Reading material produced by the MICA community
Posted 03.22.10 by MICA communications
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An overview of some books and articles published or designed by members of the MICA community, beginning in 2010.
Books
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming by MICA's M.F.A in Graphic Design Director Ellen Lupton
Published by MICA and Princeton Architectural Press
• Partnered with her students, Ellen Lupton published her fifth book dedicated to exploring the thought process in relation to graphic design. Graphic Design Thinking outlines different techniques in thinking and solving design problems by highlighting three sections: problems, ideas and form. The book uses case studies to show exactly how to carry out the design process. For more information please click here.
Participate: Designing with User-Generated Content by Helen Armstrong '09 and Zvezdana Stojmirovic '05
Now available from Princeton Architectural Press
• Written and designed by students and faculty in MICA's MFA in Graphic Design program, this book presents tools and techniques for generating ideas, ranging from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research methods. At the book's core are techniques for releasing creative energy and stimulating fresh thinking to arrive at compelling and viable solutions.
Fingerprint No. 2
Available from HOW
• A variety of work produced in MICA's M.F.A. in Graphic Design students will be featured in the forthcoming book FINGERPRINT, available for pre-order on Amazon.
HISTORY
Making History / Making Art / MICA written by Douglas L. Frost
Now available from MICA.
• MICA's nearly two-century history is one of resilience, reinvention, and leadership, and one that is told through 336 pages of flowing narrative and more than 450 images. The layers of history, from 1826 through the present and looking into the future, are written by Vice President for Development Emeritus Douglas L. Frost, who undertook this uncharted venture upon his 2006 retirement after 40 years of service to the College. For more information, click here.
Saidie May: Pioneer of Early 20th Century Collection written and published by Susan Adler Davis '79
Available from the author at susalinasail@aol.com or by phone at 410-580-0670; limited edition of 2,000 books
• Saidie May chronicles the life and travels of Baltimore born Saidie Adler May '79 and her sister, Blanche Adler, both generous benefactors of the Baltimore Museum of Art and other museums in the United States. An American expatriate, Saidie May lived in Paris during the late 1920s through the beginning of World War II and helped artist Marc Chagall escape the Nazi occupation. Acquiring and sending art to US museums during her travels, she was the first to bring Pablo Picasso to America. Ms. May created one of the first children's museums in the United States and built an art study center for the public located in the Baltimore Museum of Art where the public could view art and make their own creations based on what they learned. Art historian and teacher Susan Helen Adler is the great-niece of Saidie May. Learn more at www.saidiemay.com.
GRAPHIC NOVEL
The Accidental Genius of Weasel High by Rick Detorie '74
Now available from Random House
• This illustrated novel for young adults was authored by cartoonist and 1974 alumnus Rick Detorie, creator of the nationally-syndicated comic strip, One Big Happy, set in Baltimore. The book follows Larkin Pace, a 14-year-old student who finds himself in typical teenage situations: his parents don't seem to understand him, his sister--whom he calls "The Beast"--is a drama queen, and his girlfriend turns out to not really be his girlfriend at all. Although the book is aimed at teenagers, adults--especially parents--will find Detorie's book to be laugh-out-loud funny. Detorie has written 14 adults humor books, and his freelance cartoons have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, TV Guide, Working Woman and National Lampoon, among others.
ILLUSTRATION
They Draw & Cook: 107 Recipes Illustrated by Artists from Around the World by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell
Available on Weldon Owen Publishing
• In fall 2010, Rebecca Bradley's Illustrating the Edible class created intricate and beautiful designs to showcase some of their favorite recipes, and they were featured on the cult foodie blog, TheyDrawAndCook.com. These and other illustrations on the blog were noticed by Weldon Owen Publishing and turned into a cookbook with 108 full-color recipes. Students Kathleen Marcotte, Sarah Straub, Kristin Nohe, Julianna Brion and Kevin Valente, as well as Bradley, will have their work featured (with royalties coming in) in what Publisher's Weekly has called one of the 10 most-anticipated cookbooks for 2011. For more information, click here.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, coloring by Illustration Department Chair José Villarrubia '83
Available from Hyperion Books
• For those who love the stories of Percy Jackson and his fantastical imagination, author Rick Riordan is turning the first in his written series into an action-packed graphic novel. The Lightning Thief, which was made into a full-length feature film earlier this year, has been released with vibrant colored imagery. Joining the creative team with Riordan is MICA Illustration Department Chair José Villarrubia '83, who did the coloring alongside Robert Venditti and Attila Futaki, who did pencils and inks. Villarrubia, an Eisner Award-nominated colorist, has worked on projects that include Young X-Men, Crossing Midnight, and Halo Uprising.
