Featured Projects
Brown University Signage
McCormack Electric Vehicle Chargers
Rhode Island Medical Imaging
Production Department / Art Studio
Plans & Detailing
Other Engineering Documents
Art Studio
About Jesse
Welcome to my webpage. My name is Jesse Paster and I am a professional drafter. Thank you for the opportunity to present you with a more detailed picture of myself.
My education starts with a Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture. I went to Hampshire College and during this time, construction was in the planning stages for the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art on campus. My major was playground design, and my senior thesis project was an elaborate playground design based upon Eric Carle's beloved book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. During that time, I was a Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) through the National Recreation and Parks Association and I performed playground safety inspections professionally.
After finishing undergraduate studies I obtained an Associate's Degree in computer aided drafting and design. This refined my presentation skills in a practical way. I was fortunate to secure an internship under the prestigious landscape architect Eleanor McKinney in Austin, Texas. Some of her major projects were the xeriscape at Austin City Hall, and the area surrounding the Norman Hackerman Building on the University of Texas campus.
I then accepted a full-time position at Datum Engineers as a drafting technician. In this role I was able to look at the Norman Hackerman Building with new eyes and a different perspective, moving from designing the negative space around the building to framing the interior space. The September 2011 edition of Structure Magazine highlighted this building and my managers at both companies. The article was written by the company's president, Michael Brack, who credited me by name for my contributions to this project. While employed at Datum Engineers, I was lucky to receive tutelage by a very experienced and talented drafter (whom I refer to as my "drafting sensei") named Ryan Johnson. We had an excellent working relationship which afforded me with access to his knowledge spanning decades of production.
My son was born in 2012 and I chose to leave the workforce and concentrate on parenting. During that time I created a lot of different artwork. Part of that time was during the Black Lives Matter movement, so for my subject matter I chose to draw portraits of historical figures that weren’t featured in my history books. At first I used the graphite and trace paper (also known as “onion skin” to the board drafters) that were familiar to me, but eventually moved on to using ProCreate with a 6B Pencil for a digital paintbrush. This led to a series of illustrations created using ProCreate without any real agenda. In 2018 I was ready to return to the workforce but was diagnosed with cancer and spent 2019 having surgery and undergoing treatments. This inspired me to create the Blue and Yellow Series, a half dozen large paintings, in 2020. I returned to the workforce in a part-time capacity in 2021 as an assistant candle maker at Bedrock Christmas Tree Farm.
After a couple of years my son graduated to middle school and I returned to a full time schedule when I accepted a position at Creative Environment, a division of the RISE Group Inc. My current position of electrical drafter makes use of my skills in AutoCAD and Revit but has also challenged me to learn more complex aspects of engineering such as circuiting control panels and lighting design.
I am always excited to hear about new projects. Please get in touch! Let’s make something!