Illustrator Louisa Bertman’s (BFA illustration ‘ 92) portraits were recently signed by Ringo Starr and Cyndi Lauper. Both Portraits are 40″ x 40″ pen/ink/watercolor on canvas and were sold at the Rock & Art 2008 Charity Auction sponsored by Live Nation.
Congratulations, Louisa!
With Friends Like These
Through December 3, 2008
Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, in the East Village
New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769) | grny.net
With Friends Like These, is a group show currently on view at Giant Robot NY featuring new works by Isaac Lin and AJ Fosik (Parsons Illustration Alum).
Drawing inspiration from his background creating street art and signage, AJ Fosik is a Philadelphia-based sculptor who creates animal abstractions, or as he calls them “existential fetishes.” Totemic apparitions of ursine beasts and delicately rendered paintings skirt American folk art and psychedelia. Viewers are confronted with cryptic symbols from overlapping sources, both traditional and contemporary, creating a dynamic tension where art and viewer come together in an expanded definition of culture and assumption.
Catch the show while you can–it surely won’t disappoint.
Good work, A.J!
Check out some highlights from this past weekend’s “Picturing Politics” symposium, hosted by Parsons Illustration and the Politics department of the New School for Social Research. You can see more images here. Our thanks to everyone who participated and attended!
The new McSweeney’s (#28) showcases work of two recent Illustration alum, Liz Lee (see above) and Phillip Fivel Nessen (see below), and Illustration Part-time faculty member Jordin Isip, who each illustrated a modern fable for the publication. Here’s a description of the edition:
McSweeney’s #28
This time around, Mcsweeney’s presents us with “eight individual books, fully illustrated, which resurrect and reinvent the art of the fable — simple, suprising, and morally direct. More or less.” Each of these books is a snappy little hardcover, the cover illustration of each of which join together (and are held together in this cleverly designed package) to form two large painted images by Danica Novgorodoff. The books are: Poor Little Egg-Boy Hatched in a Shul by Nathan Englander, illustrated by Jordin Isip; The Book and the Girl by Brian Evenson, illustrated by Philip Fivel Nessen; The Guy Who Kept Meeting Himself by Ryan Boudinot, illustrated by Genevieve Sims; LaKeisha and the Dirty Girl by Tayari Jones, illustrated by Morgan Elliot; The Thousands by Daniel Alarcón, illustrated by Jordan Awan; Two Free Men by Sheila Heti, illustrated by Liz Lee; Virgil Walker by Arthur Bradford, illustrated by Jon Adams; and The Box by Sarah Manguso, illustrated by Louie Cordero.
Grab your copy here!
Congratulations to Liz, Phillip, and Jordin!
Illustration Part-time faculty member Carol Peligian has a show up at the Museum of Biblical Art called Transfluence. Here’s the official description:
Transfluence brings together familiar visual forms – paintings, drawings, and sculpture – to concentrate on a subject beyond our experience. Two- and three-dimensional images pose questions essential to an inquiry that crosses cultures, on the nature of grace. They appear to reference forms we know, yet when juxtaposed, intertwined, or fully melded with their opposites, each is not neutralized but intensified, and a new order is indicated. Is what we see corporeal or spiritual; actual or evanescent; beautiful or terrible; a whisper, a touch, or an irrestistible, consuming force? The effects of time and transformation are both implied and directly evident in the images, as external and inherent color and light change as we observe, and as figure and ground vie for dominance. We are unsure if the implied time is measured in milliseconds or millennia, or if the transformations will lead to successful outcomes or dead ends. The surface of each art work reflects its viewers, and it is our recognition and questioning of the elements present that create meaning, as a conscientious observation of natural forms will do. But are these natural forms, or are nature and our experience only the beginning? What will the inquiry do to us in terms of time and transformation, and what can we discover of grace, within and without?
In addition to being nominated for an Ignatz Award, Skim, a graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and her cousin, Parsons Illustration Part-time Faculty member, Jillian Tamaki was named last week as one of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008. See Skim and the other books recognized in this slideshow. The book was also reviewed in the Times. Here’s a snippet:
The black and white pictures by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko’s cousin, create a nuanced, three-dimensional portrait of Skim, conveying a great deal of information often without the help of the text. The book’s most striking use of purely visual communication occurs in a lush and lovely double-page tableau of Skim and Ms. Archer exchanging a kiss in the woods that leaves the reader (and maybe even the participants) wondering who kissed whom. In another sequence, Skim and Ms. Archer sip tea without ever making eye contact, the pictures and minimal text communicating the uncomfortable emotional charge in the room and the two characters’ difficulty in knowing what to say to each other.
Tamaki’s palette often becomes noticeably darker or lighter to signal a change in mood. Various night scenes communicate Skim’s depression, her unhappy moon-face isolated in fields of inky black, streetlights casting long, lonely shadows. In contrast, Tamaki sets the outdoor memorial service for the dead boyfriend on a frozen winter field, the participants drawn in lightly, almost as if they’re ghosts, the snowy backdrop and blank white balloons (shown caught on bare winter trees) conveying absence and emptiness.