How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg, illustrated by Kevin O'Malley '83
Available from Bloomsbury Kids
Accomplished children't book author Kevin O'Malley lent his illustration skills for this engaging chronicle of gruesome deaths written by Georgia Bragg. The book opens with a line that reads: "If you don't have the guts for gore, do not read this book." A flip through the page-turner shows that O'Malley's clever drawings add just the right tones of humor to keep the descriptions from getting over-the-top. O'Malley's snarky, offbeat humor has also come through in the 13 books he's authored, as well as the 20 books by other authors he has illustrated, including the popular Miss Malarkey titles. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Dara O'Malley, who also graduated in 1983.
INTERIOR DESIGN
Interior Visions by Mona Hajj '86
Available from Monacelli Press
• Named one of Architectural Digest's top 100 designers and architects in 2010, Mona Hajj has designed interiors of the Embassy of Luxembourg in Washington, DC and a Maryland home by architect John Russell Pope. Her first book, Interior Visions, was called "an elegent presentation of her projects, inspirations and personal design credos" by The Washington Post.
Practical Green Remodeling: Down-to-Earth Solutions for Everyday Homes by Barry Katz '73 (graphic design & illustration)
Available from Taunton Press
• Going green at home can seem like an all-or-nothing proposition. Green building expert Barry Katz makes a compelling argument for remodeling, as he guides readers through what can be a perplexing and daunting process. Katz explains how different choices impact a home's overall green quotient, as well as its bottom line. Available to purchase from Amazon.
PHOTOGRAPHY
The Changing Face of Portrait Photography: From Daguerrotype to Digital by faculty member Shannon Thomas Perich
Published by Smithsonian Books
• In this book, Shannon Thomas Perich, a Smithsonian curator whose previous title, The Kennedys, was a Vanity Fair cover feature, has selected ten photographers and 150 color and black and white photographs to present compelling accounts of portrait photography's more than 150 year history. Drawing on the extensive holdings of the Photographic History Collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Perich discusses the changing conventions, theories and technologies that have guided the art form from its beginnings until the present day.
Conversations With Dan McNulty in Jersey City by Andrew Balize Bovasso '09 (photography)
Available from blurb
• Conversations refers to the act of rediscovering the spaces in McNulty's images and re-shooting them. This project explores the notion that time cannot be reversed, but it can certainly be scrutinized. For more information about the book, click here. for an interview with Bovasso, visit nj.com.
Glass House of Dreams by Margaret Haviland Stansbury, wih photographs by David Simpson '70, and designed by Paula Adelsberger Simon '76
Available at glasshouseofdreams.com
• Glass House of Dreams celebrates Baltimore's landmark Victorian glass palace--one of the surviving architectural treasures in historic Druid Hill Park. Illustrating the history of this 1888 botanical conservatory, the second-oldest glass house in America, is the stunning photography of 1970 MICA alumnus David Simpson. His "cutting-edge photographs ot only capture the elegance of this architectural gem, but also present us with intimate images that portray the beauty of its individual plants," said the book's author, Margaret Haviland Stansbury. Highlighting the photography is the clean, though-out design of Glass House, created by 1976 alumna Paula Adelsberger Simon of Highmeadow Design, who has taught in MICA's professional and continuing studies program. This book celebrates the past, present, and future of The Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens.
