Scott Bakal was one of our speakers. He is an alumni of the Hartford Program and brought in original artwork to show us. I admire his work, and own his book, Me + the Devil, which started as his thesis project.
Chris Spollen and Daniel Pelavin were our instructors for our promo class. They are an awesome team! I had so much fun in this class and everyone came up with some great ideas by all working together and brainstorming.
I had my thesis defense on thursday and was so nervous and excited all at once! This was probably pre-thesis with that look on my face...
Saturday we headed up to the Norman Rockwell Museum where I enjoyed the Rockwell Paintings and the new William Steig exhibit that's up. I learned that Steig came up with the idea for "Shrek" which in yiddish means "Fear"...'ya learn somethin' new everyday!
Below was my favorite illustration of Steig's done for Thanksgiving!
We then headed over to the New Britain Museum where we were allowed into the secret basement to view artwork from the permanent collection that was not on display. I also enjoyed the M.C. Escher exhibit and the Dalton M. Ghetti exhibition pieces.
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Ghetti created these little letterforms on the tops of regular pencils, which seem absolutely time consuming but are amazing. The alphabet took 2. 5 years to create.
The day ended with a BBQ hosted by fellow classmate, Jim DeCesare and his wife Kelly, which was held in their beautiful studio. We all had a great time!
Sunday was Crit Day, where our assignments from our Texas Trip were critiqued. I can recall in my first year being blown away from the pieces displayed, and being intimidated by all the great work. Looking back, I can see that it definitely raised the bar for the work that was yet to be produced. Below are Doug Andersen and Bill Thomson, thesis advisors for the program.
I also got my copy of Chalk signed. It's a children's book that's written and illustrated by Bill who is an awesome hyper-realist illustrator. He was my thesis advisor at Hartford. I was intimidated by his work, but he gave me great insight and guided me through my thesis these past 2 years. :)
