Illustration students written up in Design Notes

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rej ahmed bellini chair

A Commentary on Laziness, Rejwan Ahmed

There’s a great account of the collaboration between Parsons Illustration’s Bellini chair project and Design Within Reach in the most recent issue of DWR’s newsletter, Design Notes, which reaches a whopping 400,000 readers. Bradford Shellhammer discusses the genesis of the project and how it all plays out. Here’s an excerpt:

The class took some time to warm up to the chairs. Skateboards are instantly recognizable by undergrads, but most had yet to even purchase a new chair. [Kenna] Kay, who works by day as a creative director for TV Land, instructed them to research the history of the chair and follow up with a design statement. Steps were mapped out: Move from statement to sketch to model to final design. During each stage we met for a classroom critique. We talked openly and honestly about each idea and encouraged students to refine and better articulate their designs.

The first round of sketches included such diverse ideas as covering the chair in cushions and peacock feathers or attaching a bent spine to the chair to illustrate the negative impact a seated position can have on the human back. Some ideas were political and thought provoking, others were purely decorative. Some students had impressive concepts from day one, while others grew stronger and stronger with each passing week. Some ideas stuck (the chair with the spine) and some fell by the wayside (sayonara, peacock feathers), but all have remained truly original. The designs are as diverse as the students who created them.

Read the entirety of Bradford’s account, as well as see more images of the students’ work, in Design Notes and don’t forget about the exhibition of the completed chairs, which opens with a reception on December 12th and continues through January 20th.

From the Vault: Spraygraphic interviews Illustration FT Faculty Nora Krug

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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!

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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!

John Hendrix posts drawings of “Illustration in the Age of Anxiety”

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john hendrix sketchbook

This fantastic sketchbook drawing was created by former Illustration Department Faculty member John Hendrix during our recent symposium “Illustration in the Age of Anxiety” which took place on Saturday, November 10th and featured lectures and panels by full-time faculty members Nora Krug, Ben Katchor, adjunct faculty members Ruth Marten and Tara McPherson, and legendary illustrators Ed Koren and Ed Sorel.

Visit John’s blog to see his other interpretation of the Symposium, as well as interesting tidbits on his own work and from around the Illustration field.

(Image by John Hendrix)

Illustration Faculty Member Carol Peligian in group show at Number 35

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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)

Upcoming show at Giant Robot: Adrian Tomine

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tomine at giant robot

Illustrations and art by Adrian Tomine will be shown in a new show at Giant Robot, which opens on December 8th with a book signing. Adrian’s most recent work, Shortcomings, has garnered critical praise from all over. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times book review:

Tomine has always been attracted to love gone wrong among the hesitant young men and women of the bourgeois-bohemian set, but he gets his subject across in the unsentimental style of an anthropologist’s report. Unlike the more playful graphic novelists who influenced him, Daniel Clowes (“Ghost World,” “David Boring”) and the Hernandez brothers (“Love and Rockets”), Tomine isn’t given to flights of surrealism, rude jests or grotesque images. He is a mild observer, an invisible reporter, a scientist of the heart. His drawing style is plain and exact. The dialogue appearing inside his cartoon balloons is pitch-perfect and succinct. He’s daring in his restraint.

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Read the full text of the review here, head over to Giant Robot website to see a little sneak peek of the art that Adrian will be showing, and if you can’t make it to the show, pick up your own copy of Shortcomings through Drawn & Quarterly.

Adrian Tomine
Shortcomings and Goings
Opening: Saturday, December 8th @ 6:30 p.m.
Giant Robot
437 East 9th Street

Chris Ware designs poster for upcoming movie

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chris ware savages

The Los Angeles Times recently interviewed Chris Ware (of Acme Novelty Library & Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth fame) who worked on the poster for the upcoming movie, The Savages. Here’s an excerpt:

Just from your poster, it seems you felt some affinity to the wet, wintry landscapes of the film. It also strikes me that “The Savages,” like your work, is an unlikely mix of funny and sad.

I’m not sure if funny and sad are really so terribly different things; I’ve been to violent films that I find patronizing, dishonest and depressing, yet the people around me are all laughing their heads off. As a half-writer myself, I try not to think of what’s funny and sad in a story but simply to think of what, to the best of my ability, seems truest; whether it’s funny or sad is simply how it settles with the reader. In the wake of any horrible natural disaster some well-known religious figure is inevitably asked, “How can a good God allow something as bad as this to happen?” Really, though, what difference does it make to God whether 10,000 people or 10,000 fish die? Good and bad, like funny and sad, are phenomena relative to the perspective of the organism that’s laughing or dying.

—-

Chris’s work is available through Fantagraphics and you can read other interesting articles/interviews with him here, here & here.

Illustration Alum & Children’s Book Artist Kae Nishimura visits the department

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kae nishmura

Illustration alum and talented artist Kae Nishimura will be visiting Parsons this coming Monday. After graduation, Kae went on to publish works like I Am Dodo: Not a True Story and her most recent book, Bunny Lune. Here’s an excerpt from a review of her work:

Join Bunny Lune, an imaginative young rabbit, as he learns how to travel to the moon in Kae Nishimura’s delightful children’s story, “Bunny Lune.” …Adults and children alike will love this hilarious tale of adventure and self-discovery. Illustrated by Nishimura herself, the story is chock-full of wacky characters populating an even wackier storyline. Children of a multicultural bent will especially enjoy the images of rabbits dressed up in traditional Japanese kimonos and drinking green tea. “Bunny Lune” is a must-read bedtime story for all who dream of flying to the moon.

—Paul Kim, Northwest Asian Weekly

Kae will be speaking about her books and her artistic process in an informal talk during Pat Cummings‘ Children’s Book class. All are welcome to attend and here her speak.

Kae Nishimura
December 3rd at 1:30 p.m.
2 W. 13th, Room 1104

Giant Robot announces an exhibition with Illustration Alum Jill Bliss

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jill bliss @ giant robot

 

Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh at GR2
Los Angeles, CA
December 8 – January 9

Giant Robot presents Hidden Habitats, an art show featuring the work of Jill Bliss and Salee Oh. Jill graduated from the Illustration department and has since given presentations to our students as an alum & visiting artist. Here is an excerpt from the official press release:

Jill Bliss grew up on a family farm in Northern California where everything was hand-built or cultivated-the food, the house, the farm machinery, and even the family computers. Since graduating from the Parsons School of Design & the California College of the Arts, her professional background has included fashion design, illustration, and design theory. Whether designing limited-edition paper goods or fine art pieces, all of her work reveals a fondness for combining fabric, paper, and other found materials.

For this show, the artists will make individual and collaborative drawings, paper cut-outs, sewn soft sculptures, and other pieces that expand on the theme of their third collaborative calendar, Hidden Habitats. The artwork depicts houses, shelters, buildings, and dwellings incorporating and blending into nature. These dwellings are sometimes human-sized, but more often than not sized for real and imagined animals, reptiles, or bugs.

In this body of work, both artists explore the underlying structures of nature, the inherent beauty and interdependence of these structures, and human nature’s interpretation of and dependence upon them. The original drawings, many of which have been altered or expanded upon since the making of the calendar, will also provide insight into the artists’ digital and hand-drawn collaborative process.

For more information about the exhibition, visit the Giant Robot site.

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276