Issue 15 Inspired by L.A

OTIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN MAGAZINE SPRING 2014 in this issue:

04 - ALUMNI AND FACULTY ISSUE 15 INSPIRED BY L.A.

06 - KEEPING IT SIMPLE AND FRESH: MEG CRANSTON

18 - OTIS REPORT ON THE CREATIVE ECONOMY: 1 IN 10 JOBS IN CA

I remember L.A. as blackety-black shadows cast from brutalist blocks that take the history of architecture and reduce and contain it silently, like lunary tombs or Aztec temples morphed into Fome-Cor® cartoons. This kind of light makes decisions easier, more black and white. Good-vs-bad, pure-vs- impure, aspiration-vs-collapse, determined grim optimism-vs-self-indulgent despair. The suggestion of an old Hollywood mono- lithic black-and-white movie set encourages self-invention and self-consciousness as you make your way down an imaginary long white staircase. There’s not another living soul on the set and the spotlight is on you, wiping out any flaw or imperfection, hallucinating yourself into who you wanna be … exactly how I remember it … forward

Fashion designer Rick Owens (’81) moved from L.A. to Paris in 2003.

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1. George Maitland Stanley (’24) 2. Kent Twitchell (’77 MFA) 3. Judithe Hernández (’74 MFA) 4. Insung Kim (’97) 5. Robert Irwin (’50) 6. Hillary Jaye (’90) Muses Fountain, Hollywood Bowl Harbor Freeway Overture mural, New Spring, mural for the Expo Line for Hunt Design Associates The Central Garden, The Getty for Sussman/Prezja & Co. 1938 1993 Terminus Station in Santa Monica, Identity and wayfinding program Center, 1997 Wayfinding and bus graphics Photo courtesy: Hollywood Bowl opening in 2016 for downtown L.A. Photo courtesy: The J. Paul Getty Van Nuys FlyAway for Los Angeles Museum and Music Center Archives Commissioned by the LACMTA Museum World Airports

LACMA Director Michael Govan explains the allure of Los Angeles in this simple statement: “Where the modern world was imagined and continues to be reinvented.”

Since 1918, Otis alumni, faculty members, and students have imagined the city’s future, created positive change, and made connections 04 across the globe. As artists and designers, they are committed to incorporate human values, social responsibility, and ethics in their thinking and action.

For this issue on Otis in Los Angeles, we designed an interactive map with projects by alumni and faculty members, including public art, monuments, and retail stores. Visit www.otisinla.com and plan your trip to see them all. Share photos of your visits with the world via social networks using #otisinla.

Keep your eye out for this symbol throughout the issue for more location information 02 12

A Fond And Forward-Looking Farewell

Otis has a uniquely powerful educational across the globe with the success stories of our approach and social vision, as well as a long alumni, students, and their faculty mentors. tradition of partnering with diverse sectors to When I depart at the end of this academic elevate the role of artists and designers in Los year, I will do so with an optimistic outlook on Angeles and beyond. Today, an Otis education Otis’ future. The College’s educational and social takes full advantage of the fact that L.A. and the mission has never been more clearly articulated College are both fertile grounds where cultural and manifested. The reimagined curriculum practices, social engagement, and the creative strengthens student learning and success. economy converge, resulting in new ideas and Exciting plans are in place to expand campus approaches that address the emerging needs facilities and transform Otis into a residential of our time and lead to a better future. college. There is incredible momentum that will As I look back on my fourteen years as take the College to new heights. I cannot imagine president of this great institution, I feel extremely a better interim president than Provost Dr. Kerry honored to have helped shape Otis in partnership Walk to lead the great Otis team into its next with the gifted and dedicated boards, faculty phase of service and success. and staff. Above all, I feel privileged to have I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to President Hoi and Provost Dr. Kerry Walk participated in the transformative education have served the College since 2000. As I bid of our students, who blossom into achieving farewell, I know that I will be continually inspired alumni and whose creative practices reward their from a distance by the extraordinary talent and lives and benefit the world. It is gratifying that spirit of the Otis community of students, faculty, my final OMAG introduction is for an issue that staff, alumni, and board members. Otis will demonstrates Otis’ imprint in the L.A. region and always be in my heart.

Samuel Hoi, President

Editor: Margi Reeve, Communications Director Photography: Lane Barden, Deborah Bird, Chris Bliss, Back Cover: John Mason (’57) Coeditor: Laura Daroca (’03 MFA Fine Arts), Director of Joe Bruns, Kristina Campbell, Benny Chan Fotoworks, “Folded Cross, Yellow-Gold,” 2002 Alumni Relations Kai He/The LA Fashion Magazine, Katie Hotchkiss ceramic Alumni Relations Coordinator: Shefali Mistry Contributors: freelance writers George Wolfe and 39 x 31.5 x 24" Creative/Design: Mark Caneso (’04) Mimi Zeiger; copy editor Michelle Ghaffari from Crosses, Figures, Spears, Torques David Kordansky Gallery, LA. 20 45

SPRING 2014 OTIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN MAGAZINE

FEATURE: VOL. 15 Otis In L.A. Faculty architecture projects; Annetta Kapon video; JT Steiny drawings; Meg Cranston interview; Lalo Alcaraz profile; Literary L.A.; Broad-Minded; CONTENTS 04 City as Classroom

College Alumni Around Class News the World Notes 14 42 44

Transformational Leadership Bangladesh Alumni Scholarship Benefit and Fashion Show Mumbai Anniversaries Creative Economy Report Generations Connect in S.F. Teaching Awards Otis Supporters: Sharma Family Buzz Commencement Annual Exhibition Class of 2013

Otis prepares diverse students of art and design to enrich our world Otis College of Art and Design through their creativity, their skill, and their vision.

© Otis College of Art and Design Established in 1918, Otis College of Art and Design is a national leader in art and design Otis enrolls approximately 1,100 full-time students, and offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees Publication of material does not necessarily education. The College mission is to prepare diverse students of art and design to enrich in Architecture/Landscape/Interiors, Digital Media (Game and Entertainment Design, Animation, indicate endorsement of the author’s viewpoint our world through their creativity, skill, and vision. Alumni and faculty are Fulbright, MacArthur, and Motion Design), Fashion Design, Communication Arts (Graphic Design, Illustration, and by Otis College of Art and Design and Guggenheim grant recipients, Oscar awardees, legendary costume designers, leaders Advertising Design), Fine Arts (Painting, Photography, and Sculpture/New Genres), Product of contemporary art movements, and design stars at Apple, Abercrombie & Fitch, Pixar, Design, and Toy Design. Otis also awards the Master of Fine Arts degree in Fine Arts, Graphic DreamWorks, Mattel, Nike, and Disney. Design, Public Practice, and Writing.

Otis Faculty in L.A. Otis faculty members draw inspiration from L.A., and reflect its vibrant communities in their work.

Architecture/Landscape/Interiors Faculty Projects 01. Chava Danielson Principal, DSH Para Los Ninos 849 East 6th St., L.A. 90013

02. David Reddy Principal, R&D Architects Breeze House 23 Breeze Ave., Venice 90291 (artwork by Nancy Monk)

03. Linda Pollari Principal, P XS “off-use" (office-house) 950 S. Highland Ave, L.A. 90036 01

04. Matias Creimer Bower Reidence (renovation) 16417 Otsego St., L.A. 91436

05. Richard Lundquist ChoSun Galbee 3330 W. Olympic Blvd. L.A. 90019

02 04 05

4 Spring 2014

ANNETTA KAPON JT STEINY

Professor and Assistant Chair, Graduate Fine Arts Senior Lecturer, Communication Arts: Illustration

Drawing JT Steiny (’86) contributes illustrations to the Los Angeles Times, The Line Between L.A. USA Today, Smart Money, Sony Records, Rhino Records, and While Driving LA Weekly. Everywhere he goes, he draws. An entire series he titles and Beverly Hills “Drawing While Driving.” In this series, he captures the challenges of dog walking in a car-oriented city.

Kapon (‘85) created this video to be shown on L.A. Metro buses as part of Freewaves’ “Out the WIndow” project, April 2013. She walked the line between Beverly Hills’ freshly paved streets and Los Angeles pavement’s holes and cracks, capturing both the visual and the auditory contrasts.

SARA DALEIDEN

Lecturer, Graduate Public Practice

Urban Rangers

As a Senior Ranger with the The Los Angeles Urban Rangers, Sara develops guided hikes, campfire talks, field kits, and other interpretive tools to spark creative explorations of everyday habitats in L.A. Founded in 2004, the Rangers are dedicated to asking questions about the abundant and often unseen complexities of the places in our lives, whether a freeway, an office park or a living room. l to r: Therese Kelly, Nicholas Bauch, Sara Daleiden, Ron Milam and Jenny Price.

5 Otis Faculty in L.A.

Cranston reveals her favorite museums, the book she would take to MEG CRANSTON a desert island, her thoughts on art Fine Arts Chair and media, the pinata, and more at www.otis.edu/omagcranston Keeping It Simple and Fresh

Why is teaching important to you? In Los Angeles, teaching is a normal part of an artist’s career. That isn’t true everywhere but it is definitely true here. Initially, I taught for the same reason most artists teach—to support my work. What I found out was that teaching not only provided financial support but it also informed and energized my work. Teaching forces you to constantly reevaluate your own ideas and as a result, your work stays fresh. You have to stay relevant to the students, and that helps you stay relevant to a wider audience. L.A. is a great place for an artist to teach because you are in such good company. The list of artists who teach or have taught here is a who’s who of the art world. Otis plays a crucial part in that with an amazing number of world-famous artists who have taught/continue to teach including Paul McCarthy, Carole Caroompas, Alex Slade, Mike Kelley, Steve Prina, Chris Williams, Frances Stark, Liz Glynn, Laura Owens, Jack Goldstein, Alexis Smith, Monique Prieto, and Jorge Pardo. We take risks by hiring young artists whose work we believe in, and it pays off both for the artists and for the students. L.A. art colleges have produced an enormous number of artists and trained the teachers who have gone on to develop international programs. What we might call collectively “the L.A. method” has been imitated in colleges and universities around the world. Otis has a central role in making L.A. the most important city in the world for art education today.

What do you find unique about Otis students? Artists love teaching at Otis because the students are so cool. Our students are more independent and empathetic than students at other schools where I’ve taught. I think L.A. has a lot to do with that. We are a metropolitan art Last year we finished a book that took seven years to ladies in gypsy costumes. In ’68 it was impossible to paint school so our students live and work in the city. That gives complete. More Than You Wanted to Know About John those things. By 2013 things had changed. Otis students a more informed perspective on life, and Baldessari is an anthology of John’s complete writing, makes them more cosmopolitan. They deal with a broad from his days at Otis in 1957 to the present. I coedited it How does your anthropology background influence range of people, and negotiate life in one of the greatest with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, a curator and codirector at your work? cities in the world. Serpentine Gallery in London. My anthropology major at Kenyon College provided a

Last year we did two sets of paintings using texts good foundation for art making because anthropologists Describe your collaborations with John Baldessari from John’s early writing. The colors came from Pantone’s see meaning as relative, conditioned by cultural context. Over the years, we have collaborated on a variety of forecast for the top women’s fashion colors for 2013. In art it’s very similar. You have to understand the context projects with a shared objective of mixing thing up— We wanted to juxtapose older texts with the latest you are working in. In art you wouldn’t say red necessarily always wanting to try something new. We work together fashion colors. For one set I selected a short text that is means love. You’d say, in a certain context, shown in a mostly because it’s fun to see what you generate when my favorite bit of advice: certain composition, presented in a certain way, red might you work with another artist. We have curated a few “Whatever you decide to do, remember to keep it connote love. Artists need to be very sensitive to the time shows together, including one for the Santa Monica simple, keep it fresh, and have some idea what you are and place in which they are working to be understood. Museum on the work of Norm Laich, an L.A.-based artist going to do.” Like anthropologists, they have to understand everything and sign painter who has worked with many important We showed one set of these at Galerie Michael about a culture—religion politics, economics, etc. Cultural artists. Curating is a thankless job for artists. You definitely Janssen in Singapore. That went well, so we made conditions manifest belief, and belief gets manifested don’t make any friends, but John and I do it because we another set based on texts from 1968 for Michael’s gallery materially in art and design. Art and design are 100% feel it is important for artists to show the world the in Berlin. These related to subjects that John said he about belief. They both reflect it and generate it. exhibitions that artists want to see. could not paint: sad doggies, squint-eyed tigers, and

