Part 1: Based on the notes you took during class, write a brief description and response to each of the Faculty presentations.

Tuan

Some of Tuan’s previous projects include 500 Doodles, designs for moving boxes, and branding for his dad’s various companies (Vietnamese restaurant, tea business, rice business, another tea business…). He also designed a few election posters in 2008, and then did some stuff for friends, including a coloring book for a friend’s kid. He also made some posters with a friend, put them on tote bags. He’s done a lot of screen printing with fellow designer friends, including some paper bags for gift bags as well as a book design for a friend’s photo project. He even made a design for Jimmy’s gradient book, and designed a tattoo for a student. Recently, he created 30 posters for the Food Bank Show, as well as the SOURCE art posters for 2015 (commemorative posters), and the expert hours posters all over the art building. He’s made gift tags, valentine’s day card, some hand-lettering, the card for last year’s VISU party, and various posters for the department.

Hollis

Hollis is currently making a graphic novel about herself, called Blanket of Fog. A quote that has inspired her is “Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin” (Barbara Kingsolver). Hollis is very interested in memory, and makes a lot of work about natural disasters based off her own memories — landfills, consumerist / disposable culture. Her work is process-driven, collected pieces. She did a series of drawings called Beautiful Monsters. Her work has always been very narrative; storytelling. She sees drawing as being a medium for telling the truth. It’s directly from your hand, you can’t hide own imperfections (especially when using ink). She’s obsessively making idealized things. She enjoys literally obliterating drawings to create smoke-like images. She’s also interested in sculptural drawing–using wood to make drawings. One is now in the lobby of a design firm in town. There’s a graphic influence on her work: stark / dramatic outlines, incredible amounts of detail. Blanket of Fog was in Women and their Work gallery in ATX — piece plays with a comic book narrative style. This piece, like many of her others, focuses on collective consciousness — constantly stealing things off of social media, then putting them together in other ways. One image will remind her of a real place / time / memory, then she creates a collage and projects it large, and draws it. But sometimes she draws w/o references, and just works it out conceptually. It’s playful, illustrative. She was greatly influenced by Tim Hawkinson. Every new piece by him is a new experiment / new experience.

Bill

Bill uses work to describe ideas — he lets the ideas lead him. Lately he’s become interested in quantum mechanics — the idea that life is not linear. Quantum mechanics clearly demonstrates that it’s all an illusion. He was trained for photojournalism, which has a set of skills to master for specific role. He worked for the newspaper, learned he hated it. He then came back to grad school to study photography. There, he emulated, copied, stole ideas to become great / original. He took black and white photos of Texas Prison Rodeo in grad school. He was really interested in large format black / white photography of the outdoors. He wanted to be the next Ansel Adams, realized it wasn’t easy. These landscapes led to doing portraits. He began approaching people on the street, asked to do their portraits. He photographed boxers on S. 1st, which led to photographing people with cancer. Both groups of people were hyper-aware of their own bodies, self-awareness. Exhibition of the portraits led to commercial work (editorial portraiture). This lasted for about 16 years. He maintained a full-time commercial business as a part-time professor at St. Ed’s until 2004, when he became a professor full-time. He photographed Michael Dell for Fortune Magazine, where he was only given 7 minutes. He also photographed for Rolling Stone, etc. He was making $7,000 in 7 minutes, and was all done for the day. It was a cool lifestyle, but he realized he didn’t like it very much. Although he was making a lot of money, at the end of the day he felt like he was creating landfill. The photos were temporarily important, but there was no real meaning behind it. To balance it out, he started photographing moving water in north New Mexico. He focused on how to turn control of process over to landscape–time as a variable. His work is becoming increasingly minimal + abstract. He’s become interested in tantric painting as well–used as a focal point for your personal meditative practice. Then he took work in a different direction — he could manipulate and take apart images, became inspired to learn more about art history.

Part 2: Create a 5-year plan. What are your long term goals beyond college? What do you need to do to accomplish those goals?

In the long-term, I have a few different ideas about what I’d like to be doing. I want to work as both an artist and a designer. I see myself opening a store-front with handmade, hand-designed goods. To accomplish this goal, I’ve started conceptualizing the store and crafting an online presence. After numerous requests from friends and friends of friends, I opened an Etsy shop where people can buy my illustrations. I’d like to expand from just illustrations to screen-printed t-shirts / bags / hats, stickers, stationery, and the like. To get there, I’ll need further classes in design (and some business, as well!) to be successful post-grad.