Tag Archives: Faculty Work

Special Documentary Screening: Allen Daviau

Don’t miss a special screening and Q&A session this afternoon with  British documentarian John Henderson about his work-in-progress documentary based on Art Center faculty member  Allen Daviau.

E.T., Daviau

Henderson has been creating a series of in-depth documentaries about the world’s great cinematographers, and the first film in the series is about famed cinematographer and Art Center instructor Daviau.

Allen’s first feature film was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, earning the first of five Oscar nominations and launching his career as one of the industry’s leading cinematographers. Since then, he has worked on such notable films as The Color Purple, Falcon and the Showman, Empire of the Sun, Avalon, Bugsy, Congon and Van Helsing. He has been nominated for three American Society of Cinematographers Awards, winning twice, and has received the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. Stop by and meet the legendary cinematographers who will be attending the screening, including Vilmos Zsigmond, Haskell Wexler and Owen Roizman. The event is open to all Art Center students, alumni, faculty and staff.

Special Documentary Screening: Allen Daviau
Thursday, March 24, 1 p.m.
Ahmanson Auditorium

Colleagues, Designers, Partners in Life: Brian Boyl and Krystina Castella

Photo by Alan Kupchick

Art Center faculty members Brian Boyl and Krystina Castella have both taken somewhat non-traditional routes in their careers. Boyl, director of interactive design in the Graphic Design Department, has a degree in physics, studied film and animation, has created computer software and produced video games. Castella created her own product development, manufacturing and licensing company; helps people start businesses and license products; and has written five popular cookbooks; the most recent, A World of Cake, named by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the best cookbooks of 2010. And this are just a few of the many noteworthy things these two have accomplished.

Also interesting—Boyl and Castella are spouses, meeting 20 years ago this month. Intrigued and curious about what motivates them to teach, how students have changed over the past two decades, and what it’s like to work with one’s significant other, we sat down with the couple for a chat.

Dotted Line: How did you two meet?
Brian Boyl: We met in 1991 at a Valentine’s Day party that a mutual friend of ours held for people who didn’t have dates. I was in film school then…

Krystina Castella: …and I was working a corporate job at Disney. We met at the party and got along really well. He called me the next day to ask me out, and I was eating a popsicle while we talked. I wrote about this in the introduction to my popsicle book, because I actually ended up saving the popsicle and freezing it.

Boyl: Yes, that popsicle went with us, every time we moved. It lasted for years. But sadly, it didn’t survive our last move.

Watch video

Dotted Line: Does it take a while for students to realize you’re married?
Castella: Yes, it’s funny—it’s the same thing every term. Many people at Art Center don’t realize we’re married. People that we’ve known for a long time do, but students are always new and don’t know at first; it’s always a shock. They seem to figure it out around Weeks 5 and 6. A student will come in and say to me, “I saw you with my other teacher,” or, “You were in the parking lot with Brian…”

Boyl: Or, “How do you know each other?” and, “I saw you two leaving campus in the same car….”

Castella: We teach in different departments, but we do have students that cross over. It’s great, we really get to know the student when that happens. We ask each other, “So how are they doing in your class?”

Dotted Line: Why do you teach?
Boyl: I love giving back to the younger generation. I also find teaching personally inspiring, because it’s always about the next thing. It’s always different, and always new—especially in the area where I teach, which is on the cutting edge of everything. And I find students tend to push me in my own creativity. And, you’re dealing with people, so it’s a lot of fun. I think I have the best job in the world.

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Broadcast Cinema Alum and Faculty Member Inks Deal

Art Center Broadcast Cinema alumnus and faculty member Nir Bashan has just signed a deal to adapt a bestselling book, Three Dog Nightmare, into a feature film screenplay. He is co-writing the screenplay with Chuck Negron, lead singer of the band Three Dog Night.

Bashan

The book is about the rise and fall, and eventual rise again, of Chuck Negron of the band Three Dog Night. It’s an inspirational story of overcoming addiction and adversity against all odds. Work began in December in Los Angeles, and is expected to be competed in early summer.

Bashan is an Emmy-nominated, Clio-winning director who directs and writes commercials, features and television. He currently teaches in both the Broadcast Cinema and Advertising departments.

