Monday, November 17, 2008

The catalog









This is the exhibition catalog. I have awkwardly posted it here (can't get the pdf to link up to the blog) b/c there seems to be a northern version of the bermuda triangle that sucks up anything I post to Canada (i.e. GĂ©rard and Joe never seem to get my mail!) Perhaps it's stuck in line at border security (?). The actual catalog is a 9 x 12 tri-fold, so viewing it in single pages is a bit awkward- but you get to see the content regardless! Enjoy!

Friday, November 7, 2008

panel and reception night








The panel and reception went great. The previous post was my take on it after having drank a bit of gallery wine- it is important information though.

The panel was moderated by Caroline Cook Juhlin who works in the Portfolio Center to bring students together with industry people. As a photographer and former photo rep, she knows everyone and is really good at getting people in to talk to students. Steve Munro is an artist's rep from the firm Munro Campagna. He had a great take on how artists should go about getting a rep and getting work. John Hendrix was there for it, he gave some really insightful info (companies wanting rights to media not yet invented?!). Liz Miller-Gershfeld is the Head Art Buyer at Energy BBDO and was great to meet. She really came across as someone who is inundated with mailers and promos all day and yet still cares and still wants to comb through and see everyone's work. Dan Bruce is a Group Creative Director and only hires art directors who can draw (which I thought was refreshing!). He also stressed that he is not the target for illustration mailings and promos as he has zero time to look at them or space for them. The consensus seemed to be to have a strong portfolio, send mailers to art buyers and have a strong online presence. Good info. We recorded it- both the audio and video, and will start to work on getting it online either through here, the Portfolio Center or perhaps youtube (?) I'll update this w/ the location of the video once it's up.

The reception went good as well. The weather (rainy and crap) put a bit of a damper on the attendance, but particularly earlier on it was a good crowd. At the very end of the night a class came in (applied drawing) that was SO interested in the work and so appreciative of seeing that everything is perfect and in its final stage on the walls and was all done by hand with no digi tools :)

John attended the reception as well and had the best time of his life (this is just my inference- but I'm pretty sure that was the case). His lovely wife and future baby came to the party as well (seen here). I was really glad that they could make the drive from St. Louis in and that the students and attendees got a chance to meet him and talk shop.

I had a great time. I'm happy to have done the show (despite any conclusions you may have drawn from last week's posts). It may be a bit on the selfish side, but I've gotten a lot out of it :) Hopefully other peoples do too!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hardly any degrees of separation





Okay, so I should probably be posting pics of our highly successful panel talk featuring the super nice and talented artist John Hendrix and the equally pleasant, articulate wonderful panelists Liz, Steve and Dan. Or I could show pics of the people who came to the reception- and I will.

But- tonight I have to say I walked away with a funny thought. Back when I was researching bios for the artists, I saw that Robert MacKenzie had worked on a Harry Potter movie. I am always excited when I find the actual lineage of a degree of separation, and there was a huge one. I heart Harry Potter. And there it was. Me to Robert. Robert to Harry Potter (or to someone to someone to Harry).

And John establishes 2 more. Really one more, but kinda two. My husband worked on a My Chemical Romance project featuring James Dewees of the Get Up Kids who I LOVED for years. (me to Davey to James to Get Up Kids-btw- this pic is one of James holding a sign that says "hi Nancy" from when Davey worked with him- he made James do that which Davey is so great for making him do!) Well, there are two roads to TGUK now! John went to school with Travis Millard who did the covers of Something to Write Home About and On a Wire (by TGUK). So cool.

AND also- John worked at the New York Times and met the puzzle master himself- Will Shortz! (me to John to Will Shortz).

So yeah. Super f-ing cool. And those are just the ones that I know about. I'm sure through the other 8 artists there are even more shortcuts to my favorite things (Terry Gross? Jim Henson? Obama? Oprah? Morrissey? The possibilities are endless!) Just more reasons why these artists are superfly coolio! (as if the work isn't enough!)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

dust off your party clothes!



Don't forget to press your best suit and polish your dress-up heels, the reception is Thursday!!!

Here are the details:

Paint for Print: Contemporary Illustration, Traditional Media
Glass Curtain Gallery
1104 S Wabash, 1st floor
Chicago, IL
5:00 pm-8:00 pm

Also, if you have the day off, there's the not to be missed panel talk earlier in the day featuring JOHN HENDRIX live and in person , along with Liz Miller-Gershfeld (Head Art Buyer Energy BBDo), illustration rep Steve Munro (Munro Campagna), and moderated by Caroline Cook Juhlin. That info is:

Paint for Print Panel
Conaway Center
1104 S Wabash, 1st floor
Chicago, IL
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

See you there!