6 Spring 2014

by George Wolfe LALO ALCARAZ Lecturer, Communication Arts: Illustration

A Most Imperfect Union: A Contrarian History of the U.S. will be released by Basic Books in June with illustrations by Alcaraz Redrawing Borders and text by Ilan Stevans

For editorial cartoonist and faculty member Lalo Alcaraz, having one foot inside and the other outside the circle has been an ongoing metaphor for his life. Born in the San Diego area, he notes that he was not quite Mexican enough for some relatives across the border and yet not My work urges people to think, maybe in the American enough for those in the States. His academic way I present it in my work, and maybe not. degrees include the fields of environmental design and I’m not telling people how to think, just, you architecture, yet he's best known for creating the first nationally syndicated, populist, politically-themed Latino know . . . use your noggin. daily comic strip, La Cucaracha, which appears in the Los Angeles Times. He also hosts a radio show and runs a satirical website. Now, once again, he finds himself exploring new territory as a writer on an upcoming Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) project: an animated show for Fox featuring a largely Latino cast of characters, due Alcaraz has taught editorial illustration at Otis for This humble stance isn’t false modesty. He’s to premiere in fall 2014. nearly three years but will be taking a break to make genuinely fond of his simple-yet-proud roots and current Luckily for Alcaraz, what once raised eyebrows and ample space for his new full-time gig. It's a bittersweet middle-class lifestyle, and content to trade his once- caused judgment is now an increasingly accepted part of time. "At Otis, I was reminded of how cool and fun college angry 20-something years for the challenges and the times. On the federal level, it’s business as usual with can be. Some of our best classes were when we threw pleasures of life at home in Whittier with his wife and an African American president; in a city like Los Angeles, everything out and just sat there and talked—I had young three kids. At the base of all he does, however, are the you can’t throw a rock without hitting a hybrid car or a students from here and international students from all demands of his nagging muse, calling him to grind out his food truck touting a fresh confluence of ethnic cuisines; over the world, and it always gave me great hope that daily work, to fulfill his creative duty. and at a college like Otis, interdisciplinary cross-training these kids remind me of how I was way back then. "I’m okay with simply being a role model for working is fast becoming not only an advantage in the art And we’re all the better for it [this merging of cultures]. artists. I’m not the most organized person, but I’ve and design professions but is practically a necessity for I hope they’ll be able to carry on with what I’ve tried to managed to piece together a career and show that by just getting ahead of the status quo. And in this type of teach them. But the truth is that I’ve really learned so doing your art, steadily over time, it can be done. However twister-like environment, artists like Alcaraz, who can much from them." dire the environment is out there, every career is keep their balance while straddling these various circles, Despite using his craft to speak out on substantive fragmented, and we all have to figure out ways to make it are faring well. issues like Proposition 187 (immigration) and federal work. My work urges people to think, maybe in the way I Whether working on an editorial cartoon or creating elections (voting), and making both real and symbolic present it in my work, and maybe not. I’m not telling content for his website (pocho.com), he attributes inroads professionally in ways that offer a model of people how to think, just, you know . . . use your noggin. his original interest in biting social commentary to achievement for Latinos and Chicanos, Alcaraz doesn’t There’s a great saying in Spanish that uses the word Mad magazine: “I used to tell parents to be careful: see himself as any kind of spokesperson or cultural hero. maceta—which is slang for flowerpot—something like that publication can make a critical thinker out of a kid. “Most of all,” he notes, “what I can offer is my work, to use what the good Lord gave you between your ears. For me, Spanish was my first language, then I learned support causes I care about. “ So in short, use your flowerpot. There’s stuff in there!" English in school and, finally, I learned satire . . . so it was like a third language for me.”

7 Otis Faculty in L.A. Literary

PAUL VANGELISTI Founding Chair, Graduate Writing L.A. Memory and Daily Life in the Invisible City

I must begin by mentioning the debt “splendid isolation.” Memory in so willfully of gratitude I owe the Parisian poet forgetful a place is critical, defining an Mohammed Dib, who consistently almost palpable dimension of daily life, made me aware that L.A. was indeed which is all the more vivid in contrast the Invisible City, borrowing from me, as to the perpetual elsewhere that best it were, the title for my literary magazine, describes one’s writing practice there. Invisible City, which I edited with John Time and place operate curiously McBride from 1971–82. During his stay in the daily and often dull ineptitude of in L.A., Dib would often smile capriciously a grammar that might describe such as and ask, as the afternoon began to fictive utility as L.A. Time, for instance, cool, if it weren’t time to set off in may function as a property of light, a per- my Datsun sedan and visit our invisible petual present or “timelessness” in close city, so that we might add to our relationship to the peculiarly isolate and “petites histoires.” meditative light that is the single most Poetry, for me, then, issues from the distinguishing characteristic of our city. invisible city, the big nowhere that is L.A. “Lots and lots of light–and no shadows,” Ours is a city of “theatrical imperma- notes artist Robert Irwin, “Really peculiar, nence,” as Christopher Isherwood called almost dreamlike.” it, the home of tautological architecture I am suggesting that a preoccupation where hot dog and hamburger and donut with our daily bread is a poet’s attempt Sumi-e drawing by Les Biller stands take on the shape of hot dogs to ground his or her work if not exactly in and hamburgers and donuts, where at any some form of realism, at least in a realis- given time only a little more than one- tic attitude or position within this wacky third of the population has lived there for environment. Lacking the public occasion Time and place operate curiously in more than five years. L.A. is blessed, in and certainly the public form for serious the daily and often dull ineptitude Tennessee Williams’ words, with “wonder- literature—museums and other educa- of a grammar that might describe ful rocking horse weather, and a curious tional and public institutions in our city light so mesmerizing that, as Orson are hardly more than specimen boxes in such as fictive utility as L.A. Welles once noted, ‘You sit down, you’re today’s cultural marketplace—some poets twenty-five, and when you get up, you’re instinctively employ the daily to create a sixty-two.‘” It functions, according to the context for their work, social, dramatic poet Thomas McGrath, as the “Asia Minor or otherwise. In a city where the image is Editor’s Note: of the intellect,” a place where, in the im- considered truthful, and entrepreneurs mortal words of the legendary producer the likes of (fill in the name of whatever This piece is excerpted from a longer essay that first appeared in Irving Thalberg (namesake for the Acad- current pop culture boss) are discussed Seeing Los Angeles: A Different Look at a Different City, edited by emy’s Oscar for “life-time achievement”), in university and college classrooms as Guy Bennett and Beatrice Mousli; Otis Books/Seismicity Editions, 2007 the writer is no less than “a necessary creative geniuses, a poet may look to his evil.” L.A. is also a place that has afforded or her own isolated daily life to fashion a Graduate Writing faculty member Martha Ronk’s poems writers and artists, to borrow a phrase background against which language may also appeared in this publication. from long-time resident Igor Stravinsky, be given room for serious play.

8 Spring 2014

PETER GADOL

Professor, Graduate Writing Silver Lake

And then it was autumn again, and Saturdays they would Editor’s note: wake early when the first clean light came up over the oak and fir at the top of the ridge and eased its way Gadol was recently down across their glass house and overgrown slope, awarded an NEA Creative down to the pitched yards and shingled cottages along Writing Fellowship the street below their street, down across timber and Literary brush and fallen limbs, across the boulevard all the way to the patient lake, where it would linger on the water, and ancient and forgiving light by noon. These were cold mornings suddenly and so they dressed quickly in fraying clothes. One made coffee, the other swiped jam across toast. They traded sections of the paper. One started in on the crossword, the other scanned the financial pages. Then they headed out to the garage and pulled on work gloves and selected rakes and clippers, and there was little conversation except to agree the movie they had watched the night before was not sitting well with them. A simple story snapped L.A. when stretched into an epic. Actually one man fell asleep before the film ended, and the other man had to wake him only to guide him to the bedroom and back to sleep again. Rain all week had left the air crisp but also made the ground behind their house muddy and not entirely suit- able for the chore at hand, yet each man took a flank of hill as if it were his side of the bed and began pulling out the dead sage and trimming back the excess tea bush and clearing out the persistent sumac. There was nothing to be done about the thicket of rosemary, they’d long since given up. There was enough of a drop-down to the backyard of the property below theirs so that even at the edge of their land, they enjoyed an unobstructed view of the Silver Lake Reservoir.

excerpted from Silver Lake, a novel

MARTHA RONK

Senior Lecturer, Graduate Writing

from "State of Mind"

Driving The Moon over L.A. Pico Boulevard

The film breaks into dialogue after long stretches The moon moreover spills over onto From behind the glass they are unmitigatedly still Of the sort of silence associated with wet roads The paving stone once under foot. or passed over. Pico is another. And the sounds of tires hissing in the trees as Plants it there one in front. Driving is to driving as from one end to the other The wind’s an artificial product of moving She is no more than any other except her shoulders over bridge and vale. Their eyes unnervingly swerved. toward the horizon forever. Celan says over wine and lostness, over As enclosure’s only a category of mind. Pull over and give us a kiss. The running out of both. And then the final exchanges about the weather first When it hands over the interchange I don’t find you behind any eyes you open. And tentative efforts to snare the other’s litany She and she and she. A monument to going nowhere, After the earthquake it was closed to traffic. of complaints A piece of work unmade by man. O moon, I look at the eyes, the sex, the eyes. The very act of driving was designed to eliminate Rise up and give us ourselves awash and weary— We lap at it fearful of running out, any sense of. We’ve seen it all and don’t mind Gulps of red wine. He says What can the translator mean by over?

9 Otis Faculty in L.A.

LEWIS MACADAMS Editor’s Note:

Senior Lecturer, Graduate Writing Skid Row as a "40-year artwork to bring the river back to life." I donned a white suit and painted myself green as if i were the ghost of William A longer version of this Mulholland. Op Ed piece appeared in In the mid-1980s, a lawsuit by Heal the Bay forced L.A. to build a the Los Angeles Times, From Confrontation water reclamation plant that would ultimately send millions of gallons a October 27, 2013. year of reclaimed water through the Glendale Narrows. For the first time to Cooperation since the last Ice Age, the river was year-round. Willows and sycamore trees began to reappear. In preparation for a predicted El Niño, the County and the Army In the late 1930s, in response to a pair of deadly floods, the L.A. County Corps decided to bulldoze everything growing in the river's natural Board of Supervisors called in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to con- bottom. Standing in front of the machines, I nearly got myself killed. But trol the unruly L.A. River. The mission was to get the water to the ocean the action got FoLAR its first meeting with the head of the L.A. County as fast as possible. The idea that it might make sense, in a city that gets Department of Public Works. Every time he said the words "flood control less than 15 inches of rain a year on average, to conserve some of channel," I interrupted him and said "river." I had planted the linguistic those hundreds of millions of gallons of freshwater seems to have never seeds. Today nearly everybody calls it a river. occurred to the Army Corps. In recent years, more and more Angelenos have discovered the It took many years, thousands of workers, and some 3 million river. FoLAR's annual Gran Limpieza, the Great Los Angeles River barrels of concrete to bring the river to heel. By some measures, the Cleanup, has grown from 10 people to several thousand. Two former project was a triumph: floodwaters have not topped the river levees railroad yards are now state parks, half a dozen riverfront pocket parks since. But it was also an ecological holocaust. were created, and a bike path continues to grow. Within a very few years, important native species were largely gone. Every one of these victories was the result of patience, willpower, Yellow-billed cuckoos and least bell's vireo no longer sang in the wa- and perseverance. Yet none of them opened up the channel itself. In tershed. Red-legged frogs, which hibernated by burrowing into the river 2010 it was still a crime to stick your toe in the river. Then, this fall, after bottom’s mud, couldn‘t penetrate the concrete. seven years of work and almost $10 million, the Army Corps released a For half a century after the work was finished, the river was little study with a range of alternatives for the river's future. more than a concrete scar, separated from the city by chain-link fences It was a stunning development. FoLAR could now work hand in topped with razor wire and signs warning visitors to keep out or face hand with the Army Corps to restore miles of habitat, eliminate miles of fines and/or jail. concrete, restore wetlands, and reconnect the main stem of the river to In 1986, Roger Wong, Pat Patterson and I borrowed some wire the mountains. cutters, snipped the fence that separated the river from the city, and As I look back on a lifetime of poetry and politics, on 27 years of declared the river open. We asked the river if we could speak for it in the working on the river, I see a journey from confrontation to cooperation. human realm. We didn't hear it say no, and Friends of the L.A. River was It has created a wider and deeper community not just of humans but of born. FoLAR began life as a performance piece in a basement theater on flying, swimming, and four-legged creatures as well.

