September 2, 2015
by alice.stanne
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August 24, 2015
by alice.stanne
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Professor Irena Roman’s original watercolors created for the children’s book A Mother’s Wish (Harper Collins, 2006) have been acquired by The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for their permanent collection of contemporary illustration.
Deputy Director/Chief Curator Stephanie Plunkett states the museum “looks forward to preserving and presenting all twenty five paintings for many years to come.” The watercolors will be on display in the Rockwell’s new acquisitions gallery later this season.
August 3, 2015
by alice.stanne
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Congratulations to recent grad Jess Mathis (BFA ’15), whose piece ‘The Price of Pets’ was selected as one of the winners of Applied Arts Magazine’s annual student competition! Composed of plaster, recycled fiber, bamboo skewers, recycled cardboard, acrylic & dollar bills, Jess’s piece focuses on the true cost of bird trade, specifically, parrots.
June 23, 2015
by alice.stanne
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For the second year in a row, Irena Roman’s Freelance class had the privilege of collaborating with Worcester Magazine. This year’s assignment was to create a cover illustration for their popular and collectible Summer Guide.
Congratulations to winner Mel Stocker for her fun and colorful beach scene!
Also, congratulations to everyone in the class!
Even though the original plan was to publish just one cover illustration, art director Kim Vasseur said “The work was so amazing, we had to share all of it with the readers.”
So every image (along with a bio of each artist) was published throughout the guide, several as full-page illustrations!
May 11, 2015
by alice.stanne
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Award-winning illustrator, Anita Kunz, will receive an Honorary Degree from MassArt this year, and will speak at commencement.
Anita was greatly inspired by her uncle, who was an illustrator, and would influence her in making the decision to follow in his footsteps. He sadly died when she was 13, but she decided to go to art school, to follow her dream. She graduated Ontario College of Art in 1978. Since then Anita Kunz has lived in London, New York and Toronto, contributing to magazines and working for design firms, book publishers and advertising agencies internationally.
Anita’s portfolio has included producing cover art for many magazines including Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Magazine. She has also illustrated more than fifty book jacket covers, and has shown her work at a number of galleries internationally.
In the fall of 2003 she was the first woman and the first Canadian to have a solo show at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Later, in spring of 2007 Anita gave a short presentation about her New Yorker covers at the prestigious TED conference in Monterey California.
Anita has been named one of the fifty most influential women in Canada by the National Post newspaper.
In the past 10 years, Kunz has produced a body of work best described as personal work, which is now shown in galleries. She has recently received an honorary doctorate from the Ontario college of Art and Design in Toronto, and has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor.
Anita has also received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal of Honour for her work.
May 11, 2015
by alice.stanne
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Wednesday, May 6th was a jam-packed day for the Illustration seniors!
Their final portfolio review took place from 3-5PM in the Trustee’s Room and Portfolio Night followed in the President’s Gallery from 6-8PM.
An impressive group of twenty art-buying professionals from a variety of markets reviewed the work, giving advice and suggestions to each senior from their particular area of expertise.
Overall, the professionals were very impressed by the class of 2015, mentioning several times that the work was quite strong.
Following the review, the evening celebration began. The seniors moved to what quickly became a crowded President’s Gallery, meeting and greeting invited guests, family, MassArt alums, and friends.
In addition, Departmental Awards were presented to both seniors and juniors. The recipients included:
Pollinger/Bourke Award – Eleanor Norton
Floyd Covert Award – Zachary Chomyszak
Faculty Shadowbox Award – Krista Perry
Calvin Burnett Award – Jennifer Rea
Tom O’Hara Award – Melissa Stocker
Senior Faculty Awards
Emma Rickert
Jessica Mathis
Kristen Lee
Julia Emiliani
You Take the Cake Award
Kate Pinelli
Junior Faculty Awards
Eileen McIntire
Diego Chaves
Choohyun Chung
Join us in congratulating our graduating class of 2015!
All photos by Scott Bakal
May 8, 2015
by alice.stanne
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This semester, Polly Becker’s Junior Illustration class worked an assignment exploring and interpreting the idea of a 21st Century Tarot Deck. The results were a set of diverse and beautiful Tarot cards for our times.
Cards created by students: Diego Chaves, Delia Durgin, Brittany Flaherty, Amanda Gallagher, Amanda Gibson, Elise Guillen, Deirdre Little, Christopher Lundquist, Victoria Maxfield, Abby McAllister, Robin Namini, Nicholas Selby, and Lauren Wendell.
May 7, 2015
by alice.stanne
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Each semester Bob Maloney’s Experimental Illustration class collaborates with the DIG Boston on a seasonal themed Dig This illustration assignment. Last semester’s pieces themed around the changing of seasons from Autumn to Winter. This semester the assignment involved spring customs, traditions, stories and myths from different cultures around the world.
Congratulations to Lauren Thomaz, whose piece was published in the Dig This section of the paper!
Scroll through the slideshow to see more the student work that was created for this assignment:
May 4, 2015
by alice.stanne
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On April 22nd, guest artist Dan Blakeslee visited MassArt and gave a presentation of his work to Mark Reusch’s section of Sophomore Illustration and Lisa Kennedy’s Digital Illustration class. Dan’s a well-known New England artist and musician, and has created hundreds of concert and event posters, as well as illustrations for the book, advertising, and snowboard industries.
Dan’s most iconic image in recent years is the “Hearts Over Boston” scratchboard illustration he created on the day of the Boston Marathon bombings. After posting it on Facebook, it was shared countless times and became an emblem of Boston’s spirit in the wake of the tragedy. Working with local screenprinters, including MassArt alum Dave DiAngelis’ Emulsion Apparel, the illustration was reproduced on t-shirts and signed prints that raised $20,000 for the One Fund.
Dan’s talk dealt with his experiences as a Maryland illustration student during the 90s, to his first freelance jobs, and his later work for Burton Snowboards, the Alchemist Brewery in Vermont, and designing cd covers. The MassArt illustration students got to view Dan’s process work for many assignments, as well as several of his hand-drawn alphabet fonts.
April 27, 2015
by alice.stanne
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