Author Archives: Anna Macaulay

Lynda Weinman, Shepard Fairey and Spencer Nikosey on Campus for this Thursday’s 3×3 Presentation

Each term, Art Center’s Graphic Design Department hosts a 3×3 presentation in which three creative professionals are invited to speak on a particular topic.

This Thursday, the Art Center Community is invited to hear stories from three pioneers who have created reality from their dreams and gone on to influence design, culture, art, technology and fashion worldwide.

The speakers are:

Shepard Fairey, Artist, Activist and Founder, OBEY GIANT ART and Studio Number One

Lynda Weinman, Co-Founder and Executive Chair, lynda.com

Spencer Nikosey, Founder, KILLSPENCER

Moderated by Petrula Vrontikis

3×3: Creative Entrepreneurs
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Ahmanson Auditorium
Art Center College of Design
Hillside Campus
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, CA 91505

FREE; no reservations required.

Lynda Weinman, co-founder and executive chair of lynda.com, is a self-taught computer expert, author, educator, and entrepreneur. Before launching lynda.com, she was a faculty member at Art Center College of Design and worked as an animator and motion graphics director in the film special effects industry. Lynda has also been a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at those organizations in addition to Disney. She, along with her husband and co-founder Bruce Heavin, evolved lynda.com from its original concept as a free web resource for her students, to the site for her books on Web design, to the registration hub for physical classrooms and conferences, to a highly successful online training library. lynda.com

Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston, SC in 1970. He received his B.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. While at R.I.S.D. he created the Andre the Giant as a Posse sticker that transformed into the OBEY GIANT art campaign with imagery that has changed the way people see art and the urban landscape. His work has evolved into an acclaimed body of art which includes the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama which can be found in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait gallery. Since the beginning of his career in 1989 he has exhibited in galleries and museums around the around the world, indoor and outdoor. His works are in the permanent collections of the MOMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Boston ICA and many others. For more information, visit obeygiant.com

Spencer Nikosey launched his premium bag and luggage brand KILLSPENCER at his Art Center grad-show in 2008. Handcrafting functional Weekender Bags, Backpacks, and Messenger Bags out of used-in-combat military truck tarps and vintage Korean War Era fabrics caught the attention of bloggers and instantly kickstarted an online following and customer base. Soon, demand increased and local production became problematic. Frustrated with the lack of quality and attention to detail in local factories, Spencer decided to assemble a team of master craftsmen and build his own Workshop in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District. Today, Spencer and his team of passionate creatives designs, develops, manufactures and ships their products globally, proudly made in U.S.A. killspencer.com

Meet the Woman Behind the “Girls of ID” Student Organization

Laura Jonason started the Girls of ID student organization about three terms into her studies in the Transportation Design program at Art Center to connect all the women in the department. She wasn’t surprised to be part of a very small minority but she thought, after growing up a tomboy and working for 8 years in a myriad of jobs before coming to Art Center, she wouldn’t find it to be a problem. After a few terms being the only woman in her class, however, she began to feel a little isolated and wanted to reach out to other women in her major. “It is hard for men and women to be friends with each other in the same way they are with their own gender and it can be lonely being the only girl in a class full of guys.” Laura founded the student organization so that women in industrial design majors who are similarly grappling with that kind of isolation have somewhere to go. The Girls of ID offers these women a place to find camaraderie.

The Girls of ID. Courtesy Laura Jonason

It’s not the first time Laura has looked for ways to connect women. Prior to Art Center, while working at Circuit City, Laura founded a similar group for women who wanted to pursue leadership positions. One of the things they would talk about is that as a woman you can’t act the same way a man does and get the same reaction. They used an analogy about how to react in boiling water – you don’t want to be a carrot that gets limp and soft and you don’t want to be an egg that hardens – you want to be coffee because it mixes with the boiling water and becomes something good.

On women in Transportation Design:

“We need female car designers. Everybody has a unique design perspective and adding gender into that mix can only help. Today’s woman really wants something La Femme Nikita – we want to be powerful and sexy.”

About the Girls of ID mentor, Product Design Department Chair Karen Hofmann:

“Karen  is awesome. It is really great to have a teacher and mentor who is a woman. You can go to her with questions about what it is like as a woman to work in a male-dominated industry. Currently there are no female Trans teachers so it is really wonderful to be able to go to her.”

About being a mentor:

“People come to me and tell me about someone who could use the support of our group. Trans faculty will let me know if they see a female student who is struggling and some of the men will also let me know if there is a girl in their class who looks like she could use a friend.”

About automotive interior design:

“Before coming to Art Center I was interested in designing interiors – how long have cars been around and we still don’t have a place to put a purse? After starting at Art Center, however, I fell in love with form and now I’m focusing on exteriors.”

