portland 2 portland
When we moved to Maine 22 years ago from San Francisco, it was necessary to repeat Portland MAINE many times to the movers. On the west coast only Portland, Oregon counts. Tomorrow we go there for the first time, and see what magic awaits at the Illustration Conference, ICON8. This gathering of illustrators, art directors, and designers promises to cross our eyeballs. I’ve crafted a handy little zine of my Maine sketches to share. This includes a portrait of ICON attendee and recent MECA illo grad, Liz Long. Just caught up with her this morning, she’s ready to fly, light as a...
Read Moredaring adventures in collage
When my super talented kin Mati Rose McDonough asked to interview me for her colorful e-course, Daring Adventures in Collage, I said YEAH! It prompted me to consider my connections to collage and the currents running through all my work. I didn’t discover collage formally until art history class at RISD, but had made cut paper cards as a child. This is my first published illustration, incorporating a scrap of Dick and Jane text to reference an educational crisis in teaching, August of 1980! My first eight years of freelance illustration in Boston brought opportunities for collage added...
Read MoreMECA morphing
What a privilege to push/pull a talented senior class to the finish line in their last semester at Maine College of Art. I’m so proud of them! It’s been long, and yet a blink of an eye. Here’s a flicker of what’s transpired in IL 423, Illustration Majors Studio: Maria Antuna tackled 20 portraits of MECA faculty and staff, stacked according to the floor in which they work. At every crit, more faces appeared. Maria considered many options for how to pull these all together. Watercolor? Digital? During class critique, the majority liked the watercolors. But Maria had a...
Read MoreNorman Rockwell Museum
Last Sunday we were on the road, visiting colleges. No sermons or egg hunts, yet the Easter bunny found us in a parking garage over the Mass Pike. What serendipity to discover the Mass Pike ends in Stockbridge, home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. We decided to worship there for awhile. As an illustrator, Rockwell holds a large place in my world, but I discovered I knew very little about him. Recently, author Elizabeth Hand visited Maine College of Art while writing a review of a book about Rockwell. She asked us what we thought of such a ubiquitous icon in the field of illustration. He is...
Read MoreMECA Boston swing
Once again Maine College of Art illustration seniors visited CloudKid in Boston, an award-winning studio specializing in children’s media. Founder and Creative Director Dave Schlafman gave an entertaining presentation on his formative obsessions and artistic development. An enthusiasm for pop culture, toys, and games drives their work, and they often declare Story Jams to brainstorm ideas. Characters begin on paper, quickly fleshed out in a sketchbook, before taking a long path to the final version. Dave offered priceless advice to eager students: upon getting out of art school as an...
Read Morestudio tour
I’m always curious about illustrators’ studios. We work tucked away with our supplies, books, and collectibles, the sum of which never ceases to delight me. I brought my senior illustration students on a tour of local studios in Portland, Maine last week, beginning with Joe Rosshirt, who graduated from Maine College of Art in 2011 when my students were freshmen. He discussed how he got through the first months after graduation and his tips for hanging in there: always be working on your own thing. He brought out projects from senior year that informed his final portfolio. Joe...
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