Ciao Stephanie September 4, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Pinocchio, Student Blog posts, Student Post, Studying abroad.Tags: Pinocchio in Florence, Stephanie Tartick, Studying in Italy
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Stephanie Tartick is studying abroad in Italy this semester. She sent this update from Florence (home of Pinocchio author Carlo Collodi).
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Hi Les,
I am in Florence, Italy now! Didn’t start classes yet. We have intensive Italian all week and I start classes next week with Painting, Figure Drawing, Quattrocento (14th century), Italian and Black and White Photography. The past three days I have been exploring the city of Florence as much as I can since my apartment is right in the city. On the street I have been taking to school the past three days there is a toy store with a bunch of Pinocchio toys in it. Carlo Collodi was from Florence! I took two pictures of the store front and thought I’d share them with you and the Illustration department.
My school is very small but reminds me of the illustration department. Only 48 students and all majoring in different things, not just fine art. Most of the students are from the United States, in fact 5 of all my roommates are from San Antonio. Hope the semester started off well.
Best,
Stephanie T
Hi Les,
Studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity. Just traveling to the Toronto International Airport I saw a Richard Serra sculpture. It reminded me of the amazing world of art and the reason why I chose to leave the country for four months. It’s a pretty big decision and an even bigger change. Any place in the rest of the world will be completely different than the young United States. In Florence there is ancient art in any old street corner. Frescoes are on the ceiling of my apartment building and the outside of the building I see out my window. Famous architecture you read in textbooks is located every two blocks in this city. Three thousand students come to study in Florence every semester and five thousand to Rome. If anyone is looking for a small English speaking school in the heart of the city of Florence, contact me about Santa Reparata International School of Art. www.santareparata.org
Gay Art: It’s More Than Just Men Having Sex! May 6, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Art History, Political and Social Art, Student Post.Tags: Evan Turk, Gay Art, Gay Rights Movement Art, J.C. Leyendecker, Keith Haring, Raphael Perez
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Post by Evan Turk
In my research for my semester final project of creating posters about the gay rights movement, I searched for inspiration from other artists who had created political and social art related to the gay community. What I found, is that there is not as much to be found as one might expect. Most “gay art” falls into the realm of the erotic and very little else falls outside of that. There is no shortage of famous gay artists (Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jean Cocteau, Paul Cadmus, David Hockney, Francis Bacon), though most of them were closeted. For the most part, any gay-themed art they created was focused on eroticism.
A prominent gay artist who was extremely influential in gay history in America is Keith Haring. Haring was a prominent artist in the 80’s and 90’s in New York City who created simple and largely symbolic work in the vein of pop art and graffiti art. As a victim of AIDS himself, Haring created many of the images that are still used today for AIDS prevention groups as well as gay organizations. An interview with Keith Haring by David Sheff for Rolling Stone (Aug. 1989) can be found at Haring.com as well as an art database.
(Top) “Silence = Death” “Ignorance = Fear” (Bottom)“Untitled” (All images copyright the Keith Haring Foundation)
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Another artist that gives an interesting illustration of gay life is J. C. Leyendecker. Leyendecker was an American illustrator in the 20th century known for his fashion advertisements and illustrated covers of the Saturday Evening Post, preceding Norman Rockwell’s reign at the magazine. His work, which is all commercial work, has a rather subtle (or other times not so subtle) gay undertone. In a few paintings, at first glance it seems to be a few sailors looking flirtatiously at a young woman, but upon closer inspection, the men actually appear to be looking at each other with her just kind of standing in the way.
(Above) Arrow Collars and Shirts advertisement (1907)
(Above) The House of Kuppenheimer Advertisement (1918)
(Above) “Kuppenheimer Advertisement – Good Team Work”
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Perez is an artist born in 1965 and raised in Jerusalem. He now lives in Tel-Aviv and creates work that often deals with homosexual themes and relationships. As stated on his website “His paintings put to test the boundaries between eroticism and art, while characterizing gay relationships and love as they are expressed in everyday life.” Although his work contains mostly male nudes, the subject matter is often non-erotic. He depicts family scenes and everyday life for gay couples, instead of just the sexual aspects of a gay relationship.
