The Book Show at the School of Visual Arts

Illustration by Tae Kim, MFAI ‘23 | @jjangga_tjk

A scholarship has been established in honor of MFA Illustration as Visual Essay founder and longtime chair, Marshall Arisman, to provide financial support to future MFAI students. To make a donation, visit the Visual Arts Foundation website and include “Marshall Arisman Scholarship Fund” in the comment field.

This year marks my 5th teaching in the MFA Illustration program at the School of Visual Arts, and my 4th year curating “The Book Show,” an exhibition of work by our students. But it is also a first, as we forge on without the calm, steady guidance of our program’s founder, Marshall Arisman. A few weeks ago, as I helped the Class of 2023 install their work—the last group he taught—I tried my best to channel him. As I advised each student, I found myself repeating the same words I’d heard Marshall say so many times at big moments like this (and on occasion to me): “You should be proud of yourself.” And now I have to say it—I am proud. Proud of myself, but mostly proud that this group of kind, talented, thoughtful artists pulled through, presenting an enormous, impressive body of work. Their dedication is reflected on the walls and in the pages of each book.

The signage for the exhibition says, “Curated by Anna Raff”, but my teaching partner, Marshall had as much to do with the quality of the students’ work as I did. I was overruled when I asked to have his name added before mine as curator, as was our usual way. But I’m very happy that the next line reads, “Dedicated to Marshall Arisman.” I think Marshall would be proud too.

“The Book Show” is free to the public and open to through January 14, 2023. If you would like to attend, visit the MFAI Eventbrite site for times and vaccine requirements. To learn more, here’s a link to the SVA website.

Helen Ji, Mural of Akabalon, MFAI ‘23 | @helenjeeeee

Katy Freeman, The Reunion, MFAI ‘23 | @katyfree

Junjun Che, Moonlit Night, MFAI ‘23 | @junjundraws

Weston Wei, Ignite, MFAI ‘23 | @westonweiart

Xinyue Chen, The Big Girl, MFAI ‘23 | @maiyashu

World Read Aloud Day 2030 is Feb. 1st!

It’s hard to believe, but 2023 is just around the corner. For all you teachers and librarians out there, I’ll be participating in World Read Aloud Day again, which is on February 1st. I’d love to connect with you and your students for a reading, or to discuss my illustration process. As usual, the wonderful Kate Messner has graciously organized us all here. I hope to see you on WRAD!

UPDATE: MY SCHEDULE FOR WRAD 2023 IS FULLY BOOKED.

Coming Soon: You Make Me Sneeze!

Cat and Duck are getting back together again. I’m happy to report my latest picture book gig, You Make Me Sneeze, a sequel to 2016’s You Are Not a Cat! , to be published by Astra Young Readers. Once again, I’m team up with the wonderful Sharon G. Flake, author of the much-beloved and awarded Y.A. novels The Skin I’m In and The Life I’m In.

Getting Out of a Work Funk / Part 2: ‘Salva la Tierra’ by Eljuri

[This is the second of a two-part post. You can read part one here.] 

Recurring cast member, the mini turntable.

Back when I was in grad school, one of my classmates was struggling with an important project. In an effort to help, I offered advice on ways to work through it, not realizing her method for seeking out creative answers did not mirror mine. “I don’t use play the way you do,” she said. 

Before this exchange, I had never considered the importance of play for me in relation to work. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Over the past few years, the light-hearted tone of my illustrations has seemed insufficient and unsatisfactory in answer to national and world events as they become more and more distressing and dire. In short, I hadn’t felt like playing. 

Pistachio nuts became a swarm of bees.

Yet finding play is what has historically dug me out of more than a few minor creative blocks. But more recently, I was not giving myself space to take chances, experiment—to make things for the sake of the making things. I had lost touch with what it felt like to make stuff for me. And that’s what that random skateboard deck in part one rekindled. 

Then in the early spring, I was asked by my art director/music producer friend, Alex Gatje to help create a music video, featuring the lyrics of an upcoming single, ‘Salva la Tierra’ by the band Eljuri. She had just a glimmer of an idea for it and wondered if I’d like to create an animation in some way, combining illustration and nature videography…and how would we do that? 

Alex’s wind-up boat box was one of our first “cast” members.

The song ‘Salva la Tierra’ is a call to action to turn back the effects of climate change. Eljuri summed it up best recently:

“Everyone can see the terrible changes that the environment is going through. We are polluting the earth, water, and air. One by one we can help. Small voices can move big companies. This all adds up to real change. Are you with me?”

Alex gave me some keywords to consider as imagery: water, flowers, fish, bugs, sun, clouds, leaves, the Earth, the Sun. And I felt wheels in my brain start turning. Then turn faster and faster. I was hooked—I was excited…and this was going to be completely different than any commissioned project I’d done before. Most of all, it was going to be meaningful AND fun. I soon realized, my sense of play was what just might tie it all together. And I dove in completely.

I’ve made animations before, but mostly promotional book trailers for publishers, and the occasional stop motion clips for my own amusement. I’d never developed anything as complex (or long!) as a music video. Alex described it as a “lyric video” because she wanted the Spanish lyrics to scroll along with the music and imagery. 

For the past two months, virtually all of my waking hours have been completely and joyfully obsessed with this project. Everything within eyeshot became potential material…

Behind the scenes of the opening shot.

One day in late May my husband came home with a beautiful bouquet of yellow flowers. We enjoyed them in their vase for a day or so before I lopped off the blossoms for use in the opening shot. I left those same flowers out for a few weeks to later cast them as seaweed (along with some old, dried rosemary sprigs from our fridge), for the sky and water scenes of fish and bees. And there were random things I’d held onto around my desk. For instance, last year, in order to get free shipping on an order of clothing, I purchased some socks which came in a bright, yellow cardboard box. That box became the base of the mini turntable, featured in several recurring shots of the spinning record album and Earth. 

