Jake Messing’s work chosen for “Seeing Double” exhibition

The Attleboro Arts Museum presents
Seeing Double, a national juried exhibition.
featuring work by Parsons Illustration Alum Jake Messing!

Open from 7/7/2010 – 8/4/2010

Partners, duets, Noah’s animals, diptychs, mates, symmetry,
reflections, twins, bicuspids, echoes, bookends, the
Attleboro Arts Museum presents a national juried exhibition that
will prompt you to think twice – Seeing Double.

Congrats on your inclusion, Jake!

Pop-ups pop-up in Parsons Illustration!

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!

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

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.

Post-it Show at Giant Robot New York

Post-It Show 5 open through July 7, 2009
Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A,
in the East Village New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769) | grny.net

Giant Robot is proud to present Post-It Show 5 at GRNY. Curated by artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson, the show is slated to feature roughly 1,000 works by noted contributors for only $20. These pieces will be on standard-sized 3″ x 3″ Post-It notes. (Larger sizes of 4″ x 4″ and 6″ x 6″ will cost a bit more.) The pieces will be cash-and-carry.

Thus far, the ever-expanding list of contributors includes the following:

Trevor Alixopulos, APAK, Andrice Arp, Scott Bakal, Melinda Beck, Mike Bertino, Tim Biskup, Jon Boam, Pakito Bolino, Michelle Borok, Aaron Brown, Jude Buffum, Chris Buzelli, Christine Castro, Martin Cendreda, Kris Chau, Louise Chen, Marcos Chin, Chris Clayton, Tim Cochran, Eric Collins, Jen Corace, Matt Curtius, Kelsey Dake, Eleanor Davis, Vanessa Davis, Nathan Doyle, Seth Drenner, Susan Fang, Korin Faught, Nina Frenkel, Shannon Freshwater, Matt Furie, Nick Gazin, Frieda Gossett, Katherine Guillen, (Parsons Illustration Adjunct) Peter Hamlin, Jon Han, Jaime Hernandez, Andrew Holder, (Parsons Illustration Alum) David Horvath, Patrick Hruby, Rama Hughes, Mari Inukai, Yellena James, Hellen Jo, Nathan Jurevicius, Andrea Kang, Dan-ah Kim, Hawk Krall, Lamour Supreme, Travis Lampe, Blaise Larmee, Sarah Lavoie, Jesse LeDoux, Dongyun Lee, Eli Lehrhoff, Bill Main, Jacob Magraw-Mickelson, Ben Marra, Ted McGrath, Mark Allen Miller, Mike Miller, Brendan Monroe, Mark Murphy, Andrew Neyer, Tru Nguyen, Anders Nilsen, Saejean Oh, Saelee Oh, Martin Ontiveros, Sidney Pink, Luke Ramsey, Ron Rege, Jesse Reklaw, Martha Rich, Joe Rocco, Brooks Salzwedel, Anna See, Raymond Sohn, STO, Deth P. Sun, Gary Taxali, Team Macho, Gina Triplett, Twerps (Greg Mishka), Edwin Ushiro, Jing Wei, Steven Weissman, Gillian Wilson, Calvin Wong, Jaime Zollars, Trevor Alixopulos, Peter Arkle, Matthew Bandusch, Karen Barbour, Angie Clayton, John Cuneo, Bob Dob, Nathan Doyle, Austin English, Jason Fischer, Anne Ishii, Claire Johnson, Terri Fry Kasuba, Phillipe Lardy, Sarah Lavoie, James McShane, Dave Plunkert, Jason Polan, Jarret Quon, Deth P. Sun, Francesca Tallone, and more!

For more information about the artists, the show, GR2, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311.

From the Vault: Gareth Hinds interviewed by School Library Journal

Parsons Illustration Alum Gareth Hinds was interviewed by School Library Journal back in January.  With a final release date (October 12th!) set for his upcoming graphic novel adaptation of The Odyssey, we thought it would be great to revisit that interview.  Here’s a snippet:

Are there some stories that won’t work as graphic novels?

There are stories that don’t lend themselves quite as well to the graphic novel medium, but there are no stories that can’t be done. I’ve put off doing certain books because they were just too huge—War and Peace, for example, is not only incredibly long, it covers a very long period of time, includes a lot of characters, and would require a tremendous amount of historical research. I may adapt War and Peace someday, but not in 2010!

I’ve never hit an actual dead-end once I started working on a book, but occasionally difficult scenes can bog me down, and I have to walk away from them and work on something else for a while. For example, the very end of The Odyssey is rather abrupt in the original. I wanted to somehow slow down the last few pages and tie up some of the themes and plot threads, but I didn’t want to add any new material or change the story. That took a while to figure out.

What’s special about your version of The Odyssey?

For one thing, at 256 pages it’s a lot longer than anything else I’ve done, or most graphic novels for that matter. It has a more expansive, epic feeling than my other books, with a lot of landscape, open ocean, and crowd scenes. What I think distinguishes my books from other graphic novel adaptations is the way I approach the classics. It’s very important to me that my adaptations do justice to the originals, and to me that doesn’t just mean not changing the story too much, it also means bringing a high level of art, craft, and sophistication to the way the story is told in the new medium—like the original author did. That’s a tall order, of course. I don’t think it’s enough to give a classic story the gloss of a modern comic or dress it up with special effects. To whatever extent my adaptations succeed, it’s because I have equal dedication to the source material, the craft of telling a story in pictures, and the creation of a beautiful book.

Read the rest of this interview here.  And over on his blog, Gareth has posted tons of progress updates about The Odyssey so can follow his creative process.  Definitely check them out here.

Congrats to Gareth on his new book!

Garrett Pruter is a Grand Prize Winner!

Parsons Illustration graduating senior Garrett Pruter
was chosen as the GRAND PRIZE winner of
Macy’s First Annual Fireworks Design Contest,
sponsored by Macy’s Parade and Entertainment Group.

Garrett’s illustration was chosen out of numerous entries
from Parsons and other art/design schools
in the New York City area.

Congratulations, Garrett!


Quick Hit: Rachel Nolasco on Threadless!

Parsons Illustration Rising Senior Rachel Nolasco is a winner!  She was chosen by her classmates in Isabelle Dervaux‘s Junior Concepts class as the winner of a classroom competition based around the creation/design of a t-shirt design for the mega-cool and creative Threadless.  The t-shirt design was featured in a Threadless newsletter!  Rachel calls the shirt, “Mutual End” and describes it thusly: “The concept for this design is the juxtaposition of life and death and how they both exist together and are shared by every living thing.”   You can see Rachel’s design on the Threadless site here.

Congrats on your success, Rachel and luck in the future!

George Bates creates public art for the MTA

Parsons Illustration Alum and current Adjunct Faculty member George Bates has a lot going on these days.  He sent along images from a project he’s working on for the MTA and we wanted to share them all with you!  Here’s the scoop from George’s blog:

Recently I traveled to PETERS GLAMALEREI STUDIOS in Paderborn Germany to oversee a public art project for the MTA subway station in Rockaway Beach, New York. Directly below is the original art I created that will be painted on glass blocks and installed in the spring of 2010. The following images show the initial fabrication process, some glass experiments I did while I was there…

Keep up the amazing work, George!