LA Lauded Again

The Calendar section of today's Los Angeles Times had an interesting piece about the upcoming ARCOmadrid art fair and the fact that Los Angeles will be the "focus city" (rather than an entire country has been the case before). It appears L.A. is on a bit of a roll when it comes to interest from the international art community. Just last fall the city was honored by the International Book Fair in Guadalajara.

I won't be lucky enough to attend ARCOmadrid but I was in Guadalajara for the Book Fair and related exhibitions and if the buzz from Spain is the same as it was after Mexico then more recognition for the Los Angeles is likely to follow.

Otis alum Gajin Fujita '97 was one of four artists whose work was used in the article along with Raymond Pettibon, John Baldessari and Don Suggs (who had a major retrospective exhibition on campus in 2007).

You can read the entire article here. You can see a wide range of photos from alum Mark Dean Veca's exhibition in Guadalajara that was part of the Book Fair here.

*Image of "Fearless" by Gajin Fujita from L.A. Louver Gallery by way of the Los Angeles Times

Digital Media Gem Via Google Alerts

I've written frequently about how helpful Google Alerts are in keeping track of Otis in the news. Much of the time the notifications are about some recent event or activity but now and again there will be something that, while not new, is still a great find.

Take this week for example when I received an alert for a YouTube video that had been posed to the site WhyNotPhotoshop.com. While post was new, the video, by two of our Digital Media alums is from 2007. It's a great little piece about Los Angeles that is a nice example of the work created in our Media in Motion class.

I've embedded it here. Enjoy!

I Heard It on the Radio

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to be a guest on LA Talk Radio's weekly college show- College Admission Confidential. Each week hosts Chris Krizak, Elsa Clark and Vince Garcia touch on an aspect of the college process and they asked me to join them to discuss fashion design and its related fields.

Chris and Elsa are long time friends and the conversation was easy and the hour passed quickly. You can hear the entire show here.

Creativity is Serious Business

This week Otis released the 20o9 edition of the Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region. That is a bit of a mouthful to be sure but the report, now in its third year has quickly become a key source for the media (on and off line) when citing the impact of the creative industries in the greater LA area (the report includes data for Orange County).

The report was unveiled at the Omni Hotel downtown and featured comments by Dr. Nancy Sidhu from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) followed by a panel discussion. The panel was moderated by KCRW's Frances Anderton and included Sir Ken Robinson (a noted thinker and leader on creativity and leadership), Andy Mooney (Chairman of Disney Consumer Products) and Laura Zucker (Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission).

Working at Otis I routinely tell students and their parents that an art school education is (contrary to some thinking) a pathway to many career options and the report supports that. Here a few tid bits-

• One of every six jobs in the region come from the creative industries, nearly 1 million in total
• Companies in the creative industries generated over $139 billion in revenue and contributed $5.1 billion in state and local taxes as a result.
• The average annual salary of people involved in making toys in the LA region is $101,899

The entire report can be read at www.otis.edu/econreport

Speaking of toys, the very large cherry on the top of the sundae was the announcement that Mattel is making a gift of $1.85 million! The money will be used to provide scholarship and instructional support for the Toy Design and other programs at Otis. In addition to the gift Mattel International President Bryan Stockton presented our President, Sammy Hoi with a one-of-a-kind Barbie that was designed by Otis alums who now work at Mattel.

Mia's Motivations

I just finished reading a great interview with Otis alum Michelle Mia Araujo ('07) on Art Nouveau Magazine's website. I've been following Mia's career pretty closely ever since we used one of her images for an ad in Juxtapoz Magazine, and it's been rewarding to see how she continues to grow as an artist.

The interview covered a lot of expected ground- when did you know you wanted to be an artist, creative influences, favorite subject matter, and such but I think my favorite answer to a question was how she responded to "What is your favorite color to incorporate into your work?" to which she replied "Interesting question: I don’t really think of colors in that way, probably because I’m naturally a drawer, so I think with lines."

You can read the entire interview here and you can learn more about Mia's work here.

*image- detail of "My Mind's Eye" from Art Nouveau Magazine article

Fisher's Finesse

There was a great article about Architect Fred Fisher in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. He is a long time member of Otis' Board of Governors and he designed the Galef Center for Fine Arts, located on our Goldsmith campus.

Written by the paper's Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne, the piece focused on two of Fisher's most recent projects- The Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica and the Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology at Caltech in Pasadena. I appreciated how Hawthorne placed the work in the context of Modern architecture and his appreciation for Fisher's efforts.

