AIB Illustration & Animation Blog

Monster Party 2013 creeps out UGLY Gallery! –New Bedford MA

October is the season to be creepy!
Studio Miners are so excited to announce the lineup and details for Monster Party 2013, their second annual family-friendly celebration of monsters. This year, the exhibit will be on view at UGLY Gallery, in New Bedford MA. Orginal works by artists including:

David Guadalupe Jr., Eyeformation Ef, Natalie Elephante, Sean Kernick, Jessica George, Matthew C. Albanese, Clams Rockefeller, Casey Weibust, Chelsea Arruda, Ekiem Julien, Elizabeth Siegel, Dan Savoie, Ryan Robidoux, Fish McGill, Britton Walters, Tim Sullivan, Brian Butler, Patt Kelley, Ryan Maguire and Gregory Maxim!


Sean Kernick's piece for Monster Party 2013 at UGLYgallery


Installation for Monster Party 2013! Opening on Oct. 10th UGLYgallery, New Bedford, MA. — with Jessica George.


Installation for Monster Party 2013 has begun! Don't forget to come all dressed up to the opening on Oct. 10th UGLYgallery, New Bedford, MA. — with EVIL DESIGN.


Preview of Brian Butler's piece for Monster Party 2013


Zombie Lobsta prints by MADink available at Monster Party 2013.


Preview of Eyeformation Ef 's piece for Monster Party 2013.


Work in Progress from Dan Savoie. Make sure to make it out to Monster Party 2013 at UGLYgallery, Oct 10th to see the finished product.

The show opens Thursday, OCTOBER 10th from 7 - 10pm, during AHA! (art, history, architecture), a monthly arts and cultural event, and includes some of our favorites from last year - a monster mini golf hole, mural, face painting, artists coloring sheets and prizes.

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-Miners/276279789054936

makers manual exhibit

Peter O. Zierlein, illustrator, paper cutter, stencil artist and adjunct faculty at AIB will have work featured in Makers Manual, part of an ongoing series of inter-institutional works that investigate roles and sites.


Opening reception: Saturday 21, 2013 12-2pm

Featured Artists:
Beena Azeem, Teresa A. Bonillo, David Borawski, Jeff Brown, Vincent Como, Ted Efremoff, Shannon Gagne, Gordon Holden, Flannon Jackson, John Kawecki, Luiza Kurzyna, Balam Soto, Peter O. Zierlein

This exhibition explores themes of authorship, pedagogical approaches and site specificity while using text based works to represent a visual language – a slightly inverted process than one might find in a museum or gallery space.

This project serves to increase the creativity of the viewer and the instructions will serve as guidelines to process & interpretation.

Coming Soon: peterOZ: Balance of Power

Adjunct Faculty Peter O Zierlein has been busy getting his paper cut illustrations ready for the big screen. Zierlein, a recent graduate of AIB's MFA in Visual Arts,  is the subject of filmmaker Roberto Mighty's "peterOZ: Balance of Power" a documentry exploreing one man's struggle for balance between art, commerce and family.



Peter O. Zierlein -  "POZ*", is a German paper cut artist and illustrator (New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Berliner Zeitung) now living in America.

"peterOZ: Balance of Power" highlights his struggle to move from successful Op-Ed illustrator to Fine Artist. Will his dark, massive papercuts be accepted by the international gallery scene? Zierlein's influences include American cartoon artist R. Crumb and 16th century German woodcut artist Albrecht Durer.

This is the first in a series of contemporary artist profiles by filmmaker Roberto Mighty, MFA, artist-in-residence at Harvard Forest in 2012 and currently Adjunct Professor at Emerson College. Each film in the series focuses on a single individual, and features Roberto's unique writing, directing, lighting, camera and editing concepts. To learn more, visit:  www.robertomighty.com

Please Touch opening reception!

"I am for an art... that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum."
-Claes Oldenburg

Check out the opening reception slideshow from Please Touch, the debut show of the sixteen diverse and talented illustration graduates of 2013 at the Art Institute of Boston.




The focus of the show is to reintroduce illustration to consumers not just as drawings in books and magazines, but as objects to be experienced. In the past fifteen years we have seen a change in illustration that mimics this sentiment. Illustration is leaving the page and enriching our cultural landscape.



View all photos from installation to opening reception here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annajobeck/collections/72157633597878044/

We chose to create this shop to share our creations with the viewer and invite them to inspect, enjoy, and take the work home, as opposed to viewing it temporarily from a comfortable distance. Pop-up shops are perfect for limited edition products from niche retailers, such as artists. We also love our work, and want it to live and thrive outside of our view. So please, touch.

