tis the season
With the pies gone and the turkey slept off, the holiday drill must begin. I had the delicious opportunity to bring my illustration class to a tech rehearsal of Santaland Diaries at Portland Stage Company, which proved to be a perfect segue for the season. It was challenging, to say the least, but put us all in a properly satiric mood. Dustin Tucker plays Crumpet, a disenchanted Macy’s elf. Here is my quick sketch of the stage setting. I told my students beforehand that it would be hard, very hard, to capture a moving target, but this was a chance to strengthen their recall and eye for...
Read Morezines & zombies
In every illustration class, I print student work, so the class can see their art in context, reproduced, and as part of a larger whole. During two weeks this semester they worked on a collective comic, which will be a 32 page full color zine titled “Coast City.” This is a patchy undertaking, getting a class of 15 to collaborate in a timely manner, but was undoubtedly a worthwhile project, allowing for imaginative brainstorming (a useful skill in any environment), and aiming for a clear visual thread as a group (visual literacy). The peer dynamic came into play, another positive....
Read Moremap of my day
On Thursday, I visited “Aggregate” at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, where the biennial of MFA graduates is on display. I was drawn to the work of Shannon Rankin, who has created amazing installations with dizzying bits of maps. I inspected the above piece for awhile, trying to discern if there might be a pattern in the locations, so delicately pinned to the wall like a specimen. Also on exhibit is a series of large prints by Cole Caswell. He gave a talk at Osher Hall that day, describing his methods and manifestations of understanding landscape. He...
Read Moreback to school
The summer that wasn’t has become the fall that will be brilliant. Whether you are going back to school or not, don’t we all harbor a student inside us? A fondness or aversion to school, and also learning, lurks in the scent of ripe apples in the crisp air. I was a student in mid-August for a watercolor workshop taught by Tory Tyler Millar at the Fifth Maine. Tory has taught at Portland High for 18 years, but finds new ways to introduce methods and materials by taking regular courses herself at places like Haystack. I find that being a student makes being a teacher more fresh,...
Read Moremeca in may
The spring semester at MECA came to it’s perennially manic culmination. Even though I didn’t teach this past semester, I participated in a critique panel, a workshop for incoming students, and reviews, keeping half an eye on things. It’s a frantic time for students, finishing projects, papers, flipping out. It’s a feast for viewers. The halls are alive with fresh work. I’m partial to wordplay, and this piece by Regis Biron says the most about being creative. And I applaud direct methods, like this graphic mural by Drew Romeo. Students are adept at playing with...
Read Moreseen and noted
I was invited to be part of a professional panel to review the progress of students in MECA’s Illustration Department. It’s always gratifying to see what students are up to, and this year’s crop of majors has such a variety of directions up their sleeves. Senior Leonora Dechtiar is working on a children’s book with puppets of Persian characters. She got great feedback on the potential of 3D imagery in the book, along with hands-on puppet activities that could accompany readings. Junior Katie Long is experimenting with book ideas, collaging, goauche, pop-up mock-ups,...
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