Category Archives: Illustration Faculty

Illustration Faculty Bob Sikoryak hosts Carousel

Events, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Faculty, Performances, , , ,

carousel 12-13

CAROUSEL

Cartoon slide shows & other projected pictures presented by a glittering array of artists, performers, graphic novelists, & other characters. Since 1997, Carousel has been presented around NYC at Dixon Place, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Makor, MoCCA Art Fest, and NY Comic Con, as well as at the San Diego Comic-Con, Small Press Expo, and the Blue Met Festival (Montreal).

Hosted by Illustration Alum and Faculty member R. Sikoryak

Featuring:
Robbie Busch
Megan Montague Cash
Danny Hellman
Michael Kupperman
Jim Torok
Lauren R. Weinstein

Thursday, December 13
8 pm (doors open at 7:30 pm)

Dixon Place
258 Bowery, 2nd Fl, between Houston & Prince
NY, NY

Tickets: $12 or TDF; $10 student/senior

You can by advance tickets & find more info at www.dixonplace.org or by calling (212) 219-0736.

From the Vault: Spraygraphic interviews Illustration FT Faculty Nora Krug

From the Vault, General Info, Illustration Faculty, Interviews, , ,

 

krug-bush
Bush by Nora Krug

Back in October, Spraygraphic Apparel interviewed Illustration FT Faculty Nora Krug for their blog. Spraygraphic strives to highlight artists and designers that create culturally conscious, socially active and politically provocative work. Here’s an excerpt from Nora’s interview:

Describe your working process when creating a new work.

NK: I easily get bored once I notice I’m using similar concepts, compositions and media and I try to always explore new themes and ways of working. When working on a personal piece the process can be really torturing. I can get very deeply involved and forget where I am. Every time it feels like I’m starting at the very beginning, like a puzzle with thousands of parts, and no reference image on the cover. I take a long time for sketches and I often have no idea what the final piece will look like. Every line I draw can be a struggle. But when I’m done and happy with the way it looks I feel extremely fulfilled. It’s a completely different story with my commercial work. I work much faster there and have a good sense of what the final piece will look like.

What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?

NK: I get very annoyed and angry and can’t stop thinking about possible solutions. It takes me an hour or so of socializing and thinking of something else until I emerge on the surface again. Usually the only way out is continuing to draw and redraw until it works. Sometimes it also helps me to distract myself while I’m working, because then the whole focus isn’t only on my fear of not being able to create what I want. I love listening to BBC Radio 4 and 7 online.

Where are you currently finding your inspiration?

NK: In everything. People, films, music, books, other people’s art. I’m also very inspired by peoples’ lives that have nothing to do with the arts.

Make sure you read the rest of the interview here for more insights about Nora’s work and interests.

Also, you can access the archive of other fantastic artist interviews by Spraygraphic here.

Congratulations, Nora!

Illustration & Design Within Reach Collaborate!

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, , , , , ,

bellini chair specs

Students in Kenna Kay’s Beyond Editorial class have teamed up with Design Within Reach to produce their own renditions of a design icon–the Bellini Chair. Here’s the official announcement about Design Within Reach’s celebratory reception, which takes place next week:

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Parson’s design students deserve a sitting ovation!

Once again, Parsons’ students have raised the bar with their well-tapped imaginations and fearless style. Incorporating materials of their choosing, students from Parsons’ Illustration department will exhibit their own inspired interpretations of the simple yet virtuous Bellini Chair by Heller. Using the Bellini as a blank canvas, students started with an idea on paper and finished the project fabricating a full-scale prototype. The students will join us for a reception at the West 14th Studio to share with you the fruits of their labor.

The “re-imagined” chairs will be critiqued by an esteemed panel of judges, including Alan Heller of Heller and floor covering designer Sandy Chilewich. Chairs will be exhibited in Studio through the month of January. Refreshments will be served.

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Congratulations to all the students involved and thanks to Design Within Reach (and especially Bradford Shellhammer) for approaching the Illustration Department with the offer to participate in this fantastic project!