(Above) Untitled
(Above) Gay Wedding
(Above) Gay Daily Life courtesy of www.gaypaintings.com
As homosexuality becomes more accepted in modern culture, there will be less sexual repression and most likely, less of an emphasis on only erotic art. This leaves the door open for a different step in the gay art movement.
Boak Who? May 2, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Student Post, Uncategorized.Tags: Dick Boak, Martin Guitars art, pen and ink, Victoria Salvador
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By Victoria Salvador
Dick Boak is a long time guitar builder who works for Martin Guitars. He’s currently the director of ‘Martin Guitar Artist and Limited Editions’, which is a series of beautifully crafted instruments that are uniquely made through collaborations. He is better known and famous for working for Martin Guitars, finding artwork of his from the 70s was not easy. I know of Dick Boak because I sit in front of his lithograph everyday at my desk, and yet- I have never chose to really explore his work. His pen and ink drawings as well as his lithographs are impressive, imaginative, and extremely detailed.
(Above) Elephants, 1976
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Reading through an interview I found in Modern Guitars Magazine with Boak, I found out that graphic art was his original profession:
Modern Guitars Magazine: Life before Martin Guitar?
Dick Boak: I started out as an illustrator and art teacher. One of the teachers at the Blair Academy, a private school that has about 400 students, up in New Jersey, was having some difficulty reaching the right rapport with his students. They weren’t responding. He asked me to work with him in order to connect with the students better and that lasted for about two years.
* In the interview, Boak speaks about getting hired with Martin, was let go, and then asked to come back. He began illustrating again in his free time.
MGM: You returned…
DB: The guy who fired me kept it a bit of a secret. Fortunately, when everyone found out about it, they wanted me back. Frank Martin, his father “Mr. Martin” and his grandson Chris (Christian Frederick Martin IV) and the guys in the production shop didn’t know I’d been fired. While I was “on sabbatical”, I worked on an illustration of a D-28 and eventually published it. My artistic interest or specialty is to make very detailed, highly intricate drawings through a method artists call pointillism. I thought of it as hippie art, sort of San Francisco art nouveau.
Anyway, I was hired back during the strike and worked final assembly, and through the years I’ve worked in a lot of different areas at Martin, learning from the ground up.
(Above) D-28, 1977
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Boak’s illustrations are distinctive in style and visually delicate. His line work is hair-line fine, and his use of pointillism is a complimentary contrast to his flat white backgrounds he employs. Looking over his work, I see a strong resemblance to M, C . Escher’s work, even if this was unintentional. His subject matter, symmetry, and attraction to illusions gives me this impression.
(Above left) Wheel Of Balance, 1974 by Dick Boak (Above right) Angels and Devils By M.C. Escher
(Above) The Vine of Harmonics designed by Boak. Ivory inlay on a 12-string Cutaway Martin. The harmonic locations of the strings on the frets are marked by the vine pattern
The interview witth Modern Guitars Magazine : http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/000500.html
Dick Boak’s art is ©Dick Boak and from : http://www.dickboak.com/website/Art.html
Posting to the Class Blog/Students April 20, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Class Assignments, Student Blog posts, Student Post.Tags: Student blog post guidelines
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Due dates for your posts are listed in the syllabus. I will do the actually posting so don’t worry about the technical side. I will also be acting as your editor.
Your post should be about something visual. I am not expecting it to be a term paper. Think short, 175-250 words. You can write a longer or shorter post it really depends on your subject and how clear and succinct you can be in your writing.
Subject Matter
- An artist you think is noteworthy. A neglected/forgotten artist who is relevant today
- Your take on a visual trend. (Is this really the first time this trend has appeared?)
- An aspect of art history.
- A collection of things you’ve seen or have (as long as it has a wider audience).
- An event. You can report on going to Comic con, MoCCA, etc.
- Interview an artist, designer, art director etc.on a project they’re working on.
- An illustrated book, the art of a movie (animated or not).
- How to create/construct something (talk about this with me first).
