If anybody at all is still reading this blog

I have one more quick post to add. The last MCA lecture of the semester, Jack Myers and some quick comments about the two senior shows.

Jack Myers is an MCA alumnus who graduated sometime in the early 90's; I don't remember if it was '90, '91, or '92. Regardless, he talked about his experience at MCA, what made him decide to go to art school and become an artist, and the importance of staying up-to-date with the changing technologies to stay relevant and on the market. His advice to us:

1. Keep learning; graduating is not the end of education
2. Learn a different skill set
3. Don't get too comfortable; you don't want to get caught in a position that you can't find anything else to do with your career because you have a limited skill set and no alternate plans.
4. Never get caught three versions behind in a computer program (snicker, snicker)
5. Be brave or fake it until you gain more confidence
6. Produce your own work, and put as much of it out there as possible, even if you don't like it
7. Promote yourself; times have changed, and it's a good idea to have a portfolio of your work handy.
8. Most importantly: Work Hard. There's no smooth-sailing in the professional art world; you'll always be busting your butt, just be sure you're busting your butt doing something you love.

Drawing Comment, the beginning of the Spring lecture series

if anyone as actually still looking at this blog.
I believe the special lecture toward the beginning of the semester, was the first visiting artist lecture we'd had. For two months, the upper gallery was fitted with a display of three long-practicing illustrators' mass-published work, illustrations featured in magazines such as Time magazine and national newspapers such as the New York Times. These three acclaimed illustrators were Steve Brodner, Anita Kunz and Luba Lukova.

Drawing Comment: Illustration & Social Commentary was, in my opinion one of the highlights of academic events of the semester. Joel Priddy moderated an open discussion panel with the artists and the atmosphere was exciting. We should all be thankful for how privileged we are to get to meet and discuss with professional artists. But, lauding aside, it was an entertaining educational experience. I say 'entertaining' because everybody on stage had a sense of humor. Each artist talked about his or her journey as artists and illustrators and what being an illustrator means to the world and how illustrations affect the audience perception of a given issue/event. Brodner's story about Martha Stewart was a hilarious account about the responsibilities one has as an illustrator and as a visual artist in general. Kunz spoke a bit about the process of gaining an audience as an illustrator, how to reach the point where you are commissioned to produce your own work, and the changing technologies and how they affect the field of illustration. Lukova talked about responsibilities as an illustrator as well and being aware of what type of audience will be viewing your work and the reactions you can expect from it.

With the addition of comprehensive answers to good audience questions, the panel gave great advice about being a visual artist, how to stay relevant in today's far-reaching media environment, having both traditional and new-technology skills, self-publishing, staying in touch with your audiences, the general work climate of illustration, past and present, and how to be productive, not only as an illustrator but as any type of visual artist.

Summary: MCA Design Candidate Lectures

As I am sure we are all aware of, there were several "Lunchtime Lectures", this semester, featuring candidates for our department of design. I missed the first one, but attended the remaining three.The first lecture I attended was Shawn Simmons': She works primarily with bookmaking. I should have taken more thorough notes. I thought I did, but I probably tried to retain it all. Anyway, I remember that she does have teaching experience and that she works with digital as well as print media. She talked about the importance of teaching students the basics of using the evolving digital tools. An example she showed us and talked about was a project she had her students do recently, in which they had to make some page layouts, and the pages had animated text. The purpose of this assignment was to give students experience in successfully creating a graphically-interactive text document that preserves form and functions.
     But the lecture's focus wasn't entirely one-sided. As important as it is for design artists to develop expandable digital skills, retaining the ability to adapt layouts to the printed page is also important.
    The artist also showed some very interesting book arts work of her own, featuring hand-crafted books that employed sculptural aspects. This was an exercise she also gave her students; not only were their final products to be well-designed and well-crafted, but they also were to maintain readability.I'll try to be more brief from here-on-out.
Phil Winfield: He gave an informative lecture about design and its importance and demonstrated this point with a survey of his career at LSU, rebranding their imagery, website, etc.
The part about the actual updating and the necessity of redesigning things was somewhat interesting. The most memorable point to me during this stage was when he showed and briefly described the original LSU brochure, and then showed us the documentation of the design process he used to recreate LSU's logos, brochure layout, revise its web layout.
Unfortunately, the lecture as a whole was for the most part boring because Winfield had so much to say about everything he and the design department at LSU worked on, publishing, distribution on campus, printing versus PDFs and web documents, etc.

Willie Cole Lectures at the Brooks Museum

The first lecture I went to this semester was back in February, when artist Willie Cole came to talk about his featured exhibition, Willie Cole: Works on Paper. It is one of the best lectures I've been to since I came to this school. The exhibition is still showing at the Brooks through May.
      Cole started out giving a brief overview of his starting projects. His first major project was a series of cardboard cutout bodies with Xeroxes of Nelson Mandela's face posted on them all. It was an installation, and it had a track of, I think it was Nelson Mandela's speech, playing over and over again, he said. Mind you, this was done back in the 1970s, during the Apartheid epic unfolding in South Africa. Cole has a broad avenue of interests, and although he went to art school and majored in 2D media, he has made works in sculptural media and work using digital technology as an aid. He also made a digital video, which he talked about at the lecture, is called Sumsara (2010), featuring eight actors on three different screens, crying, in a repeating cycle. He said that the repetition is based on the Buddhist concept of birth, death, and rebirth. I think the word "sumsara" is the name of this concept.
     Although Cole uses digital tools, his work is mostly 'analog' media. The highlight of the exhibit are his works featuring irons, the "Works on Paper". In his compositions he explores the concept of the iron as a representative figure. The poster advertising the exhibit, for instance, shows his photograph of himself wearing African tribal garb; the garment being made of iron plates that were Photoshopped onto his print. But as aforementioned, the phase of iron-driven design is not his only set of 2D work, and the exhibit is definitely worth seeing.

Grand Finale! (cue the fireworks and streamers)

A Week Late, but here's my self-InDesign project

Hot Potato, Cold Potato (these are cold)

A bit overdue, but here are my perspective artworks that were due last Monday:

 I should have posted this piece of junk a long time ago, even though it is currently a stand alone image. Besides, as many hours I blew on this one, I am not remaking a two point perspective exterior. I'll just get this one over with.

I'm beside myself with joy!

I finally got this gorilla off my back. I hope my client likes it. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the brochure I designed for my "client":

Layout Options

Here is what I'm working with for my "client's" brochure:

It's not going to be so busy of course. All the other things are supplementary designs I'll choose from.

Shoot! Just my twisted luck.

Well, since I can't print these images in color to reference in my sketchbook, I'll just have to post them on my blog. If no one else is aware, or if just already have your images printed and ready-to-go, the color printer next door needs its toner "replenished", and since it's Sunday evening, there is no one here to do it. I am royally peeved about my misfortune with this.