Classnotes, December 2012 Issue

We do our best to get most of the news you submit to us onto the CCAD News Blog, but because there are more than 10,000 of you making news all over the world, not everything can make it into the blog. We’re glad to have another venue where we can share everything with you—this newsletter’s classnotes.

You can submit classnotes via the easy-to-use form on the alumni landing page. We only post career-related successes, awards, exhibitions, and publications, but we’d also love to know when you move, get married, or have children—just use that same form.

Now, without further ado, your classnotes from September, October, and November 2012.

Aminah Robinson ’60 was inducted into the city of Columbus’ Hall of Fame. Read more here.

Aminah Robinson ’60 and Linda Fowler ’74 participated in the Ohio Craft Museum’s exhibition Columbus Collects Fine Crafts. Read more here.

Joan Hall ’74 had a solo exhibition at Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO. Read more here.

CV Mansoor ’77 exhibited work at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Read more here.

Dean Mitchell ’80 had an exhibition with Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in St. Augustine, FL. The exhibition also featured an article written by Walter King ’81. Read more here.

Salli Swindell ’81, co-creater of They Draw & Cook, had her illustrated cookbook reviewed in Gastronomic magazine. Read more here.

Jenny Vogt ’81 exhibited her series The Nature of Birds at the Village Hall Gallery of Arts in Bartlett, IL. Read more here.

Helen Hoffelt ’82, Rachel Girard Reisert ’02, Lian Dziura ’12, Cosby Lindquist ’12, and Crystal Tursich ’12 participated in a monthlong photography event in Cincinnati, OH. Read more here.

Kurt Fondriest ’85 was part of a group exhibition at the Life Force Arts Center in Chicago, IL. Read more here.

Hiroshi Hayakawa ’85 was featured in the fifth annual edition of the magazine Diffusion: Unconventional Photography. Read more here.

Lisa Horkin ’85, Susan Li  O’Connor ’96, Anne Holman ’02, Jennifer Deafenbough ’04, Joseph Lombardo ’06, Chris Harman ’12, and Jack Ramunni ’12 received Supply Grants from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Read more here.

Christopher Madden ’87 works as a journeyman banknote engraver at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Read more here.

Kirsten Bowen ’89, Clint Davidson ’00, Nikos Fyodor Rutkowski ’02, Daric Gill ’04, Lea Gray ’04, Adam Crum ’06, Christopher Tennant ’06, Joel Atkinson ’09, and Julia McCann ’11 participated in Urban Scrawl, an annual festival in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus. Read more here.

Christopher Cole ’89 became the Senior VP/Creative Director for the Sprint wireless at Leo Burnett-Chicago.

Richard Mills ’89 participated in the Ashes to Art Project, an art auction benefiting volunteer fire departments in Colorado that were affected by wildfires in 2012. Read more here.

Kaname Takada ’89 and Julie Abijanac ’92 received awards for their work exhibited in the Zanesville Museum of Art’s 68^th Annual Ohio Show. Read more here.

Kurt Lightner  ’93 participated in the group exhibition Assembly 2012 at Edward Thorp Gallery in New York City. Read more here.

David Breaux ’94 had a busy year, working on productions including Terra Nova, Hunger Games, Tron: Legacy, and Iron Man 2. Read more here.

Phil Hastings ’94 is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship in Film and Video. Read more here.

Jason Goad ’96 created a pair of limited edition sunglasses for Anarchy Eyewear. Read more here.

Susan Li O’Connor ’96 is part of a group exhibition at Steinhilber Art Gallery in Madison, WI. Read more here.

Susan Li O’Connor ’96 and Mariana Smith ’02 were selected for GCAC’s Dresden Residency Program. Read more here.

John Urbano ’96 received two VMAs for the music video he directed for the band One Direction. Read more here.

Kate Labmeier ’02 and Michael Stillion ’02 exhibited their work at Marshall University’s Birke Art Gallery. Read more here.

Nikos Fyodor Rutkowski ’02 and Corey Aumiller ’06 placed in the Columbus Arts Pop-Up Project (CAP-UP). Read more here.

Nikos Fyodor Rutkowski ’02 created and installed a volcano wall at a tiki bar in Columbus, OH. Read more here.