Almost everything is fair game. This is a class blog though , not your personal blog, so while I applaud your enthusiasm… keep “…Dudes!, this shit is the bomb, you have to check out…..” to a minimum please.
Do Not
- Write a post about your own artwork. Something you’re involved in might be okay, (Run it past me).
- Don’t post about another blog. If you find something interesting somewhere write about the original source material. Add new information to what is already out there, or a new viewpoint.
Things to Keep in Mind:
- Lists can be great on a blog, they’re short and to the point, but make sure you also comment on your choices. Why did you select them? What is the common thread? Compare and contrast images and content.
- Think short sentences. Make your main points as clear as possible.
- Do some research. I can’t stress this enough. It will lead you to never before uncovered stuff. Be original
- Come up with a A good title.
- Provide some links.
- Respect the copyrights of others. Attribute works to their authors. If a source you’re posting an image from asks you to e-mail for permission, then please do so. Just because another site does not list the artist’s name or title of the piece it doesn’t mean you don’t have to.
- Explain who or what you are taking about. Don’t assume the reader knows. ex. instead of writing “…his work looks like Thomas Hart Benton’s” Explain who Benton is. ex. “…his work looks similar to 20th century American muralist Thomas Hart Benton”.
Include
- A list of key words and categories for me to include in the post.
- Images as examples (we’ll cover the specs in class)
- Captions with your images, names and dates, some identifying sentence…
Wild Pilgrimage by Lynd Ward April 16, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Books, Political and Social Art, Printmaking, Student Post.Tags: Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Novels without words, Paula Searing, Wild Pilgrimage
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Post by Paula Searing
Recently I read Wild Pilgrimage by Lynd Ward. It really blew me away, and I was surprised to have not heard of him before. Wild Pilgrimage, published in 1932, (by Harrison Smith and Robert Hass, Inc. New York) is comprised of 95 wood engravings and was originally described as a wordless novel. It’s one of the precursors to today’s 
graphic novel. Ward’s novel tells the story of a young man as he navigates through the racism, injustice, and poverty issues America faced during the 1930’s.
(Left) An illustration of the young man from Wild Pilgrimage.
Lynd Ward (b. 1905-d. 1985) was an American artist who worked from the 1920’s well into the 1980’s. While attending the National Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany in the the late 1920’s , Ward was exposed to the work of German artist Otto Nukel and Belgian artist Frans Masereel. Also working in woodcuts and engravings, Masereel is among the first wordless novelists , publishing Passionate Journey in 1919. After studying printmaking in Germany for a year (1926-1927),Ward returned to the U.S. and would eventually complete five wordless novels in his lifetime; God’s Man 1929, Madman’s Drum 1930, Wild Pilgrimage 1932, Prelude to a Million Years 1933, Song Without Words 1936, and Vertigo in 1937. His career also encompassed children’s books, and illustrations for classics such as Beowulf and Frankenstein.
“In the American experience there is probably no more basic or recurrent impulse than to leave society. It is a madness- or a sanity- that can take hold of any citizen when the daily grind becomes suddenly more abrasive than anyone should be asked to endure; when the crush of too many people in too small a space is finally more than one can take; when the noise and smells of the city are at last too stifling to be borne. Then the urge to pick up and leave, to get away somehow, is irresistible. Surely, the impulse whispers in your ear, it is not inevitable that I should live and die in this hellhole; surely, there is more to the world and to life than this.”
-Lynd Ward on Wild Pilgrimage
(Above) Two engravings from the book.
It amazed me how particular the depictions in the novel are to the Great Depression in America, but the story still has a universal message. The dual narrative made it much more of a personal navigation through a political situation or setting.
Below are two consecutive panels from the novel, introducing the main character for the first time. On the left is one of the reality panels, showing the protagonist looking back at an industrial setting, factories blowing smoke in the background, stifling and claustrophobic. The one on the right, printed in a redish- orange, shows an inner narration of the main character, struggling to break through bars. The color narration is used throughout the whole novel, creating metaphors as the story goes on.