This was my favorite quote- "Fisher's recent projects by contrast, employ restraint not in an effort to wipe the historical slate clean but as framing devices to set off and help us examine the past, the surrounding architectural context and, perhaps most significant, the always-slippery and typically fraught relationship between public and private space."

You can read the entire article here.

*photo of Fred Fisher by Spencer Weiner from the Los Angeles Times website

Facts About Fashion

Before it even hit the shelves Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider's Guide to Careers in Fashion was getting a lot of buzz and it has been selling at a brisk pace ever since, so it was quite a treat for Otis to have Teen Vogue Editor in Chief Amy Astley on campus this past Monday to talk about the book and some of the realities of the fashion industry.

Seated on stage in the Ahmanson Hall Forum Amy talked with Otis' own Rosemary Brantley about what inspired the book- the tremendous series of questions she has been asked about the industry, how to break in- work hard, offer to intern for free, be ready to fetch a lot of coffee, her own path- Michigan girl takes a chance on New York and succeeds, to name just a few.

Following the talk there was a question and answer session and then a book signing. I was impressed that Amy managed to be both very candid and very encouraging at the same time. Many of those in the audience were current or prospective Otis students and I thought she struck just the right balance of encouragement and fair warning about the world of fashion. You can read one student's take on the whole here.

We video taped the event and plan to have something up on our YouTube channel in the near future!

Createmake Makes A Winner Out of Otis Grad

Createmake, a blog (and soon to be print) that focuses on the many facets of art and design recently held a competition in conjunction with the online portfolio site Society6. At stake was the inaugural feature in the first issue of Createmake Magazine.

They announced the winner yesterday and Otis grad Julian Callos ('09 Communication Arts) bested nearly 150 other artists when his work was selected!

You can read more about Julian's selection here and you can see more of his work here.

Congratulations Julian!

*Image of Julian Callo's work "What Develops" from Createmake.com

Food for Thought

I love to cook so I was very intrigued when I heard about an Otis alum's use of her garden as a culinary co-op for fellow artists. Linda Kunik ('06 Fine Arts) has combined her love of gardening, sustainability and art conversation into an ongoing project dubbed "Plant it Forward- The Starving Artist Project."

Linda describes the project this way- (it is) "A multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary project which examines a sustainable,agricultural practice as it relates to the barter system, while referencing the patron/ artist relationship. 5 large gardens were created, producing all types of vegetables and even fruit. Artists work in the garden in exchange for a bag full of recently harvested produce."

Among the contingent of participating artists are a lot of other Otis folks including- Juna Amano, ('08 Fine Arts), Marissa Magdalena ('08 Fine Arts), Ofunne Obiamawe ('09 MFA Public Practice), Suzanne Oshinsky ('05 Fine Arts), Luke Van Hook ('04 Fine Arts) and Whitney Stolich ('03 MFA Fine Arts).

The Beverly Hills Courier ran a great story about the project last week. You can read the entire article here.

Linda is keeping a very active blog about the project, which you can read here and fellow alum Ginger Van Hook ('04 MFA Writing) is photographing it to document its progress.

Enjoy! I am hungry after writing this and need to get get some lunch.

*Image from Linda Kunik's blog "Plant it Forward LA"

Otis Alum Featured in Stages 09

When Lance Armstrong returned to France last month for the Tour de France he talked a lot about using the occasion to continue to raise awareness about the fight against cancer. To help re-enforce that message, his Livestrong Foundation, along with Nike presented an art exhibition- Stages 09.

Twenty artists including Raymond Pettibone, Ed Ruscha and Shepard Fairey created pieces "to raise funds and awareness for the fight against cancer." Fairey's work was mounted right next to the title wall so it really set the tone for the entire exhibition. The subject of his work- a young woman, staring back at you with an expression that is at once pensive and impatient (my interpretation)- is where Otis alum Jessica Ikenberry ('02) comes in (full disclosure Jessica is also my boss' step-daughter).

Two years after graduating from Otis Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer- an especially aggressive form. She had to undergo in her words "massive surgery" followed by 12 rounds of chemotherapy in six months. Thankfully that treatment was successful and she is now, five years later, making art, designing and living happily in Los Angeles.

The photograph (a portrait by Dina Douglass/Andrena Photography) that served as the source image for Fairey's piece was taken early on in Jessica's recovery process. He described his intention for the piece as wanting it to be intense but also reflective of the fact that she was on the other side of her surgery and chemo and was healing. I definitely think that he accomplished that.

