Category Archives: Inspiration

Inside North Korea screening on March 25th

Events, film, Illustration Dept. Events, Inspiration, News, , ,

On March 25th, LINK, a west cost based non-profit organization supporting refugees from North Korea (www.linkglobal.org), will visit Parsons to feature INSIDE NORTH KOREA, a documentary by National Geographic reporter Lisa Ling. The documentary follows a Nepalese surgeon on his trip to North Korea, whose goal is to perform eye surgery on 1000 patients within a short period of time. The movie provides a rare glimpse into the most secretive society on earth.

Please join us for this rare screening on March 25th, 6:30, at the Orientation Room / Bark Room on the ground floor at 2W 13th street at Parsons The New School for Design.

North Korean propaganda image from: www.koreabiglist.com

Great feature in the NYTimes on Jonathan Levine Gallery

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This past weekend, the New York Times did a fantastic write-up of the Jonathan Levine Gallery, who is celebrating their fifth anniversary.  The Gallery has always been a champion of illustration and shows the work of multiple Parsons Illustration alums and faculty members.  Here’s a snippet from the write-up:

For the current fifth-anniversary exhibition at his New York gallery Jonathan LeVine has filled it with works by 35 artists, most of whom he represents. The space is in Chelsea, but there’s no cerebral conceptualism, cool abstraction or painterly gesture on view.

Instead this work, variously labeled Lowbrow Art, Pop Surrealism and perhaps most accurately Pop Pluralism, is the skateboarding, graffiti-tagging, sometimes bratty and rebellious younger sibling of the art shown in most of the neighborhood’s locations. Still, the art in the Jonathan LeVine Gallery seems at home in Chelsea in a way it did not five years ago. After years on the fringes of the art world, “we’ve come to a turning point,” Mr. LeVine said recently. “The mainstream is embracing this work.”

Read the rest of the article here and also make sure to check out the great multi-media section featuring lots of images and commentary from Jonathan himself.  The Five Year Anniversary Group Exhibition is on view at Jonathan Levine through March 27th and includes works by Parsons Illustration alums Isabel Samaras, AJ Fosik, Andy Kehoe, and Parsons Illustration faculty Tara McPherson.

Congrats to Jonathan, his staff, and all the artists he represents!

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10011
212-243-3822

HOURS: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm

[image by Andy Kehoe, “Passing Through the Forest Deep”]

FACE VALUE –>A Talk by DB Dowd on March 11th (New time and location!)

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FACE VALUE –>A Talk by DB Dowd

THURSDAY, MARCH 11TH, 2010 7:30 PM (NEW TIME!)

Room A510, 66 W. 12th Street (NEW LOCATION!)

Douglas B. Dowd is a professor of Communication Design and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Dowd is active as a curator, essayist and critic in the realm of modern graphic culture, writing on theoretical and historical topics in comics, animation, and illustration. He writes the blog Graphic Tales at http://www.ulcercity.blogspot.com/ and serves as an advisor to the Norman Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He co-edited Strips, Toons & Bluesies: Essays on Comics and Culture for Princeton Architectural Press in 2006 and served as a curatorial advisor for Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women’s magazine, 1940-1960 at the Rockwell in 2007.

Originally trained as a printmaker, Dowd’s books and prints are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Fogg Museum at Harvard University. His illustration work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Last year, Dowd published Visit Mohicanland, an online illustrated novel, at http://visit-mohicanland.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

From Lascaux Caves to Autocad–Brett Littman from the Drawing Center visits Parsons!

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Parsons The New School for Design Presents:

Is This A Drawing? From Lascaux Caves to Autocad
Brett Littman, Executive Director of the Drawing Center

The kick-off event of a collaboration between The Drawing Center and Parsons. Free and Open to the Public.