Mariana Smith ’02 exhibited her work at Swing Space Gallery at Ohio State University; read more here. She also had an exhibition at Hammond Harkins Galleries in Columbus, OH; read more here.

Brian Williams ’03 was featured in Map Magazine, an arts and culture magazine based in Australia. Read more here.

Shannon Bonatakis ’04 had a solo exhibition, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, at Rivet, a designer toy and fine art gallery in the Short North, Columbus’ arts district. Read more here.

Manjari Sharma ’04 showed her work in a group exhibition, Social Order: Photographs from Iran, India, and Afghanistan in Seattle, WA. Read more here.

Holly Koskinen ’05 won an American Graphic Design Award. Read more here.

Joseph Lombardo ’06 has a solo exhibition at Art Access Gallery in Bexley, OH through Jan. 9. Read more here.

Michelle Dick ’08 is now working as an art teacher with After-School All-Stars, an after-school program for students in Columbus City Schools.

Evens Joseph ’09 was a featured artist in Juxtapoz magazine. Read more here.

Krista Peterson ’09 received a full-tuition scholarship to DePaul University for graduate study in the field of Human Computer Interaction. Read more here.

Kartika Mediani ’10 had work in the graphic novel One Drop. Read more here.

Amanda C. VanDenberg ’10 showed work in a group exhibition at the Little Art Gallery in North Canton, OH. Read more here.

Elena Harvey Collins ’12 had her video When They’re Gone, They’re Gone in an exhibition at Roy G Biv gallery in Columbus, OH. Read more here.

Nathan Gorgen ’12 and Elena Harvey Collins ’12 participated in Shifting Margins, a group exhibition put on by OFF Space in San Francisco. Read more here.

Jessica Miera ’12 is a concept artist for Animation Hero, an independent animation studio located in Columbus, OH. She is also working part time as an assistant film editor at HotBed Media LLC in Bexley, OH.

Alumnus Christopher Madden engraving

Ever look closely at the portrait of Andrew Jackson on a $20 bill or the buildings and portraits featured on special edition coins? Those were all done by artists—and alumnus Christopher Madden happens to be among them.

Madden is a journeyman banknote engraver at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The position was well earned; Madden had completed a 10-year apprenticeship as a banknote picture engraver.

During his apprenticeship he served under a master engraver and developed a progressively more complex set of engraving and etching skills.

“At the end of 10 years I then became a member of a very small fraternity of highly skilled craftsmen whose methods and traditions can be traced back to many prominent early American artists such as Asher Durand, Walter Shirlaw, and Paul Revere,” Madden said.

BEP focuses on the development and production of United States currency and other security instruments and is currently the largest producer of government security documents. They completely redesign the Federal Reserve Notes every seven to 10 years—primarily to head off counterfeiters and keep up with special edition pieces.

“Day to day we are in the early stages of designing and engraving concepts for future banknotes,” Madden said. “For example, I recently engraved a new portrait of Andrew Jackson for future currency use and also had the honor of engraving the official portrait of President Barack Obama in 2009.”

Madden’s work requires a level of secrecy along with a great deal of practice and dedication. Madden also points out that, in his opinion, this type of engraving is the strictest and most difficult manner of creating a picture in the world.

Alumnus Christopher Madden working on a plein air painting

“As an engraver, my mandate is to exactly translate a tonal model into matrices of lines, dots, and dashes cut into varying depths and widths that will print faithful images for both aesthetic and security purposes,” Madden explained.

“When my engraving is finished, the plate is used as part of an overall project, numbered, and securely placed into a main vault,” Madden said.

Although his apprenticeship taught him details relevant to the engraving field, he thanks CCAD for prepping him for this professional path.

“The professors planted seeds in my mind that bore the fruit for me as an artist and engraver over the years,” Madden said. “They demanded a level of excellence and an ethic of thinking about design and methodology.”

“Engraving is a beautiful and largely lost art/craft, but in reality I also need to accept that I am ultimately creating a product and not my own art,” Madden said.

To counter that, Madden works on his own paintings. In the last few years he has taken up plein air painting and has a studio at the Griffin Art Center in Frederick, Maryland, where he also teaches classes.

“The biggest difference between my work as an engraver and my painting is I have total creative control over what I make and what I create [with painting],” Madden said. “Also, since engraving is such a demanding discipline, painting allows me to have that push-and-pull ability.”