(Above Left) “Reality” panel introducing main protagonist in Wild Pilgrimage (Above right) a “Dream” panel of main protagonist in Wild Pilgrimage
The term “Political Art” holds a certain stigma for me, and that may speak for a number of us. Wild Pilgrimage is one of those pieces that skillfully balances what it is to make political art, and what it is to be a human. Wards work reminded me of the contemporary poster artist Luba Lukova, who came to speak at the Picturing Politics Symposium at The New School. During the symposium she referred to herself not as a political artist but as a human expressing her reactions to what is going on in the world.
(Above) Luba Lukova’s “The dried up mother earth, in her arm a screaming baby – a symbol of the self destroying treatment of men with nature.” (www.lukova.net/)
Lynd Ward’s wordless novels are enjoying a resurgence and are available as paperback reprints. Wild Pilgrimage can also be read in Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels edited by George A. Walker.
An Ergot Is A Kind of Fungus April 4, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Comics, Student Post.Tags: Comics anthology, Kramers Ergot, Mark Lev, Sammy Harkham
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By Mark Lev
In 2000, Sammy Harkham, a cartoonist and a bookstore retailer based in Los Angeles,CA, started a comics anthology called Kramers Ergot. The first 2 editions had just four artists, including Harkham, (Harkham also has an ongoing comic book called “Crickets”) but each issue that followed grew significantly with additional contributors. The current issue is number 7.
The book grew into what is now a compilation of the best underground comics artists working today, in a giant-format (16”x21”), with each contributor complete given complete freedom to do whatever they want. The result is as diverse and interesting as you’d expect, with work ranging from meticulous narrative to complete abstraction. The book is beautiful, weird, sometimes overwhelmingly dense, but is generally visual storytelling at its best. The large format is about the same as early 20th century ‘broadsheets’, which gave the comics space and freedom to use the potential of the whole paper; the drawings are saturated both visually and content-wise. In fact, the amount and quality of content makes one [almost] feel OK about the book’s $125 price tag…
Contributors to the book range from the famous (Daniel Clowes, Matt Groening, Kim Deitch, Chris Ware, Seth, etc…) to the not so well known. Most comics are a single page, but some range from 1-4 pages. Ware contributes a two-page comic about a sleeping baby printed at life-size. Matt Groening contributes an homage to “The Road to Success” . Clowes includes a one-page, more-noir-than-usual comic called Sawdust. Many other, less well-known artists get to experiment with the book’s generous dimensions, being as lucid or as incoherent as they need. The anthology has been compared to Art Spiegelman’s RAW magazine from the 80s, and in many ways is just as important. If you’re into comics, this is a must read.
(Top left) Richard Sala (Top right) Matt Groening, (Bottom) Canadian artist Shary Boyle
(Above Left) (Above right ) Matt Furie
(Above Top left) French artist Blexbolex
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Sammy Harkham , Kiel Phegley is the interviewer. You can read the full interview on Kiel Phegley’s blog, Four Color Forum.
KP: So I was wondering to start, for you is there any kind of guiding editorial principal behind the book beyond “these are cartoonists I love,” or did you just want a forum to bring artists you knew under one banner?
SH: It is pretty much that. It’s comics that I love. And a lot of it is work that isn’t coming out regularly from other places and to do something which presents the work in as great a way as possible. For me, that means giving artists space. If they want to do something in color, they can do it in color. The average issue is slightly larger than a comic book. Just wanting to present the work in a way that’s really unobtrusive…respectful but also making it so it has the energy of comics. I don’t have introductions to each cartoonist. I don’t have an editor’s forward or any of that stuff. I don’t even have page numbers because I want to whole to have a very visceral kind of punch the same way picking up comics when you’re younger has – of discovering something amazing whether it’s Faust or X-Men or Dan Clowes. There’s that energy of picking something up that you respond to that you’ve never seen before and just having your eyeballs melt. I didn’t really feel like there was an anthology like that. And so the goals of each issue slightly change, but I’d say the foundation of it is always that.
