done. (almost)

Done. Except for lighting, labels, and some odds and ends (plex cut to the wrong size, needing to add printed thing, etc). It's very nice. Was very rushed, but really came together. This morning 1/2 of the professional work wasn't up, none of the shelves for printed samples, and no student show. So today was productive with the help of Michael, Katie (who single-handedly hung the student show!) and Kyle.

I'm really happy with it- it's weird to stand in the place and be physically surrounded by everything that was ideas, notes, or images on websites or in magazines. I don't know why it's so different with this show, except the massive scale of it all. I really was blindsided by how different it's been from other shows that I've worked on. Now we have the reception to look forward to. I'll meet John on Thursday when he's on the panel talk and then at five is the reception.

Now, I have to wake up a bit, finish my Halloween costume and go have some fun!

half full or half empty?

Remember the panic mode from a few days ago? Totally justified. Today seemed to progress slow as molasses. I spent the entire day painting in the names of the artists, which, at the end of the day look like vinyl anyway (which would've been 2 hours work vs 10). I was yelled at by a security guard, talked to 2 classes (I try so hard to get over my fear of public speaking!) At about 7pm after feeling discouraged about the names not looking painted, I decided to paint a nice happy yellow around the statement on the title wall. As is, it looks like a crappy dried out highlighter pen went over it. I'm either fixing that tomorrow or adding orange to the subtitle and dates to try to de-crappify it. Just a boat load of negativity today and I left asking myself why the H I'm going through all this trouble for... (?)

And, I have my own illustration work waiting to be drawn as well as my robot suit for the Halloween party I hope I still make it to waiting to have the lighting system (i.e. control panel) installed.

I miss my life and feel really discouraged tonight. There's still 1/2 a show to hang, all of the shelves for the printed materials, and- oh yeah, the entire student show in the back of the space. This is why I panicked Tuesday. Grrrrrr....

Me and my big ideas

So back in January or whenever this show got approved- I decided to have huge stencils made in vinyl of all of the artists names to help delineate whose work is whose, and also to jazz up the white walls (I'm not a real fan of colored gallery walls- pretty much the only viewpoint of mine that could be construed as "conservative".

Anyway- that was a great idea then. Now that it's time to do it, it just looks like a pile of problems (is this blog turning into a place for me to whine about how much work this is?) There's the bleed factor (paint seeping under the stencil), we have to measure out all the work, figure out where the left edge is, and then install the rta ("ready to apply"- an acronym for the vinyl text), paint the names in, dry them, peel them off, install the work. But, it should look cool.

Tonight I did the test on the title- it worked great. I may change my color scheme for the show now though. It occurred to me on the way home (long after I painted on the walls of course) that I should've used orange. The identity of the show- created by Robert in Creative and Print in the school- is orange based. But then the title would be orange and the rta below it black- which is so Halloween, so maybe this is better. BUT maybe the names should all be orange instead of the 10 different colors that I've bought to do them in.

Whatevs. That's for tomorrow. For tonight is a glass of wine and a shower to wash away the drywall dust and paint in my hair.

Extreme gallery makeover

omg- flipping nuts. And Mark does this for every single show- it's mind boggling. I started the day pretty much needing to breathe into a paper bag (see the before photo). The walls were in place, but everything needed to be sanded, painted, and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned before I could bring any work in to lay out the show. So I panicked. I got to work painting, keeping my panic on the inside (except for explaining anxiety dreams to Mark or telling Neysa- our Director- when she asked how panicky I was). So we all sat down, talked through how it's do-able to restructure the gallery during every install at Glass Curtain (this is something I do not do at the other galleries). And, proceeded during the day with lots of help from the super freelancers Michael and Chelsea as well as the super work aides Nick, Greg and Kyle to go from picture A (big old mess) to picture B (clean gallery with work laid out ready to install tomorrow).