Tuesday,
March 9, 2010
6:30 pm
The New School
66 West 12th Street
Room A510

Brett Littman, Executive Director of The Drawing Center — is the only fine arts institution in the United States to focus solely on the exhibition of drawings –, will present a lecture entitled “From Lascaux Caves to Autocad.” A wide range of issues will be explored, including: What is the relevance of drawing in contemporary culture? How does one define the activity of drawing today? What does it mean to expand the definition of drawing to encompass architecture, design, music, science, dance? This talk will also explore the curatorial decisions that have shaped the Drawing Center’s upcoming programming.

The Strand Tote Bag Design Contest

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The Strand Book Store has partnered with the School of Visual Arts, TOON Books, Drawn & Quarterly and Fantagraphics Books to host a tote bag design contest.

Beginning March 1, 2010, artists from around the world are invited to submit original illustrations featuring the Strand Book Store.

In June 2007, the Strand unveiled the first Artist Tote Bag: Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman loaned his iconic Maus image for the first time ever to celebrate the Strand’s 80th birthday. The Strand then partnered with artists each year, including Adrian Tomine, Seth and Parsons Illustration Alum and Faculty member R. Sikoryak, creating the Strand’s Artist Tote Series. Now, the Strand Book Store wants to give emerging artists the opportunity to have their artwork featured on a Strand tote bag.

Now, the Strand Book Store wants to give emerging artists the opportunity to have their artwork featured on a Strand tote bag.

Contest Dates

March 1-March 31, 2010

Design Requirements

  • The illustration must represent the Strand Book Store.
  • The illustration must include the artist’s signature, “Strand Book Store NYC” and “strandbooks.com” or a representation of the Strand logo (as seen on this page).
  • Size of Illustration: Artwork must be no larger than 11″w x 10″h.
  • Line Weight: Use a minimum of a 2 pt. rule.
  • Halftones: Must be at a 40 line screen or less, with percentages no less than 20% or greater than 60%.
  • No Trapping: If colors come in contact with each other they CAN NOT overlap.
  • Typestyles: Should be no smaller than 20 pt. on 15 oz. fabric with a minimum of 2 pt. rule. Do not use reverse type smaller than 22 pt. with a minimum line rule of 3 pt. Avoid serif typefaces! Their detail tends to get lost in the canvas.

Contest is open to all, aged 18 and above. The Contest is void where prohibited. Please see official rules below.

Judges:

  • Françoise Mouly, Art Editor of The New Yorker & Editorial Director of TOON Books
  • Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning comic artist
  • Steven Heller, co-chair MFA Designer as Author Program, School of Visual Arts
  • R. Sikoryak, creator of the book, Masterpiece Comics
  • Adrian Tomine, author of the bestselling book, Shortcomings

Prizes

Grand Prize

  • artwork on Strand tote bag, sold in store and online w/ attendant marketing-artist name on all materials
  • an afternoon with Françoise Mouly and staff at TOON Books offices
  • complete set of Drawn & Quarterly’s 2009 titles (value: $450)
  • a selection of new and recent Fantagraphics Books releases (value: $450)
  • complete set of TOON Books (value: $150)
  • $100 Think Coffee Gift Card
  • artwork featured in slideshow on partners’ websites

Second Prize

  • complimentary Continuing Education class at School of Visual Arts (value $470)
  • a selection of signed Drawn & Quarterly books (value $90)
  • “I Don’t Like to Read” TOON Books basket (value: $70)
  • a selection of new and recent Fantagraphics Books releases (value: $50)
  • $100 Think Coffee Gift Card
  • artwork featured in slideshow on partners’ websites

Third Prize

  • DaVinci Artist Supply Gift Card (value $300)
  • “Beginning Reader” TOON books basket (value: $70)
  • a selection of signed Drawn & Quarterly books (value $50)
  • a selection of new and recent Fantagraphics Books releases (value: $50)
  • $100 Think Coffee Gift Card
  • artwork featured in slideshow on partners’ websites

20 Finalists will receive a Strand tote bag filled with Fantagraphics & TOON Books gifts and a $20 Strand gift card.

r. sikoryak's tote for the strand!

Continue reading →

Artist as Author Symposium is happening on March 27th!

