Dennison W. Griffith

Be honest. If I asked you to picture an artist at work, what would come into your mind?

Whether you imagine a man or a woman, using a camera or a paintbrush or a computer stylus, I’ll bet you five bucks that I can name one component of your vision: the artist is alone in the room.

If I’m right, I hope you’re ready to refresh your thinking. Maybe it’s just because it’s getting cooler outside in the Midwest and we’re all huddling together for warmth, but lately it seems particularly clear how false it is to think of artists simply as solitary and self-focused. We speak for others, lend our talents to others, and participate in networks that reach worldwide. Just look at the stories in this issue:

• CCAD alumna Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson has earned national prominence for her lifelong embodiment of the artist as a community voice.
• Whether with puppets or video, CCAD students are finding vital roles as community resources, even as freshmen.
• Christopher Maslon (CCAD 1996) is expanding CCAD’s reach in northeast Asia with an almost 10-year teaching career in South Korea.

There’s one last aspect of community that I want to remind you about, and that’s how every fall the worldwide CCAD community comes together to support students with our annual fund drive. Every single dollar has real impact—first helping a current CCAD student, then flowing back out and contributing to the larger creative community when that student graduates. Please visit www.ccad.edu/support and give today.

Warm regards,

Dennison W. Griffith
President

Aminah Robinson

At age 71, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson’s advice to students and other artists is simple—though perhaps surprising, given the apparently effortless visual generosity of her work. “Just never give up,” she says. “Work very hard. It can be difficult, but even with the storms, and the sun, and the rain, the work continues. Even when no one understands you for years. It is not a career. It is not something to make money with. It’s about endearing one’s community with the light God has given you.”

And endear her community she has. Robinson is nationally acclaimed for her profound artistry, her storytelling abilities, her deep understanding of history, and her utter conviction regarding how individuals and institutions are interwoven in communities. But in her hometown of Columbus, she is beloved—and the feeling is mutual. “I grew up in a community, so the connection has always been there,” she says. “So much was given to me through the others in my family and community, and the institutions in Columbus. The reason why I am able to continue is because of that.”

Born in Columbus in 1940, Robinson grew up certain that she would be an artist. Her artistic development began at the age of three under her father’s guidance. In 1955, she began taking Saturday Morning Art Classes at CCAD (then the Columbus Art School), then formally enrolled as an undergraduate in 1957. She recalls, “I grew up with tradition, and the elders in my family made sure I received it. Then, in art school, that’s when it became art. I connected the two, and they just blended automatically.” She was given an honorary master’s degree in 1991 by then-President Joseph V. Canzani.

She attributes her renowned work ethic to her time at CCAD. “As a first- and second-year student, [you]  carried 14 classes per semester. Fourteen classes! You had to work. Drawing, figure drawing, anatomy. It was law. I loved it.” These days, she rises at 4:00 a.m. to drink coffee and work on loosely painted studies, which she calls her “morning exercises.” At about 6:00 a.m. she turns to her more intensive bodies of work, continuing until 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., when she “rests.” (She never says “sleeps.”)

One of Robinson’s signature forms is the RagGonNon, which she began making while a second-year student at CCAD. RagGonNons are complex works, based in fabric but incorporating many other media, which continue to evolve over years, sometimes even decades. She describes them by saying, “It is community. It is work that comes out of a community, and it belongs to the community. That’s why it’s going to go on into the future.” One of the RagGonNons that she continues to develop (see photo) is so large that she says she has never seen the whole thing at one time. She unfolds portions to view while she creates, but it is layer upon layer of both history and hope.

In 2004, Robinson was (in her words) stunned to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, a no-strings-attached $500,000 award commonly known as the “genius grant.” The MacArthur Foundation described her work as “Homeric in content, quantity, and scale.”

Since then, her time has been very much in demand—but her lifelong discipline still serves her well. “At my age, I just say ‘no’ in a very nice way,” she says. “But before, I had to figure out different things, because nothing came between the work and me. It was [and] it is all I have to give to our future. I just feel it’s that important. There are so many bodies of work that I’ve produced since I was three, and it’s still ongoing. Hopefully it will inspire somebody, be helpful to young people, and give some hope to our future. That’s what I do.”

Students designing puppets.

Puppets in the Hospital
When one of the nation’s leading pediatric hospitals needs to brighten their patients’ days, who do they call? Lion, Unicorn, Duck, Bunny, Jake the Snake, and Viktor the Rapping Viking—all puppets created and voiced by CCAD students from Adjunct Instructor Nicole Gibbs’s Foundation Studies design class.

During spring semester, Gibbs’s students wrote, created puppets, and built sets for a series of four plays, culminating in performances on Mother’s Day to patients and their families at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The class is a yearlong, intensive look at all types of design, including 2D, 3D, and time-based. “I was thinking about how we could make the 2D side of the class about performance and group experience,” Gibbs says. “So I thought of puppet shows, because they bring it all together and allow my students to flex their other creative muscles—like writing and rapping.”

“Each team had a playwright, musician, actors, production manager, and character designers,” she says. “Everyone helped with every aspect, but it was the responsibility of the assigned individual to make sure a particular aspect was carried out properly. It was a great lesson in working in groups and managing a team to meet an outside goal.”