The Girls of ID meet three times each term. At the beginning of the term, they have a picnic or potluck that includes students and alumni from Art Center as well as Cal State Long Beach and Cal Poly. Sometime around midterms they get together in a classroom with snacks and drinks to work on projects and socialize. At the end of each term they go out to dinner.

For more information about the Girls of ID and any other student group, see the Center for the Student Experience.

ArtNight Pasadena!

Enjoy a free evening of art, music and entertainment as Pasadena’s most prominent arts and cultural institutions swing open their doors tonight, Friday, March 9. Last fall, 14,000 people experienced the excitement of ArtNight Pasadena. Don’t miss the fun this time!

Begin your journey at any one of the 12 participating cultural institutions, where free shuttles will be waiting to transport you to your next destination.

Art Center is featuring The History of Space Photography, the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind ever organized, in the Williamson Gallery. The student gallery will also be open, where you can glimpse the future and see visionary works by our young artists and designers. There will also be a special rehearsal of John Cage’s 4’33”
(no. 2) (0’00”) by the Southwest Chamber Music at 7 pm in the Williamson.

Other participating venues are Alliance Française de Pasadena, the Armory Center for the Arts, artWORKS, Lineage Dance, the Norton Simon Museum, the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena City College, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Pasadena Museum of History, Shumei Arts Council, and the Side Street Projects.

ArtNight is an ongoing partnership among many cultural institutions and the Cultural Affairs Division of the City of Pasadena. The event is sponsored by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission with support from the following: Pasadena Department of Transportation Transit Division; Los  Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority; Pasadena Center Operating Company.

FREE SHUTTLES
Free shuttles will loop throughout the evening with stops at each venue. Park at any one venue and ride to the others.

ARTS BUS
Pasadena ARTS Route 10 runs along Colorado Boulevard and Green Street until 8 p.m.
For more information about the Arts Bus, see cityofpasadena.net/artsbus.

METRO GOLD LINE
Attend ArtNight by taking the Metro Gold Line to Pasadena. Check metro.net for information.

ARTNIGHT BICYCLE TOURS
For more information, visit cicle.org.

For information on ArtNight, please call the ArtNight Pasadena Hotline at 626.744.7887 or visit artnightpasadena.org.

Irene Vermeers, Art Center’s First School Photographer

Irene Vermeers, circa 1936. Gift of Irene Vermeers PHOT '37.

Guest post by Art Center Archivist Robert Dirig

This week for Women’s History Month we spotlight one of Art Center’s earliest students and the College’s first school photographer, Irene (Gutterman) Vermeers.

Irene was a Photography major who graduated from Art Center in 1937.

Working as the school photographer to help pay tuition, Vermeers documented Art Center’s faculty, students, student work and classes across all academic departments.

A number of her images appeared in the 1937 catalog, including her portrait of a man, which can be seen on this page from the 1937 catalog showcasing Photography Department student work.

1937 Art Center catalog (click to enlarge).

Continue reading →

“Teaching Artists: the Hollywood Way” – Thierry de Duve to speak at Art Center’s Graduate Art Seminar

By addressing everyone as if each person were a lover of art, indeed, an artist, we liberate desire and enthusiasm. – Thierry de Duve

Thierry de Duve, internationally renowned theorist, critic and educator on modern and contemporary art will be speaking on campus Tuesday, March 6 at 7:30 pm as part of Art Center’s Graduate Art Seminar. De Duve’s research and writing focus on a reinterpretation of modernism. Marcel Duchamp’s readymade and its implications for aesthetics have long been a central subject of his work.

De Duve is the author of a number of books including Look, 100 Years of Contemporary Art (2001), Kant after Duchamp (1998), Clement Greenberg Between the Lines (1996), Pictorial Nominalism; On Marcel Duchamp’s Passage from Painting to the Readymade (1991) and was a contributing writer for Held Together with Water: Artwork from the Verbund Collection (2007). His publications include numerous catalogues and articles.

He curated the exhibition Look, 100 Years of Contemporary Art at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels (2000) and was responsible for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003. De Duve is professor of aesthetics and art history in the Fine Arts Department at Université Lille III in Villeneuve d’Ascq, France. He has held visiting professorships at the Sorbonne in Paris, France and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Johns Hopkins University, and was the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Distinguished Visiting Professor in Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has been a Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and The Clark art institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

The Graduate Art Seminar at Art Center  welcomes internationally recognized artists, critics, art historians, architects, filmmakers and writers to Pasadena to share their insights into the world of contemporary art. The seminar—a core component of Art Center’s Graduate Art program—takes place Tuesday evenings throughout the term and is free and open to the general public.

For a full list of speakers, please visit the Grad Art website.

