presented a paper at SECAC in Richmond, VA titled "If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brains Will Fall Out: An Unapologetic Declaration of a 'Typical Elitist Attitude" on a panel discussing Linda Weintraub's suggestion that Thomas Kinkade is an appropriate model in the training of undergraduate painters. In February Brian particpated in a roundtable discussion at the 2011 CAA in NYC on the "CAA's Second Hundred Years of Studio Training." His five minute opening remarks were titlled "A Generation Without Studio Training." Brian also presented a paper at an open FATE panel at CAA titled "Duchamp's Legacy: The De-skilling and Dematerializing Promotion of Concept Driven Cultural Practice." In April of 2011 Brian presented a paper at the FATE Biennial in St. Louis titled "An Ecosystem of Interruption Technologies: The Internet as a Distracting, Numbing, Mind-altering Substance" for a panel discussing the evolution of studio curriculum in the 21st Century. In November of 2011 Brian chaired a panel at the 2011 SECAC Conference in Savannah, Georgia titled, "A House Divided: Examining the Conflict Between Sensory Aesthetics and Concept Driven Cultural Practice." This coming October Brian will be presenting a paper at the 2012 SECAC conference titled "Making is Thinking: The Importance of Direct Sensory Experience in an Increasingly Digital World" on a panel titled "Slow Media" as well as participating in a "Pecha Kucha" with a stand alone six minute Powerpoint presentation titled "Duchamp's Legacy." In April of 2013 Brian will be chairing a panel titled LEONARDO’S LEGACY: the Importance of Perceptual Drawing in a Postmodern World and also delivering a paper titled "Roses are fe0000, Violets are 0000ff, Sugar is C12H22O11, and Technological Jargon is a Buzzkill" at the Biennial FATE conference in Savannah, Georgia for a panel titled "Color Wheel or Color Won't."

In 2011Brian was a finalist for the FATE Master Educator Award. In the spring of 1999 Brian was awarded the Arts and Sciences Dean's Excellence in Teaching award. Brian was also nominated for the University Excellence in Teaching Award in 1999, 2000, and 2003.