Robert K. Foster

I've always been drawn to visual communication — drawing, painting, photography, publication design. Comic books were the first spark, as a teenager, wanting to draw in pen and ink and maybe make something of it. A good high school art teacher helped that along.

My formal path took an unexpected turn. After a failed start in a Studio Art program I discovered I had a genuine aptitude for programming, and finished a B.S. in Computer Science and Anthropology at Michigan State University. The pairing struck most people as odd — it made more sense to me than either discipline alone. From that point on I've gravitated toward college and university environments — as a student, an employee, or both — and that's never really changed.

Fifteen years in hospital systems technology followed. The work was demanding in ways that accumulated quietly, and I eventually hit genuine burnout — the kind that doesn't resolve with a vacation. I left, and the Great Recession made rebuilding harder than it might have been. I lost my house, my wonderful green hybrid car, most of what I owned, and moved in with family. A period of itinerant living and several years of finding my footing followed, including losing both my parents during that period. It was the kind of reset that changes how you think about work, about what matters, and about how you want to spend your time.

Coming out the other side I returned to what I'd always cared about. Freelance web development led to remote work with clients as far as Australia and a long subcontracting relationship with a design firm in western Canada. I went back to school — back to a college environment, where I've always felt most at home — and completed an A.A. with certificates in Graphic Design and GIS. I was Design Editor on the college newspaper and worked two terms on the arts magazine, where publication design stopped being a hobby and became something I could actually do.

Currently I work as Digital Resources Curator for the Art and Art History department at St. Lawrence University — managing the department's web presence, photography and video for social media, and scanning documents and publications for use by professors in their teaching. Being around serious art every day, and the people who make and study it, keeps the work interesting.

This site is for the rest of it — the projects, the creative work, and whatever comes next.