10 City as Laboratory City as Laboratory

Students thrive in L.A., using the city as a laboratory for exploration and creation. From innovative architecture to leading contemporary museums and galleries, opportunities abound. With dynamic community partners and cultural institutions, students work on complex art and design issues to find solutions that that lead to social, economic, and cultural change.

Museum Visit LACMA

“If there’s one thing I didn’t expect to be doing the week before Halloween and Día de los Muertos, it was following a trail of dismembered body parts. Don’t fret, they’re made from plaster and wire by Getty Otis students for an interactive, walk-in altarpiece in the Getty Center’s Exhibition auditorium lobby. The project grows out of the Getty Museum’s long-standing Design collaboration with Otis, which seeks to engage students with the Museum’s “I was primarily excited about the visit to “I grew up in a small town, and its only exhibitions and events.” the Natural History Museum because it museum was about the town’s history. seemed to have nothing to do with The L.A. museum visits and special tours —Sarah Waldorf, "Student-Built Día de design. Dinosaur bones? Insect samples? by the curators helped me see art in a los Muertos Altar Pays Tribute to L.A.’s Taxidermies in elaborate dioramas? In new light. It gave me a new understanding Saints," Iris, Getty blog, October 30, 2013 fact, museum visits became a great eye and a critical eye on how to read a opener, a change of perspective that museum’s rooms.” - Jamal Polk (‘13) changed my thinking and methodologies.” - Emi Tamaru (‘12)

11 City as Laboratory

Exterior of The Broad from 2nd St. and Grand Ave; image courtesy of The Broad and Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Broad Minded

By Mimi Zeiger

Last year, students in Architecture/Landscape/Interiors (A/L/I) watched L.A.’s architect, and the future lobby already framed, they garnered a greater understand- newest art museum, The Broad, take life as they participated in hard hat construc- ing of the shear amount of thought, coordination, and labor that goes into the tion tours. Designed by the New York-based firm Diller Scofidio + Renfo (DS+R) construction process. They were exposed to how complex computational forms and commissioned by Eli and Edythe Broad, the 120,000 square foot building on made in digital modeling software such as Rhino are built in the field. “To see how downtown’s Grand Avenue (adjacent to Disney Hall) will feature large gallery spaces highly nonorthogonal models made with the most contemporary of tools are and an archive shrouded in an innovative, exoskeleton structure when it opens in translated into architectural space by such a rudimentary and hand-labor intensive 2014. Behind the complex façade, which doubles as a shading system, works by process was eye-opening,” says Ragle. But however complicated the construction Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Cindy Sherman, and Jean-Michel Basquiat will be on process, student Diana Gonong remained undaunted by the experience: “We all view to the public. arrived on site curious, and we all left amazed and inspired.” For architecture and design students, who often spend long hours in design studio, the act of building can seem a bit foreign. Although skilled at rendering, drawing, and making models, young designers lack real-life experience, but DS+R’s design for The Broad offers an object lesson taking an idea from concept to construction. “Site visits are a critical part of any design education,” says faculty member Greg Kochanowski. “They provide the students an opportunity to engage Creative Action the world and broaden their horizons and level of understanding beyond what is taught within the confines of the studio environment.” When he and his students visited The Broad, they toured the main gallery on the upper level, and learned Throughout their studies, students participate in Creative Action: how the museum’s large span steel structure was engineered and constructed. Integrated Learning projects with community partners. They learn “It is at these moments when a more full-bodied level of understanding occurs— that identifying problems and developing strategies for solutions some of them hear the ‘click,’” he explains. “Students experience the synthesis of result from examining and understanding multiple perspectives, organizational, spatial, material, and technological systems that make up buildings dealing with ambiguity, and collaboratively developing flexible, and our built environment.” For student Izzy Savage, that click came when she saw the “large pillows” adaptable approaches. that were weighing down the roof in order to simulate the weight of the skylights that would be installed later, noting, “This ingenious technique demonstrated the Some recent partners and projects include: creativity in both design and in building.” When faculty member Ben Ragle’s class visited the site, interior framing was underway and students got to see hundreds of custom-curved metal studs that will be skinned with thin veneers of plaster to form the interior walls. As they toured the racks and racks of organized pieces, plaster samples waiting for sign-off from the

12 Spring 2014

Annual Kite Festival

Every year in early April, students and alumni design and fly kites with families from the L.A. area. World-renowned kite maker Tom Van Sant (‘57) and other artists provide tips, and all enjoy caricature drawing, sand castle building, and face painting.

Museum Visit L.A. Sports Museum

Faculty member Bob Dob (’01) and his illustration students worked with Trustee Gary Cypres to create work based on Cypres’ extensive collection of sports memorabilia. Cypres is owner of the Los Angeles Sports Museum, a 30,000 sq. ft. private museum with 30 galleries dedicated to some of the most prominent sports figures and teams, including players Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, and Lou Gehrig; and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Rams. The students were particularly inspired by cartoons by Willard Mullin, who popularized the stubble-faced Brooklyn bum of “Dem Bums.”

826LA Culver City Senior Film Aid International H.E.L.P.E.R v2k KXLU—Radi-O Surfrider Foundation Collaborate with Center View and analyze Foundation Produce original radio Develop “Ban the Bottle, underserved children Transcribe life histories films with socially Work with Homeboy content and broadcast it Abolish the Bag” to create a cultural and stories or environmentally Industries ex-gang on a public station campaign focused on exchange booklet relevant messages members to discover the eliminating single-use Downtown Women’s roots and causes of gang Museum of Social plastics Center For the Study of Center & Venice BreatheLA violence, and learn about Justice Political Graphics Family Clinic Increase awareness of identity, creativity, and Develop a plan to exhibit Westside Awareness Examine the historical Propose ways to alleviate respiratory illnesses in community and archive issues of Magnet School and cultural context of difficulties of the underserved communi- social justice and cultural Produce workshops for political art and media healthcare system ties through branding Holy Nativity Episcopal memory related to La students’ needs and design Church Community Plaza Methodist Church Coolhaus City of El Segundo Fire Garden on Olvera Street Junior Blind Research the political Department The Getty Design a community Create art and design that context of mobile, Design projects that Examine the role of garden and propose ways Museum of Tolerance addresses the senses of guerilla-style community respond to a large-scale spirituality in cultural in which food can be a Craft a comic book sound and touch organizing disaster identity, and design platform for social narrative and design that exhibitions that honor change builds empathy and spiritual and cultural understanding among expression visitors

13 College News 14 Years of Transformational Leadership

Sammy Hoi has been a transformational 2000 2005 leader for Otis. His passionate commitment Samuel Hoi appointed President Product Design major launched to art and design education has been vital to the College’s growth and prosperity during Graduate Writing Program launched 2006 his fourteen-year presidency. A champion of creativity as an engine for economic growth 2001 Creative Action: An Integrated and community development, Sammy Learning Program launched Bronya and Andy Galef Center for Fine Arts has also been widely influential across the opens Los Angeles region and the state, working Scholarship Benefit and Fashion to build a coalition of public and private Show tops $1 million 2003 leaders to advocate for the arts. Sammy’s legacy at Otis is palpable—in First strategic plan and branding study new facilities, such as the Bronya and Andy 2007 $1.8 million grant from U.S. Dept. of Galef Center for Fine Arts; in the dramatic Graduate Public Practice Education for new majors increases in the number of students and Program launched faculty during his tenure; in the tripling of the endowment and the high level of alumni 2004 First Otis Report on the Creative giving; and, finally, in such new academic John S. Gordon appointed first Provost Economy of the L.A. Region programs as Creative Action and Public Practice, which give Otis students the New Media Consortium Award for chance to leverage the power of art and excellence in teaching and learning design to make a positive difference in local communities. But Sammy’s legacy will be defined as much by his intangible accomplishments as by those we can readily see. Sammy has infused our college with a deep community feeling, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a sense of purpose in our shared work of preparing students to be leading creative professionals who enrich our world. The Otis family—the family Sammy has so thoughtfully nurtured—will certainly miss him. Thanks to Sammy’s vision, Otis is on a pathway to continued success as we approach the College Centennial in 2018.

Dr. Kerry Walk, Provost

2001 2006 2009 Bronya and Andy Galef Center for Fine Arts Cirque de Soleil performance, Scholarship Mattel design for an original Otis Barbie Benefit and Fashion Show

”Sammy has been a fantastic spokesman for “What I appreciate most about Sammy Hoi is his “For many of us, Sammy is why we came to the creative sector in California, and an ability to exercise great leadership and vision Otis. And what we found, once there, is that extraordinaray partner for the Getty Foundation. with such energy, enthusiasm, and joy. This is his leadership—marked by a deep respect Whether working together on Pacific Standard part of the ‘secret sauce’ that has built Otis into for people and a generosity of spirit—has Time or Otis Creative Economy Reports, a formidable institution, and encouraged Los created a truly community-based organiza- we always knew Sammy would provide fresh Angeles, for the first time, to think of itself as a tion, with a strong focus on engagement, insights and concrete results. He is a rare truly creative economy.” sustainability, and community service.” leader—an innovator who really makes things happen. We will miss him in Los Angeles, but are delighted to see him bring his tremendous skills to another fine arts institution.”

Deborah Marrow, Director, and Joan Weinstein Cora Mirikitani, President and CEO Suzanne Lacy, Chair Deputy Director, The Getty Foundation Center for Cultural Innovation Otis MFA Public Practice

14 Spring 2014 14 Years of Transformational Leadership

2008 2011 2013 Graduate Graphic Design Program launched Dr. Kerry Walk appointed Provost Graduate Studios open in Culver City

Nike and Hurley endow $1 million Students Design Freedom Memorial in Palau Sustainability Alliance inaugurated with scholarship apparel partners Sustainability minor launched Student enrollment = 1200 Princeton Review selection: “2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region/Best in the West” 90th birthday celebration 2012 New Digital Media areas of emphasis: Doin’ It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Animation, Game & Entertainment Design, 2009 Woman’s Building, featured in The Getty’s and Motion Design $1.8 million grant from Mattel Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980

Otis Report on the Creative Economy expands First Kite Festival, Santa Monica Pier statewide 2010

Students design sustainable toys in China North Building studios open

2014 President Hoi steps down; Dr. Kerry Walk appointed Interim President

2011 2012 2013 Students and faculty members in Palau

“Sammy is a visionary leader who has guided ”Sammy Hoi has been a wonderful trustee and “To see the impact of Sammy Hoi’s passion for Otis through an extraordinary period of particularly valuable to the arts program because educating the next generation of creative growth and innovation. The values he so of his deep understanding of our field. His leaders, one needs only to visit any retail toy aisle well embodies—mission focus, excellence, capacity for listening, learning, and giving gracious in the world. Mattel is proud to be one of the teamwork, optimism, and community care— advice and support has been an extraordinary gift largest employers of Otis graduates because the are an enduring legacy that will propel the to us and has strengthened our work in California.“ program nurtures students’ talent; helping them College into a bright future.” to unleash their creative spirit in ways they will benefit from for a lifetime. Sammy’s passion for arts education globally serves as a wonderful example to our community.”