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The Illustration Program at Parsons The New School for Design presents:

The Artist as Author — a symposium on self-illustrated texts in history and contemporary practice.
Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 3 – 8:30pm
The New School, Wollman Hall, 5th Floor, 66 West 12th Street, NYC
Free and open to the public

Patrica Mainardi (CUNY Graduate Center) on Popular Prints and Comics.
Emily Lauer, (MA MPhil CUNY) on William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair illustrations
David Kurnick (Rutgers University) on The Theatrical Impulse and the Illustrated Novel.
Ben Katchor (Parsons The New School) on Picture-recitation.
Jerry Moriarty (School of Visual Arts) presents his latest project: Whatsa Paintoonist?

The participants:

Patricia Mainardi is Professor of Art History at City University of New York, where she teaches at The Graduate Center. Her publications include Art and Politics of the Second Empire: The Universal Expositions of 1855 and 1867 (Yale, 1987), which received the College Art Association Charles Rufus Morey Award for the best art history book of 1988; The End of the Salon: Art and the State in the Early Third Republic (Cambridge, 1994); Husbands, Wives, and Lovers: Marriage and Its Discontents in Nineteenth-Century France (Yale, 2003); and many articles and catalogues. She is currently completing a book: Another World: Illustrated Print Culture in Nineteenth-Century France, which includes chapters on caricature, book illustration, popular prints and comics.

Emily Lauer, MA MPhil, teaches Children’s Literature at Hunter College, where her students routinely say brilliant and helpful things about illustrations. “Signs as Designs” is part of her PhD dissertation, “Drawing Conclusions: Visual Literacy In Fiction,” which she will defend later this Spring at the CUNY Graduate Center.

David Kurnick is an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University. He is working on a book called Empty Houses: Theatrical Failure and the Novel of Interiority about major novelists with frustrated theatrical careers.

Ben Katchor’s picture-stories appear in Metropolis magazine. His upcoming collection of weekly strips, The Cardboard Valise, will be published by Pantheon Books. His most recent music-theater collaboration with Mark Mulcahy, A Checkroom Romance, will be performed at Lincoln Center in May 2010. He is an Associate Professor at Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City.

Jerry Moriarty has taught painting and drawing at The School of Visual Arts in NYC since 1963. A prolific artist, writer and illustrator, his work has appeared in Raw magazine, Kramers Ergot, Comic Art Magazine and The Best American Comics, 2009. In the 1980s and 90s, he produced a series of subway posters for The School of Visual Arts. His work has been exhibited at the Corridor Gallery in Soho, SVA Museum, Cue Foundation, the Phoenix Art Museum and the Vancouver Art Gallery. His latest book, The Complete Jack Survives, was published by Buenaventura Press in 2009. He was interviewed by Chris Ware in The Believer (art issue) in 2009. He was the recipient of an NEA grant.

Upcoming Comics History/New York History events

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boss tweed

The New York Center for Independent Publishing presents:

Comics History/New York History

New York City was the birthplace of the modern comic book, and the city has had a starring role in some of the greatest and most influential work the medium has produced. The New York Center for Independent Publishing will be presenting a series of events looking at the rich history of Comics and the City. Join us at our historic building at 20 West 44th Street as we explore the city through comics, from Riverdale to the Baxter Building, from Dropsie Avenue to Forest Hills, to untangle the relationship between the world’s greatest city and the comics that chronicle its history. Visit  www.nycip.org for more information!

New York, the Super-City

Tuesday, March 9th, 6:30 pm

New York served as the model for Gotham City, inspired Will Eisner as he created the noirish adventures of The Spirit, and became a recurring character during the 1960s resurgence of Marvel in comics such as Spider-Man and Iron Man.ForeWord Magazine contributing editor Peter Gutiérrez will moderate a talk on the relationship between superheroes and their favorite hometown… and on how comics culture has promoted potent and memorable images of New York to readers worldwide.