Stages 09 is still available to view online here. I have embedded a video that includes interviews with both Jessica and Shepard Fairey and you can learn more about her work and her life by visiting her blog.

CERT Certainly Was Interesting

One of my responsibilities at Otis is serving on the College's Emergency Response Team (ERT) and this past week a group of ERT members along with some of the College's floor safety wardens and student Resident Assistants took part in Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training.

The program was created in 1985 by the Los Angeles Fire Department in recognition of the fact that in a major disaster professional response resources will be stretched beyond demand and community members, if trained could help with their safety and the safety of their families, neighbors and friends. The course included instruction in disaster survival and basic rescue skills. We learned about how maximize our safety during and after a major disaster and how to help others. The program has trained over 60,000 members of the community in the Los Angeles area and has been so successful that since 1994 it has been taught nationwide.

It was enlightening to realize that even some basic preparation- food and water, extra clothing, first aid kits and the like can make a big difference. Having a personal disaster safety kit in your office, your car and a larger kit for you and your family at home will ensure that you will be more prepared when a major event occurs. To learn more about the CERT program in Los Angeles, click here.

I would be remiss if I did not extend a big thank you on behalf of all of us who completed the training to our LAFD firefighter instructors- Curt, Jennifer, Alex and Sue. They were all really great and we learned a lot from them.

*image from last day of CERT training- learning to safely deal with a small fire. Click on the image for a link to more

Going Below the Surface of Superficiality

The Ben Maltz Gallery exhibition "Superficiality and Superexcrescence" which opened to a great crowd a couple of weeks ago, has received a good review from Los Angeles Times art critic Holly Myers.

After beginning the piece with the observation that shows dealing with "surface" have been going on in LA for a long time, and therefore more shows would be unnecessary, Meyers points out how the Superficiality show does stand out and why it is definitely worth a visit. She said (in referencing the accompanying catalog) "If the result feels at times like a graduate seminar, it is only in the best way: sound in its argument, rich in its examples, with plenty of room left for debate. She made particular note of the work from artists Elliot Hundley, Rebecca Campbell and Joel Morrison.

In addition to the review the article includes a nice installation shot by Otis faculty member Chris Warner.

Superficiality and Superexcrescence remains on view through September 12. Gallery hours and info can be found here.

Image- Installation shot by Chris Warner that appeared in LA Times review

Donghia Foundation Honors Otis Senior

We recently learned that Architecture/Landscape/Interiors senior Joem Sanez has been selected by the Angleo Donghia Foundaiton as one of just 13 students nationwide to receive a Foundation Senior Student Scholarship Award! The prestigious award will provide Joem with a $30,000 scholarship to pay for his final year at Otis.

Donghia has been a valued supporter of our A/L/I program. In addition to honoring a senior this year they have provided support to establish the Donghia Designer-In-Residence. The residency brought noted designer Eva Maddox to campus this past year.

Congratulations to Joem!

Otis Alums Honored by California Community Foundation

The California Community Foundation has announced their selections for the 2009 Visual Arts Fellowships and Otis is very well represented! Of the 14 artists honored, two are alums-

Sandeep Mukherjee was honored in the mid-career artist area (one of 10), receiving a $20,000 fellowship and Juan Capistran received a $15,000 fellowship as an emerging artist (one of just four).

The CCF site itself is pretty thin but there is a nice write up on the LA Times Culture Monster blog that features an image of Juan's work.

*image from Juan Capistran's website

Props for Otis Publications

The AIGA recently announced the honorees for their annual 365 Competition and I was thrilled to see that both the undergraduate and graduate Viewbooks were included (full disclosure I was the "client" for both of these books in my role as Dean of Admissions)!

Communication Arts faculty members Ana Llorente-Thurik and Jessica Fleischmann collaborated on both pieces and it is great to see them being recognized for their hard work.

There were over nearly 4000 entries into the competition and only 182 selections so for us to have two was exceptional.

Congratulations to Ana and Jessica!

The Cycle of Enrollment Life

I've been in the admissions profession for quite a while now (just over 21 years in fact) and I am often asked if there is a "down time." I usually answer with some variation on- not really, it's more a matter of what I am busy with at the time.

The truth is that there was a time when true breaks occurred between enrollment cycles and yes, it is true that some schools do have a true end to their recruitment year that is not the first day of the fall term, but even they work on multiple and overlapping cycles now.