Thomas R. Miller, Chair, Josephine Ramirez, Arts Program Director Bryan Stockton, Chairman and CEO Otis Board of Trustees The James Irvine Foundation Mattel, Inc. Executive Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategies, City National Bank

15 College News Scholarship Benefit and Fashion Show

16 Spring 2014

The 31st annual Scholarship Benefit and Fashion Show raised more than $1 million for Scholarship Benefit and scholarships, highlighting faux fur apparel, sustainable sportswear, and the new The Otis Sustainability Alliance with inaugural partners—Eddie Bauer, Disney, Nike, Patagonia, Quiksilver, and Todd Oldham. Kirk Nix of KNA Designs was honored with the Creative Vision Award Fashion Show for his iconic work around the globe, and the inaugural Style Icon Award went to Sally Perrin, Creative Director of Perrin Paris 1893, who combines a feminine eye with French tradition.

Opposite Page Top: Bob Mackie

Bottom row from left Above: Christopher Wicks

Below: Marisol Gerona (’93) for Disney Cynthia Vincent (’88)

Above: Billabong

Below: Western Costume with Betsy Heimann Claire Pettibone (’89)

This Page Top: Venus Williams for EleVen

Bottom row from left Above: Heather Brown (’04) for Urban Outfitters

Below: Mary Jo Bruno Halston with the Humane Society

17 College News

Since 2007, Otis has commissioned the Professions and Economic Development 2013 Otis Report on the L.A. County Economic Development Cor- Committee); Otis President Samuel Hoi; poration (LAEDC) to produce an annual Director, Western Region of the Actors Report on the Creative Economy of the Fund Keith McNutt; CAC Director Craig Creative Economy: Los Angeles Region. This report has been Watson, and Executive Director of Arts an invaluable tool to assess the tremen- for L.A. Danielle Brazell. An addendum 1 in 10 Jobs in California dous impact and influence of the area's to this year's report is "L.A. Creates," a creative sector on the region’s economy. special report by McNutt, detailing the In 2013, the California Arts Council way in which deliberate, collaborative, and (CAC) awarded Otis funds to expand the regional efforts can support and develop report to show how the state's economy the region's creative industries. is affected by jobs in the arts, design, At the conclusion of the event, education, entertainment, nonprofits, President Hoi announced the new and independent creative professions. Creative Economy Catalyst Grants Their commitment underscores the belief program, a strategic initiative that that creativity is essential to California's supports L.A.’s creative entrepreneurs, successful workforce investment and and promotes innovative practices to economic development strategies. advance the city’s creative economy. On February 6, 2014 at the Broad This program will be administered by 726,300 10.4% Stage in Santa Monica, Robert Klein- the Center for Creative Innovation. henz, LAEDC’s Chief Economist at the One week later in Sacramento, Jobs in Los Angeles & 10.4% of the L.A. Kyser Center for Economic Research, Senator Lieu convened an informational Orange Counties (direct, Region’s total indirect, induced) economic output presented the 2013 Otis Report findings hearing, and President Hoi presented 1 in 7 in the L.A. region to a crowd of more than 400 audience the report data. Lieu proposed a bill FAST members from multiple sectors. Other to stimulate the creative economy by FACTS speakers included California State Sena- increasing state tax fund contributions about the tor Ted Lieu (Chair of the Joint Commit- to the CAC funding from $1 million to creative economy tee of the Arts, and Chair of the Business, $25 million. 1.4 MILLION 44%

Jobs in California of the state’s creative (direct, indirect, induced) economy workers are in 1 in 10 in the state the L.A. region

“The California story (Apple, Google, Mattel) is based on great ideas that are born in garages.”

California State Senator Ted Lieu

President Hoi with State Senator Ted Lieu at the Broad Stage, Santa Monica

California hosts more nonprofit 10% of California’s jobs are arts and cultural organizations in the creative economy than do most countries in the world.

Ann Markusen, “California’s Arts and Cultural Ecology” Robert Kleinhenz, LAEDC Chief Economist at the Kyser Center For Economic Research

18 Spring 2014

Those Who Can, Teach

2013 Awards Every year, Otis honors three outstanding faculty members with teaching awards. They are awarded based on their commitment to Otis, clear and effective teaching, and exceptional ability to respond to a diverse student body. Comments from student, faculty, and alumni nominations are excerpted below.

Harry Mott Renée Petropoulos Bill Kelley, Jr. Distinguished Educator Teaching Excellence, Teaching Excellence, “The California story Full-Time Faculty Member Part-Time Faculty Member (Apple, Google, Mattel) Harry is unconditionally supportive of his students. Renée is so generous with her knowledge and Bill Kelley helps graduate students learn to write well, is based on great ideas He creates a unique, creative hub for thriving time. She encourages her students to dig deeply brings in international public speakers, connects that are born in garages.” young artists. into their interests, and she goes there with them. students to the world of professionals through recom- She gives so much of her time to visit studios of mendations and internships, and is a very committed California State Senator Ted Lieu Harry is loved and respected by all because he is current students and alumni. Plus she has a fabulous and congenial colleague. Although he is a part-time completely honest and fair. Students know they will sense of style! faculty member, his generosity is unmatched. benefit from his tough love, and faculty members value his support. Renée is an exciting and engaged teacher—she Bill put heart and soul into his classes and changed not only loves her position as an educator but is my life! His dedication, time, and enthusiasm for art Whether he suggests an old movie or gives advice also an active contemporary member of the L.A. history, teaching, and assistance with the thesis writing about how to present work to professionals, Harry art and music scene! process cannot be surpassed. is always ready to help. Renée is a brilliant teacher who is constantly updat- Bill understands each student’s different history. He Harry is an altruist, in the best sense of the word, ing her information and methods. She keeps herself meets students outside of class to provide helpful to his staff, fellow teachers and students. enthusiastic and invested in her students. Her visiting guidance and deep, nuanced feedback. He introduces, artist lecture series is phenomenal. She is approach- recommends, and advocates for students within a Harry has guided hundreds of students to success in able and yet challenging. larger art-world context. the entertainment field. He is patient, understanding, caring, thorough, and intelligent in all his work, and he Bill challenges his students to reflect on their work, to reassured me and helped out in every way he could. understand how each choice fits within a larger con- He is truly a great educator. text. He encourages his students to honestly confront their work and its many possible readings. 19 OtisCollege News Buzz

Art Critic Roberta Smith Ben Maltz Gallery Highlights

Roberta Smith, Visiting Critic in Fine The Ben Maltz Gallery collaborated with Loyola Marymount’s Arts, spoke to a standing–room-only Laband Gallery on Tapping the Third Realm, an exhibition of crowd about her career as an art critic, work by 34 artists who explore spirituality through conjuring, from early freelancing to her current communication, collaboration, and chance (at left). position as Senior Art Critic for the Following this two-venue show, the Gallery presented Binding New York Times, where she has been Desire: Unfolding Artists Books, an exhibition of more than 120 since 1986. She spoke of the artists books from Otis’ Millard Sheets Library’s 2,100 artists challenges and rewards of art books collection, one of the largest in Southern California. criticism, stating her view that the advent of blogging keeps the conversation alive.

Collaborating on Sustainability

At the fourth annual PALS (Partnership for Academic Leadership on Sustainability) Summit, hosted by Otis and Art Center in October, representatives from 18 art and design colleges and universities continued to develop a vision for the future of sustainability in art and design education. As part of their collaborative culture, members used the summit to share the their institutions’ progress around academic and Renovating Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse institutional change, reflecting on the challenges and opportunities they face as PALS moves beyond their initial five-year commit- With partner Mattel, students participated in a unique ment. The keynote address by professor Ezio Manzini from Milan creative collaboration to celebrate Barbie's dreamhouse Polytechnic, a leading expert on sustainable design, focused in Malibu. Their work was on display at Santa Monica on scenario-building toward solutions encompassing both environ- Place for two weeks, and included swimsuits, interior mental and social quality. PALS fellow Otis Assistant Professor accents, paintings, a guest house, and short videos. As Michele Jaquis and others from Art Center, Pratt, MICA, RISD, Emily first-year Liberal Arts and Sciences student Natasha Carr, and CCA presented their research and academic initiatives. Carovska says, “Barbie has had every single career under her pink belt as if to say, ‘Hey, yeah. I'm a girl. I can do anything…and in heels, too!’”

20 Otis BuzzSpring 2014

El Capitan Display

Fashion Design students, working with Yo Homeboy Disney Consumer Products, designed original costumes for three characters With participants in downtown’s successful Homeboy Industries in the Disney/Pixar Monsters University program, Otis students created hand painted sneakers, donated by animated film. Their work, displayed at Converse. This Creative Action: Integrated Learning project the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood focused on identity and the way in which it is expressed. The $100 Blvd. last summer, incorporates price (contact [email protected]) benefits Homeboy Industries. recycled materials such as household mops, sponges, and repurposed fabrics.

International Artists Symposium

MFA Graphic Design's summer 2013 Design Week included international visiting artists Pinar + Viola, Amsterdam; Morag Myerscough + Luke Morgan, London; Jean Francois Porchez, Paris; Eric de Haas, Eindhoven; Team Thursday, Rotterdam; Alejandra Quinto, Mexico City, and Raw Color, Eindhoven.

Chair Kali Nikitas invited visitors who conducted seven different workshops that addressed the students’ diverse interests. In Myerscough and Morgan’s workshop, students designed and built the social environment for crits, meals, happenings, and parties. Otis MFA candidates were joined by students from partner institutions Sint Lucas-Gent, Sint Lucas-Antwerp, Amsterdam’s Sandberg Institute, CalArts, and UCLA. Design week concluded with “work + play,” a symposium open to the design community. See photos at http:// otismfagraphicdesign.tumblr.com

21 College News

The Lucky Ones

Honorary degree recipient Lucy Lippard began her Commencement remarks by saying “You have no idea yet how lucky you are to have gone to Otis.” Other excerpts from the speech by this leading voice in contemporary art and ethical activism follow:

and envisioning is the In our world, artist’s business.

VISION IS Artists can't change the world alone but with good allies and hard work they can collaborate with life itself. You can DEFINITELY provide models for new approaches and ask questions without knowing the answers. Otis has served you very well in NEEDED, this regard with programs in interdisciplinary community engagement and creative action.

I CAN’T WAIT to see what you PRODUCE

President Hoi, Lucy Lippard, and Trustee Bronya Galef

22 Spring 2014

Each of you will be RESPONSIBLE for the ways society in your own way PERCEIVES & DISCOVERS its visual surroundings.

With this responsibility comes the necessity to think critically as well as affirmatively; to see brutality as well as beauty; to celebrate birth and still decry the fact that so many children [There are] all the new forms hovering out in this world grow up in poverty; there, buried in social energies that haven’t to celebrate death as the natural end yet been imagined. In my opinion, the most of a meaningful life and still deplore exciting art today enters the fray—it is the fact that so much of our resources pandisciplinary and can creep in through go to prisons, executions, and the all the cracks. According to the Kabbalah, military; and to bailing out banks if you wish to get hold of the invisible, you must rather than helping people. penetrate as deeply as possible into the visible.

