Extra Credit Event: Artist Talk by Michol Hebron

FAIN 315 Internet Studio Presents:

Artist Micol Hebron 

Wednesday, September 23 at 9:15 am in Watt Hall B6.  

Micol Hebron is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes studio work, curating, writing, social media, crowd-sourcing, teaching, public-speaking, and both individual and collaborative projects. She has been engaged in individual and collaborative projects in Los Angeles since 1992. Hebron is an Associate Professor of Art at Chapman University; the founder/director of The Situation Room resource space for the creative community; the Gallery Tally Poster Project about gender equity in contemporary galleries; and the Digital Pasty/Gender Equity initiative for the internet. In the past she has been the Chief Curator at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art; the director of the UCLA Summer Art Institute; an editorial board member at X-Tra magazine; an independent curator; a conservator at LACMA, and the co-founder of Gallery B-12 in Hollywood in the 90s. She has served on advisory boards at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibtions, Birch Creek Ranch Residency (Utah), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and UCLA. She is the founder of the LA Art Girls, and the Co-Founder of Fontbron Academy. She employs strategies of consciousness-raising, collaboration, generosity, play, and participation to support and further feminist dialogues in art and life. Hebron has presented exhibitions, performances, and lectures at numerous international institutions. The best way to reach her is through social media.

http://micolhebron.com/

Happiness By Design

How To Be Creative

What is Graphic Design?

RICK GRIFFITH Saturday, August 29th, 2pm The California African American Museum (CAAM) in Expo Park

ROSKI TALKS

2015 fall lecture series presents

RICK GRIFFITH, designer

Saturday, August 29th, 2pm

Location: The California African American Museum (CAAM) in Expo Park 

 

RoskiTalks kicks off with Rick Griffith, design director of Denver-based studio and type laboratory  MATTER. "MATTER is a uniquely strange place, compelled by craft, steeped in history and deeply dedicated to letters and words...obsessed with projects in the public good and design with purpose."

Griffith's design approach draws from the D.C. punk scene and record stores of his childhood as well as formative design experiences with big agencies and creative artists in early 1990s New York. In addition to running a successful studio for 25 years, Griffith serves as Denver City and County Commissioner of Arts and Culture, modeling his studio's philosophy: "We have been taught to believe that generosity is an attitude and we continue to seek the opportunity to be educated and inspired by who we work with and what we encounter."

Griffith's lecture is presented by the USC Roski Special Projects Design Course. In spring 2015 students in the course curated and executed the large-scale installation works comprising Shared Otherness (May 29-September 6, 2015 at CAAM). The exhibition is grounded in community-based research exploring the immediate geography shared by USC and CAAM while contributing a collective voice to broader dialogues about otherness. There will be an artists' reception in the CAAM Courtyard from 12pm-2pm preceding Griffith's lecture. All are welcome to meet the USC Roski artists and tour the exhibition.

Shared Otherness includes work by: Ivan Blanco, Schessa Garbutt, Stephanie Guerra, Victoria Horng, Frederick Humphries II, Emma Katz, Tena Kelemen, Grace Mandl, Mayra Moran, Sarah Nakamura, Erin Nogle, Kristine Ortega, Megan Park, Suha Park, Jean Pongsai, Steven Rahbany, Tyler Schuppert, Joanna Sowell

Griffith's lecture and RoskiTalks are free and open to all: roski.usc.edu/calendar

FULL DETAILS HERE

Design That Makes a Difference : Sheila Levrant de Bretteville

Sheila is an American graphic designer, artist and educator. Her work incorporates and reflects her views of feminist principles, and she values communal art and user participation in graphic design. Sheila started the first communication design program at the Otis College of Art and Design, and was the first woman to receive tenure at the Yale University School of Art.  I really enjoyed hearing Sheila speak about her history with art and feminism, and the various projects she has worked on in her life.

Here is a necklace that she designed of an eyebolt on a chain, meant to represent “strength without a fist.” It has been noted as being “a symbol for the work already done but also as an encouragement for the work that is not yet completed” by the feminist art group Sisters of Jam.

A really profound phrase that she printed on a design handbook reflects her desire for communal art and design that makes a difference: 

"If the designer is to make a deliberate contribution to society, he must be able to integrate all he can learn about behavior and resources, ecology and human needs;

taste and style just aren’t enough."

What particularly stood out to me was when an audience member asked Sheila this: “How do you know when your piece of art is complete or finished? When to put down the tools, the paintbrush, to completely  let the piece go?” to which she gave an interesting answer. Sheila detailed how in college, she would be frustrated with her typography assignments and would sometimes not finish the assignments in an attempt to do well on certain parts of it. 

Her frustration and the procedure with which she designs reflects the answer to this question. Sheila expanded on this and stated that during the design process, in all truth, one usually ends up feeling hate toward their art piece for a long time, at which point they feel the need to constantly change it and edit it more. This inner hate is more of a reflection of our lack of self-satisfaction with our work and how it meets our high standards in aesthetic pleasure. She continued, stating that you never really know when a piece of art is done, but then again, can art ever be done? 

That rather the finite nature of art is measured in the eye of the creator, and this may differ greatly from the eye of the viewer, that at some point, you as a creator will just innately feel that your work resounds completion, and that at that point you can stop changing it. In summary, she claims that you never really know when your piece is done, but as long as it is situated in a context and that you understand the design process will not be without hateful or disappointed inner emotions toward your own work, it shouldn’t be impossible to make great work. 

Sheila de Bretteville

Sheila de Bretteville is a famous designer and educator at Yale University. Her own personal work mainly reflects her feminist principles and a variety of social issues she believes in. When Sheila came and spoke here she took us through a broad overview of her life in design in feminism.

She opens by showing us a poster of hers with the quote "a feminist looks at gender, pedagogy and practice"

A poster that she designed for the California Institute of the Arts where she founded the first design program for women in 1971

In the 90's she moved to the east where she continued her feminism design and inspired her to begin educating at Yale later on.

In 2000 her designs went from depicting mainly feminism to using opaque/clear designs to achieve a metaphor for learning/education as well as feminism.

She is now currently full-time one of the best design professors at Yale School of Art.

I personally do like her work, but what really draws me in about it is that all of her work has one central theme/message; feminism. I do not think I would be interested in her work had she not have a theme or niche clearly represented within her designs. I also respect that her theme is something she really cares about and believes in. It is a large part of why she is so greatly successful.