Haunted Houses by Corinne May Botz '99 (photography)
Available from The Monacelli Press
• Corinne May Botz's fascination with the invisible has profoundly influenced her approach to photography in style and subject matter. For more than 10 years, she searched for ghost stories in buildings across the United States. She ventured into these haunted places with both camera and tape recorder in hand; her photographs, accompanied by first-person narratives, reveal a rare glimpse into American interiors, both physical and psychological. For a Nov. 3 profile of her in the New York Times, click here.
Living the Life by Doug Barber '71 (photography)
Available from Lowside Syndicate
• Living the Life is a collection of motorcycle photographs with poems by Eddie Pliska to match them.
FASHION
Draping Basics by Sally Di Marco '72
Available from Fairchild Publications
• Sally Di Marco retired from Baltimore County Communicty College where she coordinated the Fashion Design Program for over thirty years. Recently, she was appointed coordinator of the newly established Fashion Design Program at Stevenson University. In 2010, she authored Draping Basics, a fashion design text published by Fairchild Publications, a divison of Conde Nast. The text has been adopted by over 24 colleges and universities across the country.
ARTIST COMMENTARY
Hughie Lee-Smith by Graduate Dean Emeritus and Director for MICA's Center for Race & Culture Leslie King-Hammond
Available from Pomegranate
• The eighth volume in The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art, the book draws on a rich archive of Hughie Lee-Smith's writings and personal papers, and filled with large full-color illustrations, it tells his engrossing story. For more information, click here (or to buy, click here).
DESIGN
Exploring Materials: Creative Design for Everyday Objects by MICA's M.F.A. in Graphic Design program Director Ellen Lupton and environmental design faculty member Inna Alesina
Available from Princeton Architectural Press
• Exploring Materials focuses on how product designers can use physical forms and materials in a direct, active, hands-on way. In place of the abstraction of pure volumes or the whimsy of "virtual" objects, this book encourages designers to make and test real objects in a studio environment. Exploring Materials features dozens of MICA students' work in the environmental design program alongside work by prominent designers from around the world and is the fourth book created by MICA's Center for Design Thinking. For more information, click here.
PHILOSOPHY IN ART
The Theory of Everything, Abridged by Ben Luzzatto, faculty in the interdisciplinary sculpture department
Available from Ugly Duckling Presse
• Artist and MICA faculty member Ben Luzzatto puts to work a combination of text, image and the documentation of his site-specific performance experiments in the service of his hypothesis that any reconciliation of quantum theory with general relativity will ultimately have more to do with the language we are using to describe the universe than with the discovery of any extra-dimensional physical reality. For a review of the book, click here.
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Phantoms of the Clinic: From Thought-Transference to Projective Identification by faculty member Mikita Brottman (humanistic studies)
Available from Karnac Books
• As Freud predicted, there has always been great anxiety about the place of psychoanalysis in contemporary life, particularly in relation to its ambiguous and complicated relationship to the realm of science. There is also a long history of widespread resistance, in both academia and medicine, to anything associated with the world of the supernatural; very few people, in their professional lives, at least, are willing to admit a serious interest in occult phenomena. As a result, paranormal traces have all but vanished from the psychoanalytic process-though not without leaving a residue. This residue remains, Brottman argues, in the acceptably "clinical" guise of projective identification, a concept first formulated by Melanie Klein, and widely used in contemporary psychoanalysis to suggest a different variety of transference and transference-like phenomena between patient and analyst that seem to occur outside the normal range of the sensory process.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Warren Seelig: Textile per se Exhibition Catalogue
Available from MICA
• The exhibition catalog offers highlights of and essays about Warren Seelig: Textile per se, a retrospective of work by Rockland, Maine-based fiber artist Warren Seelig, which took place at MICA December 2009-March 2010. The retrospective features selections from the fiber artist's three main bodies of work. These include handwoven and manipulated wall mounted works of the 1970s and early '80s and the skeletal/skin "spoke and wheel" sculptures from the '80s and '90s. MICA also revealed Seelig's most recent series of works that examine matter and light, Shadowfields. Art history faculty member T'ai Smith authored A Shadow of Textile Thought for the catalogue.