“Carousel” in New York

Tuesday, April 20th, 6:30 pm

The series closes with a multimedia presentation hosted by R. Sikoryak, Parsons faculty member and author of Masterpiece Comics. This event will feature work and performances from some the of the top comics artists working in New York.

Admission is $15, $10 for Members, and $5 for students.

Parsons Illustration Alum Dan Springer wins Arts Educator of the Year Award

Illustration Alumni, Inspiration, News, , , ,

The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod has announced the winners of the Third Annual Creative Community Awards. Arts Foundation of Cape Cod Arts Educator of the Year is Daniel Springer of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.

After receiving his BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design in NYC, Springer received a MA in English from Northeastern University. He also studied performance and theater design at Syracuse University. A teacher for over 20 years, Springer has been teaching the arts at D-Y Regional High School for the last 15. He currently chairs the Fine & Performing Arts Department at D-Y. He has taught a variety of classes including writing, drama, acting, digital art, drawing, printmaking, advertising and humanities. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Cape Cod & Islands Art Educators Association and teaches at the Cape Cod Museum of Art (CCMA). Daniel has also presented workshops at three National Art Education Association national conferences in Boston, Chicago and NYC. Springer is also an active landscape painter whose work can be seen @ www.springed.wordpress.com.

In the past, Springer has championed the production of the D-Y school yearbook and designed and directed multiple theatrical productions. Despite staff and budget cuts, Springer has also increased the variety of arts programs offered to students in the last six years. Working with the CCM A and the Cape Cod & Islands Art Educators Association, Springer has also been instrumental in creating and promoting the annual “Portfolio Day” at the CCMA, an event for Cape Cod students pursuing college arts programs.

Margaret Van Sciver, President of the board of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod said:  “We are delighted to recognize Daniel Springer as Arts Educator of the Year. His commitment to his students and colleagues at D-Y, and his tireless support of other collaborative arts programs in our region, make him an outstanding role model for students and the Cape’s creative community.”

Lee Weill, an arts instructor at Barnstable High School and member of the advisory board for the Cape Cod & Islands Art Educators Association notes: “Daniel has made art education a top priority in his life. He communicates the value of arts as a career path, an outlet for personal growth and a contributing factor for the benefit of the Cape-wide economy and community.”

The other 2010 Creative Community Awards honorees are: Maestro Royston Nash, Lifetime Achievement; Senator Robert O’Leary, Community Leadership in Support of the Arts; and the Falmouth Artists Guild, Collaborative Arts Project of the Year.

The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod supports, promotes, and celebrates the arts and culture of Cape Cod by creating a strong, stable, and diverse arts environment, and contributing to the quality of life and economic vitality of the region. For more information, visit www.artsfoundation.org.

Congratulations, Daniel!

[image: “Perfect Day” by Daniel Springer]

Tonight–On Notation: A Talk By Hubertus Von Amelunxen

Current Students, Education, Events, Illustration Dept. Events, Inspiration, News, Talks/Lectures, , , ,

The Illustration Program, School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design presents:

On Notation: A Talk By Hubertus Von Amelunxen
Wednesday, February 17
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Bark Room (Orientation Room)
Parsons The New School for Design, 2 West 13th Street, NYC

Notations are sign systems. They offer legibility, they enclose sound, meaning and movement, enable repetition, expansions and digressions. According to György Ligeti, they can be instructions for playing, means of communication or “an end in themselves”. Since the 19th century, notations have been considered as especially technical, media-technical in origin: from telegraphy to photography, from phonography, cinematography and dactylography to binary codifications, notations or metrical systems cause and determine not only phases in creation, repetition and the reproduction of artistic works, but also possibilities of interpretation. As sign systems, notations are predisposed to translation.

This talk was given in connection with the exhibition, “Notations – calculus and form in the arts”, curated by Hubertus von Amelunxen together with the artist Dieter Appelt for the Akademie der Künste in Berlin 2008 and for the ZKM in Karlsruhe 2009.

Hubertus von Amelunxen is a Professor of Media Philosophy and Cultural Studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Presented by the Illustration Program, School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design.