“I knew that having it out in the community would push students outside of their comfort zone, because they would be interacting with people who not only don’t have an art background but also are outside [the students’] age range,” Gibbs adds. “The point wasn’t to build sets and make puppets. It was to create a valuable experience for the outside community and to show students that what they are already learning in their first year of college can have a direct impact.”

Fountain in the Scioto Mile.

Video in the Scioto Mile
CCAD Media Studies students and faculty were thrilled to be invited early this year to produce a video for projection on an enormous fountain in the city’s newest park, the Scioto Mile. “Projects like this expand the traditional perceived boundaries of media,” says Dean of Media Arts Ron Saks. “To be able to do something that is public, ongoing, and site specific is a very rare opportunity for students.”

The Scioto Mile is a more-than-$40-million project that has transformed the east bank of the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. Contrary to its name, it actually stretches for 7.3 miles and includes an integrated system of parks, streets, a bikeway, pedestrian paths, fountains, and gardens. The final phase, completed last summer, features a promenade dotted with gardens, colonnades, and pavilions. This summer’s work also overhauled an existing park, adding a band shell, a restaurant, and the 15,000-square-foot interactive fountain that the students’ video projection was intended to complement.

Opened to the public in July, the fountain has already become a community favorite. It contains 1,079 ground-level spray nozzles and is topped by 5 stainless-steel halo structures with 1,000 additional nozzles to produce mist from above. The tall, stainless-steel center blossom can shoot water 70 feet into the air.

The finished CCAD video, titled “Trip the Light Fantastic,” now bounces off the fountain’s blossom and mist at night.

“It is really tremendous to have students participating in a project of this magnitude,” says Saks. “All of the constituents were so pleased with the way everything turned out. It was beyond everyone’s expectations.”

CCAD students from all majors have been asked to create another projection during this academic year as part of a competition. Saks is currently working with American Electric Power (the community leader and lead donor for the Scioto Mile) and the design firm MSI (who directed the project) to bring software to campus that will allow students to design a light show and fountain program in addition to the video projection. The winning projection is slated to launch in early spring.

Sustainability in Regional Planning
Students from numerous CCAD classes teamed up last spring to create the Sustainability Art Exhibition and Contest for the headquarters of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC)—ground zero for issues of sustainability in the greater Columbus community. The students submitted diverse work related to one of the six programs of MORPC’s Center for Energy and Environment: energy efficiency, air quality, greenways and water quality, sustainable growth, agriculture and food systems, and materials management.

Contest winners had their work displayed again at MORPC’s Summit on Sustainability and the Environment in October.

“Not only did it get the students creating work and exhibiting it to an outside audience, but it also  introduced them to the important efforts of MORPC,” says Fine Arts Professor John Kortlander.

“I believe we are now entering the era of redesign,” he adds. “Much of what was designed in the past century was done without sustainability in mind. It is up to our students to take their degrees and create sustainable designs and works of art that improve the world. It’s a big responsibility—and projects like this are what get them thinking about it.”

Photo courtesy: Dr. Rikizam M. Joya.

How far have you ever traveled to take a job? Many of us gulp at the thought of moving just a few hundred miles from a familiar place. But others dream in thousand-mile increments. One very successful example is CCAD alumnus Christopher Maslon (Fine Arts, 1996), who has spent most of the last decade working as an expatriate high school teacher, then college professor, in South Korea. (Columbus to Daejeon? It’s 6,818 miles.)

“Living and working in Korea has been the greatest time of my life,” Maslon says. “I absolutely love my job, I’ve written and published two books, and I’ve also had time to create and sell art—printmaking, papermaking, and photography.”

Not to mention his frequent travel, which might be fairly called an obsession now that he’s visited his 43^rd country. “My next will be either Fiji or Mongolia,” he says.

Maslon is, in his own words, “mind-bendingly busy,” but he’s certainly not slowing down. Last spring, he was named the newest member of the Executive Liberal Arts Board of Daejeon Health and Sciences College (DHSC), the college where he teaches. He says, “Now I have the opportunity to shape the future face of a college with an enrollment nearly equal to the total population of my hometown. My mother often told me, ‘The future is wide open—anything can happen,’ and how right she was.”

Given that CCAD students are now looking at a job market that is global, rather than regional, we knew how valuable it would be to find out more about Maslon’s experiences. So we sat down—albeit at our own computers on opposite ends of the world—for a chat about his life and career.

IMAGE: What is the impact of having a US citizen on the board of a Korean college? What are your plans?

CM: It is quite unheard of for someone with foreign views and ideas outside the Korean mainstream to hold this type of post. I feel blessed and utilized by the staff of DHSC and respected for my ideas and input.

The college is expanding rapidly. My role is to create new courses in art and design, including color study, printing, papermaking, and silkscreen, and to open a new, state-of-the-art exhibition gallery.

Because my employers know I have an art degree, they will knock at my door and say, “This is our design, [or] we got this logo, [or] we paid a lot for this to be made…but what does Mr. Christopher say about it?” I go into this CCAD-trance of explaining, critiquing, and re-correcting every time I’m asked my opinion.

IMAGE: How did you end up in Korea?

CM: After CCAD, I was earning an MFA from Ohio State University. I lived near campus, and there were seven Korean families—all professionals who worked at OSU—living on my street. They shared many wonderful stories. In November 1999 I had the chance to make my first trip to Korea with a good friend who had found cheap tickets online.