So what exactly am I currently busy with then? Good question. Today we are registering the first of three groups of new Otis students for their fall classes (we'll do it again in July and in August). I had a meeting yesterday to check on the progress of our new Viewbook, I'm getting ready to send out our annual canceled student survey (helps us understand why students do not choose Otis and why they chose the school they did) and reviewing some new applications. We've already mapped out much of our office travel for the coming year to recruit the class of 2014 and we are in the midst of updating our presentation (new pics, updated video, etc.). Oh, and I did I mention that review of spring 2010 files is just around the corner?

I tell folks around here that if they ever ask me if I am busy and I say that I am not, that is when they should worry. I am happy to say I am indeed very busy these days!

Meandering Through Blogland

I have mentioned before that one of the ways that I pull information to write about on this blog is through Google Alerts- very handy to say the least. Another source is by searching blogs, something I had not done for a while so today I took a few minutes to do so, but with a slight twist. Rather than looking for Otis mentions I was looking for blogs by Otis students.

There were a lot out there, which is not surprising given that several of our Liberal Arts and Sciences classes have used them as part of the curriculum. Here are just a few that I thought I would draw your attention to:

The Tuna Blog- Tuna just graduated from our Digital Media department
Beautiful Inside My Mind- Yilin hasn't even enrolled yet (she'll be joining us this fall) but I was quite impressed with her blog
Ellipsis Closure- one of our Digital Media students. It's a nice chronicle of her time at Otis as well as her personal interests
Nevermindings- insightful commentary on design by one of our Communication Arts students


Do you know of others? I'd love to hear about them!

It's Quiet- Too Quiet

After working on a college campus for over 20 years one of the things that I am still not used to is the almost eerie silence that descends on a school after commencement. It's not like we all leave of course but, there is a notable shift in the energy of the place.

Otis concluded the 2008-09 academic year on May 9th when Nike CEO Mark Parker delivered the commencement address to over 250 new graduates. This capped a very busy week of senior exhibitions and other year-end events to celebrate the class of 2009. You can read Mr. Parker's address here.

Lest I give the impression that there are no students on campus, summer school started this week, our Graduate Graphic Design students return in June and Summer of Art will be in full swing come July. Still, I find that I am already looking forward to our new students joining the Otis community when fall term commences in August.

In the meantime, enjoy the summer and if you are in Los Angeles, stop by campus! We're here and would love to show you around.

Three Cheers for 3 Solo Projects

3 Solo Projects, currently on view in Otis' Ben Maltz Gallery received a very nice review last week from Leah Ollman on the LA Times Culture Monster blog.

Ollman began her post by saying- "The works that make up “3 Solo Projects” at Ben Maltz Gallery are clever showpieces of aesthetic resourcefulness that exploit the tension between synthetic and natural. Together, they make for a variably engaging show that could be subtitled “The Haunting, the Daunting and the Whimsical.”" You can read the entire post here.

3 Solo Projects remains on view through June 13th. Open hours and other information for the Gallery can be found here. In the meantime, check out the video walk through of the show from the Otis YouTube channel.

Times Twofor

Last Sunday's Los Angeles Times contained not one but two full page articles about Otis!

Fashion Forward covered the recent Juried Show and how it impacts our Fashion students' end of year participation in the Fashion Scholarship Benefit Show at the Beverly Hilton- "The competition is intense, and this year's seniors, weeks away from entering the least favorable job market in decades, are keenly aware that a Silver Thimble -- or even a noteworthy garment in the show -- could vastly improve their chances of scoring that all-important first job. In the last three years, John Varvatos, Nike and Monique Lhuillier have all hired top-ranking students to become assistant designers." The print version of the story carried several great pictures but the online version just one, though it is a great portrait of Chair Rosemary Brantley with four of our students.

Laton: The little California town that served as a muse provided a really nice summary of March's Laton Live! Reunion Reunio'n, a culminating event for the Graduate Public Practice program that I blogged about last month. One of my favorite descriptions in the article was- "The normally blank walls of the buildings were alive with video projections of local couples two-stepping in their Wranglers and ropers, and shots of the nearby walnut groves. Video monitors tucked into the few commercial storefronts played interviews with the citizenry. Throughout, a team of artists and MFA students from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles scurried about with walkie-talkies and video cameras, orchestrating and documenting the night’s events under the close watch of veteran artist and educator Suzanne Lacy."

Both are still available at the LA Times website to take a look!

*Images from Fashion Forward and Laton: the little town from Los Angeles Times website