Category Archives: Education

A Gallery Talk with Tomer Hanuka, Yuko Shimizu and Sam Weber

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BLOW UP: Hanuka, Shimizu, Weber

Three illustrators from vastly different backgrounds; Canada, Japan and Israel; meeting at the crossroads of a distinct American esthetic to examine their new found artistic voices through personal mythologies, broken narratives and remixed identities. An open window into the visual melting pot of contemporary image making.

Sam Weber’s monumental and moody figures draw on the western idea of the portrait, re-imagined for the modern age, where anxiety and wonder mix into a seamless dramatic whole imbued with a sense of unsolved mystery.

Yuko Shimizu’s playful imagery ties the surface of Japanese wood cut prints with contemporary issues, creating sophisticated and symbolic psychological scenes of internal worlds, broken by geometric contraption that seem to pull away and reconnect the disparate elements.

Tomer Hanuka’s visuals were developed as research for an upcoming graphic novel titled The Divine to be published by First Second (written by Boaz Lavie and pencilled by Asaf Hanuka). the images explore ideas of eternal childhood, drawing from sources like 8bit video games, Rambo and hard news.

Gallery Talk on September 25th at 4 p.m.
Spend an afternoon with these artists as they discuss their work and techniques in an informal setting.
Tickets $10/ $7 students
RSVP Katie Blocher
kb@societyillustrators.org
212 838 2560

Please note, if you are participating in Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day you may use your pass to attend this event for free.  Passes MUST be presented to enjoy this offer.

The BLOW UP exhibition is on view through October 16th.

The Society of Illustrators is located at:

128 East 63rd Street
(between Park and Lexington Avenues)
New York, NY 10065

Parsons Fall Internship on September 8th

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Parsons Fall Internship Fair

Wednesday, September, 8, 2010

10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

55 W. 13th Street, Lang Student Center, 2nd floor

Companies participating include:

A|X Armani Exchange
BCBG Max Azria Group
Calvin Klein, Inc.
CBX
Clinique
Club Monaco
Donna Karan
Elie Tahari
Eyeball
Fisher- Price Brands
Fresh
Gucci Group
HOK
HBO
Interbrand
Jonathan Adler
John Varvatos
Kenneth Cole
Laird + Partners
Large Animal Games
Limited Brands
L’Oreal Paris
Marvel
Michael Kors
MTV Networks
MySpace
Ogilvy & Mather
Penguin Group
Polo Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren Fragrances
Ralph Appelbaum Associates
RG/A
ROSETTA
Smart Design
Victorinox Swiss Army, Inc.
Visionaire / V Magazine /V Man

To participate in the fair, students must be currently enrolled in a Parsons degree program. Students should bring several resumes and a few samples of their work or a portfolio (if applicable) to the event.

Students planning to register for an internship for academic credit should visit the following website for detailed instructions:www.parsons.edu/internships. Students seeking resume assistance should bring their resume to Career Services at least one week prior to the internship fair. Their office contact information is as follows:

Parsons Career Services
2 West 13th Street, room 511
Tel: 212-229-8940
parsonscareers@newschool.edu
Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/about-career-services/

Lisa Lugrin and Clement Xavier at Parsons on September 8

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A SLIDESHOW LECTURE BY LISA LUGRIN & CLÉMENT XAVIER ON “L’EPISODE”
Time:  September 8–7:30pm – 10:00pm
Location:  The Bark Room, 2 W. 13th, Lobby, New York, NY

LISA LUGRIN & CLÉMENT XAVIER along with a group of other recent graduates of the l’École européenne supérieure de l’image in Angoulême, France have formed a comic-strip association called “NA.” For the past two years, they have published “L’Episode,” an international comics-review printed on the rotary press of a local newspaper. The review features the work of young authors from around the world and is aimed at readers outside of the comics world. It is distributed in bookshops, cinemas, theaters and other alternative spaces.

The association conducts workshops for children through various social service organizations and published books of their work. Lisa and Clément have also produced a 42-page comic for a local French newspaper, and a screenplay and illustrations for a short cartoon produced by French TV Canal +.

Free and Open to the Public!