Then, in January of 2002, my Korean friend Dr. Joseph Lee emailed, saying that he had a friend in Korea, Isaac Kim, who was a high school vice principal and needed a teacher. I deleted the email but suffered for three days because I kept thinking about it. I finally picked up the phone and said, “Joseph, what did you email me?” His wife asked him who was on the phone. He said, “It’s Christopher.” And his wife started yelling in the background, “He’s the one, he’s the one!” They had been praying for a person to contact them, and I was the only person out of the hundred or so emails he sent who called and inquired. After hearing the details, I accepted the offer, and in less than one month I was packed and had signed a one-year contract with Dong Ah High School.

I thought that on the final day of my contract I would run to the airplane and get home to the USA as soon as possible. But nine years later, I’m married to a wonderful Korean woman, with a beautiful five-year-old daughter—still here and loving it.

IMAGE: Any big cultural differences?

CM: Yes. The cultural differences are massive. Our American ways of working, greeting each other, shopping, eating, having relationships, equality between people, equality between men and women are all different [than the Korean].

IMAGE: What has been hardest to get used to?

CM: Language barriers, misunderstandings, and cultural flubs. Since I speak Korean, a lot of language barriers have disappeared as my skill level has increased. But even now I suffer from misunderstandings and times when I can’t say exactly what I want to.

Also, in Korea, hierarchy plays a major role in society. Your bosses at your workplace are your superiors, and you don’t question them like we do in the West.

Another thing is that space boxes do not exist here. This means touching other people without saying sorry is completely appropriate. It’s not uncommon to be in an elevator with 17 to 20 people, or for another person to be standing so close to you that you can feel their breath on your neck.

IMAGE: Any advice to CCAD students and alumni who might be considering overseas employment?

CM: Absolutely. Get your act together. Do your homework first about where you might seek employment—learn as much as you possibly can about that country before you go. You will need to get an up-to-date passport. You will also need a resume that shows who you are for real. People overseas are counting on you to be who you say you are and deliver. Remember, you are becoming an ambassador and representative of your country, your school, and your knowledge. Also remember you are stepping into someone else’s world. This is not your home. Your ways and their ways are different.

CCAD is an excellent school that prepares us for many challenges. I would like for CCAD students to step forth, do their homework, get their passport, and fly. The sky is the limit, and the future is wide open for all of us.

Roy Doty

There’s no question that alumnus Roy Doty (CCAD 1942) is still going strong. Even as he approached his 90^th birthday this fall, Inspired Lines, an exhibition featuring 60 pieces of his work, opened at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, the largest and most comprehensive academic research facility for cartoon art in the world.

Before the opening, he completed more than 130 full-page, four-color illustrations for an upcoming economics textbook. When asked about his workload, he says with a humble shrug and his signature grin, “I stay busy.”

Which, of course, is a very large understatement. In his 65-year career, Doty has written more than 30 books; illustrated 167; had illustrations featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, Business Week, Popular Science, and Elle; and deployed his talents on behalf of advertising clients including Mobil Oil, Macy’s, CBS, Black & Decker, and Ford.

This year, Doty became one of only 13 individuals ever honored with the National Cartoonist Society’s Gold Key award—considered the cartoonists’ hall of fame. But, he says, “The truth is, I’m still trying to be good. No piece is ever good enough. I finish it, and I look at it a year later and say ‘why the hell didn’t I do this?’ Deep down, I’m still trying to be good.”

The story of how Doty got from high school to CCAD to his own freelance studio is best told in his own voice.

“When I was in high school, I drew like every cartoonist,” he says. “Fortunately, I had a good art teacher in high school who thought I was a genius painter, so she sent my paintings to what is now CCAD, and they awarded me a two-year full scholarship, which meant a lot then. After all, this was the Great Depression.”

“I was taught by, among others, Alice Schille, and I can say that my color is only brilliant because of her. But I had the same problem at CCAD that I had when I was in high school: they all wanted me to be a great painter—because back then there was only a fine arts major—but all I ever wanted to do was draw cartoons. I drove them crazy because I was so sure of what I wanted to be.”

“I graduated in 1942 just months after Pearl Harbor, and two days later I ran off with a classmate, Louella Vance, to Chicago to get married. By the end of the year, though, I had been drafted into the Army. In the fifth week of my basic training, I was taken out of the Air Corps and sent first to New Jersey, then to a private mansion on the beach in Georgia.”

“I was a radar man, part of the top secret radar division. While I was there, I was drawing Why We Fight for the camp newspaper, which ran in all Air Force camp newsletters. Then I was flown to New York City, placed on the Queen Mary, and I was now stationed in Paris, living as a cartoonist, drawing for Overseas Woman, Stars and Stripes, and more.”

It was in Paris that Doty developed the style of cartooning that has defined his career—fine lines, bold color, and a lot of detail.

“I left Ohio doing ‘big foot art,’ and I got to Europe doing that,” Doty says. “But all of the artists I was working with in Paris were decorating the page, and I said, ‘You don’t need balloons, gags, or captions to tell a story. You can do without it and still get the laugh. And that is an absolute joy.’”

When the war was over, Doty was discharged with “a nice portfolio and $350 in pay.” He returned to Columbus just long enough to purchase a ticket to New York City and divorce his wife. “She had found religion, and I had found four-letter words; so we parted ways with a kiss, and we always remained friends.”