The curator would like to thank Susan LeVan and Keith MacLelland for their patience, guidance, and support. Thank you to Andrew Mroczek, Fred Levy, Santiago Hernandez, Joe Schwab, Erich Shafer, and Matthew Cherry for humoring my often odd requests and helping me along the way. Thanks to Cambridge Arts Council, for helping spread our message. And lastly thank you, fellow illustration graduates of AIB, for without you, my college education would have been far less entertaining!

Boston Bruins off the leash!

After a historic 2013 Stanley Cup Playoff Game 7 comeback - DIG Boston unleashes the Bruins Beast! AIB Adjunct Ryan Maguire's illustration attacks the Boston news stands and rallys the the Black n' Gold! Grab yourself a copy today. Good luck Boston - Play Strong! #Attack #LetsGoBruins

"Art of the Line" new works by Marietta Apollonio

AIB Illustration alumni Marietta Apollonio '02, will have new work featured at the opening of "art of the line" at the Dedham Square Artist Guild on June 1st. Apollonio helped found the DSAG in October 2011. The show will run for the month of June and will include all new pieces. Congratulations and goodluck!

GUTS Community Art Program

Do you have GUTS: Growth, Unity, Tolerance and Strength?

AIB Illustration Alumni Ryan Maguire '98 launched the GUTS Community Art Program to to engage and inspire participants to share their emotions through visual communication and narrative.

A few weeks ago the students from the Broad Rock Elementary School (RI) participated in GUTS Imagination exercises, directed by Robin Wildman.

The Broad Rock Elementary students made art and asked questions!

Why did you make this book?
GUTS was written and illustrated during my first contact period at the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School MFA in Illustration Program. GUTS is an original story about facing the feelings that live inside all of us.   Acknowledging and coping with one’s emotions can be difficult for children and adults.   The GUTS story helps to engage the reader to think about their feelings and the impact they have on their lives and environment. I had recieved a AIB Faculty Grant to independently publish the first edition of books. "GUTS, the story of You" is now avaible as an eBook on iTunes.




Why did you choose these feelings?
Like many people have experienced, my parents went through a divorce.   As a child, it was an extremely difficult time for me to understand the emotions that I was feeling towards my parents and the impact they had on my family.  Anger became a dominant emotion that was difficult to control, often leading to self abuse, negative behavior, fights, and bullying.

Inspired by my own childhood and the difficulties of controlling my emotions, I wanted to tell a story that all ages could read and associate with.  GUTS is the story of a small black dot who encounters various feelings, we all share, for the first time.



Preview the Guts story here


How come the feelings and emotions look the way they do? Why did you choose to draw them that way?
The illustrations made for GUTS were inspired by Paleolithic cave paintings by primitive humans and CDB!, a children’s book written and illustrated by William Steig. 

Primitive cave painting told the stories of early life on earth through mark making on cave walls.  Painted with mineral pigments or scratched directly onto surface, the artists illustrated human figures, animals, and abstract signs.  Through mark-making and cave painting, some of the earliest activities and thoughts of mankind are depicted.

Inspired by primitive techniques, the GUTS character illustrations were explored using ink and spit on paper.  Various value structures and surface textures were achieved by drawing marks with ink and then licking my finger to rub and distort the medium, resulting in a minimal graphic aesthetic that simplifies complex human emotions into bold and unique expressions.





Why didn't you use color in the pictures?
The final illustrations capture the essence of each emotion, in black and white, creating unique characters that are open for personal interpretation and transcend across time, language, and culture.







William Steig’s book CDB! was shown in our children’s book course as a published example by program faculty Dennis Nolan.   CDB! is a illustrated children’s book by Willaim Steig, published in 1968 by Simon & Schuster.  Each illustration in CDB! is accompanied by a cryptic caption that uses individual letters that hint to the reader  what the illustration represents.  The title of the book “CDB!” thus translates to “See (CEE) The (DEE) Bee (BEE)!”

Steig’s creative decision to simplify the picture’s caption to only single letter combinations challenges the reader to use their imagination to figure out what the text and illustration were depicting.  Steig’s contrast between type and image generates a unique reading experience that is entertaining and educational.



Steig’s unorthodox storytelling inspired me to write a narrative that was simple and direct in contrast to characters that were abstract and cryptic.  The GUTS story challenges the reader to interpret abstract illustrations, representing core human emotions we all share and experience, and inspire the reader to imagine what their own feelings may look like.