Get Involved! Make Friends! Join a Club or Organization at Art Center

The life of an Art Center student can be stressful. Find a group of people who share your passion and understand your stress by joining a club or organization. The Center for the Student Experience sponsors and supports twenty-five different student clubs and organizations. Students had an opportunity to check out all the clubs and organizations at the Club & Organization Fair last Wednesday in the Cafeteria. It is not too late to join even if you missed the fair. Please visit the Center for the Student Experience to find out how to contact any of the clubs or organizations.

Students getting together on Cafe Lawn. Photo: Juan Posada/Art Center College of Design

Here brief descriptions of this term’s registered clubs and organizations:

  • Art Center Chinese Student Association – the Chinese Student Association (CSA) exists to bring together the Chinese student community at Art Center. CSA holds a series of social and peer mentor related events throughout the term that enhance the student experience.

  • Art Center Christian Fellowship – The purpose of the Art Center Christian Fellowship is twofold: to provide a place on campus for the body of Christians and all interested people to grow in community, share their struggles, pray, worship and discuss biblical ideas; and to engage the greater Art Center community in dialogue about the convergence of art, design and spirituality.
  • Art Center Indie — Art Center Indie’s aim is to explore the world of Indie film making (past, recent, and current) through regular screenings at various locations in homes or in theaters.
  • Assa – Korean students at Art Center join together to build relationships, share information and explore their common culture. ASSA helps students strengthen their self-awareness and individuality, and also assists students in making connections.

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Graduate Art Seminar Brings Distinguished Speakers from the International Art World to Art Center

Tuesdays. 7:30 pm. Los Angeles Times Media Center.

Currently underway, the Graduate Art Seminar at Art Center  welcomes internationally recognized artists, critics, art historians, architects, filmmakers and writers to Pasadena to share their insights into the world of contemporary art. The seminar—a core component of Art Center’s Graduate Art program—takes place Tuesday evenings throughout the term and is free and open to the general public.

Carroll Dunham, Tree with Red Flowers 2009. Mixed media on canvas, 75 x 90 inches. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery

Acclaimed Vancouver photographer Jeff Wall launched the series this term, with a roster of distinguished artists to follow, including noted philosopher, theorist and University of Lille professor Thierry de Duve (March 6); City University of New York’s Distinguished Professor Wayne Kostenbaum, the poet and celebrated author of such provocative titles as The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire; Jackie Under My Skin, and the newly released The Anatomy of Harpo Marks; (April 9*), and painter Carroll Dunham, who will speak on the occasion of a survey of his drawings at L.A.s Blum & Poe Gallery(April 17).

The series culminates with a special symposium titled “Changing the World” spearheaded by one of today’s most influential thinkers Alain Badiou (May 19). Badiou will be joined in conversation by noted professors Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA), Nathan Brown (UC Davis) and Jason E. Smith (Art Center).

For a full list of speakers, please visit the Grad Art website.

*Wayne Kostenbaum’s seminar will take place on a Monday

We Took Action: Art Center’s Second Successful Day of Service to the Community

Volunteers Receiving Instruction before working for Arroyo Seco Foundation. Photo Lucia Loiso/Art Center College of Design

Continuing a volunteer initiative launched in celebration of the College’s 80th Anniversary in 2010—and in support of the National Day of Service inspired by the life of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.—Art Center is proud to sponsor its second day of service.

“Art Center Takes Action: A Day of Service in Pasadena” kicked-off at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 18 at the College’s South Campus with a breakfast with College Provost Fred Fehlau and representatives from participating organizations. Volunteers picked up commemorative tee-shirts and mingled with leaders from the community organizations. “Designers, while expressing their own points of view, are also always working in service of others. This day is just an extension of what we as a community do all the time,” Mr. Fehlau told the group at the breakfast.

Moving Mulch for the Pasadena Boys & Girls Club. Photo Lucia Loiso/Art Center College of Design

From there, teams of Art Center volunteers grabbed a boxed lunch and were dispatched to locations around the city to take on such tasks as collecting food, facilities improvement, environmental cleanup, beautification projects and special activities.

Working in the garden of the Pasadena Boys & Girls Club. Photo Lucia Loiso/Art Center College of Design

Working in the garden of the Pasadena Boys & Girls Club. Photo Lucia Loiso/Art Center College of Design

We were reminded of President Lorne Buchman’s remarks at our first Day of Service, “when the Art Center community comes together to participate in volunteer initiatives such as this, we help elevate Art Center’s reputation not only as a good neighbor, but as a meaningful place to pursue an art and design education.”

Volunteers visited with the residents at the Villa Gardens Retirement Community, helped beautify the The Boys & Girls Club of Pasadena, removed invasive plant species from near Art Center for the Arroyo Seco Foundation and acquired goods and donations for the AIDS Service Center.