“The truth is, I came out of the Army wanting to change the world, and I was sure I would,” Doty says. “I came out with something new, and that’s why I got work—because I could take the dullest copy in the world and get a laugh out of it. I started freelancing 65 years ago and haven’t had a job since.”

“I’ve never had a bad year, a slow year. I’ve never been ‘unbusy.’ I’m still busy, and I love it. I work seven days a week. I went to bed at midnight last night, and I’ll go to bed at midnight tonight. What do I have to complain about? As long as I am drawing pictures, I am totally happy. Until I drop dead, I’ll be drawing pictures.”

Kevin Conlon

By: Kevin Conlon

Reflective of current economic anxieties, yet another article pops up in my RSS feed suggesting that an art degree’s value, measured in occupational salaries, is not worth the effort.  Of course, as a long-practicing artist and arts educator, I respond with a familiar set of immediate reactions.

How is the value of an art and design education defined and constrained? It can’t be correct to define it only in relation to our society’s immediate competitive marketplace advantage—because such an education is really about developing a mind that can adapt to tectonic changes not yet conceived, in a global (not local or national) marketplace. I also question the starting salary as a measure of worth. It’s simply shortsighted to use the inaugural job of one’s professional career as the measure of career success, ignoring the future opportunities that will be capitalized upon by the creatively disposed and trained mind to achieve greater, longer-term results.

Surely these people who disparage the prospective lives of artists and designers see more value in the pursuit of creative disciplines than the dollars and cents earned by their beginning practitioners? Surely they know that the creative impulse, once understood, can be transferred to other creative, managerial, and entrepreneurial endeavors? And surely they know that the innovative ideation that occurs as part of an artist’s problem-seeking and problem-solving method of working is recognized as a very desirous set of skills by some of the world’s most powerful economic thought leaders?

Or, then again, maybe they don’t.

So—lately I’m thinking that our willingness to educate must extend not only to our students, but to others as well. It won’t be easy. But as someone who pays attention to the conversations happening around the world, I know that others recognize this as well. Dan Pink and Sir Ken Robinson are among the best known creative cultural analysts who extol the virtues and benefits of the creative economy.

We must all be advocates for the real economic value of the creative process and the intellectual property realized from that process. In fact, experts and academics such as Roger Martin have been examining the fundamental concepts of management and entrepreneurship with an eye towards how artists and designers think, solve problems, and create new and real value with their ideas.

This vision of both the intrinsic and extrinsic values realized from art and entrepreneurship directly informs CCAD’s future. You’ll soon be hearing more about new initiatives like the CCAD MindMarket, an incubator where we will work to develop students’ skills so that they can realize value from new ideas and new intellectual property—in turn contributing to the overall value of our region and leading to the establishment and growth of creative companies. With initiatives like the MindMarket, CCAD can contribute to our creative economy in a way that can be measured in real dollars (in fact, literally trillions of them).

The overall economy can learn a lot from those who have learned the value of creative thinking as part of the CCAD creative community. I hope you’ll help me in communicating this message—it’s one the world needs to hear.

Bio: Kevin J. Conlon became the CCAD’s vice president of academic affairs in June. He previously served as associate vice president for academic affairs at Ringling College of Art and Design and as dean of undergraduate studies at Savannah College of Art and Design. He also works as a writer and consultant in the fields of interactive design, architectural restoration, foundry work, curriculum design, and institutional effectiveness. In addition, his sculptural works, oil paintings, and works on paper have been exhibited widely and won many awards. He earned his BFA from the University of South Alabama and his MFA from Ohio State University.

Taylor Hicks

Late each summer, as CCAD’s Annual Fund Drive approaches, we sit down with a current CCAD student for a chat about how donor giving really affects students at CCAD. Why do students come here? Do things like scholarships really matter? For these answers and more, meet Taylor Hicks (CCAD 2013), an Illustration major from Columbus, Ohio.

IMAGE: What drew you to CCAD?

Taylor:  CCAD has always been first on my list of possible colleges to attend. From about the age of 16, I was taking summer courses, the SMAC classes (Saturday Morning Art Classes). Ever since then, I’ve grown to love the campus and the teachers. Plus, it’s local and my parents are pretty good cooks.

IMAGE: Is anyone else in your family interested art and design?

Taylor: My whole family has inspired me in one way or another. My dad was, and still is, a painter. He never pursued art school, though, so he really inspired me to take art seriously, to build a career in it, and to go above and beyond—to surpass him. My brother is an amazing artist with a really graphic style, my sister paints, and my mom is an artist, too.

IMAGE: What’s your favorite part about being an Illustration major?

Taylor: If I were to put one word on to illustration, I would say “imagination,” because it’s so free.

IMAGE: A scholarship can…

Taylor:  …drive me.

IMAGE: What would you like to say to CCAD donors about the impact of their support?

Taylor: Their donations and gifts matter because that’s what drives us and helps us succeed in school. In this day and age, in this recession, people are scrambling. Getting scholarships really helps. It gives the parents a boost, emotional and mental, and gives the students a major inspiration. I’m very grateful. I know other people are, too.

IMAGE: What excites you about your future?

Taylor: The opportunities [that come] from having all this drive and all these techniques. Everything that I have under my belt can be used for a career or to help someone.

IMAGE:  Anything more you’d like to add?

Taylor: My experiences here have been pretty much unforgettable. Meeting new people, that’s a major one. Getting out of my comfort zone with art.