Why is YOU the smallest character?
I wouldn't say YOU is small, but rather a symbol of strength and balance. YOU illustrates the core inside us all. No matter what life throws at us, balance is a big part of finding peace and making progress. So despite size, YOU can make the biggest impact of them all!

Thanks to the Faculty and Students of the Broad Rock Elementary School for making art and showing their GUTS: Growth, Unity, Tolerance and Strength!

"Like" the GUTS Community Art Program
Follow on Twitter: @GutsArtProgram

“Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions by Mike Centeno

DIG Boston “Oh Cruel World” Internship Questions.
By: Mike Centeno - AIB Alumni

What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of working in the world of editorial illustration?
Two things: the dimensions of the column, and working digitally towards something that is to be printed on newsprint paper.

What was the most rewarding part of working for Dig Boston?
As silly as it sounds, it's always great seeing your piece work (or not) on the printed page. Checking the end result after it went to print, was always a great moment.

What are the three most important things you learned from this internship experience?
This particular column has it's very own set of challenges, since it's supposed to represent very specific stories with details that are very relevant to it, which have to be represented in a space of about 1.5x2 inches. So consolidating that amount of visual information into that space was the main thing I learned from.
   Other than that I would say, working within a very short time frame every week and dealing with an art director who was very proactive and invested, where the two other things I took away from the experience.


How did your training as an AIB Illustration Major best prepare you for this job?
The whole experience was made a lot easier and smoother when I worked with many of the principles taught to me at AIB. Once I had shown Scott Murry (Art Director) very clear thumbnails, sketches, and concepts from the get go, the process went very smoothly. The days I tried to circumvent my way around those first steps, it became a corrections back and forth. So the training I received at AIB was very valuable in that respect.

As a student how did you balance your internship with your academic responsibilities? 
It was tough at times, because at the time I was also working as an academic tutor at Lesley University. But overall, if I got the majority of work done during weekends it was an easy task to manage.



How did you feel knowing your illustrations were being published and seen by thousands of people in the metro-Boston area?
Like I mentioned before, it was a really great feeling knowing that, even though at a smaller column, this work was not just for and my friends or family. Even at the time I thought no one paid much attention to the space, recently I've heard a lot of people say that they remember “such and such” illustration from it, which makes it even more worthwile.

What was the strangest Oh Cruel World article you illustrated?  and… Did you do illustrations for articles that never went to print?
Every one of the articles I worked with went to print. The weirdest OCW illustration I had to do was for their sex issue that came out during Valentine's Day week. The writer was using really graphic and verbose ways to describe very nasty imagery. So the way I danced around it, was making all of them into visual metaphors and turned it into a very cute, pink and pastel bunny landscape, with loads and loads of hidden meanings.

How was it working with  Art Director, Scott Murry?
Scott was always very helpful during my time there, even when he wanted a lot of things to change about the piece, he would be really sensible about it and let me try out other stuff as well.

Help A Heart Fight! for AIB Alumni

Justin "Judd"McGill, AIB alumni '96, recently sufffered from a Thoracic Cardiac Aneurysm – McGill underwent  immediate Open Heart surgery, the survival rate for this medical emergency is less than 1%, at the amazing Boston Mass General. We are incredibly lucky to have Judd and his artwork with us today.

After a successful eight-hour surgery, which involved replacing three inches of his ascending aorta and heart valve, bio-medical replacements (parts of a cow!) were put in place. McGill came through the surgery better than anyone could have thought and doctors said he will be better than 100% when he is fully recovered.

HELP A HEART FIGHT! is a benefit to help raise funds for the McGill family - to help with medical costs, food and anything else he may need during his time of healing.

Event Information
http://justinmcgill.eventbrite.com/

LIKE Help A Heart Fight! on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HelpAHeartFightJustinJuddMcGill/

McGill will be in attendance at his upcoming exhibit, Lessons in Life, at the Oneway Gallery, Narragansett RI. On view from May 1 — MAy 26. Opening: May 4th from 6pm—9pm

From the Phoenix, with love: Clip-and-share Valentines

We are nuts about AIB Illustration Aluma, Elizabeth Siegel's Valentines Day illustration: PRINT YOUR OWN: Get this Valentines as a PDF

V-DAY PHOTOBOMB! Take a selfie with one of our Valentines and tag @bostonphoenix on Instagram, and we might publish your photo!

Read more, and get yours: http://thephoenix.com/boston/life/151497-from-the-phoenix-with-love-clip-and-share-valent/#ixzz2KsXCk1zC