Alumni Update Week: Veronica Lawlor at Urban Sketchers Conference this past May

Education, Follow Up, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Faculty, Inspiration, Interviews, , , , ,

Parsons Illustration Alum and current Adjunct Faculty member Veronica Lawlor took part in the Urban Sketchers’ Conference this past May.  The conference took place in Portland, OR and was comprised of lectures, sessions, and practical sessions that put drawing into action.  Ronnie was an instructor/presenter at the symposium and is on the board of directors for Urban Sketchers.  She was interviewed about her background and inspirations on the symposium blog.  Here’s a snippet:

When I search for “reportage drawings”, your name appears everywhere on the results. What is reportage drawing and why do you think reportage drawing as an art genre is important?

The word reportage comes from the French, meaning ‘the act or process of reporting’. Reportage drawing can be journalistic or descriptive of place and can carry the artist’s opinion. Since it is painted or drawn and not photographed, reportage illustration can take liberties with ‘reality’ in order to be clearer in meaning. It is important to the art genre because it is a direct artistic response to a place or situation, right there on the spot, and it becomes very instinctive. In that it is different from the majority of artistic experience that involves the artist alone in a studio working.

Since there is a direct connection between the artist’s hand, eye and mind, it can be very emotional as well. Reportage is so rewarding for me because I love it as a way to interact with the world and contribute.

You are the author for several books and your works are exhibited in galleries and museums. Can you tell us more and what these achievements mean to you in your role as artist, illustrator and educator?

The gratifying thing about having my work published and in gallery or museum settings is that I am able to reach the public with it. To me, art is always about communication with people. When my drawings of September 11th were exhibited at the Fire Museum in New York City, I had firemen coming up to me with tears in their eyes telling me how emotionally affected they were by seeing them. That kind of emotional connection is such a big part of the reason why I started drawing in the first place. I can be a bit shy at times, but I’m really an extrovert at heart, and drawing allows me to reach out to people who I might otherwise never come in contact with.

You can read the rest of the interview here.  You can also see more of Ronnie’s work at her website.

Summer Reading: Invisible Man on display!

Class Projects, Current Students, Education, Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Inspiration, News, , , , ,

Since last year, Parsons faculty member and instructor for Illustration Concepts I, Les Kanturek, has been in charge of helping organization exhibitions in the Illustration lobby display cases.  Over the summer, he’s created a rich treasure trove of visuals related to the Illustration summer reading book: Invisible Man by H.G. Wells.  Above, you can see a somewhat cryptic detail from the display–you’ll have to make a visit to the 8th floor lobby yourself to see the whole picture. Over at his class blog, Les writes the following:

The Illustration Department’s Summer Reading Project for 2010 is H. G. Wells’ classic “The Invisible Man”.  First published in 1897, Wells’ science fiction novel gives us the timeless iconic mad experimenter who suffers from his scientific over-reaching, he plays with forces of nature he cannot control and pays with his life.  Griffin’s invisibility can be seen as both a superpower and a curse.  He is a victim and the aggressor.  Taking place in the small English country town of Iping, location is crucial to the story. The mysterious stranger that appears terrorizes the locals in a very noir-ish fashion.  The idea of paranoia contained in a small town is a theme artist and author Jeff Lemire handles brilliantly in “The Nobody”, a graphic novel based on Wells’Invisible Man.

Read the rest of his entry here.  And make sure to come peruse Les’s thoughtful and delightful display when you’re in the neighborhood.  While you’re at it, take time to look at the other displays as well, which include student work, alumni sketchbooks and drawings, and a whole case devoted to artists’ books in conjunction with Illustration Chair Steven Guarnaccia’s “PictoZine” class.  There’s a lot of inspiration on view.  Don’t miss it!

Pop-ups pop-up in Parsons Illustration!

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Check out this fantastic video comprised of collection of photos and video footage of students’ pop-up projects from the Spring 2010 Sophomore Concepts classes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfb1M_03kiU]

Thanks to Sophomore Concepts instructor Peter Hamlin for constructing the video!  And congrats to all the students on their inspired work.

ICON6 Draws Ever Nearer!

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ICON The Illustration Conference, the 6th biennial, one-of-a-kind, global conference unites more than 600 highly-skilled, highly-educated, independent, entrepreneurial illustrators, educators, students and creative professionals from all media.