I had some travel plans this spring, but while away, I was unable to turn off my “asset gathering” mode for the video. While spending a week at the beach, I gathered pinecones to use as background trees and “dancers”. I also made my hostess eat pistachios so I could turn the empty shells into a swarm of bees. I was also spending a lot of time outside, which gave me the opportunity to experiment with time lapse photography for a few of the nature shots. And I had help too: Alex contributed several of the overhead shots and spinning rocks clips. And my friend Jack shot the gorgeous sunset-over-water time lapse scene while we were visiting Tennessee. I even found an  opportunity on the flight home for the final clip I used in the credits. I couldn’t turn my brainstorming off, and it felt great. 

And I got to animate Eljuri. :^)

A pistachio boat features prominently.

In the end, the whole thing was an enormous puzzle. I wasn’t entirely sure how it would come together. But it reminded me how much I love problem-solving through visual media. Bringing all of the elements into After Effects was a challenge, but an extremely rewarding one. And I learned A TON of new things.

Most of all, Alex and Eljuri were there along the way to nudge and encourage me when needed, and keep me on course. They gave me an incredible amount of creative freedom. I’ll always be thankful for the trust they put in me for this important project. 

I love this description from the press release:

“The [‘Salva la Tierra’] video orchestrates fantasy and reality through illustration, stop motion and nature photography and videography. Encouraging people to sing along to the important message, the uplifting video filled with original characters like bees, fish and a boat representing mankind, weave through scenes of nature imploring that we could reverse the effects of climate change if we all work together.”

For more information about Eljuri and upcoming tour dates, visit their website. You can also follow her on social media @eljurimusic.

The single and video, ‘Salva la Tierra’ will release on Friday, July 15, 2022. I’ll be sharing the video on my news blog, along with links to Eljuri’s YouTube page.

¿Estás conmigo?

A still from the final sequence in ‘Salva la Tierra”.

Getting Out of a Work Funk / Part 1: Decked Out

It’s been a while since I posted any news on this space. The truth is, for the last two-plus years I’ve been in a bit of a mood about my work. Added to that, there was the death of my friend-mentor-teaching partner-boss, Marshall Arisman in late April. It’s no wonder that my typical rah-rah, self-promotional posts here have been feeling tone deaf. So I thought I’d try something a little different this time, beginning with a two-part missive about how I seem to have gotten myself out of it. 

It’s no secret that the past few years have been difficult on everyone, including us creatives. I am no exception, as I have struggled with new and old work challenges. And there has been the daily barrage of horrifying news which continues, unrelentingly, and at times, worse than ever. In the big scheme of things, my work problems seem really unimportant, so at a certain point over the past year, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep doing this kind of work. Whatever I was making two years ago felt so disparate from anything important enough for a world that’s rapidly-changing, devolving. 

So like a lot of people, I quietly retreated somewhat for the sake of self-preservation. Believe me, I know my ability to do that comes from a place of privilege. That said, I have retreated—albeit incompletely—from social media. I have focused on commissioned work I already had, fostered relationships with a few old clients, one or two new ones, but mostly I stopped promoting. I pretty much ignored my news blog and newsletter and hunkered down, hoping my state of mind would improve and that I’d be able to reconnect with my creative self. 

A sketchbook sketch.

Testing out materials on cardboard.

Teaching was helpful. Connecting with students to help them find their potential can be a panacea. And yet, a funny thing about teaching is that you can be telling your students something for years and never think to apply that wisdom to yourself. Until one day you realize you’re in just as much of a pickle as they are.  

A couple projects showed me a way out, or at least a way to partially shake off my funk, slump, whatever you want to call it. And that’s what I want to focus on in this post and a second to come in a few days.

Earlier this year, my pal Kristy Caldwell told me about a fundraiser her friend, Joey Slaughter was organizing to benefit the construction of a skatepark in Ruston, Louisiana. Artists were being asked to paint customized skateboard decks to be sold at auction. They would send us a blank deck and we could do whatever we wanted to it, then ship it back. The appeal of creating something completely different from my usual work on top of the chance to just simply play around loomed large. So I jumped at the chance.

If the ancient scars on my knees could talk, the last time I spent this amount of time on a skateboard was over four decades ago. Thankfully though, I remained in the safety of my own home office for the duration of the project. And I made a few rules for myself, mostly to not get hung up on the same, old work habits that I had been finding so exhausting and uninspiring. I wanted to use traditional materials, focus on drawing, not painting, or anything else that would push me toward perfection, rather than enjoyment of the process. My solution was very simple, immediate, and playful. Most of all, it was an absolute pleasure from start to finish. I had somehow reconnected with the joy of making something, just for me, just for the sake of the process of making something. 

Oh, and did I mention all of this was for a good cause? And incredible array of artists, illustrators, and skating celebrities from all around the country contributed, and the work was AMAZING to behold. In the end, the Friends of Ruston Skatepark raised over $63K! As I write this, they are very, very close to meeting their ultimate goal.

Finished deck, side 1.

I’m not saying I’m completely out of my work funk. But at the very least, I have reconnected to a state of mind where I can make better work that I feel a connection to. And at the very least, I left a few bread crumbs to guide me back the next time I find myself in a creative hole.

Stay tuned for Part 2, featuring another project that helped, coming soon.

If you’d like more information about the Ruston Skatepark, click here.