Mark has a cold and got the brunt of the worst job today- sanding drywall mud. While he was working on that, the gallery looked like there was a fog machine on (hence the dust masks and Greg's fancy shoe covers). It's probably a supreme health hazard- aside from the fact that it produces so much dust that takes so long to settle, that it took all of us a good couple hours to de-dust the gallery afterward. And Mark and his team do this for every single show- did I mention this? I find it admirable, but f-that!

Which is my way of saying thank you to everyone who helped today :)

re.....lax.....

I'm feeling a little tense. A little paranoid... Walls take time to build. three days time, it turns out. The estimates are putting me starting the install and laying out the work late Wednesday or early Thursday. This makes me have palpitations. I am the type that wants the work to be going up the first day. The forth day? Palpitations.

It'll be fine. It'll get up. It'll look great. (say aloud and repeat)

obstacles or "why I'm flippin' nuts by nancy"

So- there are logistical issues with working at Columbia. We have the whole "city is our campus" line that the admissions peoples tell new students- and that was SO true this week. Because bringing this show together involved trekking things all over the city.

So as not to bore you, here's a quick run down of what I'm talking about: work comes in to mailroom, mailroom calls me, I walk a block to the mailroom, navigate my way through the tore up sidewalk in front of the door, get the package of artwork, navigate back through the sidewalk (repeat ten times). Gather all the work out of my office, bring in the car, bring in students to help (thank you Nick and Andy), haul all the boxes to the car (in front of my office is now a no parking zone), drive the boxes to the next no parking zone to unload (repeat).

Also- trip to Ikea to get 24 steel shelves to use as magazine racks to show the printed materials on- which I'm hoping is an excellent solution to the problem of finding a way to put tear sheets and books neatly into the show. (thanks to Katie for painting them!)

And that's to say nothing of the matting. Back in summer when the show was months away and I just wanted the best artists possible, I offered to mat any unframed work. Most of these images in the show weren't created for gallery exhibition, so they aren't framed. This offer made it easier on the artists, and also made shipping less expensive. Then a couple weeks ago, when it came time to find someone to mat the work, my inner virgo came out and decided to do it all myself for fear of anyone else touching (aka ruining) these awesome works of art.

Also- trip to the hardware store to have them cut 40 something pieces of plex (thankfully I didn't get all virgo on that task)- to be picked up next week.

This week I came to regret the mat-it-yourself choice. I ordered the mat board and backing boards. Four boxes (32 x 40" in size, 32-39 pounds in weight). I then drove in, loaded them all into the car, drove home, lugged them all up to my 3rd floor walk up apartment (it was easier on my schedule to cut mats in my studio between projects than to do it at work), cut 44 mats and backing boards (my cat just learned to sit on whatever I'm doing- which made me extra glad that I left the art at work), haul all 4 boxes down again, take them into work, insert all of the art into the mats, and...done w/ that-mostly.

So now all that's left to do is re-cut a few mats, order all of the vinyl lettering, move some walls around in the gallery, paint the gallery, and install the show. Easy peasy.

Despite all of this moaning about how much work this week has been, I was so so excited to put the work in the mats (using non-adhesive, archival, safe as can be mounting strips). I am actually looking forward to installing Monday just to start to see this come together. It's been a long, long time of planning and it will be so cool to see everything DONE! And, I'll be working with Michael and Chelsea who are excellent freelance preparators and Mark who is a great wall-movin' coordinator!

Bio: Gina Triplett

Gina Triplett

Years In Industry: 10

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bio:

Gina Triplett is an illustrator living in Philadelphia, PA. Gina studied illustration at The Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore. She enjoys spending time exploring the city, sitting at cafés, playing with her dog and collaborating on paintings with her husband, Matt Curtius under the name Gina and Matt. Her clients include Target, Converse, Urban Outfitters and Chronicle Books. She is represented by Frank Sturges.