ICON6 delivers a compelling and provocative program with over 50 speakers who bring their unique take on the industry and professional practice. Representing the brightest minds from many creative fields including publishing, advertising, galleries, film, animation, fashion, design and retail, each guest speaker offers their experience, knowledge and insight through main stage speeches, roundtable discussions, hands-on workshops, exhibitions and networking events over a 4-day period in July 2010.

MISSION
The National Illustration Conference, (ICON), is committed to providing a forum for an ongoing dialogue that serves the illustration, design, editorial, advertising, and academic communities. Its purpose is to provide a platform for the most influential illustrators and industry leaders to address, in a timely manner, the most pervasive issues facing the profession. The Illustration Conference (ICON) is a 501 C-6 nonprofit organization of illustrators and is an entity in itself.

The schedule is jam-packed with workshops, events, and educational opportunities.  You can see a day-by-day breakdown here and learn more about all the superstar speakers here.

Students can still register at the special, discounted student rate and for the rest of you, last-minute general registration is available.  So go!  Register! Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to learn, network, and experience the excitement of ICON6: The Illustration Conference.

[official ICON2010 poster art above by: heads of state]

R. Sikoryak at MoCCA: How Classics and Cartoons Collide

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R. Sikoryak
How Classics and Cartoons Collide
June 15 – August 29, 2010

Original drawings from the book “Masterpiece Comics,” which adapts literary classics in the styles of famous cartoons.

Curated by Bill Kartalopoulos

Sikoryak and Kartalopoulos in Conversation
Thursday, July 15, 7pm

Comics chameleon R. Sikoryak inventively adapts canonical Western literature using the visual styles and characters of historical American comic books and comic strips. Among his many works produced over the past twenty years, Sikoryak has adapted Kafka’s The Metamorphosis in the style of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in the style of Tales From the Crypt, and the Book of Genesis in the style of Chic Young’s Blondie. “More than a gag or a parody,” said exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos, “these thoughtful and intricately constructed dual adaptations suggest resonances that reflect upon each story’s pair of sources.”

R. Sikoryak: How Classics and Cartoons Collide: examines the artist’s intensive process by showcasing a selection of notes, sketches, and reference material from one of his longest and most ambitious narratives, 2000’s “Dostoyevsky Comics,” which adapts Crime and Punishment in the style of a mid-century Batman comic book. The exhibit also includes all ten original art boards for the final story, recently collected alongside Sikoryak’s other adaptations in his book Masterpiece Comics, published in 2009 by Drawn and Quarterly.

There will be a conversation between Sikoryak and Kartalopoulos on July 15 at 7PM. Admission for this event is $5, free for members of MoCCA.

About R. Sikoryak
R. Sikoryak is the author of Masterpiece Comics (Drawn & Quarterly).  His cartoons and illustrations have appeared in The Onion, The New Yorker, Nickelodeon Magazine, Mad, Fortune, and many other publications; he’s drawn for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Ugly Americans. Sikoryak teaches in the illustration department at Parsons The New School for Design and is an alum of the program. Since 1997, he has presented his cartoon slide show series, Carousel, around the United States and Canada.

About Bill Kartalopoulos
Bill Kartalopoulos teaches classes about comics and illustration at Parsons The New School for Design. He is a frequent public speaker and is the programming coordinator for SPX: The Small Press Expo and the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. He writes about comics for Print Magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and reviews comics forPublishers Weekly. He is a member of the Executive Committee for the International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), an annual academic conference devoted to comics. In 2008 he curated Kim Deitch: A Retrospective at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York, NY. He lives in Brooklyn.

About Masterpiece Comics
Masterpiece Comics adapts a variety of classic literary works with the most iconic visual idioms of twentieth-century comics. Dense with exclamation marks and lurid colors, R. Sikoryak’s parodies remind us of the sensational excesses of the canon, or, if you prefer, of the economical expressiveness of classic comics from Batman to Garfield. In “Blond Eve,” Dagwood and Blondie are ejected from the Garden of Eden into their archetypal suburban home; Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray is reimagined as a foppish Little Nemo; and Camus’s Stranger becomes a brooding, chain-smoking Golden Age Superman. Other source material includes Dante, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, bubblegum wrappers, superhero comics, kid cartoons, and more.