23 College News Annual Exhibition

24 Spring 2014

Opposite Page Top: Architecture/Landscape/ Interiors Bottom: Communication Arts, Toy Design

This Page Top: Product Design Bottom: Fine Arts, Digital Media

25 Class of 2013 Best of the Best

Meet the Class of 2013 Academic Excellence Award Winners and Valedictorian

These awards are bestowed upon students in each major Christopher Cherrie, Silvia Juliana Communication Arts: Advertising Design Mantilla Ortiz who have attained the highest level of achievement. MFA Public Practice Selections are made by department leaders and faculty; Lori Choi Renee Rasmussen criteria include a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher (for Architecture/Landscape/Interiors Communication Arts: Graphic Design undergraduates), quality of work, personal character, Alec Egan MFA Fine Arts David Roy and contributions to Otis and the larger community. Fine Arts: Photography Caroline Fullerton Product Design Wendy Silva Fine Arts: Painting Lilit GarIbian Fashion Design Brandon Waybright MFA Graphic Design Miles Gracey Fine Arts: Sculpture/New Genres Dustee Womack Toy Design Kirby Israelson Communication Arts: Illustration

Rachel Kaminer MFA Writing

Carolyn Moskowitz Digital Media

26 Spring 2014

CAROLYN MOSKOWITZ DIGITAL MEDIA

The Class Valedictorian is Carolyn Moskowitz, Valedictorian, was chosen for her Hometown? selected from the pool of consistently stellar academic performance and the Agoura Hills, California undergraduate Academic exceptional quality of her work, which has focused on Your thesis project? Excellence Award recipients concept art in both digital and traditional formats. I reinterpreted Sergei Prokofiev’s by a special committee In the words of Digital Media Chair Harry Mott, “Peter and the Wolf,” and designed characters, creatures, consisting of the Provost, Carolyn is a tremendously gifted and hardworking and environments. Vice Provost, and several artist and designer who is generous with her time and faculty members who hold always ready to help others. An amazing talent, she Interesting things you did outside appointments in two or creates the most surprising and gorgeous solutions to of school? I was quite busy during college so I more departments. story and design challenges. She is a force to be reck- did not participate in extracurricular oned with, and she would be honestly surprised to hear activities. However, I celebrated my that said of her; she is so modest. She truly embodies graduation with a family trip to Hawaii, which I enjoyed very much! the aspirations of the College. Most influential class? I really enjoyed the “Drawing the Fantastic.” I have a passion for drawing characters and creatures.

Most influential faculty member? I’ve had many great teachers but Bill Eckert and Gary Geraths were most supportive to my growth as an artist.

Favorite place in L.A.? Disneyland, California! I am most fortunate to have an annual pass and take frequent trips to “The Happiest Place on Earth!” For me, it is a place of inspiration and beauty.

Impact on your work/life? I interned under faculty member Cecil Kim at Section Studios in 2012, where I worked on art for video games and mobile games.

What’s next? I am currently a freelance artist.

Something unusual/idiosyncratic? I am an avid collector of pressed pennies. You can find them almost anywhere, and I really enjoy building my collection.

WHY OTIS? Information/tips to share with I wanted to pursue a career in the arts, future students? Work hard, listen to your teachers, with a focus in concept art and illustration. and remain confident in yourself— Otis has a wonderful reputation, and I was and if all else fails, go to the happy to be accepted. cafeteria and get yourself a delicious hot chocolate for 50 cents. When you’ve been up for 48 hours straight, it will pick you right up!

27 Class of 2013

LORI CHOI ARCHITECTURE/LANDSCAPE/INTERIORS

IMPACT ON YOUR WORK/LIFE? Otis is where I organized my dreams. Now that I’ve graduated, my dreams are slowly becoming plans.

Hometown? and to consider marine life and and inspiring in different ways: Linda This question seems irrelevant in filtration of urban runoff. Pollari, Chava Danielson, Richard today’s world. My family currently Lundquist, Matthew Gillis, Matias lives in Houston, Texas. Interesting things you did outside Creimer, Greg Kochanowski, and of school? Jean-Michel Crettaz. Why Otis? A/L/I offers charrettes (practice Otis’ attraction was its location— competitions) every semester in Favorite place in L.A.? the city of Los Angeles. which I participated. I moved to My apartment. It's where I sleep. city-wide charrettes where my usual And sleep is so important. Your thesis project? partner, Rodrigo Zayas (A/L/I, '13), In Studio VI, we focused on buildings and I competed against architecture What’s next? in relation to the surrounding students from other Southern I'm very busy applying to grad landscape. We traveled to Seattle to California schools. We were schools to start a Master of get a good sense of the context, successful in many ways—prizes, Architecture program in fall 2014. researched and observed the connections, and exposure to the coastal conditions, and predicted professional working environment. Something unusual/idiosyncratic? the rise of sea level in increments Chair Linda Pollari informed us of all Time management was always my of ten years. My final project, L.A. student competitions, which forte until I started architecture “INFILTRATION—Pacific Rim Disaster were the highlights of my education. school. Being punctual is very Research and Education Center,” important to me. focused on the exchange of Most influential class? overflowing seawater, urban runoff, Studio courses are top priority and Information/tips for future Otis and visitors in a single location. most thought-provoking. students? Some of the design challenges were Get ready to eat, sleep, breathe, and to provide a safe environment for Most influential faculty member? basically live architecture. It's fun! the community during a flood, to I'm grateful for all of my studio incorporate constructed wetlands, instructors, who were very helpful

28 Spring 2014

KIRBY ISRAELSON COMMUNICATION ARTS: ILLUSTRATION

WHAT’S NEXT? I’m sending out my manuscript and trying to sell my character design, so I’ve become some- what of an entrepreneur, oddly enough. I’ve started a face painting business (with classmates!), a window painting business, and a design consulting business. I’m doing a lot of things, but it’s fun. Exciting.

Hometown? Most influential faculty member? I was raised in Beaumont, California, I loved all of my teachers! I know it but I've been in L.A. for the past sounds like a cliché, but I really did. If fifteen years. I had to choose one, JT Steiny (’86) is the one I could really hold an Why Otis? argument with. I believe one of my high school art teachers recommended it to me. Favorite place in L.A.? When I took a summer course here Any bookstore. I adore books. and visited the campus, I knew it I'm addicted to them. was the right choice. Impact on your work/life? Your thesis project? Everything. Otis forced me to get As an overachiever, I decided to everything I've wanted to do on write and illustrate a book, “Lucky paper (so to speak), and introduced Charms: Book One,” the first me to all of the right people so installment in my interactive novel that I could do it. It made me push series in which the reader can live myself harder than I've ever had to, the life of a serial killer. Haven't you and I am extremely pleased always been curious? with the results. I turned out pretty awesome, if I say so myself. Interesting things that you did outside of school? Something unusual/idiosyncratic? I typically didn't do much outside of To tell you the truth, it's hard to find school aside from sleep (if I ever had something that isn't unusual about the free time). But I did become a me. . . . Ask anyone who's met me. window painter through connections I made in one of my classes. Information/tips to share with future students? Most influential class? Put your all into it. Your life is going All of my classes left an impact. My to be hard, you're going to be Creative Action “Festivals” class with frustrated, and you will never sleep, Andy Davis was the most influential but it's worth it. You will only get out because it gave me networking of Otis what you put into it, so don't opportunities that are still helping regret that you didn't do your best me. I don't think I would be as while you were here. confident at this moment without it.

29 Class of 2013

BRANDON WAYBRIGHT MFA GRAPHIC DESIGN

allow me to blend my ideas, writing, viewers could engage in a ritual Most influential class? and image-making, I came across focused on Kandinsky’s experience In my first spring semester, the Otis' website and video interviews of the color blue. faculty really held my feet to with some of the professors. I the fire, and forced me to move visited a seminar class and came Interesting things you did outside past cliché and toward purposeful, away excited by the students of school? exploratory work. and their conceptual approaches. Inspired by Situationist International, Meeting Kali Nikitas and other I spent one semester meandering Most influential faculty member? professors sealed the deal. I was the streets of L.A. This led to all Tucker Neel is the man . . . in the certain that the students and faculty kinds of surprising discoveries. At good way. He spoke my language, would push, prod, criticize, and one point I photographed every challenged me, called me on support me. step I took on the Sunset Strip. my BS, celebrated my better work. Ultimately these meanderings and He's amazing. Your thesis project? explorations were combined into “Chasing After Kandinsky” revolved a publication called “Los Angeles Favorite place(s) in L.A.? around synesthesia. Conceptually I Mythology,” which was a fairly Any and all public transit, Tommy wanted to uncover ways to strong turning point in my work. Lama's Boot Emporium, the Hometown? condition my mind to experience life Museum of Jurassic Technology, Chicago through another person's sensory During my last summer [at Otis], I and Skid Row perceptions. This project also secretly began learning Parkour, Why Otis? explored how design might be even though I am not particularly fit, Impact on your work/life? I was hunting for a school in L.A., expanded to use conditioning while flexible, or capable of gymnastics. It Revolutionary. I am not at all the as the city fascinated me. I was incorporating more sensory was the best, most foolish thing I've maker I was when I came into the working as a web designer, sensing signals—particularly those of taste, done, and involved me falling from program, and it is all for the better. that I wanted to do more meaningful sound, and scent. The final work stairwells, tripping over my own feet, I love what I am doing, I have a work but unsure of what form that was a combination of a website, a and discovering the PKLA commu- group of peers that I think the world work might take. In searching for a publication, and an installation nity, which is just about the most of, and faculty who continue to strong MFA program that would called ”Blue Communion,” where eccentric group of people I know. challenge me, even though I am no longer in school. It was a turn in the road for me, and a great one.

What’s next? I am teaching graphic design at a tiny liberal arts college [Trinity International University], and launching a design studio called CAPE design. I plan to use this studio to continue my explorations, invite collaborators, and see how I can do a small part to make the world a bit more wonderful.

Something unusual/idiosyncratic? I live for bad Sci-Fi, think the world of Katy Perry's delightfully terrible pop music, and given the choice between a dusty motel and a high class hotel, I’d go for the motel every time.

Information/tips for future students? Embrace obstacles and challenges. If you don’t have any in your path, then make a few. Become a person who habitually throws a wrench into your own system, because you’ll learn a lot about yourself and your limits when you attempt to overcome challenges.

30 Spring 2014

CHRIS CHERRIE COMMUNICATION ARTS: ADVERTISING DESIGN

SOMETHING UNUSUAL/IDIOSYNCRATIC? Using graphic design as an educational tool allows me to focus on the social equality and responsibility of our future global community.

Hometown? I am developing this project in Most influential faculty member? What’s next? Toronto, Ontario, Canada partnership with VeryNice Design; Erin Hauber was right; the lessons Currently I am the Entrepreneur in we plan to have the first live site didn’t hit me until a year later. I Residence at VeryNice Design, Why Otis? up soon. hated learning them but through her where I am developing a socially I was attracted by the idea that gofraternize.tumblr.com lessons, I’ve become a confident innovative sexual health and I didn’t have to specify a major producer and designer of content. lifestyle program for young guys until junior year within the Interesting things you did outside who like guys. Communication Arts department. of school? Ana Llorente clarified what it means I felt that I could be in charge of I had the joy of exploring L.A., and to be a great designer; I work as a graphic designer and my own education. taking advantage of diverse cultural it’s putting things in simple terms, curatorial assistant at the Museum experiences. I can identify three something others can absorb. of Public Fiction. I plan to continue Your thesis project? events that were amazing— That’s the difficult part. my multidisciplinary design practice Developed as a solution to the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, in Toronto and Los Angeles. problems articulated in my capstone camping and hiking at Point Mugu Favorite place in L.A.? thesis paper, “Fraternize” is a State Park, and the Creative Arts Home Information/tips to share with community of guys who like guys. Emmys 2012. future students? They connect, learn, and explore Impact on your work/life? Be open; you don’t know anything, manhood. This project encompasses Most influential class? For four years, Otis was my life. I so always ask questions. a geosocial smartphone application Capstone, as I continue to put my think it would be impossible for and website to provide homosexual research to good use. anyone to attend Otis and do healthcare and lifestyle information. anything else because artists, designers, and writers are studying their passion.

31 Class of 2013

MILES GRACEY FINE ARTS: SCULPTURE/NEW GENRES

MOST INFLUENTIAL FACULTY MEMBER? You cannot run around Otis with scissors in your hands without accidentally bumping into a teacher that will change your life. They are abundant.

