Dannell MacIlwraith

December 19, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

The Flow of Inspiration | From Music to Collage

Early in November, Art & Design students collaborated with Music students.

Music students performed. Art students created. During the collaborative event hosted by Jenni Brandon, music students connected with art students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. During 5-minute interviews, students asked each other a series of questions to find out if there are collaborative matches for future projects. KUCD Professor Summer Doll-Myers gave a talk about collage-making and techniques to get inspired. The event finished with a performance & creation collaboration. Music written by Jenni Brandon was performed by Aileen Razey and KU music students, while KUCD students created artwork. Some chose to create intuitively along with the music pieces, creating several smaller collages in spurts. Some used the time to create one larger collage while being inspired by the music as a whole.

Later in November, a concert took place in the Georgian Room of Old Main where artwork by Kristen Egan, Summer Doll-Myers, and KUCD students was displayed. The music was by Jenni Brandon and Kornel Thomas, performed by Aileen Razey and Janet Axelrod.

Thank you to all staff and collaborators who made these events a great success!This music & art collaboration led to new perspectives, new friendships, and some wonderful artwork. Check out some of the collages that were created below.

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October 31, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

IlluXcon Field Trip with Prof Gurney!

Every year in October the IlluXcon (aka IX Art Show) show at Goggleworks in Reading attracts 90 of the most prestigious Fantasy Illustrators in the country to display their work and converse with anyone interested in their process. Art buyers travel from across the country to purchase art directly from the creators.

On October 21^st Professor John Gurney drove a van full of students to spend an afternoon viewing the work and chatting with the artists. They had an up-close look at art created in a variety of traditional media, including oil paintings, watercolor, colored pencil, scratchboard, and resin sculpture. They even attended a scratchboard workshop lead by Ruth Sanderson, renown illustrator and award winning scratchboard artist. Perfect timing, as the Intro to Illustration students just began their scratchboard unit!

Many of the artists and illustrators at IlluXcon have been creating illustrations for science fiction and fantasy books for decades, as well as roll playing games and collectables. They are adapting to the times and learning to be entrepreneurial, cultivating the growing circuit of “cons” (conventions) to sell their original work, posters, prints, books and obtain commissions. Everyone has heard of Comic-con, but there is also Horror-con, Fantasy-con, Gencon, etc. IlluXcon is the only major show in the country that focuses exclusively on “Imaginative Realism”, which is the general term used today to describe fantasy art. These venues allow the creators to interact directly with each other, and with their fans in an informal setting. It was a great opportunity for Kutztown Students to chat with the creators, to view amazing work up close, and experience this important component of today’s art market.

https://imaginativerealism.com/in-pennsylvania-art-stirring-imaginations/

August 11, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

Eight Kutztown students placed in the UCDA Student Poster Initiative. This year’s theme was “Moving Forward.”
Emma Smith was awarded First Place.
Carolyn Kerkowski was awarded Second Place.
KUCD students also won seven honorable mentions.