He has won, or been nominated for, more than 30 awards worldwide for his short films and commercials, such as a nomination for the Cannes Film Festival Young Director Award and a win for the Best New Director award at the DGA in New York City. He has worked with clients including Honda, AT&T and Coca Cola.

Wendee Lee: Celebrating Life Through Sunday’s 5K

When Product Design alumna and faculty member Wendee Lee decided to get back into running last fall, and began training for the Rose Bowl 5K, she found that it wasn’t as easy as it used to be.

Lee

“It’s not like I’ve been a jock or very athletic for all my life,” Lee explains, “and it’s been hard this time around. Training has been a test not only of my legs and lungs, but of my will as well.”

Yet she found a deep and unwavering inspiration from an unexpected source: Lee is running to celebrate and honor the memory of fellow alumnus and faculty member Norm Schureman.

“I found a great deal of strength from the idea of running to honor Norm’s legacy and to help spread word about his memorial scholarship,” she said. Because of this, she wanted to run a race specifically in Pasadena, and the Rose Bowl 5K fit the bill and time frame.

Lee’s asking supporters to donate to Schureman’s Memorial Scholarship fund as a way to both celebrate his life, and help ensure that his legacy continues.

She’s seen first-hand the power of scholarships to change lives. As a faculty member, she’s seen students struggle to find the financial means to continue their education, and when Lee was a student herself at Art Center she had to take a leave for a year for financial reasons.

“The Norm Schureman Memorial scholarship is particularly important to me as a Product Design alum and faculty member,” Lee explains. “I had Norm as an instructor, and was lucky enough to have him as a colleague as well. It means so much to know this scholarship will help future Product Design students.”

Lee supported by many across the College. “The Product Design Department is extremely proud of Wendee, and grateful for her commitment to raising scholarship for the Norm Schureman Memorial Scholarship,” says Karen Hofmann. “We wish her the very best on her run this weekend, and ask that our Art Center community helps support Wendee through contributing to the scholarship fund.”

The Rose Bowl 5K is this Sunday, Feb. 6. Here’s how you can support Lee: Visit Art Center’s donation page, scroll to “Area of Support / Degree Program Scholarships,” and select the Norman Schureman Memorial Scholarship. All donations will help. At the very bottom, under “Confirmation,” add words of encouragement in the “Additional Comments’” section for Lee (such as, “In support of runner Wendee Lee!”), so that she can acknowledge your support of both her run and of the scholarship.

Besides raising money for the scholarship, what are Lee’s personal goals for Saturday’s race?

“I just want to finish strong and enjoy the race and being at and in the Rose Bowl,” she says. “I’ve already regained my joy of running—so really, the rest is all gravy.”

Donate to the Norm Schureman Memorial Scholarship online today.

Or, mail your donation.

Instructor Wins Big With Invention

Art Center Technical Skills Center instructor Miles Elledge has invented a new device geared for athletes suffering from sore arms and shoulders.

The Wonderweight, a device weighing between two and four pounds and designed to strengthen shoulder muscles without causing traumatic stress, won the coveted Best of Show award at the American Baseball Coaches Association Conference earlier this month in Nashville.

The Glendale News-Press has a great article on Elledge and his invention. From the article: “‘It’s about giving something back to their lives that makes it the most rewarding,’ said Elledge, who added that Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cole Hamels, a former World Series Most Valuable Player, recently tried the product for the first time. ‘It doesn’t fix arthritis, but it can greatly alleviate the pain, along with carpal tunnel and tendinitis.’”

Currently, cases of amateur and professional baseball pitchers using the device are being documented and evaluated at USC under the supervision of Dr. Tom House. The device appears to improve pitching velocity, accuracy and strength. In addition, Wonderweight is being used for brain injury rehab in the case of stroke, Alzheimer’s and trauma patients.

As CEO of Mile High 3D, Miles specializes in product research and development. He also works full-time as a shop instructor in Art Center’s Technical Skills Center, assisting students and staff in making prototypes and replicas of their conceptual designs. Miles’ achievement in the fields of physical therapy, health and wellness is one example of the multifaceted individuals who work at the College, whether they’re practicing professionals who bring real-world experience to the classroom or entrepreneurial minds that support students in the application of technical skills.