Hometown? Impact on your work/life? Cambria, California I have realized that I am not me but rather a consequence of my last Why Otis? meal (which happened to be a Big It’s really serendipitous. I originally Mac and fries). I go through life attended Otis for its Graphic Design consuming the world around me. program.I had a few really influential At some point I must have ingested teachers who led me to seek out someone with dark brown hair, something a bit more challenging; possibly tall, but not too. So exactly the rest is history. who was I before I ate myself? Was I horny? And moreover, how Your thesis project? piquant would he or she have I built a wall. been fricasseed?

Interesting things that you did What’s next? outside of school? Anything and everything. I think that Outside of school? is the real beauty of an art education, because you are never acutely Most influential class? trained to do one thing. There will Any class that made me question never be precisely one thing to do. everything I had already learned up It is never a good career move to to that point. Otis was a pattern of go to art school, but it can allow you education followed by de-educa- to never really have a career. I hope tion, the exact antithesis of what never to work a single day as an came before. It’s an important value artist. I think that is where the true to have throughout life, learning to cultural significance of the artist listen while simultaneously ignoring emanates from. everything. Something unusual/idiosyncratic? Favorite place in L.A.? I eat people. I am a cannibal. I seek out the places in which L.A. shows its seams: places where Information/tips for future you get a sense that it is all just students? make-up on a desert: the back Don’t worry, about a thing, ’cause of the Hollywood sign, infamous every little thing, is going to be sites where celebrities have all right... died, the river. These are truly beautiful places.

32 Spring 2014

SILVIA JULIANA MANTILLA ORTIZ MFA PUBLIC PRACTICE

Hometown? Bogotá, Colombia, and Edison, N.J.

Why Otis? I was looking for a program that would support my interests in both art and activism, and Otis was the right choice.

Your thesis project? My thesis project, “Talk Is Cheap: Unincorporated Language Laboratories,” focuses on issues of migration, assimilation, and miscommunication. While it has many components, one of its "laboratories" is a customized Bike-B-Q that I use to cook arepas (Colombian corn patties), which I exchange for stories of miscommunication. For two months I took INFORMATION/TIPS FOR FUTURE STUDENTS? the bike out in the West Adams neighborhood and exchanged Take care of each other. Being an artist is a hard stories with my neighbors. Then road. The only way to succeed with sanity and joy is to I took it on a weeklong tour from support one other and avoid jealousy. L.A. to Portland, Oregon.

Interesting things that you did outside of school? During my first year I did a lot of Capoeira. I love the way that it reconnects me with my body. Most influential faculty member? Impact on your work/life? Events. I am also transcribing all Bill Kelley, Jr. for theory and Otis introduced me to new contexts, the oral histories I collected for Most influential class? conceptual frameworks, and Sandra methodologies, and frameworks. I my thesis. I took an amazing performance de la Loza for methodology. met fantastic people and was class with Allison O'Daniel that challenged to develop my ideas and Something unusual/idiosyncratic? helped me develop what would be Favorite place in L.A.? my politics. I sneeze very many small sneezes the core of my thesis. Plus it was so Slanguage Studios. There are always in a row. My record is 18. Sometimes much fun! people making amazing art there, What’s next? people think I’m beat-boxing! and after working and hanging out, I am living in Queens, New York, we'll go out and eat, hang out some doing a year-long fellowship with more, and laugh way too loud. the Queens Museum of Art Public

33 Class of 2013

WENDY SILVA FINE ARTS: PAINTING

Hometown? Your thesis project? Los Angeles We completed both a thesis project and a paper. Writing my thesis paper Why Otis? helped me understand my work It always seemed to be the school I better. I examined culture, tradition, was headed towards. I was accepted and the idea of becoming a figure into the Ryman Arts Program in high for future generations to look up to, school. My art teacher encouraged as my grandmother was for me. me to go to art school, and said that Otis was one of the top local Interesting things that you did schools. I also won a Gold and Silver outside of school? Key from the Scholastic Art and I worked on side projects, creating small handmade objects.

Most influential class? Christine Fredrichs’ “Extended Painting Techniques” sparked my infatuation with different mediums and techniques.

Most influential faculty member? Chris Wilder was a great mentor who made me question my ideas and use different perspectives, and try new things.

Favorite place in L.A.? Culver City born and raised, but currently living in Torrance.

Impact on your work/life? At times it was overwhelming. The workload was fair, but I tend to be very detail-oriented and meticulous. It was inspiring to share a studio space with two other artists. I was usually the first to arrive and the last to leave.

What’s next? Writing Awards, and the Award Getting a studio space, where I INFORMATION/TIPS TO SHARE Ceremony was held at Otis. After have the freedom to experiment. high school, I helped my parents out I’m currently an artist assistant WITH FUTURE STUDENTS? with rent by working and going to and I’m really enjoying the Do it all! There is so much to learn and school part-time at Santa Monica creative atmosphere. College, where I took my first explore. Take advantage of every course painting course with (Otis faculty Something unusual/idiosyncratic? you take. I regret not taking more classes member) Nathan Ota, who is an I can work on paintings for hours, but I ended up taking 18 units almost every amazing teacher and mentor. I also and feel like I spent ten minutes. had the privilege of meeting Bob And I will never walk away from a semester. It is ok to be different, because Dob, and found out that he studied work that I feel is unfinished. that is what sets you apart as an artist. with Nathan at Otis.

34 Spring 2014

RENEE RASMUSSEN COMMUNICATION ARTS: GRAPHIC DESIGN

INTERESTING THINGS YOU DID OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL? Road trips and surfing.

Hometown? Your thesis project? Impact on your work/life? Independence, Iowa I became very interested in the old The opportunities are endless now theaters on Broadway [in downtown that I have finished my degree. I’m Why Otis? L.A.]. My thesis evolved into more of much more confident that I am Right time at the right place. I have a fine art installation piece, with headed in the right direction and wanted to attend art school since I sound and image through analog doing what I love. was young but was always told it and digital technologies. wasn’t an option. When I moved out What’s next? to L.A. and had some real life/work Favorite place in L.A.? My search for the next best thing! experience, I knew that art school Downtown (Otis) was the best option for my Information/tips for future career path and for me as an artist. students? There will be many, many sleepless nights but hang in there! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

35 Class of 2013

RACHEL KAMINER MFA WRITING

Hometown? Most influential faculty member? Favorite place in L.A.? Information/tips for future I was born in San Luis Obispo Impossible to say. I worked with Walking in my neighborhood is students? [California] and grew up in the and for Sarah Shun-lien Bynum pretty great: the 6th Street Bridge, The poetry alums have an ongoing mountains around Asheville, N.C. and Dr. Carol Branch, and they are the channelized L.A. River, La Reyna conversation in poetry and in life, supremely influential role models, taco stand at 7th and Mateo, and and that’s the best reason to attend. Why Otis? personally and professionally. I have my neighbors at Factory Place, who Choose your community of I decided to pursue an MFA in L.A., to point out how influential my have become hearth and home. colleagues. And explore every and Paul Vangelisti conveyed to me poet-colleagues have been, along neighborhood you can. that Graduate Writing is about with Jackie Young, the mastermind What’s next? reading and writing and making and of two graduate departments Writing, teaching, editing, choosing translating, in what we might call the and my supervisor, in shaping my additional rent-paying professions. “Un-American Tradition.” I knew I time here. Publishing. Going to the desert wanted to be in the company of when the Perseids fall. writers and artists who conducted themselves as colleagues, who brought diverse life experience to their practices. I remember reading the book list Jen Hofer posted SOMETHING UNUSUAL/IDIOSYNCRATIC? online for one of her courses with I lived in a wilderness setting for about two years such excitement. That’s when I facilitating experiential education and therapy. knew I would apply. And the web page had such lovely design. I I can carve a bow-drill set and bust a coal. guessed that meant Otis was a good fit for students who pay attention both to form and content.

Your thesis project? A book-length work of poetry—this means the poetry is talking to itself across the breadth of the whole work. The book is about listening. Or, put another way, it’s the joy and responsibility that we have in language; that we make meaning; that it’s musical. Then again, it recently became apparent to me that I may complete an entire book of poetry with these philosophical ideas as an influence—and then it will turn out to be about heartbreak. The joke is on me for being the last one to get it.

Interesting things that you did outside of school? I’ve done all sorts of interesting things through WriteGirl, a nonprofit based in my neighborhood. My favorite has been facilitating writing workshops for incarcerated young women.

36 Spring 2014

DUSTEE WOMACK TOY DESIGN

Hometown? swap meets to find cheap, weird, them work. He also showed us the What’s next? Visalia, California little treasures; and having all these value of making a quick model to I landed an amazing job as a adventures with my husband and test out an idea. Jeannie Hardie, my designer for Disney Planes at Why Otis? my little puggle, Odashi. games theory instructor, taught my Mattel. It is much more rewarding, I had a degree in business from most challenging class, and I worked challenging, and fun than anything SDSU [San Diego State University] Most influential class? myself to the bone. She told it like I have ever done. and worked various jobs in market- Preschool with Joyce Mesch, it is, was honest, and let us know ing and sales. It was great experi- sponsored by Spin Master. Our class where to improve. Learning game Something unusual/idiosyncratic? ence but I was not creatively had a unique bond together and theory helped bring out the logical I eat popcorn almost every night, satisfied. While my husband was in with our instructor. We worked thinking I tucked away in my brain, make earrings out of almost anything, Iraq with the Army, I took art classes as if we were at a toy company. and has helped me in all aspects I am drawn (like a bug) to anything at night at OCC [Orange Coast We shared ideas, provided feedback, of design. If you can explain how that glows, and I have a special voice College] and focused on painting collaborated and improved our to play a good game well, you can that my dog understands. and ceramics. Much of my work concepts each week, and shared explain almost anything. looked “toylike,” and my painting them with the Spin Master team. Information/tips for future teacher noticed this. He mentioned It was challenging, intimidating, Favorite place in L.A.? students? Otis’ program, and I immediately got and fun all wrapped into one. The Barcade on Western has old Extend yourself past what’s offered excited! The moment I saw the toy This class was the foundation of arcade games for 25 cents, afford- in your major. Seek out the class design online that night, I was my confidence in my design ability. able drinks, and good music. . . . that can help you improve. I knew I determined to go. My husband It’s a good “end of your day” treat! needed help with Photoshop and reenlisted in the National Guard in Most influential faculty member? drawing, so I took special classes. order to transfer his GI Bill to me so Mike Andrews’ model-making Impact on your work/life? Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and we could afford it. knowledge opened my eyes to the I had been working for the last ten pinpoint where you need to improve. idea that if you can think of it, there years and completed a business Interesting things you did outside is more than likely a way to make it. degree. At Otis, I learned how to of school? I have always made little sculptures make the work enjoyable. Making earrings; camping and and dioramas but many times hit a hiking; bicycling; scavenging around wall when I didn’t know how to make

37 Class of 2013

DAVID ROY FINE ARTS: PHOTOGRAPHY

Hometown? INTERESTING THINGS YOU DID OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL? Los Angeles I mostly did a lot of bike riding. I did some epic rides on a special bike that I

Why Otis? built for exploring the local fire roads and mountain trails. I did some longer Of all the schools I visited, Otis was rides including many centuries, and one from L.A. to San Diego. My favorite the most welcoming. I really liked thing was organizing parties and art shows with Centaur, my art collective. the campus, and I was offered a very good financial aid package.

Your thesis project? Favorite place in L.A.? What’s next? Something unusual/idiosyncratic? My thesis project examined trans- Wherever I am on my bike. I am I am building my portfolio to apply to I have a ham radio license, which disciplinary art and the ongoing quite fond of a decommissioned graduate school next year. My new gives me an excuse to use the NATO relationship between art, Nike missile base in the Santa body of work uses my pinhole phonetic alphabet on a regular technology, and industry. I also Monica Mountains. cameras and some experimental basis. My call sign is Kilo-Juliet-Six- participated in a collaborative printing techniques that I developed Zulu-Foxtrot-Victor! project with my classmates. Impact on your work/life? at Otis. I organize shows, and I

I learned to think deeply, critically, recently started restoring a Information/tips for future Most influential class? and creatively in all aspects of my ceramics studio in Little Tokyo. students? It’s a tie between Sohrab Mohebbi’s life. Studying here taught me to Work hard because you’ll only get Critic in Residence course on art push myself to do more than I out what you put in. It’s a great and labor, and Dani Tull’s class on thought was possible. privilege to go to art school; don’t unconventional aesthetics. take it for granted.