Re-Imagining the chair
Wednesday, December 12, 7-9pm
DWR West 14th Studio
408 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.242.9449
Directions

Illustration Faculty and Alumni in two shows on opposite sides of the country

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green show logo

Green Group Exhibition
curated by Mark Murphy
November 17 – December 22, 2007

Out in sunny Santa Monica, California, Illustration adjunct faculty Jordin Isip and Illustration alums AJ Fosik & William Buzzell are part of the Mark Murphy-curated show Green, which opened this month at the Robert Berman Gallery.

Here’s an excerpt of the show’s description as well as some information about Jordin’s work (as seen below): Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy has invited 40 artists to share their inspired vision about the delicate and often aggressive intermingling of human beings with nature…At first glance, Jordin Isip’s “Know” painting looks as if he utilized thread or colored string in the central figure. Jordin reports, “It’s not thread, these “tangles,” (as I call them), are made of tiny pieces of cut paper, glued together using tweezers, with a semi-steady hand and half-bottle of patience. Sometimes it’s therapeutic—like meditation, other times—just frustrating, maddening…” Jordin is a great promoter of a huge range of artistic talent.

isip-know.jpg

By Chance Alone by Jordin Isip

See images from the opening evening of Green here and read more about the exhibition here (as well as see more images). All the way across the country…these same three gentleman are included in another Mark Murphy-curated group show called Know which opens December 6th amidst the tumult of Art Basel in Miami. Here’s the overview of the show, along with information about the William Buzzell image below: KNOW looks to introduce the fans of art and culture to more that 50 major works, 8″ x 8″ in size with various social and political themes. Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy will be on hand to introduce you to the artists who are featured in “Know” and who actively celebrate the fine art of visual story telling…William Buzzell is a Philadelphia based artist who is constantly influenced by social issues and history. Will’s latest painting, “Self Portrait as a Townie,” is an acrylic and ink painting on wood that invites close inspection and is love for library books. Will has been exhibiting since 2001 and is an emerging visual artist who continually evolves, while provoking the viewer to look deeper.

self portrait as a townie
Self Portrait as a Townie, by William Buzzell

KNOW : Art Exhibition
Curated by Mark Murphy
Art Now Fair : Art Basel Miami
Murphy Design : Booth No. 215
December 6 – 9 : 2007
Thursday – Saturday : 10 am – 8 pm :
Sunday : 10 am – 6 pm

Go here to see images from & information about all the artists involved in this exciting show.

Congrats to our faculty and alums going coast-to-coast!

Illustration Faculty Member Carol Peligian in group show at Number 35

Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, , ,

peligian wallpaper number 35

The Illustration Department’s own Carol Peligian will be part of a group show at Number 35, curated by Ron Keyson of Wallpaper LAB. Here’s an excerpt from the official press release for the show:

Monastic life in a 12th century scriptorium and artistic life in a 21st century studio converge in a contemporary exploration of the illuminated manuscript form.

Eleven artists, ten texts and Marilyn Minter’s “merry merry” tree, oscillate as one meta-installation, posing the question, “Can books, magazines, newspapers and online information still evoke resonant images?”…

The installation itself will echo the image of lines of text: The ten works to be laid out on a single white page/wall. The gallery itself is illuminated as a sign.

This is not Carol’s first project with Wallpaper LAB. She has created work for them in the past like 2006’s Avian Lux, seen below.

avian/lux peligian

 

Don’t miss this unique show and the opportunity to see Carol’s work up close and in person.

Holiday Reading
Opening, December 1, 2007
Number 35
39 Essex Street
New York, NY

(Image by Carol Peligian)

Illustration Faculty Bob Sikoryak tackles Dostoyevsky

General Info, Illustration Faculty, Publications, , ,

sikoryak batman

Though originally printed in Drawn and Quarterly #3 all the way back in the year 2000, Illustration Faculty Bob Sikoryak’s fantastic interpretation of Dostoyevsky via Batman is making the rounds again on Drawn and Quarterly’s blog and a Very Short List, as well as drawn.ca and Again with the Comics. The comic, along with many others that have been featured in D & Q , will be included in the forthcoming collection of Bob’s work which is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2009.

You can read the entire comic here (or even better, buy the anthology in which it was originally printed) and make sure to keep your eyes open for Bob’s book in the future!

(Image by R. Sikoryak via Drawn and Quarterly)

Illustration Faculty in the new Blab! Magazine

Illustration Faculty, News, Publications, , , ,

guarnaccia in blab!

