Illustration Alum and Adjunct Faculty Ronnie Lawlor, in conjunction with Margaret Hurst and Eddie Pena (both are also Parsons alums and faculty members), is mounting a show at Tres Gallery. Recent works by all three artists will be on view. Make sure to drop by!
[top image: lindsey balbierz; bottom image: sae-am lee]
24 street artists will converge in Beacon, NY from May 17th to May 18th to create live artwork and have their work installed on the exterior of a 19th century factory building. Electric Windows draws its name from the former electric blanket factory at the foot of Mount Beacon that will act as the backdrop for the event. E.W. turns the idea of a gallery inside out using the large industrial windows as frames for each artists work. Usually street art is not so easily contained in a rectangle but this installation ingeniously bridges the gap between indoor and outdoor art both inverting and subverting the concept of the art gallery. Each of the 24 pieces will be approximately 8 ft x 12 ft. The installation will be on display for 12 months.
Electric Windows coincides with the fifth anniversary of DIA:Beacon and Sitelines, a Hudson Valley arts fair. The project will be documented from the beginning of the weekend through completion of the installation for possible future publication.
There will be a companion show of Electric Windows artists at the Open Space gallery (owned by Adjunct Illustration Faculty Dan Weise!). Featured artists include Ron English (NYC), Above (San Francisco), Ripo (Barcelona), Lady Pink (NYC), Michael De Feo (NYC), Jim Darling/Tina Andersen (Los Angeles), Rick Price (Beacon), Peripheral Media Projects (Brooklyn) and Dan Funderburgh (Brooklyn) and many more…
Organizers will also be flying in DJs for the latest version of Next Step, a live art and dance party that has been gaining ground as the place for locals and expats from Brooklyn and Manhattan alike.
If you are interested in volunteering to help out with various odd jobs, please contact Dan Weise as soon as possible! Beacon is easily accessible by train from New York City, so don’t let the commute frighten you off. This is a great opportunity to be involved in a dynamic project.
This weekend should be an unprecedented convergence of the arts from live street art to high end museum pieces that will have heads turning to Beacon.
Electric Windows Beacon
1 East Main Street
Beacon, New York
May 17th-18th
“Dreamers Night”
From The Team Of:
Christine Young, Myeong Jae Lee And Martin Isenberg
Animation students from Parsons The New School for Design and composers from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music will take the stage on Sunday, May 4, to present “visual music works,” which bring music and animation together in new and compelling ways. The event marks the culmination of the university’s first studio course in jazz and animation, in which students from the two schools worked together at a high level of collaboration to create original work.
The class, called Jazz and Animation, is taught by Parsons faculty member Ben Katchor, an award-winning and widely published illustrator, and Parsons and Jazz faculty member Ernesto Klar, a media and sound artist whose work was recently featured at the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in New York. Among the works to be presented are an animated ecosystem that changes and grows in response to a musical score; a piece that brings to life children’s dreams, with the music and animation depicting the movement from consciousness to unconsciousness; and a performance in which the musicians are transformed into on-screen avatars who act out virtual stories through the music played onstage.
“From Wassily Kandinsky to Oskar Fischinger, artists have long been exploring the relationship between image and sound,” said Klar. “Today’s technology brings the work of visual artists and musicians to a whole new level, and over the past several months our students have experimented with a variety of analog and digital technologies to create innovative audiovisual works.”
The course harks back to founding decades of The New School, when it was a major center for modernist visual and performing arts. Artists such as Martha Graham and John Cage resided at the school and worked in egalitarian, collaborative ways, challenging traditional divisions between the arts. Jazz and Animation reflects the direction of the university today as it strives to weave together arts disciplines.
The performance will take place at 4:00 p.m. in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor. It is free and open to the public.
Illustration Adjunct Dan Weise runs Open Space gallery in Beacon, NY (just a short trip north of the city) and he has an exciting new show up that features another Parsons faculty–Jordin Isip. Here’s the official description:
The average family brings home 1,000 plastic bags every year. It is time for us to switch from a disposable society to one which reduces, reuses and recycles. This show will help spread the message that we care about our planet and do not want to just consume until there is nothing left. We are certain that we will all make a difference. The proceeds from the sales of the show will go to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a New York based organization committed to enviromental advocacy and education.
Tons of fantastic artists are involved in this show and it benefits a good cause so hop on the Metro North line and go visit!
TOTE / BAG
April 12th – May 3rd
Open Space Beacon
510 Main Street
Beacon NY 12508
NICK MAG PRESENTS 3-D COMIC CAROUSEL
Sunday, April 20
3 PM – 4 PM
At the New York Comic Con
Jacob K. Javits Center (655 West 34th Street)
Location: Kids Room 1E09
A series of cartoon slide shows of comics from Nickelodeon Magazine,
presented by an array of artists and other characters.