See David’s experiments with his pinhole cameras at

www.youtube.com/user/OtisCollege

38 Spring 2014

CAROLINE FULLERTON PRODUCT DESIGN

IMPACT ON YOUR WORK/LIFE? My four years have undoubtedly given me all the skills and tools I need to realize my dream as a product designer; but even more so, Otis has shaped who I am (as friend, sister, daughter) in unimaginable ways.

Hometown? if the design is a tangible or Something unusual/idiosyncratic? I was born in Hørsholm, Denmark, intangible solution. When I was a little girl, I would sit on and moved to Beaverton, Oregon, the floor and cut out paper hearts with my family. I consider both Interesting things you did outside using just my toes. my hometowns. of school? I regularly danced around my Information/tips to share with Why Otis? apartment with my roommates to future students? I was drawn to Otis’ energy, location, take small breaks while doing Enjoy it while it lasts! Four years and people. homework. sounds like a long time, but it flies by. Be an amazing student but Your thesis project? Favorite place in L.A.? explore and try to do, see, and eat I believe that when people feel The beach and viewpoints from as many new, unusual, and exciting comfortable, they feel self- hikes like Griffith Observatory. things as possible. confident. With an empathetic, user-centric approach, I provide What’s next? comfort to the consumer. Comfort I just finished a product design can be functional, physical or internship with a company called psychological. Understanding LOOPTWORKS, based in Portland, and identifying the specific areas and am now working as a material of users’ discomfort determines designer at Nike.

39 Class of 2013

ALEC EGAN MFA FINE ARTS

Hometown? to produce work in a place with Most influential class? Los Angeles some modicum of familiarity and, Critique was both the most therefore, safety (which I needed). influential and traumatizing. Why Otis? Otis was always on my mind Your thesis project? Favorite place in L.A.? because Phillip Guston, my favorite It was more or less about “the My bedroom painter, attended Otis. personal”; my inability to create a fantasy to deal with my fear of the Impact on your work/life? I had been out on the road and “unknown.” In many ways, it was a Otis changed my work and my life a alone for a long time, all over the kind of existential quest about a lot. It was the most intense country, thinking that something fantasy that falls apart. experience I’ve ever had. In the best was going to happen with my way, it showed me how to go painting career. After a few pitfalls, Interesting things you did outside forward with my work rather than I decided I didn’t know as much as I of school? being simply happy to do it. thought I did, and decided to go to I tried a food challenge in Burlington, grad school. I saw being back in L.A. Vermont three times one year, Something unusual/idiosyncratic? and going to Otis as having a and ate five pounds of barbecue in I don’t like transitions but I am grounding effect on me, allowing me an hour. I failed all three times. addicted to them.

Information/tips to share with future students? WHAT’S NEXT? Keep your head down. Just because I had a show in Amsterdam, which was you’re an inmate doesn’t mean you have to act like one. Don’t trust the a really amazing experience, and have guards, and make as much work in several shows coming up in L.A. your cell as possible. Good luck!

40 Spring 2014

LILIT GARIBIAN FASHION DESIGN

Hometown? design! She continually inspired me, Glendale, California believed in me, and molded me into a much better designer! Your thesis project? In my senior year I worked with two Favorite place in L.A.? mentors—Cynthia Vincent (’86) and I’ve been going to the Getty since I Betsy Heimann of Western Costume. was a kid. Other than the beautiful The process includes developing art, I love the architecture and the material boards, illustrations, sketch tram. My favorite part is the garden. selection, pattern drafting, draping Also, the view of L.A. is wonderful! and sewing, and several fittings. We create all the garments from scratch. Impact on your work/life? My three years were a life-changing experience. Many difficult times seemed impossible to overcome, but I always came through; every time I accomplished something, WHY OTIS? I proved to myself that I could do it. After surviving Otis, there is no Seeing the display of student work convinced task that I cannot handle. Bring it me. Also, I was really excited about working on! Also, I made some of the best on mentor projects! friends I’ve ever had. We were like crazy family members who loved and sometimes hated each other. We couldn’t have done it without each other’s support.

Interesting things you did outside What’s next? of school? I am living in Seattle and working as Last summer I interned in New York. an associate designer for women’s I knew I’d love the city, and it was knits at Eddie Bauer. I was a bit everything I thought it would be. hesitant at first about moving to Seattle, but I really love it here. It’s Most influential class? perfect for me! Design/portfolio, especially the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers Something unusual/idiosyncratic? of America) project. We had to I usually have extreme feelings about complete the project in a very things/people. intense and short few weeks, and for the first time we were working Information/tips for future on our own concepts and ideas. students? I learned a lot about myself as a Go to Otis only if you are very serious designer, as I was allowed almost about becoming a professional total creative freedom. artist/designer. Take it as the greatest challenge of your life, and Most influential faculty member? set your mind to believing that you I had the pleasure of working with will get through it no matter what many great instructors, but I have and see it to the end. I focused 98 to say that Jill Higashi had a huge percent of my life on school. It was impact on me. Her work ethic and extremely challenging, but in the end the discipline she instills are a big it was so worth it. If you are really part of the success of Otis fashion passionate, then it shouldn’t feel too much like work.

41 Alumni Around the World BANGLADESH

MUMBAIA Startup in Mumbai, India Murad Currawalla | (’07 Digital Media)

I started working at the age of 18 as an I always wanted to venture out on After that it’s been one project introduce our services, I mention the intern at a small boutique studio in my own, and decided it would be ideal to after another. CG Lab Pvt Ltd. Otis alumni who work in their studio, Mumbai. While studying digital media, do this while I was still young and living (www.thecglab.com) has completed establishing an immediate connection I interned in the summers and learned a at home, not having to pay rent. I was more than 350 projects in four years and comfort level. lot about the entertainment industry in lucky to meet an investor who wanted to for clients from the U.S. Canada, U.K., the U.S. After graduating, I did freelance start a partnership. We got office space, France, Peru, and India. We have never motion graphic work in Los Angeles for and everything looked like it was going advertised our service but depended a year. to go through. He set up the infrastruc- on word of mouth. Our work focuses on Moving back to India was a difficult ture while I contacted people I knew in postproduction and 3-D modeling. transition. The working conditions are the industry, both in the U.S. and India. Looking back, I realize that I built quite different. When a film is close to Although this partnership didn’t work very strong foundation skills while I was delivery, I never go to work and return out, what really paid off was talking to at Otis, which were invaluable when I home on the same day. Facilities have my contacts and spreading the word. I joined the profession. For me, another showers and rooms for sleeping, and got my first break through fellow alumnus big advantage of Otis is the contacts I everyone works and lives in the office Ben Go (‘00) of Brand New School. made. When I approach new clients to during these crunch times.

42 Spring 2014

Bangladeshi Women Making it Count Peter Zokosky | (’81 Fine Arts)

BANGLADESHO. What were the challenges? disadvantages, and they intend to return and improve Z. Since the students come from so many different conditions at home. Their sense of social responsibility countries, there had to be a common language. English was impressive. Their artistic growth was significant, proficiency is incredibly advantageous, so all classes and they saw the value in creative thinking for artists are taught in English but the various accents were a real and in other spheres of life. challenge at first. I learned that there are not any art supply stores in Chittagong, so I contacted some O. Has Bangladesh influenced your painting? American manufactures, California retailers, individu- Z. I’m still processing it; that part takes time for me. als, and colleges for donations. They very generously One project that we’re involved in is a documentary gave lots of supplies, which we brought with us. In film about the experience. So many people were very Bangladesh, the per capita income is $923 a year, so interested in what we were doing, and many donated there’s a lot of poverty. The infrastructure isn’t what money, books, and supplies. It’s a fascinating part of Otis. You introduced the first art class to a new westerners are used to. There are daily blackouts and the world, and there’s lots of interest in the condition university in Bangladesh. How did this come about? frequent hartals, which are widespread general strikes of women in the Islamic world. In our film we want to Zokosky. My wife and I learned about the Asian used as a political tool. The weather is a challenge too; examine the experiences of of U.S. and Bangladeshi University for Women from a friend who teaches there. we were there for the monsoon season and it was quite students. In hours of interviews and documentation She raved about the university, and mentioned the hot and humid. Bangladesh is about 95 percent Muslim of daily life, we collected remarkable content. MUMBAI desire to introduce art into the curriculum. It’s privately and the university population is largely Islamic. funded, independent, and provides a free or subsidized O. Will you be editing the film yourself? liberal arts education to deserving women from the O. Was that an issue? Z. I’m applying for grants so that we can hire a talented region. It’s located in the port city of Chittagong, Z. Not really, the students dress fairly conservatively by editor. We’re looking for someone who is interested in Bangladesh. The students come from 12 countries Western standards and they were really eager to learn this sort of issue. including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, to draw. I was worried, being a male teacher, that I Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam . . . it’s a broad cross could unintentionally violate some social norms. O. Did you get involved in other projects there? section of the South Asian developing world. The more The students quickly put me at ease about that; they Z. I met local artists and lectured at an art gallery in we looked into it, the more convinced we were that we were as adventurous and open-minded as students Chittagong about the art scene in America and my own wanted to go there and teach. The university opened in here. For life drawing, I had the models wear modest work. I mounted a show of student drawings. Karole 2008 and they had not yet offered art classes. I teach bathing suits. adapted and produced the Greek classic “Medea,” and drawing and painting, and my wife, Karole Foreman, is I got involved in theater sets and designed the poster. an actress and an acting teacher. We put together a O. What are the students like? I also illustrated a book, which was just translated into proposal, and the university invited us to come teach Z. It’s an all-female university, but there is profound Bengali, about how to raise healthy babies. I’m glad I summer courses. Karole taught introduction to acting, geographic, social, and economic diversity. The have a broad art education and technical skills, because and I did a Foundation drawing class. students are all very smart, dedicated, and curious. you never know what you might be called upon to do. Their attitude toward education is inspiring. They O. What were your impressions of Bangladesh? recognize the life-changing value of an education and Z. It’s an amazing country with remarkable people, they want to make it count. I interviewed dozens, and huge challenges, lots of poverty, and an enormous none mentioned money as a goal. Some of them come population. It’s visually stunning and a little surreal. from small rural villages where women face great

43 Class Notes ALUMNAEALUMNUSALUMNIALUMNA

Michael Lin ‘90 Fine Arts Sharawadgi installation, 2013 California Pacific Triennial, Orange County Museum of Art

This special annual issue of OMAG

includes highlights of alumni achieve- SOLOISTS

ments over the past year. To see Mari Andrews Liz Craft Gary Lloyd a more complete listing and share ’82 MFA Fine Arts ’94 Fine Arts ’70 MFA Fine Arts your new accomplishments, visit Over, Under, and Inside Out The Temple of Folly They: An Answer Driving the Problem the Alumni News blog. Also, keep San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art West Hollywood Park Revisited in touch with one another and Otis Cal St Channel Islands through alumni social media. Go to Darren Waterston Marco Rios ’88 Communication Arts ’97 Fine Arts otis.edu/alumni for links or contact Ron Ownbey Ravens and Ruins Anatomy of an Absent Artist us at [email protected]. ’65 MFA Fine Arts Haines Gallery, San Francisco Santa Monica Museum of Art From Mind thru Hand: A 60 Year Retrospective Laura Daroca Michael Lin Juan Capistran Mt. San Antonio College Art Gallery ’03 MFA Fine Arts ’90 Fine Arts ’99 Fine Arts Director of Alumni Relations Place Libre What We Want, What We Believe: Kim Gordon Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing Towards A Higher Fidelity ’77 Fine Arts Visual Arts Center, Univ of Texas, Austin Design Office with Kim Gordon—Since

1980

White Columns, N.Y.