Monte Beauchamp’s annual collection of comics, illustrations and graphic design is on the stands and it features two members of the Illustration Department’s finest–our very own chair, Steven Guarnaccia and full-time faculty member, Nora Krug–along with a host of other fantastic illustrators and designers.

From the official press release:

Blab! Vol. 18 delivers like nobody’s business, with a decided focus on the comic arts. Underneath the covers by Ryan Heshka are a slew of all-new comic stories: Mark Zingarelli reveals the “Chick’s Club Taboo”; Euro-comics sensation Paco Alcazar tells a Lynchian superhero tale called “Obedience”; Peter Kuper dishes on the bullies that dogged him as a youth in “Bully for You!”; “Sirens of Silence” is cover artist Heshka’s wordless depiction of a post-global disaster existence; Sue Coe presents the true tale of Coney Island’s “Topsy the Elephant”; underground legend Skip Williamson serves up “Daddy Was a Lady,” a portrait of legendary drag queen Rae Burton; Steven Guarnaccia returns with the story behind the man who created Miniature Golf in “Moe Greene’s Hole in One”; Mark Frauenfelder of boingboing.com fame contributes the comic strip “Juicemaker’s Dream.” This volume introduces amazing new talent to the pages of BLAB!: Travis Louie, Nora Krug, Mark Zingarelli, Travis Lamp and MORE!

krug in blab!

You can see other sample pages from the new issue here, and you can buy the new issue (as well as back issues) from the lovely folks over at Fantagraphics.

Congratulations to Steven and Nora!

Guy Billout’s book reviewed in the New York Times

General Info, Illustration Faculty, Reviews, , ,

billout-frog

The New York Times wrote about artist & long-time Illustration faculty member Guy Billout‘s newest book in their special Children’s Book section.  Here’s an excerpt:

“The illustrator Guy Billout works the narrow but fertile territory where clarity intersects with mystery. It’s a place where the graffiti might read “René Magritte Was Here (de Chirico, Too),” but Billout’s concerns are his own: his drawings (or are they paintings? or both?) often employ tricks of scale and perspective, along with large expanses of deceptively flat color, compositions that resolve in witty visual jokes while tapping deeper currents of unease. They’re bright, figuratively and literally, like dreams dreamt under a noonday desert sun rather than in the usual shape-shifting murk.”

Read the rest of the article about Guy’s book The Frog Who Wanted to See the Sea here.

Read other articles in the New York Times Children’s Book section here.

Illustration in the Age of Anxiety Symposium

Events, Illustration Dept. Events, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, , , , , , , , , ,

symposium poster

Illustration in the Age of Anxiety
Saturday, November 10th
The New School
55 West 13 Street
3-7 p.m
Free and open to the public

Parsons The New School for Design Illustration Department presents a new mini-symposium focused on how the current cultural climate is affecting the field of illustration.

Illustration in the Age of Anxiety looks at how illustration handles times of unease and anxiety in our culture, from the atomic anxiety of the 1950s to today’s wars and upheaval. “Illustration in the Age of Anxiety” will feature three conversations lead by prominent and accomplished writers illustrators.

“Shaky Line, Shaky Times: Ed Koren and Ed Sorel in Conversation with Dan Nadel” will feature master satirical illustrators Ed Koren and Ed Sorel who will discuss their famously anxious drawing styles and nearly half century’ worth of drawings for hundreds of books and publications.

“Ben Katchor: Reading in Public” will feature MacArthur-award winning graphic novelist Ben Katchor, who joins Parsons as a full time faculty member this fall, as he discusses the difficulties of reading in an uncertain time.

Pop-gothic artist Tara McPherson and illustrator-tattoo artist Ruth Marten will talk to Guarnaccia about drawing on the dark side of life in the final session of the symposium, “A Light in the Dark: Ruth Marten and Tara McPherson in conversation with Steven Guarnaccia.”

Nora Krug, another new fulltime faculty member in the illustration department, will deliver the introductory remarks and introduce the panels.

The event will be held in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center at The New School, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor, from 3-7 pm and is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.parsons.newschool.edu/events or 212-229-8919.

(Poster illustrated by Nora Krug.)