Bio: Joe Morse

Joe Morse

Years In Industry: 23

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Bio:

Joe Morse graduated from the Ontario College of Art in Fine Arts/Printmaking. He has been awarded many grants including two Elizabeth Greenshields Grants to study in Italy and Japan. He also studied in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico on a Sauza Awards Grant. He has been recognized with over 150 international awards. He is Illustrator-in-Residence for the illustration program at Sheridan College. He lives with his wife, Lorraine Tuson, and their children, Jackson and Parker Lily in Toronto. Joe has an extensive client list including Major League Baseball, Nike Europe, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The New York Times. He is represented by Sally Heflin.

Bio: Robert MacKenzie

Robert MacKenzie

Years In Industry: 10

Location: New York, New York

Bio:

Robert MacKenzie grew up in San Mateo California. He graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Illustration and Animation and has worked as a freelance Illustrator and a designer in feature films. His work has appeared in Spectrum, Communication Arts and the Society of Illustrator’s Annuals. He has worked in the art departments of Lucasfilm, PDI Dreamworks, and Blue Sky Studios. Robert’s work appears in the books; Out of Picture, Volume 1 (Villard Books), Jack and the Beanstalk (Sterling Publishers), Fly, Cher Ami, Fly (coming soon - Abrams Books). He is represented by Shannon Associates.

Bio: Aaron Jasinski

Aaron Jasinski

Years In Industry: 8

Location: Bremerton, Washington

Bio:

Aaron grew up during the 1980s in the Pacific Northwest, about an hour outside of Seattle. He received a BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young University in 2000. His art has shown in Europe and throughout the United States. He draws, paints and mixes music. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife Kristin. Aaron is represented by Shannon Associates.

Bio: Sterling Hundley

Sterling Hundley

Years In Industry: 10

Location: Apex, North Carolina

Bio:

Sterling graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1998. While still a student, Sterling was awarded the Starr Foundation scholarship through the Society of Illustrators’ National Student Scholarship Competition. During the summers of 1998 and 1999, Sterling attended the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, Missouri. Sterling has served as a juror for the Society of Illustrators, 3 x 3 Magazine, the SOI Scholarship Competition, and CMYK magazine. His clients include Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, The New Yorker, The Grammys, Major League Baseball, Scholastic, Random House, Harper Collins, and Penguin/ Putnam. Sterling is represented by Richard Soloman.

Bio: John Hendrix

John Hendrix

Years In Industry: 7

Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Bio:

John attended the University of Kansas to study graphic design and illustration. He worked as a designer for a few years and went on to attend The School of Visual Arts in New York City. While in New York, John also taught at Parsons School of Design and worked at The New York Times as Assistant Art Director of the Op-Ed page. His work has received numerous national awards, and is featured in both Illustration Now! and Images & Icons, 50 Years of Illustration. John currently teaches undergraduate illustration at Washington University. He lives in St. Louis with his beautiful bride Andrea and spunky son Jack. Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Random House, Harper Collins, Penguin and the NBA are just a few of John’s multitude of clients.

Bio: Penelope Dullaghan

Penelope Dullaghan

Years In Industry: 4

Location: Winona Lake, Indiana

Bio:

Penelope Dullaghan first ventured out on her own as an illustrator in 2004 with the creation of her blog, “Illustration Friday” – a friendly, non-competitive online community where she could chat and exchange ideas with other artists, clientele and curious visitors. Her many achievements include awards and recognition from Communication Arts, the Society of Illustrators, 3 x 3 Illustration Annual ProShow Awards, Lürzer’s Archive and 3 x 3 Magazine. Penelope has an extensive client list including; The New York Times Book Review, Harper Collins, American Greetings, United Airlines and Target. She is represtented by Scott Hull Associates.

Bio: Gérard DuBois

Gérard Dubois

Years In Industry: 17

Location: Montréal, Quebec

Bio:

Gérard DuBois was born in France in 1968. He studied graphic design in Paris for five years. He relocated to Montréal shortly after his graduation in 1989, and has worked as a freelance illustrator since. His career has been profiled by leading graphic arts publications such as Print Magazine, Communication Arts and Grafika. His illustrations have been awarded in Communication Arts, American Illustration, SPD, Folio and Print to silver and gold medals from The Society of Illustrators and The National Magazine Awards.