KP: What struck me outside the general size of the book and how that affected the style of the strips on a practical level was…you know, I interviewed Art Spiegelman a few weeks ago and with that I re-read In The Shadow of No Towers, and while there he’s working in a larger, board book format, he very much said, “I’m going to do a kind of homage to classic newspaper strips.” He’s using the same character types and cartooning styles in some places. But Kramers 7 doesn’t do that as much, despite the fact that the Nemo book is the keystone everyone talking about it points to.
SH: [With past issues of Kramers] sometimes people were so inclined to say, “This isn’t comics.” And to me, it’s straight up comics. And with this new issue, I thought that in deciding that it’s all going to be comics – no art, no sketchbooks, only comics – I knew that it was making that connection between this work where some of it is looked at as kind of far out and saying, “No. It has a connection to something like Windsor McCay or Popeye.” And there is that element of wanting to connect it and have a through line from then until now.
(above) Sammy Harkham, at Desert Island in Williamsburg, Brooklyn were an all-day booksigning for Kramers Ergot 7 was held in 2008. Harkham is also the cover artist. (from http://www.artloversnewyork.com/artlovers/report/2008-12-10.html)
Contributors to Kramers Ergot No. 7 are: Rick Altergott, Gabrielle Bell, Jonathan Bennett, Blanquet, Blex Bolex, Conrad Botes, Shary Boyle, Mat Brinkman, John Brodowski, Ivan Breunetti, C.F., Chris Cilla, Jacob Ciocci, Dan Clowes, Martin Cendreda, Joe Daly, Kim Deitch, Matt Furie, Tom Gauld, Leif Goldberg, Matt Groening, John Hankiewicz, Sammy Harkham, Eric Haven, David Heatley, Tim Hensley, Jaime Hernandez, Walt Holcombe, Kevin Huizenga, J. Bradley Johnson, Ben Jones & PShaw, Ben Kathchor, Ted May, Geoff Mcfetridge, James Mcshane, Jerry Moriarty, Anders Nilsen, John Pham, Aapo Rapi, Ron Rege Jr, Xavier Robel, Helge Reumann, Florent Ruppert & Jerome Mulot, Johnny Ryan, Richard Sala, Souther Salazar, Frank Santoro, Seth, Shoboshobo, Josh Simmons, Anna Sommer, Will Sweeeney, Matthew Thurber, Adrian Tomine, Carol Tyler, Chris Ware, and Dan Zettwoch.
All copyrights for images in this post are either © 2008 Buenaventura Press, or the individual artist.
Raiders of the Lost Arcimboldo March 21, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in 3-D work, Art History, Public art, Student Post, Surreal.Tags: Alex Iezzi, Arcimboldo, assemblage, Aurel Schmidt, Dali, Joel-Peter Witkin, Octavio Ocampo, Vik Muniz
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by Alex Iezzi
The 15th century, Italian painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo is one of the most instantly recognizable artists in western art. From Milan, Arcimboldo worked as a court painter, as well as court decorator, and fashion designer, painting the Royalty, in Prague. And he painted them as fruit, and other objects.
(above left) Vertumnus (portrait of Emperor Rudolf II)c. 1590 (middle) Winter c. 1563 (right) Win
Arcimboldo had an uncanny ability to look at a human figure and turn it into still life observational-plant-matter-mosaic of sorts. Arcimboldo can be seen as the grandfather of this style; influencing A number of artists historically, and in contemporary art in techniques, and mediums.
His influence on artists of the 20th century can be seen in the work of the Surreal and Dada artists. The artists of these movements were influenced by the bizarre quality of Arcimboldo’s work. Salvador Dali, a surrealist, oftentimes created hidden images within images, although doing it much more abstractly and stranger than Arcimboldo.
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(above) Dali’s landscape with hidden face.
Since the 1970’s, Mexican painter Octavio Ocampo has been creating images influenced by Arcimboldo. His subject matter usually deals with religious, and traditional Mexican imagery. Ocampo’s portraits are comprised of juxtaposed historical images, painted and composed in such a way as to create very interesting allusions relating to a superimposed likeness. I would not quite call it pop art.
(above) Ocampo’s portrait of Don Quixote.