Volunteers came from the ranks of students, faculty and staff. All those involved expressed great satisfaction in being able to help the community in some way.

“In reaching out to local organizations—even more than those that participated in the Day of Service—we’ve already begun to build a volunteer network for future collaborations,” said Dean of Students Jeffrey Hoffman.

AIDS Service Center Food Drive. Photo Lucia Loiso/Art Center College of Design

Designmatters Projects Clean Up at the Spark Awards

Three Designmatters projects from Safe Agua Peru are among the winners for The Spark: Concept Fall Winter Awards: GiraDora: Safe Agua won the highest ranking SPARK! Award; Balde a Balde: Safe Agua won a Gold Award; and Vitamigos: Safe Agua won a Bronze Award.

GiraDora, Student team: Alex Cabunoc / Ji A You

GiraDora, by students Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You, is a human-powered washer and spin dryer that increases efficiency and improves the experience of hand-washing clothes. For under $40, GiraDora more than doubles productivity, increases health of women and children, and affords the opportunity to begin breaking the poverty cycle. The user sits on top of the drum-like appliance and pumps a pedal with her foot, which agitates, cleans, rinses, then spins-dries clothes. While providing a more comfortable, ergonomic, and efficient way to clean clothes, GiraDora also affords opportunities to generate income.

Balde a Balde, by students Kimberly Chow and Carlos Vides provides running water from any bucket, maximizing cleanliness while optimizing water use.  Nearly half of the world lives without access to running water. Balde a Balde (Spanish for “Bucket to Bucket”) is a portable faucet that provides running water from any container, bringing the health benefits and experience of using a tap to families living without running water. The user attaches Balde a Balde to any container with a universal clip, then begins a continuous flow of water with just a few squeezes of the siphon pump. Users can easily control the exact amount of water they need, with a simple click of the on/off spout or a twist of the valve to regulate flow. Balde a Balde harnesses gravity to bring the dignity of running water to the 3 billion people living without taps.

Balde a Balde, Student team: Kimberly Chow / Carlos Vides

Vitamigos, by students Thomas Kong and Cora Neil, combines water purification and nutrition in a tasty beverage. Kids want it, mom’s love it! For the 1 in 6 people living without access to potable water, purification methods are costly, time-consuming, and often inconsistent. Kids often end up drinking sugary-sodas in place of clean water. Vitamigos combines water purification and nutrition in a tasty beverage, creating a new, fun, playful, and interactive experience for moms and kids living without access to potable water. It is a more convenient and economical alternative to boiling water and healthier than the sugary drinks purchased from the local bodegas. The ultimate goal of Vitamigos is to help reduce the illness and medical costs associated with waterborne disease.

More about all the Safe Agua Peru projects can be found on the Designmatters website here.

Congratulations also to alumnus Dan Ashcraft for his Bronze Award winning project, Aria.

According to its website, “Spark is first and foremost a community of designers and creative people, bound together by the idea that Design can make significant, positive changes in the world and help make it better. The way we promote this Good Design is through the annual organization of international design competitions, exhibitions, blogs and workshops.”

College Art Association Names Jacki Apple Distinguished Teacher of the Year

Jacki Apple, an Art Center College of Design faculty member of over 28 years, as well as a practicing visual, performance and media artist, critic and writer since the early 70s, has been awarded the 2011 Distinguished Teacher of Art Award from the College Art Association. This award is presented to an artist of distinction who has developed a philosophy or technique of instruction based on her experience as an artist; has encouraged her students to develop their own individual abilities; and/or has made contributions to the body of knowledge understood as embracing technical, material, aesthetic and perceptual issues.

From the official announcement:

For the past twenty-eight years, Jacki Apple has provided students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a dynamic, inspiring, and evolving model of the possibilities and rewards of an interdisciplinary practice. An artist, writer, and producer, she has produced work in multiple modes—performance, installation, drawing, book art, photography, film, radio, text, and audio—and presciently engages the opportunities afforded by new technologies. Praised by students and colleagues alike for her intelligence, generosity, enthusiasm, and critical discernment, Apple adeptly bridges various disciplines using a wide scope of knowledge about contemporary culture and technology and a depth of understanding about the history and practice of the visual and performing arts. A gifted communicator, Apple is exceptionally effective in encouraging students to think for themselves.

CAA will formally recognize the recipients at a special awards ceremony during the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, on Thursday afternoon, February 23, 2012, 12:30–2:00 PM, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Led by Barbara Nesin, president of the CAA Board of Directors, the awards ceremony will take place in West Hall Meeting Room 502AB, Level 2; it is free and open to the public. The Los Angeles Convention Center is located downtown, at 1201 South Figueroa Street adjacent to the Staples Center.

For more information and to read the full announcement of all the CAA 2012 Awards for Distinction, please see http://www.collegeart.org/awards/2012awards