ART TEXTBOOK
Contemporary Art and Classical Myth edited by Isabelle Loring Wallace and faculty member Jennie Hirsh
Available on Ashgate
The 14 essays in this book explore, and in large part establish, the intersection of contemporary art and classical myth. This often overlooked relationship is discussed through a variety of methodological frameworks and across an impressive range of artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Luciano Fabro, and Francis Alys. Jennie Hirsh, assistant professor of modern and contemporary art, commissioned the essays and edited the book, along with her colleague, Isabelle Loring Wallace, associate professor of contemporary art and theory at the University of Georgia. Hirsh's own essay that appears in the book, Double Take, or Theorizing Reflection in Felix Gonzalez-Torres, addresses the confluence of the myths of Narcissus and Orpheus through the literal and metaphorical staging of reflexive encounter in the work of Gonzalez-Torres, the late Cuban-born, United States-based artist who succumbed to AIDS in 1996.
Art 101: Understanding Visual Artforms in Our World by art history faculty member Jenny Carson and Kim Anderson
Available from Kendall Hunt
Magazines
Beautiful/Decay
What started as a humble zine painstakingly photocopied by 16-year-old Amir H. Fallah '02 grew into a full-color, internationally distributed magazine. Now, Beautiful/Decay takes the form of a limited edition, hand-numbered art book series that features the work of emerging artists and subculture art. Besides producing Beautiful/Decay, Fallah is an accomplished artist who has launched Someting In The Universe, a design agency that connects artists who have been involved in Beautiful/Decay with high-profile clients.
Papers (articles and essays in collections)
EMOTIONS IN ART
Fear is Just Another Word for Someone Left to Please by foundation faculty member Denny Farber in Dealing with Fear
Available online from the Akademie Schloss Solitude
• A paper Denny Farber presented at a symposium on fear at the Akademie Schoss Solitude in Stuttgart has been published. He refers to the nature of fear as experienced in rock climbing, comparing that to fear experienced in creative practice within the privacy of one's studio, and observing the differences and similarities.
MODERN ART
A Collective and Its Individuals: The Bauhaus and Its Women by art history faculty member T'ai Smith in Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art
Available from the Museum of Modern Art
• This examines MoMA's collection by highlighting the work of modern and contemporary women artists whose diversity of practices and contributions to the avant-garde movements of the 20th century have been enormous, if often underrecognized. Featuring 50 illustrated essays by many of the strongest voices in current research on art and gender, Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art presents a variety of generational and cultural perspectives and examines both canonical figures and lesser-known artists.
TYPOGRAPHY
Is Archer's Use on Target? by Lauren Adams '11 (M.F.A. in Graphic Design)
Available on AIGA.org
• An overview of the 2-year-old typeface, Archer, including uses by Newsweek, Martha Stewart and Wells Fargo.
PUBLICATION DESIGN
Q&A: Rodrigo Corral on Book Covers, Design Inspiration, and the Changing Media Landscape by Ryan Shelley '11 (M.F.A. in Graphic Design)
Published on March 26 in Metropolis Magazine
• Ryan Shelley interviews acclaimed New York graphic designer Rodrigo Corral about his memorable book covers, including the sprinkle-dipped hand of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. The article started in faculty member Elizabeth Dickinson's fall writing course.
ARTIST COMMENTARY
From Work to Frame, In Between, and Beyond: Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, 1959-1964 by art history faculty member Monica Amor
Published in Grey Room #38
This list is ongoing and is not comprehensive. For publications dating back further than 2010, click here. If you have an item that should be added, please send it to news@mica.edu.
Related honors
MICA alumnus John Parot '98 (Mount Royal School of Art), who is competing on Bravo's latest reality TV show, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, won the challenge in episode three, which asked the artists to design a book cover for a Penguin Classic book. Parot's brightly colored abstract painting for The Time Machine beat out all the others and has been published by Penguin, available here. For more information about Parot and the show, click here.
Graphic design faculty member Abbott Miller has received first prize by the American Association of Museums (AAM) in the Books category of the 2010 AAM Publications Design Competition for his book The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum, which was published to commemorate the museum's 50th anniversary last year. For more information, click here.
Maps & Directions