I’m so happy and thankful that people are going out of their way to give [to] a school so kids can take their dreams and go out into the world and make something of themselves. It’s awesome to know that people still do that in this world.

The awardees are: Mary Ann Lobb, a senior majoring in Media Studies with a minor in writing; Laura Maue, a junior majoring in Animation with a minor in writing; and Jennifer Owens, a senior majoring in Interior Design with a minor in copywriting.

The Creative Excellence Fund provides “last dollar” grants to students who have excellent academic records and have applied for all available aid, only to fall short of the funds needed to continue their education at CCAD. Established with a lead gift from the William H. Davis, Dorothy M. Davis and William C. Davis Foundation in 2009, the Fund has grown through many individual contributions and a second generous grant from the Davis Foundation in May 2011.

If you’d like to join them in providing long-term support that can truly keep a student in college, please visit www.ccad.edu/donate today.

Loann Crane

As a former art dealer, Loann Crane knows a good thing when she sees it. Since the day she first stepped onto CCAD’s campus, she has been impressed by the caliber of CCAD students: their talent, work ethic, and vigor for creating exceptional art. She’s demonstrated that judgment to the world by becoming a champion of CCAD, including making the largest single gift in the college’s history to support construction of the Loann Crane Center for Design, which opened in 2005. She’s also led the CCAD board of trustees through two terms as board president, served on many committees, and hosted and attended countless fundraising events.

Crane recently talked with IMAGE about her passion for CCAD and its mission, and how exciting it’s been to be part of the college’s evolution from a local art school to an international art and design institution.

IMAGE: How did you initially become involved with CCAD?

LC: I joined the board when Joe Canzani was president and immediately became passionate about CCAD and everything it stands for. Joe’s work ethic and passion for design and perfection were contagious.

Once I learned more about all of the interesting things happening at CCAD and got to know some of the instructors in the fine arts department, I quickly realized what an asset CCAD is to Columbus.

IMAGE: Why did you and your family feel inspired to fund the Loann Crane Center for Design?

LC: Columbus has been so good to my family, and we feel strongly about giving back, especially to the arts community. I think CCAD makes Columbus an interesting place to live, and our family truly appreciates the uniqueness it brings our community.

Loann Crane Center for Design

IMAGE: What impact do you think the Crane Center has had on student life at CCAD?

LC: It’s allowed CCAD to build a true campus that appeals to students and their families as well as to the faculty and staff who work there. Before the Center for Design and some of the other new facilities were built, CCAD felt like just a bunch of buildings with no cohesiveness. Today, CCAD has evolved into one of the country’s finest art and design schools with an international reputation and distinguished alumni. It’s been fascinating to be a part of the evolution!

IMAGE: Why would you encourage others to invest in CCAD?

LC: CCAD has created a facet to our community that makes Columbus more sophisticated and appealing. One of the greatest rewards from my involvement with CCAD has been getting to meet and support the people who make our community great. CCAD is a big part of what makes our community special—I encourage people who are passionate about art and helping young people build careers in art and design to support this great asset.

Students participating in College PreView

Over its 11 years of existence, College PreView has become a highly anticipated summer tradition at CCAD. For three intensive weeks on campus, high school students from all over the United States walk in the shoes of their future college selves—living in residence halls, creating in the college’s studios and labs (guided by expert CCAD faculty), and exploring the city’s art scene together. It’s a short but exhilarating taste of life at an art and design college—confirmed enthusiastically by this year’s participants.

Working from a posed model in the drawing and painting studio is a highlight for many students. “I really enjoyed the painting class with Doug Norman,” said Andrew Boerder from Dallas, Texas. “I’ve done painting before, but oil painting from a live model was a completely new experience for me. Doug’s a great teacher.” The complexity of the task can elevate students’ work and produce tangible development by the end of the program. “I really like figure drawing because I think it gives people the most information about art and design. [I learned] shadows, contours, drawing skills, and patience. And I got a product I was proud of in the end,” said Ryan Conners-Trompeter from Oveido, Florida. Finished pieces are often used in college application portfolios because they show a more advanced approach to drawing and painting.

Students are also able to explore majors offered at CCAD by choosing College PreView electives like advertising, animation, and fashion design. In these classes they delve into new fields, mediums, and techniques in the same classrooms that CCAD’s undergraduates use. Samuel DeVine from Hoover, Alabama, said the animation class was his favorite. “I want to go into animation, and I appreciated the good critique so I could understand how to express what characters are thinking and feeling.” Students gain a lot of satisfaction from trying their hand at a potential major for a few weeks, as well as a sense of confidence about the direction they want to go.

The feeling of community is inescapable, despite the short duration of the program, as participants befriend other talented young artists who share their interests. “It’s obviously the people,” said Paige Fruechtnicht from Reynoldsburg, Ohio (who also attended the program in 2010), when asked to name her favorite experience. “At the beginning of College PreView they always tell you ‘You’re gonna make friends you’ll have for a lifetime’ and it’s kinda cheesy at the time, but it’s actually true. Hold onto these people. I still talk to everyone from last year.” Michelle Chiu wrote a bit more directly on her first day home, “B’aaaaaawwww I miss everything and everybody already.” Attendees this year are staying connected online through conversations on Tumblr and Facebook. The camaraderie and support are invaluable.