His original art has been exhibited internationally. A few of his many clients are; The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Playboy, The Guardian, Nike, IBM, Nordstom and Microsoft. He currently lives in Montréal, with his wife and his two children. Gérard is represented by the Marlena Agency.

Bio: Shino Arihara

Shino Arihara

Years In Industry: 10

Location: Altadena, California

Bio:

Shino Arihara was born in California and grew up in Yokohama, Japan. After returning to the U.S. with her family at age 14, she decided to become an illustrator. She then moved to Pasadena, California to attend Art Center College of Design and earned her B.A. in illustration. She illustrated her first children’s book in 2006. Shino and her husband Ken live in Altadena along with their dog, Morgan. Shino’s client list includes Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, POZ and New York University. She is represented by Gerald and Cullen Rapp.

Bio: Ofra Amit

Hello again! In alphabetical order (or reverse alphabetical order since they'll end up that way on the blog when you scroll down) This is the first of the artist's bios as listed in the exhibition catalog.

Ofra Amit

Years In Industry: 8

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Bio:

Ofra Amit graduated from Wizo Canada Institute of Design in Haifa, Israel. She has illustrated books, picture books, theater posters and has contributed to magazines and newspapers. Her work has earned awards from Communication Arts, Applied Arts, Israel Museum, the Society of Illustrators Annual and more. Ofra paints mostly with acrylic on paper or wood.

Have you been?

...to the artists websites:

Ofra Amit

Shino Arihara

Gérard DuBois

Penelope Dullaghan

Aaron Jasinski

John Hendrix

Sterling Hundley

Robert MacKenzie

Joe Morse

Gina Triplett

Time for Penelope to fly

Penelope and the tummy baby left today. We had another great dinner out, and she did a great job with the workshop kids. It was so good to meet her- if you ever have the chance, I highly recommend it!

Tomorrow I start matting all of the work for the show. Lots and lots and lots of matting (40 pieces including the workshop stuff). I have a feeling that the next couple weeks will go by pretty quickly!

sneak peek

Last night we went to dinner with Penelope, our gallery director Neysa, and Debra and Ivan from Art and Design. It was great to get everyone together since Penelope is only here for a few days and is teaching the bulk of the time- this was really everyone's only opportunity to meet while she's here.

It was a great night with wonderful conversation. After dinner I took Penelope and Ivan Brunetti (who is also a great comic artist) along with my husband Davey to see the work that's arrived so far for the show. Penelope won't be able to make it back to Chicago for the exhibit, so this was her only opportunity to see the work that will be shown along with hers.

It was so great for me to look at everything with her, Ivan and Davey. I had privately geeked out on everything since its arrival, but had not as yet had that chance to have other illustration-appreciating peoples to look at it with and discuss it with.

Everyone was awestruck by the talent, ability and techniques that the artists use. There are some surprises in seeing the work in person too. From having seen the artwork in print, you gather your own assumptions about scale, media, texture, etc. Having the physical pieces in front of us, there are times where everything you thought about the piece from seeing it printed wasn't accurate. There were some that we thought would be a lot bigger or smaller, some that we had thought were digital (that aren't), surface surprises, etc. I loved having conversations with everyone last night about the work, particularly getting Penelope's perspective because she's such a great artist herself.

Davey is in the music business and at the end of the night articulated something that i had been really impressed with as well. He said that it was so good to be around artists who can look at and appreciate another person's work the way that everyone did last night. Penelope is massively successful, and showed no signs at all of ego or anything but pure love of art and appreciation for everyone's skills. It is really refreshing to see someone that doesn't get threatened or competitive but can look at really beautiful work and appreciate it as such. I guess that's a sign of being really good at what you do, and of being in it for the right reasons. I'm so glad that she made the trip here.