Plenty of gags, goofiness, audience participation and 3-D action!
Definitely for kids and alternative-comics-loving adults.
Free 3-D glasses and magazines!
Speaker(s):
Chris Duffy – Magazine Editor – Nickelodeon
Dave Roman – Magazine Editor – Nickelodeon
R. Sikoryak (Drawn and Quarterly, Parsons Illustration Alum & Adjunct Faculty)
Sam Henderson (Magic Whistle)
Kim Deitch (Alias the Cat)
Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed To Thrizzle)
Assisted by Karen Sneider (Pony Up!)
Adapted for 3-D projection by Gerald Marks
For more info and tickets:
www.nycomiccon.com
Children 12 and under are admitted for free on Kids Day!
Also make sure to check out the Facebook event page for full details (add Parsons Illustration as a friend while you’re there!), as well as R. Sikoryak’s website for more of his great artwork.
[image by R. Sikoryak]
Baby Tattoo Books is proud to present an exclusive book signing
with award winning artist Viktor Koen at NYC Comicon 2008.
Saturday, April 19, 1-2pm, booth# 1851, Jacob Javits Center.
“When they caused the great cataclysm, the Forces of Dread metamorphosed. From each other’s heads they sprang forth in all their glorious deformity, terrorizing all.” So relates Plug, the narrator of this tale, which is neither graphic novel nor science fiction, but a disturbing, strangely familiar, and unusually evocative portrayal of a future “Landscape” that looks eerily like a dystopian conclusion to the evolving twenty-first century.
At the tender age of 4, Plug is already an international celebrity. Since making his debut at the Vavel Comic Book Festival in Athens, this Koen brainchild has been the subject of profiles in Communication Arts and the Los Angeles Times, and has received numerous accolades, including the coveted Photosynkyria Award in Greece, induction into the Digital Hall of Fame and a series of skateboards and snowboards for Fun4U in Europe. His book, authored by Melanie Wallace – Plug in the Guest for Mug – is presented for the first time in the US as part of the Baby Tattoo Books arsenal in NYC Comicon 2008.
Viktor Koen holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, Israel and an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts. Mr. Koen serves on the faculty of Parsons School of Design and the MFA program at SVA. His images are regularly published in The NYTimes, Time, Newsweek and Esquire. His client list includes Penguin, Random House, Doubleday, Harper Collins, Rizzoli, Houghton Miflin, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Wired, Sports Illustrated, Man’s Journal, Bloomberg, Fortune, Money, Forbes, Nation, Mother Jones, BusinessWeek. His award winning prints are exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Make sure to stop by and see Viktor if you’re at Comicon this weekend!
We just received this email from Adjunct Faculty Jesse Willmon…
Have you ever thought:
“Golly, I sure do love buying stuff, especially those keen cards that my buddy Jesse makes. But he only sells them online and purchasing things over the internet is frightening. If only there was a way to buy those cards in person.”
Well you are in luck because for the next two Sundays (April 13th and April 20th), I’m going to be at the Brooklyn Flea Market in beautiful Ft. Greene, Brooklyn selling my “100% Cute, 100% Evil” cards in person. I’ll be part of the SuperMarket booth with a bunch of other artists feverishly selling our wares in a non-online situation.
The Brooklyn Flea Market is open from 10am to 5pm so you have lots of time consider buying cards in bulk.
Make sure to check out more of Jesse’s work at his website. And if you can’t make it to the flea market, don’t despair–Jesse’s wares are available online.
Illustration’s own Adjunct Faculty Nathan Bond has been interviewed by the fine folks over at Sprayblog. Here’s a little taste:
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
NB: My process changes all the time. I actually try not to get into any one habit. I believe it is important to always investigate new processes, to discover new techniques. Not repeating your work process is a great way to encourage and maintain that dialogue with the creative process.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
NB: Van Gogh said it best, “You do not know how paralyzing it is, that staring of a blank canvas which says to the painter: you don’t know anything.” The feeling that “you don’t know anything” isn’t an uncommon state of being for an artist. It’s the sentiment I hear most often from my peers, students and, I must admit, myself. When this happens I try to find back doors into my work. I find the ritualistic process of stretching and priming a canvas is all I need sometimes to get the juices flowing again. It really helps to get the brain out of the way. It is only our mind that creates blocks and that’s why meditation is another great way to bypass blocks. Anything to get rid of the self is key. Creativity comes to the relaxed mind.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
NB: Looking and thinking about all these weird naked apes walking around the city. We are so fascinating. This is where my inspiration always comes from. Psychology and art have always been intertwined for me.
Make sure to read the rest of the interview here and see more images of Nathan’s work at his website!
