And the Emmy Went To

Sue Mondt! The Otis alum has been honored with an Emmy for "Individual Achievement in Animation" for her work as an Art Director on the Squirrel Secrets episode of the Cartoon Network series "Camp Lazlo."

The award was presented to her during the Creative Arts Awards ceremony last month. Unlike the most of the other Emmy categories, Mondt's award was through a juried category. There are no nominations, rather the Academy identifies excellent work annually.

Mondt was also nominated for an 2007 Annie award for her work on the Hard Days Sampson episode of the same show.

You can read more at The Ogden Reporter. They deserve special thanks because it was their story that alerted me about the award in the first place.

*photo courtesy of Sue Mondt's family and The Ogden Reporter

Maberry the WPMu Maven

Since I have been writing this blog I've come across several examples that show librarians and their "clan" are major contributors to the blogosphere. This past summer for instance, I learned that our Information Literacy video was a favorite of a library group in the Philippines.

This week brought another example and another citation for Otis. In his blog bavatuesdays, Jim Groom discussed his favorite examples of colleges using WPMu (that's Word Press Multi-user as I found out) and he made special mention of Sue Maberry and Otis-

"Otis College of Art and Design is one of my personal favorites. Sue Mayberry(sic) has done an unbelievable job at Otis and needs to be applauded. The policy and the documentation is wonderfully done. And, as with most things from Otis, it looks so good!"

I certainly agree with Jim on this one. Sue has been a great help and support to me with this blog and has created an atmosphere on campus that really encourages faculty and staff to make creative use of blogs and other web2.0 "gadgets."

Congratulations Sue, well deserved!

Oatey is Okay!

Otis alum Chris Oatey ('07 MFA Fine Arts) received a nice plug for his upcoming solo show in this week's Los Angeles version of Flavorpill. Labeled by Shana Nys Dambrot as "fresh faced," the mention describes Oatey's work-

"meticulously removes the majority of the detail from photo-based images, creating pattern-based abstractions based on athletic spectacle and hero worship."

Oatey's show at Seeline Gallery opens this Saturday (10/20/07) with a reception from 6 to 9PM and remains on view through November 24th.

Gajin Fujita Probably Won't Read This

In the October issue of Juxtapoz magazine, Otis alum Gajin Fujita ('97) talks about his artistic influences, life after art school and the fact that he does not own a computer so its not likely that he'll read this post but I encourage you all to read the article.

Described as "elusive" by writer Shelley Leopold, she nonetheless draws Gajin out into the open. I was especially interested in his responses to questions about the gallery world, which included:

"It still hurts to this day that they take 50 percent. I wish artists in general would get treated more like athletes. And deadlines; I don't think art has or should be given a deadline. I have a qualm about that. It's contradictory to the process, but I guess it's tied to the business and money end of things."

The reality is that Gajin has become very successful and his work is selling quite well. His last show at LA Louver Gallery drew a great deal of interest, and he has had recent shows at LACMA and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art but he comments in the story that it is not the financial gain that drives him:

"I'd be doing this stuff even if I weren't getting paid. I always think that my art, or art in general comes from within."

Several images from his recent shows both at LA Louver and LACMA accompany the interview and more of his work is available at LA Lover's website.