Students leave campus feeling more aware of and secure in their own abilities as artists. Alex Rickrich from Pickerington, Ohio, summed it up on Tumblr: “My experience at CCAD has taught me to be a better artist and to have confidence in myself and in my art, and has given me a family and connections I could never have gotten closer to any other way. For three weeks I lived with these people, learned with these people, worked with them. I am going to miss every single one of them. I learned more in three weeks than I would’ve in an entire year at my high school.”

Student looks at display.

A decade ago, the worlds of science and art collided in an albino bunny named Alba. Alba was normal by all accounts—until the lights were turned out. Then, thanks to an intervention by Brazilian-born, Chicago-based artist Eduardo Kac, the fluffy white rabbit glowed neon green as she hopped around the room.

Today, the same science that allowed Kac to transfer the “glowing genes” from a jellyfish to a rabbit egg is being taught—albeit on a more basic level—at CCAD. Why is this important? Because in today’s world, concerns about cost and sustainability are causing artists, designers, and scientists to find more and more to learn from one another.

“The point is not to teach the students how to create glowing animals,” says Julie Posey, chair of CCAD’s science department. “It’s to get them thinking about how science can be used not only to influence their work, but to create it.”

Student looks under microscope.

In CCAD science courses, students examine cadavers; dissect eyeballs, hearts, and brains; test body fat and blood pressure levels; extract DNA (creating glowing bacteria à la Kac); and explore a myriad of other experiments and observations designed to help them think differently about art and design.

“The small but imperative details that make the heart beat, the issue of sustainability, potential health hazards—we teach students all of this to give them the information they’ll need to step back and take a second, deeper look at their work,” Posey says.

The newest example of art and design blending with science is taught by Dean of Industrial and Interior Design Carl Garant and ecologist Kim Landsbergen, who is an associate professor of cross-disciplinary studies and sustainability research. Together they have created a course in biomimicry, in which students explore the application of nature’s solutions to a wide variety of design challenges.

Although there are a few other schools of art and design that teach biomimicry, CCAD is the only one at which the course is fully co-taught by a scientist and a designer. “Nature’s diversity presents us with a wide selection of viable design strategies that are sustainable and worthy of recognition and application in today’s world,” Garant says.

If this is the first you’ve heard of biomimicry, it probably won’t be the last. Biomimicry is being pursued by everyone from InterfaceFLOR, a leader in commercial flooring, to the consumer product giant Proctor & Gamble. In fact, Proctor and Gamble’s Behavioral Science Organization (the branch of the company that works with biomimicry) has already hosted an intern from CCAD: Joel van Gilder, a senior Industrial Design major who participated in the inaugural biomimicry course last spring.

Students listens during science lab.

Students in the course research the unique biological and ecological characteristics of a particular insect and then develop a variety of design solutions informed by their work. Like many science-focused courses at CCAD, the biomimicry class takes advantage of the resources at nearby Ohio State University—in this case, with a visit to the entomology collection in OSU’s Museum of Biodiversity, where students come face-to-face with the biology of their organisms, measuring and drawing their insect subjects. Students ultimately present their biologically inspired designs in portfolio-quality, self-published books.

“Students cannot learn in a vacuum,” Garant says. “Biomimicry asks them to look to nature for design inspiration and to think about the sustainability ramifications surrounding their design choices. It’s about understanding the impact and importance of the design process as we strive to design more intelligently.”

Michael Goodson

By: Michael Goodson

For the past year I’ve been working on the über “mixed tape.” (You can call it what you want to fit whatever paradigm—digital or analog—you prefer.) I’ve come to think of it as both a work of art (an edition of 100 with a few artist’s proofs) and a curatorial endeavor, and titled it An Act of Hubris: 357 of My Favorite Songs in No Particular Order…For What It’s Worth…Probably Nothing.

It started with mixed-CD exchanges I was having with some artist friends. Simon Evens, for instance, is a Kiss fan, able to lucidly delineate between their earlier, “brilliant” output and their descent into comic book treacle after Destroyer. Eric Swenson really likes “Surfin’ Bird” and actually prefers Sha-Na-Na’s version to the classic Trashmen or even Ramones versions, which is unthinkable to me. In the midst of doing this I realized that our attempt to understand ourselves via these songs was an apt application of post-structuralist theory. The record you liked when you were 14 pushing up against that which your current brain chemistry allows you to understand and enjoy—all the various contexts and relational positions being brought to bear.

It’s become a meditative time sink, a way for me to relax in the wee hours while my family sleeps. I might think of a song I had somehow missed that must be in the mix. Or edit, begrudgingly, a song I love in order to make room for something more imperative. I recently cut the Partridge Family’s “Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque” to make way for the Jam’s “Art School.” A sound choice, I reckon. In any case, this little project has become curiously important to me.

There’s the third movement from Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor. There’s a poem by Charles Bukowski read by Tom Waits. Mostly, though, as the title suggests, it is songs from various genres—by Hank Williams, Black Flagg, Nina Simone, the Stooges, the Louvin Brothers, Gang Starr, Loretta Lynn, Mississippi John Hurt…and so on.

Still from the video Hanabira by Tabaimo, which is expected to be included in Bending the Mirror.