Moving to our contemporaries, a very large body of work has been created in the style of Guiseppe Arcimboldo, even in mediums other than painting. Joel-Peter Witkin has referenced Arcimboldo, and with his influence created horrifying photographic works. Witkin credits the witnessing of woman’s decapitation during his childhood to be the source of his own aesthetic sensibilities. Like Acrimboldo, he arranges organic and man-made material into portraits. Witkin’s portraits can seem disgusting and be of confusing scenes, whose purpose is to leave a deep, and sick impression in the viewer. Here for more: www.edelmangallery.com/witkin.htm.
(above) Joel-Peter Witkin’s photographs obviously are influenced by the work of the late Arcimboldo.
Vik Muniz is another artist who uses this material-assemblage technique and then photographs the result. Muniz uses junk in a junkyard setting and rearranges it in order to create images, which can only be captured by a camera hung from a crane far overhead. The images are copies of some great master paintings, including Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Correggio, and Goya. Despite the use of a simmilar assemblage style Muniz does recreate a Arcimboldo. The similarities are interesting to note. Here for more: www.vikmuniz.net/
(above) Muniz’s rendition of Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Sons.
A younger generation has also picked up on the style of Arcimboldo and worked in a very grand scale, much like Vik Muniz. Blu, an Italian mural artist most famous for his moving graffiti animations www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4 , has exhibited influence in Arcimboldo. This can be seen in his 2007 Berlin work. Here for more www.blublu.org
(above) Blu’s mural.
The last artist we look at is my personal favorite of the group, the young (25), Aurel Schmidt. Her drawings of the grotesque and deranged can also show Arcimboldo’s influence. She has a modern twist however, using her own collections of trash to mold monsters out of them. Her drawings are incredibly detailed, every inch is completely rendered, and should be seen in person to get the true effect. Not only is Schmidt a master of capturing minute detail in her drawings, but she masterfully lays them down into chilling compositions that Arcimboldo would surely be proud of! Here for more: www.tinyvices.com/Aurel_Schmidt.html
(above) Aurel Schmidt’s beautifully intricate drawings.
Printmaking Friends You Will Love March 15, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in Handmade, Printmaking, Student Post, Visually Cool & Relevant.Tags: J W & Melissa Buchanan, Julie Pinzur, Little Friends of Printmaking, Threadless store
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Post by Julie Pinzur
When I was home for winter break in January, I went to the Threadless store in Chicago for The Little Friends of Printmaking opening which consists of J W & Melissa Buchanan, a husband-and-wife team of artists & designers based out of Milwaukee, WI. They were originally trained as fine art print makers, but their love of making silk screened concert posters quickly turned into a design career. In 2006, they received the Young Guns award from the Art Directors’ Club, honoring the world’s finest emerging creatives under 30. While they still hand screen all of their posters, they have branched out into web design, animation, toy design, illustration, and graphic design. The show was called “Tough Luck” and featured a lot of really cool prints. All of which are available in their webstore at: www.thelittlefriendsofprintmaking.com
But that’s not all. The Little Friends of Printmaking are also featured in the book Handmade Nation, written by Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl which is a documentation on today’s craft world and how it has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the DIY ethos, also influenced by traditional handiwork, modern aesthetics, politics, feminism, and art.
Along with a video crew, Faythe Levine traveled to 15 cities and interviewed 80 individuals (including The Little Friends of Printmaking), documenting the rise of D.I.Y. art, craft, and design that exists through websites, blogs, and online stores. It was made into an hour-long movie that is now being premiered throughout the country. The opening in NYC was on February 12th, and if you can’t get to any of the screenings which are posted here:
indiecraftdocumentary.blogspot.com/
I highly recommend that you get the book, here: www.amazon.com/Handmade-Nation-Rise-Craft-Design/
It is creatively inspiring and just fun to look through. You should at least check out the website at www.handmadenationmovie.com/
Happy Hunting!
