Great speakers at the Society, Steve Brodner and Leo and Diane Dillon. The Society looks terrific under the new direction of an old business associate, Anelle Miller who has cleaned the place up, put flowers and decor in the right place, who transformed the womens room into a nice place versus a bad bar and grill restroom. The place seems spotless, with show graphics, illustrations hung straight, and plumb, and with the staff def chop chop. She has transformed the place and really deserves kudos for the hard work in making the society more of a snappy place (the worn holes in the shredded carpet were gone. Yhe big room we were in was comfortable, big and well suited for our lectures in the morning and the crit in the afternoon.
Steve Brodner was as always, salient, smart and insightful. I throughly enjoyed his insight about the recent events. His work is extrodinary, transcending Thomas Nast--with wit and bite that really communicates not only in his print work but now the new "Naked Campaign" videos he has done with the New Yorker Magazine. What really worked for me was his talking about the idea of creating a niche, your own job and then backing into it. He had decided that he was going to take this approach and it has worked from assignments covering political campaigns, to this new venture with the New Yorker. He is entrepenurial in his work--getting it out through the print and electronic media--thinking and learning as he goes. He also shared his approach to work/teaching:
1. Read for Essence
2. Sketch
3. Form a Sentence > establish his metaphor
--whats my statement
--think about staging hierarchy
4. Composition
5. Finish
Every pictures needs to mean something. "There are no casual notes in Mozart." He also is pretty fluid in his use of media from drawing with a paintbrush to pen and ink, to watercolor and so one. His influenced are mainly Steadmann("angst"), and Hirshfield ("elegance"). Brodner is a thought leader beyond his niche. We are lucky to have him walking this planet.
I am so jazzed by Leo and Diane Dillon. I have always loved their work...but what makes them tick, their philosophy and interplay is amazing. They learned to work together out of their competitive nature. The fought and fought until they came up with a working method where one person would work on a sketch and pass it to the other and back and forth until it is realized. Then a tight pencil needs to happen, then a color comp and then a final. The Dillons have three artists in their family> Leo, Diane and then, the third artist, The Dillons. In taking away the ego, the me--as Leo said "You've given yourself away if your style is yourself". Once they have given that up, the media, the rendering, the sheer pride in the final image and it's pristine quality takes a far more significant role. So, we saw woodcuts, we saw crewel work, stained glass windows, wooden panels, paint on acetate, pastels, airbrush. One image more striking than the next with a surprise for me in the woodcuts (one inspired by Will Bradley that really called to me) and in the new children's book on Jazz (very graphic, referencing Tom Purvis to some degree, Milton Avery etc.)that pushes me to try more graphic things too. I know I can do this, I have just held off going there. They also had a body of work centered around crythosethia..making objects up out of other objects. They also are prime great layout guys from not denying gutters in their pictures, to changing borders throughout the book to changing an element like flowers throughout the publication. T hey also like to like mini stories within a children's book with wordless stories that little children can "read" along with the parents. They are the pair I hope to focus on my paper.
Must go to check email> Its been great. I showed my mentor my work...I need to keep going.. need to try hots and cools> and keep making pictures to see where it goes.
Hopefully, we will have indian food tonight with the gals and a few invited boyfriends.