All of this is apropos of what I envision for exhibitions at CCAD and, in fact, my curatorial perspective in general. To be clear: This idea that Thelonious Monk’s “Abide with Me” can and should sit next to  the Bad Brains’ “Pay to Cum,” both of which are, in turn, well paired with Hank Williams’ “The Angel of Death,” is not the idea behind one good exhibition. (I am, after all, also a believer in the concepts of Harald Szeemann, the father of modern curation, so I like art to be assembled in a precise, graceful, layered, and cogent manner.) It’s a path through an arch of exhibitions over a period of time. Exhibition concepts will always be challenging but will also always attempt to be inclusive of the CCAD family, Columbus generally, or, for all practical purposes, whoever might wander into the gallery on a given day. I, for one, always want my mixed tapes to teach the people to whom they are gifted. It is my hope that each person will discover something new in spirit of these little receptacles. (Try me. Teach me something. Hand me a mixed tape and I will, within a week or so, respond in kind.)

A viewer at the opening reception for Supply and Demand (in front of Infinite time, infinite color, infinite memory, infinite destiny by Damian Aquiles.)

Bio: CCAD Director of Exhibitions Michael Goodson joined the college in August. Previously, he worked at the James Cohan Gallery in New York City, where he started in 2003 and was promoted to exhibitions director in 2006. Concurrent with his work at James Cohan, he taught sculpture and installation art at Hunter College; he has also taught sculpture at Wright State and Wittenberg universities. He holds a BFA from Wright State University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Side story: On view until December 6 in CCAD’s Canzani Center Gallery is Supply and Demand, an exhibition of work made with repurposed consumer goods, curated by CCAD adjunct graduate faculty member (and associate curator of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art) Lisa Dent. Michael Goodson’s first curated exhibitions will be Bending the Mirror, a show about contemporary figuration opening on February 10, and home, a three-artist show of paintings and photographs about suburbia opening on March 2.

Bio: Doug Kridler is the president and C.E.O. of the Columbus Foundation, a community foundation serving the central Ohio region since 1943. His honors include: #1 Civic CEO in CEO magazine, April 2005; an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Capital University in December 2004; the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Central Ohio Chapter’s “Distinguished Leadership in the Arts” award in September 2001; the Public Relations Society of America’s 1997 Prism Award for “Citizen of the Year”; and the 1995 Governor’s Award for the Arts by the Ohio Arts Council in the category of Arts Administration.

Michael Carney (CCAD 2004), who won the 2011 Grammy for Best Recording Package for art direction on the album Brothers by the Black Keys, was interviewed as part of a story on how the digital revolution is affecting both record sales and album design.

Illustration alumnus John Malta (CCAD 2010) had his second illustration published in the paper. He developed the accompanying illustration to the opinion piece,  Engineering Food for All by Nina V. Fedoroff, which ran Aug. 19.

In the article The Incredible, Inevitable Shrinking Album Cover by David Browne, Carney, who majored in Media Studies,  remembers wondering if his bare-bones album cover would even be allowed by its label. The Aug. 12 article explores how album art is being reduced roughly to the size of a postage stamp due to the use of mobile devices.

Malta’s first illustration for the newspaper ran alongside Robert Klitzman’s New York Times op-ed article “My Sister, My Grief” on May 3.

Articles about Carney’s 2011 Grammy and Malta’s first NY Times illustration are on the CCAD News blog.

Image from www.manjarisharma.com

A Media Studies alumna’s latest project was recently featured on one of National Public Radio’s (NPR) blogs.

The Picture Show interviewed Manjari Sharma (CCAD 2004) about Darshan, her project to photographically recreate nine classical images of Hindu gods and goddesses.

The blog article explains that Sharma plans to build every detail of each photograph by hand, which involves set and prop builders, makeup artists, painters, carpenters and jewelry experts. And when everything finally is in place, Sharma captures the scene with a large-format film camera.

Read the full article and interview here.

A related story about Sharma’s project and her quest for financial backing can be found on the CCAD News blog.

"Puss in Boots" opens November 4, 2011.

In an email titled ‘Culmination of 1.5 years of my life!,’ Media Studies alumnus and Dreamworks effects animator Nick Burkard (CCAD 2007) shared with us the work he did on the upcoming Dreamworks film, Puss in Boots.

“I just wanted to send over the most recent cut of the Puss in Boots trailer,” wrote Burkard. “I did a lot of work in this; I think I touched every piece of clothing here (either creating it or making it ‘fit’ with our pipeline).

“Also I did the shot where Puss chases after the light (look at that feather bounce!).  I also helped setup our Houdini fur simulation pipeline, but none of those shots are in this trailer.”

Set to release November 4, 2011, the film tells the heroic journey of Puss in Boots, Humpty Dumpty, and Kitty Softpaws as they try to steal the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.

Want more? Watch the trailer here. (Make sure to pay close attention at 0:29 for the light chasing scene Burkard is talking about.)

Learn more about the film on its website.

Designs by Fashion Design alumnus Edward Buchanan were featured in Vice Magazine.

Designs by Fashion Design alumnus and CCAD Fashion Icon award winner Edward Buchanan (CCAD 1988-1991) are featured in the spring 2011 issue of France’s Blast magazine; the spring summer 2011 issue of Italy’s Hunter Fashion Magazine; in Volume 3, Issue 3 of France’s Vice magazine; and in the first installment of Viktor Mag.

Buchanan is the owner and designer of international fashion line Sansovino 6. His spring line was also featured in the Ahead of the Class article in the March issue of W Magazine.