Coraline, The Biggest Smallest Movie Ever March 1, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in 3-D work, Puppets, Student Post.Tags: Behind the scenes, Coraline, Jenel Lawson, Movies
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By Jenel Lawson
You may have seen the new movie Coraline about a young girl who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers a fun alternate version of her life, until it turns dark and deadly. If you look past the movie’s story there is a far more amazing world to be found. The whole movie was created with rigged puppets and small miniatures. 450 people put hard work and dedication into bringing the story to life. One crew member was hired specifically to knit miniature sweaters and other clothing for the puppet characters, using knitting needles as thin as human hair.
When you watch how the world of Coraline was put together it’s hard to fathom. Each character has millions of little parts to make it come to life. Thousands of hands and halves of faces for expression, millions of individual strands of hair imbedded into the dolls scalps, and the skillfully put together set which transforms from the area where the house stands into a crazy garden in the shape of Coraline’s face that lights up. The process to get the movie together in my opinion was way more impressive than the actual story the movie portrays.
The art for the movie is also wonderful with its quant vintage feel and erie presence in the background of every somewhat wholesome picture. My favorite artwork for the movie being the Coraline Alphabet cards. To promote the launch, Focus Features set up 26 Coraline “Alphabet Cards” which feature individual letters with ties to the movie on 26 separate websites, to get them all you would have had to go around and find each card on each promotional site. All 26 images will be produced as trading cards in time.
The cards were located at:
A is for ADVENTURES @ Ain’t it Cool News
B is for BOBINSKI @ Bullz Eye
C is for CORALINE @ Collider
D is for DAD @ Dread Central
E is for ENTRANCE @ Eclipse
F is for FORCIBLE @ Fearnet
G is for GHOST CHILDREN @ Geeks of Doom
H is for HANDS @ Happy News
I is for IMPOSTER @ IGN
J is for JUMP @ JoBlo
K is for KNOWLEDGE@ KOL
L is for LADIES @ Latino Review
M is for MUSIC @ MTV (Splashpage)
N is for NEEDLE @ Neil Gaiman
O is for OTHERWORLD @ Obsessed with Film
P is for PALACE @ Premiere (smallest image posted!)
Q is for QUICK @ Quick Stop Entertainment
R is for RAGDOLLS @ Rotten Tomatoes
S is for SPINK @ Scifi.com
T is for TOYS @ Twitch Film
U is for UP @ UGO
V is for VEHICLE @ VFX World
W is for WYBIE @ Worst Previews
X is the Spot @ X-Realms
Y is for YUM! @ Yahoo! Movies
Z is for ZANZIBAR @ Zap2It
A few of my favorite leters were:
Toys and Tootsie Pops! February 20, 2009
Posted by leskanturek in 3-D work, Student Post, Toys.Tags: Naomi Koffman, Tootsie Pops, Toy Fair
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by Naomi L. Koffman
On Sunday February 15, 2009, I attended the American International Toy Fair. The fair was in Manhattan at the Javits Center. The show was packed with all sorts of new playthings for little kids and big kids alike. I was especially drawn to the section for Designer Art Toys. There I found a product that really caught my eye.
Do you remember the old Tootsie Roll Pop commercials that asked, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?” Well, a company by the name of Super Rad Toys remembers and is releasing vinyl figures based on the characters in the commercial. The figures being produced include the boy, the turtle and the owl. I always enjoyed the illustrations of these characters and I was so glad to see someone reproducing them as figures. These characters are a real piece of pop-culture nostalgia.
I believe there could be a very large market for these toys. People like to hold on to pieces of their past, and remember the pleasant moments in their youth or childhood. Tootsie Roll Pop commercials could very well be one of those happy memories for many young and old adults.
According to vinylpulse.com, the figures will be sold in sets of two. Each set will include the boy with either Mr. Owl or Mr. Turtle. The estimated retail price for a two-figure set is between $30 and $40. That seems to be a rather affordable price point.
I couldn’t get too much information about the Tootsie Roll line at the Toy Fair but I did find an article about them at http://www.wizarduniverse.com/050708tootsie.html that explains the concept and the figures in much more detail.
The website for Super Rad Toys is currently under construction, however they do have a myspace page that displays their illustrative toys. (http://www.myspace.com/superradtoys)
Images courtesy of www.wizarduniverse.com