Read the rest of the review here and pick up your copy of Skim here.
Congratulations to Jillian and Mariko on their tremendous accomplishments!
Lecture: Art Directing and Illustrating
with Nicholas Blechman and Max Bode
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Society of Illustrators
Nicholas Blechman, Art Director for The New York Times Book Review and Max Bode, Art Director for The New Yorker, will discuss the pros and cons of illustrating and art directing, their different approaches, how the editorial field works in relation to illustration, how it’s changed over the decades, upcoming trends and illustration vs.photography.
Begins at 6:30pm.
$15 non-members, $10 members, $7 students.
RSVP via email or call 212-838-2560.
[illustration by Nicholas Blechman]
PICTURING POLITICS
A symposium presented by the Illustration Program, Parsons The New School for Design and The Politics Department, New School for Social Research.
November 15, 2008, 1:00-5:30 P.M.
The New School
Tishman Auditorium
Johnson/Kaplan Hall, 66 WEST 12TH STREET
Illustrative responses to world events, large scale and small, have an effect both visceral and intimate. PICTURING POLITICS explores the current state of political and social visual commentary. The Illustration Program of Parsons The New School for Design and the Politics Department of The New School for Social Research jointly present an afternoon of reflections on the intersection of art and politics.
Guests include Daniel Dayan, leading media and politics analyst and visiting professor in the Department of Politics at the New School for Social Research (Media Events), Steven Heller, author and former New York Times art director (Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State), Professor Joshua Brown, Executive Director, American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, CUNY (Beyond the Lines), Rutu Modan, Eisner award-winning graphic novelist from Israel (Exit Wounds), Peter Kuper, graphic novelist and co-editor of WW 3 magazine (Stop Forgetting to Remember), Steve Brodner, satiric visual commentator (Freedom Fries), Luba Lukova, political poster artist (Social Justice 2008: 12 Posters) and Anton Kannemeyer, South African artist and creator of visual narratives (Bittercomix).
The event will be held at the Tishman Auditorium of The New School, on November 15th, 1-5:30 pm and is free and open to the public. A book signing and refreshments will follow the symposium. Additionally, an exhibition of illustrated covers for Der Spiegel magazine is on view at Parsons Illustration, 2 West 13th street, 8th floor, through November 30th. There will be a reception in honor tonight, November 14th, at 6pm.
[illustration by Guy Billout, Part-time Faculty]
SECOND ANNUAL BROOKLYN MUSEUM CHILDREN’S BOOK FAIR
The Brooklyn Museum
The Rubin Pavillion, 1st Floor
November 15th, 2008
1:00–5:00pm
Illustration Part-time Faculty member Sergio Ruzzier will sign copies of his new picture book: AMANDINA.
Here’s a snippet from a review of Amandina:
Using watercolors that range from a deep peach to a liquid cobalt blue, Ruzzier’s palate here is a subdued but colorful collective. And from a visual perspective I was fond of the setting to this tale. Born in Milan, Ruzzier has set this book against an Italian backdrop. The theater she rents “in the old town” is called the “Teatro Ventura”. Later her show seems to incorporate Harlequin elements. And for the record, Amandina’s show really does look splendid. It would be one thing if we were told that Amandina was a special little dog with lots of talent, but to actually see the remarkable show in progress is a special treat. Without much explanation we see that the “fanciful prologue” (again, great turns of phrase here) involves a suitcase that explodes with a smoky column of flowers while Amandina floats above like a butterfly. And then there’s the magic show, the dances from around the world, the acrobatics… who wouldn’t want to see her perform all of this?
Read the rest here. And if you’re in the mood for more reading, here’s a tidbit from an interview with Sergio:
What exactly is your process when you are illustrating a book? You can start wherever you’d like when answering: getting initial ideas, starting to illustrate, or even what it’s like under deadline, etc. Do you outline a great deal of the book before you illustrate or just let your muse lead you on and see where you end up?
SR: When I am illustrating another author’s text, the process is pretty much always the same: while I read and re-read the manuscript, I draw little rough sketches on the edges. Then I make them a little nicer on a different paper, and I use these more refined sketches to build a dummy. When the dummy is approved by the publisher, I start working on the preparatory drawings, in pencil on plain paper. When I’m happy with the composition, including characters’ expressions, backgrounds, and all the details, I trace the drawing onto a watercolor paper, with the help of a light box. Then I ink the drawing, erase the pencil, and watercolor it.
It’s much more complex and variable when I’m working on my own story. I don’t really have a standard process, and I could start by sketching a character, or writing all or parts of the text, or putting on paper the whole sequence of roughs, spread by spread. Normally, I keep going back and forth between words and pictures. I also waste a lot of time, and often I am at my desk for hours without accomplishing anything. More often, anticipating that I wouldn’t accomplish anything, I go for a walk. Research is always a great excuse to navigate the internet aimlessly. But once I get to the dummy, or at least to a thumbnail storyboard decent enough to be shown to my editor, then I am ready to start with the final drawings…
Catch the rest of that informative interview over here at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
Pick up your copy of Amandina here!
Congrats to Sergio on the great success of his new publication.