Congratulations Communication Arts 54 Winners!

Communication Arts' Illustration Annual 54 just arrived in our mailboxes, and we're thrilled to see David Brinley's (Class of 2010) piece Handschuhschneeballwerfer (above left) included, as well as Scott Bakal's (Class of 2007) series for the United States Air Force (two of five chosen pieces, above right).

Also selected were illustrations by guest speakers Joe Ciardiello, Rudy Guiterrez, Paul Rogers and Yuko Shimizu.

Congratulations all!

Congratulations Spectrum 20 Winners!

Congratulations to those selected for publication in Spectrum 20: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art! From left to right, above: Inga Poslitur (Class of 2012), Scott Murphy (Class of 2014) and Scott Bakal (Class of 2007). Guest speakers Kinuko Y. Craft and Peter de Sève are also on the list.

Inga's selected work (top left) is one of the paintings she created for her HAS MFA thesis.

Ursula Roma's (Class of 2011) Kickstarter Campaign: A.R.T.

When Ursula Roma (Class of 2011) concludes her fundraising, she plans to travel the US to "rescue wounded aliens," as her tongue-in-cheek Kickstarter campaign, Alien Reconstruction Team, states.

Ursula's proposed journey to bring life to inanimate objects stems from her practice of using recycled materials to create sculpture.

She plans to engage communities along her route, blog her activities, and sum up the experience with a book. Read all about the project here.

Food for thought: The 3% Conference

"Women influence 80% of consumer spending yet only 3% of advertising Creative Directors are women." This statement comes from the 3% Conference, an annual gathering of agency owners, CDs, creatives, recruiters, clients and trend-watchers that takes place on April 17 in Austin, Texas.

As illustrators, the connnection here is that for many of us, these CDs are our clients, and as such, they're the ones dreaming up the content and hiring us for the jobs on which we end up working.

Here's a interesting article that outlines some potential reasons for the disparity and it's impact on the industry by one of the event's panelists, Scott McAfee, of Sanders\Wingo Advertising. 

Does anyone know what percentage of working illustrators are women? No hard statistics were available at the time of this writing, but here are some rough, informal numbers:

• illustration portal Illoz: 24 women out of 145 members (16%)
• artist rep Mendola Artist Representatives: 28 women out of 100 artists represented (28%)
• Directory of Illustration: 204 women out of 800 listings (25%)

READ: Illustration Friday Interview with Ryan O'Rourke (Class of 2012)

For your daily dose of inspiration, swing over to Illustration Friday when you get a few and check out 10 Questions with Ryan O'Rourke (Class of 2012). Ryan discusses how he got his start, the process of writing and illustrating children's books, teaching and much more. The illustration above is a progress shot from Bella: Lost and Found, a book he wrote and illustrated for his MFA thesis that is in the process of being published by HarperCollins.

President Obama Speaks at University of Hartford Today

The University of Hartford welcomed a sitting president for the first time in its history this afternoon when President Barack Obama delivered an address to members of the UHart community and invited guests of the White House.

President Barack Obama spoke in the Chase Family Arena of the University’s Sports Center. Read a full transcript of the speech here.

Photos (above) and information courtesy University of Hartford.

Illustrations: the work of Murray Tinkelman at Mercer Gallery

Monroe Community College's Mercer Gallery in Rochester, New York, will be showing the work of Program Director Murray Tinkelman in a show titled Illustrations: the work of Murray Tinkelman through April 26 in Building 12 at the Brighton Campus, 1000 East Henrietta Road.

In conjunction with the show, Murray will be giving two lectures on Thursday, April 11, in Building 5, Room 100: the first lecture, History of American Illustration 1850-1950, will take place at 2pm, and the second, Murray Tinkelman: 60 Years in 60 Minutes, is at 7pm, with an artist's reception immediately following.

Photo of Murray Tinkelman (left) by Ronni Tinkelman Mitten.