Gérard's work arrives and Penelope the person arrives

Yesterday was a busy day! Since Penelope is teaching a workshop for the Art and Design department, they were kind enough to put her up in their apartment. Which is in one of the dorm buildings and has the best deck off of the dining room upstairs (yup, it's 2 levels!) The photo of the skyline here was taken from the deck. You can also see the lake from the other side, it's really a cool flat.

I don't have pics of Penelope- you'll have to take my word for it for now that she showed up :) This is primarily b/c we spent all of our time together in traffic on the way back to campus, and I don't usually take photos while driving (usually). But, I'll see her again tonight and document our visit. We'll be going to dinner with my gallery Director and some Art and Design faculty who worked with me to bring her here for teaching. Should be fun. We're also going to try to have a sneek peek at the work for the show as everyone else is as excited to see it as I am (esp Penelope- who is SUCH a nice person).

The other photos here are of a few of Gérard's pieces. I was so excited to get them, they're beautiful in person! Also, the USA in Red piece (shown here in poor lighting on my desk) is particularly apt at the moment in this country. It's funny that it was made back in 2005 and is probably even more relevant now. Also, he was kind enough to send along a signed exhibition catalog that is gorgeous! To see the image in better light and more of Gérard's brilliant work- you can either come to the show, visit his website, or preferably, both!

http://www.gdubois.com/2008/index.html

By the way, I have recieved work from 6 other artists that were equally amazing- I got those in before I started the blog, but will most assuredly gush about them all individually here soon!

Shipping and Receiving

Hello, and welcome to my documentation of the Paint for Print Exhibition. I didn't want to bog my personal blog down with nothing but exhibition updates (or conversely bore exhibit readers with my own work and dramas). So, TA DA! Here you go, all of the updates about the show and process of putting it together shall be chronicled here for your reading pleasure.

This image is "look within" by Robert MacKenzie. The designer in our Creative department selected it for the postcard which I was very happy for. For one, I LOVE it, I remember it being in the CommArts annual a few years ago and it (along with the rest of the series) stopping me in my tracks as I paged through the magazine. The other reason that I'm glad someone else did the selecting, is that I have 47 favorite images from the show (i.e. all of them), so I would've had a really hard time selecting!

Today we are exactly 4 weeks away from the opening reception which artist John Hendrix will be attending (very excited to meet him). Today is also the day that I brave rush hour traffic to pick up artist Penelope Dullaghan from the airport. I'm excited to meet her, as I've loosely followed her blog and Illustration Friday posts and she seems like a swell gal (in addition to a great illustrator).

I need to run to the mailroom and pick up Gérard DuBois' work, there was a mix up in shipping and I want to have it tucked away safe and sound in my office and let him know that the work safely made the trip. So rather than going into all of the details about the work that's already here and how much I love it, I shall just post the official blurb about the show in case you're finding yourself here and don't know what it is that I'm talking about w/ the show.

thanks for reading, hope to see you at the show soon!
~n

Paint for Print:
Contemporary Illustration, Traditional Media

November 3 – December 19, 2008
Reception: Thursday, November 6, 5-8 pm

Paint for Print is an exhibition of some of today’s leading professional illustrators who work in painting mediums. In our digitized culture with its proliferation of vector images and photo illustrations, the work in Paint for Print is a
reflection of the emotive quality present in hand-painted artwork.

The featured artists are at the forefront of the recent
resurgence in the popularity of illustration in visual
communications. Their work has appeared in every major design and illustration review including Communication Arts, HOW, The Society of Illustrators, and the book series Illustration Now.

Paint For Print features original illustrations by Ofra Amit, Shino Arihara, Gérard DuBois, Penelope Dullaghan, John Hendrix, Sterling Hundley, Aaron Jasinski, Robert MacKenzie, Joe Morse and Gina Triplett.