“This spring he has taken on the world of jeans,” wrote J.J. Martin for W. “Indigo knits, washed and distressed by an Italian denim specialist, have been used to create unisex cutoff shorts, jackets, and various pant silhouettes. The five pocket boot cut could be mistaken for a stylishly worn-in pair of Levi’s, but done up in fine-gauge cotton knit, it feels as snuggly as sweats.”

Read more in the CCAD News Blog, Alumnus, Fashion Icon Award Winner Featured in W Magazine.

Learn more about the fashion line on its website.

2010 graduate Ian Horn co-founded Arch Production & Design in New York City.

Fine Arts alumnus Ian Horn (CCAD 2010) has found success as the co-founder of Arch Production & Design in New York City.

“I must have learned something along the way at CCAD because I now have a company of my own,” Horn wrote to Dean of Fine Arts and Foundation Studies Julie Taggart. “I teamed up with a couple of friends and have been in business officially since February—unofficially since last fall. We are doing really well and have an amazing shop in Bushwick.”

Specializing in event, set, and prop design, Arch Production & Design’s client list includes: Heineken, Oil of Olay, Nike, Dos Equis, Lacoste, and more.

Horn serves as the company’s board president and as a designer, fabricator, and sculptor. His Fine Art installations have earned him numerous awards including a 2010 Fellowship at Mildred’s Lane and Honorable Mention in the 2010 ISC Outstanding Senior Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture.

Learn more about the company on its website.

Associate alumnus Jamie Berger and his brother were featured in the May 2011 edition of HOW Magazine.

Associate alumnus Jamie Berger (CCAD 1975-1978) and his brother were recently featured in a HOW Magazine article detailing the rebranding and success of their printing company, Cranky Pressman.

“My younger brother has owned and operated a printing shop in Salem, Ohio for years,” Berger said. “As with many print and graphics companies, the shop has had some ups and downs since the Apple and digital artwork took over the world.”

“In 2000, I convinced him to get rid of all his new printing equipment and focus on letterpress production. I created a brand for the new old shop called Cranky Pressman. The current HOW Magazine has a feature story on us and our cranky old persona.”

The article was featured in the May 2011 edition of HOW Magazine.

To learn more about Cranky Pressman, visit the website.

Alumna Lora Innes has been asked to create a graphic novel for HBO's new miniseries.

Media Studies alumna Lora Innes (CCAD 2002) will create a graphic novel to follow the new HBO miniseries, To Appomattox, which is currently in production.

To Appomattox is an eight-part TV miniseries about the Civil War, starring Michael C. Hall, William Petersen, Paul Giamatti, Bill Paxton, and Noah Wyle. It will air in 2013 to coincide with the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War. Learn more about the project here.

Innes is the award-winning writer and artist of the historically-acclaimed graphic novel series The Dreamer, a story about a teenage girl who begins having vivid dreams about the American Revolutionary War. She also co-hosts a podcast series called Paper Wings, the show for visual storytellers.

Photo Courtesy of HubWorld.

Illustration alumnus David Hartman (CCAD 1995) was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in the Oustanding Directing in an Animated Program category for his work as the supervising director for Transformers Prime.

Transformers Prime is up against Disney Kick Buttowski on DisneyXD, Fanboy and Chum Chum on Nickelodeon, Martha Speaks on PBS, Penguins of Madagascar on Nickelodeon, and Toot & Poodle on Nick Jr.

Nominations were announced Wednesday, May 11, and CCAD Illustration alumna (and David’s wife) Kathleen Hartman (CCAD 1994) shared the good news via the Columbus College of Art & Design Facebook page. A complete list of nominations can be viewed here.

We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed until June 19 when the winners are announced. In the meantime, learn more about the show on its webpage.

Alumnus Dan Scanlon has been chosen to direct Pixar's Monsters University.

In a bit of you-heard-it-hear-first news, Illustration alumnus Dan Scanlon (CCAD 1998) has just confirmed that he will direct Monsters University, a prequel to Pixar’s 2001 hit Monsters Inc.

“Yup, I’m directing MU,” he wrote to us in an email. And while he can’t do an interview (yet), Scanlon and the 2013 film are being talked about all-over the cyber world.

Cole Abaius of the blog Film School Rejects writes, “This will be Scanlon’s first feature film, but he has a writing credit on Cars, a co-director credit on the short Mater and the Ghostlight, and he’s acted as a storyboard artist on several project. It’s difficult to say what kind of job Scanlon will do with Monsters University, but he’s got the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the Pixar team.”

Kevin Jagernauth of the IndieWire Blog Network wrote, “Walt Disney has announced that Dan Scanlon will helm the film that will track Mike and Sully during their days at the University of Fear, telling the story of how they start off as enemies but soon become friends. As per usual with Pixar‘s hiring process, they’ve tapped a longtime colleague for the job. … And while it’s his first feature length animated film, he’ll undoubtedly have the strong team of the studio behind him every step of the way.”

On the blog Pixar Planet, a poster wrote, “A rising star at Pixar has taken his talents to new heights. It was confirmed today that Dan Scanlon is currently directing Monsters University…Not only is he talented, but he’s also a genuinely nice guy. It will definitely be interesting to see his take on the monster world.”

And while you anxiously await the opening of the film—and the chance to reconnect with Mike, Sully, and the gang—keep following CCAD News for the updates.