Read more: Local man creates small wonder

New Ansel Adams Images Surface

Last year, there was a controversy over a stash of antique negatives bought at a Fresno garage sale thought to be the early work of renowned photographer and Art Center faculty member Ansel Adams. And now, there are new virtually unknown works by Adams, but these have the documentation proving that they are indeed by the famed photographer—information the ones from the summer lack.

Culture Monster reports that the collection of 29 virtually unknown pictures by Adams and his friend and mentor Cedric Wright are on display through Friday at the Chadwick School in Palos Verdes.

From the article: “The 13 pictures by Adams — on display through Friday at the Palos Verdes Library’s Peninsula Center building — come from 1941, when Chadwick, now a private day school but then a boarding school, hired him to produce its fifth-anniversary promotional catalog, and 1942, when Adams returned to shoot a tennis exhibition at the hilltop campus featuring the great Jack Kramer.”

Art Center Honors Doyald Young

This is turning out to be quite a week for Doyald Young.

Tomorrow night he’ll be honored at a special Art Center reception (RSVPs required) with a screening of Doyald Young, Logotype Designer, a new documentary about Young by lynda.com.

Photo by Louise Sandhaus

At Saturday’s commencement ceremony, he will receive Art Center’s Alumnus of the Year Award for his dedicated work as an educator and lifetime of legendary work in typography, logotypes and alphabets. At Saturday’s commencement, he’ll receive an honorary degree from Art Center, where he studied Advertising in the ’50s, and where he has taught lettering and logotype design in the Graphic Design Department for decades.

We caught up with Young this week to talk to him about Art Center, his thoughts on teaching and those things computers can’t do.

Dotted Line: Congratulations on the alumni award and honorary degree.
Doyald Young: Thank you! I’m honored and thankful for such honors. I am an amalgam of the people I’ve known whose ideas have permeated my being. I’m blessed—so many people have kindly befriended me. I often wonder, “How do I repay them?”

I believe that teaching and writing books about what I do is a form of payback. Both of which I continue to do, and will, as long as I am able. A priori, how could I not be deeply touched with the awards I’ve received? I’m humbled that Art Center has allowed me to teach these many years, and blessed that I receive support from my fellow teachers and staff.

Dotted Line: What has Art Center meant to you?
Young: Art Center has been one of the great forces of my life. I learned, most importantly, that our first efforts are just that. They need refinement. A good job is done over and over, and oftentimes is changed again and again when marketing forces or creative directors change their minds. Final art does not emerge full-blown. I make my living making changes.

At Art Center, I learned professionalism, punctuality, and above all, how to continue my skills and burnish my talent. And a mentor of mine, Henry Dreyfuss, taught me the value of a thank-you note.

Dotted Line: You’ve said that you are an educator first, and a designer second.
Young: It’s true. When I was a student in Mort Leach’s class, he noticed fellow students coming to me for help on their projects. They came to me voluntarily, and I found that I enjoyed helping them. Mort later asked me to become his teaching assistant.

Teaching requires patience. I firmly believe that if you have the gift of teaching, you must pass it on. As Woodrow Wilson said, “You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

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To Draw Is to See: Norm Schureman’s Sketches

To Draw is to See: The Sketchbook of Norman J. Schureman is now available for purchase at blurb.com. Edited by faculty member and alumnus Fridolin Beisert, the sketchbook features more than 100 of Schureman’s master drawings.

This stunning collection showcases his talents as a designer and teacher. From birds to dinosaurs and from tanks to insects, every page is an inspiring example of his legacy.

All proceeds of this book go to his two sons, Milo and Kian. Preview the book online.

Faculty’s Cookbook Among Best of 2010

More about Art Center faculty member and cookbook writer extraordinaire Krystina Castella—her latest cookbook, A World of Cake, has just been named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2010 by Publisher’s Weekly, who dub it the “best international baking book.”

From the publication: “Pictures of marzipan-covered fruitcakes are gorgeous, and sidebars on such topics as street cakes make this an educational book in addition to a holiday workhorse.”

Congrats, Krystina!

Enjoy these photos taken at Castella’s book signing in the Library on Thursday:

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