44 Spring 2014 ALUMNUS

Tim Biskup ‘88 Fine Arts A Subtle Advertisement for Mind-Numbing Pain Martha Otero, L.A.

Mario Ybarra Jr. Rashell George GROUP EXHIBITIONS IN THE MEDIA ’99 Fine Arts ’05 Fine Arts Books of Drawings, Beyond Our Dreams, Downpour Bruce Yonemoto (’79 MFA) Tom Van Sant Blame Our Dads, Brains on Drugs, Better Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica Home Away ’57 MFA Fine Arts off Dead Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena Honored at the 50th anniversary of the The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Michael Brunswick Inglewood Public Library for his sculpted Philadelphia ’07 MFA Fine Arts Mark Dean Veca (’85 Fine Arts) concrete mural, The Written Word 79th Organ 2013 California-Pacific Triennial Molly Corey Gusford Gallery, L.A. Orange County Museum of Art, John Baldessari ‘01 MFA Fine Arts Newport Beach ’58 Fine Arts A Little Joy of a Bungalow Sojung Kwon More Than You Wanted to Know About MAK Center for Art and Architecture, ’07 MFA Fine Arts Gajin Fujita (’97 Fine Arts) and John Baldessari: Volume 1 and 2 West Hollywood Ramen Blues Edith Beaucage (’10 MFA Fine Arts) Edited by Fine Arts Chair Meg Cranston Commonwealth and Council, L.A. L.A. Heat: Taste Changing Condiments and Hans-Ulrich Obrist Wendy Given Chinese American Museum, L.A. Stamberg, Susan. “For John Baldessari, ’02 MFA Fine Arts Flora Kao Conceptual Art Means Serious Mischief,” Claw, Shine, Gloam and Vesper ’08 Fine Arts Jacob Melchi (’03 MFA), Matt Lifson National Public Radio, March 11, 2013 Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta Flora Kao: Homestead (’12 MFA) and Alec Egan (’13 MFA) Pasadena Museum of California Art Five New Artists—On the Map Susan Moss Tofer Chin California Heritage Museum, ’71 Fine Arts ’02 Fine Arts Melise Mestayer Santa Monica Published the novel, The Accident Stager Ar ’10 MFA Fine Arts

Lu Magnus, N.Y. Reef Cycle

Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro Jacob Melchi ’03 MFA Fine Arts Brian Ricci Eduardo Sarabia nothing is plural: paintings ’12 MFA Fine Arts ’99 Fine Arts George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco Terra Incognita Moctezuma’s Revenge Launch Gallery, L.A. Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe Sabine Dehnel ’03 Fine Arts Alexandra Cantle MONA ’13 MFA Public Practice Museum Wiesbaden, Germany Porch Gallery, Ojai

Christopher Badger ’05 Fine Arts Lunar Mirror Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco

45 Class Notes

John Sweeney ’11 Digital Media “Remembering” for the new video game The Last of Us featured in the E3 conference exhibition, Into the Pixel

46 Spring 2014

In the Media Continued Carlos Mollura Steven Learner ‘91 Fine Arts ’86 Environmental Design Installation view Ulysses Jenkins Lasky, Julie. “In a Creative Season, The Luckman Gallery, Cal St L.A. ’79 MFA Fine Arts a New Design Fair,” New York Times, Cake Walk, Mass of Images, and May 1, 2013 Without Your Interpretation videos acquired by the Film, Video, Alan Nakagawa and New Media department of the ’86 Fine Arts Whitney Museum, N.Y. Jao, Carren. “Hearing with the Whole Body: Alan Nakagawa’s Reverberating Rick Owens Composition,” KCET Artbound, ’81 Fine Arts May 13, 2013 Yaeger, Lynn. “American Gothic,” The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2013 Sandow Birk (’89 Fine Arts) and Annie Buckley (’03 MFA Fine Arts) Greg (Nikolai) Galle Featured in “Inside the Artists’ Studio,” ’85 Communication Arts The Huffington Post, September 17, 2013 Co-founder of Future Partners “Jumping the Ingenuity Gap,” Claire Pettibone TEDxGrandRapids May 9, 2013 ’89 Fashion Design Hallett, Stephanie. “Claire Pettibone, Bridal Designer, Mentors Otis Students,” The Huffington Post, May 10, 2013

47 Class Notes

John Mason (‘57) installation view Crosses, Figures, Spears, Torques David Kordansky Gallery, L.A.

Mason’s work is included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial through May 25.

In the Media Continued

Joe Sola Tucker Neel (’07 MFA Fine Arts) ’99 MFA Fine Arts profiled alumnusLorenzo Hurtado Williams, Maxwell. “Joe Sola Shows Segovia (’07 MFA Fine Arts) Microscopic Paintings in Dealer’s Ear,” Artillery Magazine, April 24, 2013 Art in America, October 2, 2013 Claire Oring Rob Spruijt ’11 Digital Media ’01 Fine Arts Frederickson, Lori. “Dreams Realized: Contributed an essay to Aesthetics Art and Commerce Meet in Claire in Present Future: The Art and the Oring’s Fairy-Tale Visions,” Technological Horizon, 2013 American Photo, December 12, 2013

Jessica Silverman Gianni Washington ’05 Fine Arts ’13 MFA Writing Hodge, Brooke. “By Design: A Place “Be Grateful” included in Where Art and Design Collide,” Brief Grislys, an anthology of T Magazine (New York Times), horror stories, 2013 June 24, 2013

Michelle Andrade COOL DESIGNERS ’07 MFA Fine Arts Included in Between the Lines, a coloring China Young book for children in U.S. hospitals ’93 Fashion Design Acquired the original Dubbel Duffel J.A.W. Cooper brand and relaunched the product on its ’09 Communication Arts 35th anniversary Shapeshifter from Laid Bare La Luz de Jesus, L.A.

48 Spring 2014

Tula Pink

Small write up here

Anniversaries

A monograph celebrating 20 years of work by Mark Dean Veca (’85 Fine Arts) was accompanied by an exhibition at Western Project, Culver City, co-owned by alumna Erin Kermanikian (’00 MFA). Veca was also recently commissioned by Nike to create a painting commemorating Kobe Bryant’s all-star MVP in 2011 using colors from the reissued “Kobe 6” shoe. Generations Connect in S.F.

Alumni Relations hosted a gathering in Ingred Sidie’s (’89 Communication Arts) Design October for Bay Area alumni at the Walt Ranch, a nationally recognized design agency in Kansas Disney Family Museum in San Francisco’s City, Missouri, celebrates 15 years, and was featured in Presidio, which featured concurrent HOW magazine as a design firm to watch. exhibitions by alumni Tyrus Wong (’32)

and Camille Rose Garcia (‘92 Fine Arts). Wong is best known for the background art he created for Disney’s Bambi, and Garcia exhibited work created for a recent edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Harper Design, 2009). Alumni enjoyed a special curator-led tour, and toasted Wong for his 103rd birthday. Garcia posted on Facebook “Oh, have you heard of the movie Bambi? This amazing man painted all of the backgrounds, and that was only four years of his amazing life. Tyrus Wong and I held hands for like five whole minutes. Raddest moment ever.” Museum Exhibitions in D.C.

Fashion lines started by Cynthia Vincent (’88 Fashion (’74 MFA), Alumni Council Chair Design) and Red Carter (’92 Fashion Design) celebrate Kerry James Marshall (’78 Fine Arts), who was Carlos Almaraz a decade of success. Carter’s work was featured in the recently appointed to President’s Committee on the Judithe Hernández (’74 MFA), and Patssi Valdez swimwear issue of Sports Illustrated, 2014. Arts and Humanities, is celebrated with major shows in (’85 Fine Arts) were included in Our America: the U.S. and overseas. One exhibition, In the Tower, was The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian at the National Gallery in D.C., and another exhibition, American Art Museum, which will tour the U.S. KJ Marshall: Paintings and Other Stuff, is traveling to until 2016. three international museums.

49 Class Notes

Jillian Pasztor ’13 Product Design Solo exhibition Industry Gallery Pacific Design Center, L.A.

Janice Tieken ’74 Fine Arts Blue Tango from Janice Tieken: Orchid Requiem Lancaster Museum of Art and History, CA

Tula Pink (Jenny McLean) ’02 Communication Arts “Modernitional,” American Patchwork and Quilting, October 2013

Daniel Nolan Travis Swingler Amy Fortunato AWARD WINNERS ’02 Environmental Design ’07 Communication Arts ’11 Communication Arts Selected by Sunset magazine as one Art directed TBWA\Chiat\Day’s With Lorraine Wild, designed the Tracy Cheney Williams of five designers for “Reimagining the Nissan Global campaign, “The World’s catalog James Welling: Monograph ’85 Communication Arts Sunset Home,” May 16, 2013 Fastest Man” for an exhibition at the Hammer California Art Educators’ Outstanding Museum, UCLA Elementary Visual Art Teacher 2013 Suzan Kim ’05 Digital Media Heather Goldberg and Sara Cembalisty ’02 Fine Arts ’09 Fashion Design Joshua Brian Smith Paul Wee Modeler and look development artist, Debuted clothing line, Haber ’12 Digital Media ’87 Communication Arts respectively, on the Oscar-winning L.A. boutique TENOVERSIX Concept artist for Riot Games’ Emmy for Outstanding Individual Disney 3-D animated feature film Frozen League of Legends Achievement in Animation (Character Devin Week Animation), “Treehouse of Terror XXIII,” Ashkahn Shahparnia ’10 Product Design The Simpsons, Fox, 2013 ’06 Fine Arts Interviewed for Civil Clothing’s

Packaging for Garrett Leight “Celebrate the Difference” feature on his

and Thierry Lasry eyewear furniture company, Onebooktree

design collaboration

50 Spring 2014

Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia ’07 MFA Fine Arts installation view Ni tanto que queme al santo, ni tanto que no lo alumbre CB1 Gallery, L.A.

Ruben Ochoa Greg Wilken Joong Han Lee IN MEMORIUM ’97 Fine Arts ’04 Fine Arts ’09 Product Design 2013 California Community Foundation Creative Arts Fulbright Grant for a study 3-D human printing machine project John Richard Martin Fellowship for Visual Arts of land use in the Republic of Kiribati, featured at the 2013 IEEE World Haptics ’76 MFA Fine Arts Central Pacific Ocean Conference Passed away February 2014 Shana Mabari (’98 Fine Arts) and Flora Kao (’08 Fine Arts) Matt Nava Elena Rosa Awarded two of eleven Artists’ ’08 Digital Media ’12 MFA Fine Arts Resources for Completion Grants from Included in Forbes magazine’s Awarded the 2014 Feitelson/Lundeberg the Center for Cultural Innovation “30 Under 30: The Brightest Young Stars Fellowship in Video Games,” December 17, 2012 Mark Caneso Christina Sanchez ’04 Communication Arts ‘12 MFA Public Practice Multiple projects featured in One of three inaugural grants from SPArt Communication Arts typography annual in support of work aimed at creating and Print Regional Design annual social change in the L.A. region

51 Class Notes / Giving

SHYAM, MAUREEN, AND SARAH SHARMA

Shyam and Maureen Sharma have been generous supporters of Otis scholarships, helping students like their daughter Sarah become successful creative professionals. “I am currently working for Jupi Corporation, a produc- tion company with a series of different lines. I am junior designer for the Kardashian Kollection! We are filming an episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” and I may appear on an upcoming episode working together with them on their collection, which is so exciting! The line is for Sears mass market. I learned so much at Otis, and feel that I am more than qualified for my duties. Going to Otis was the best choice I ever made. I have never been so happy doing everything I ever dreamed of!” —Sarah Sharma (’13 Fashion Design)

Sarah Sharma with her parents Shyam and Maureen at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the Annual Scholarship Benefit and Fashion Show

MAKE A GIFT TO O-FUND PARTICIPATE IN PLANNED GIVING JOIN THE PATRONS CIRCLE Annual gifts to the O-Fund directly assist Legacy Society Membership Patrons Circle members play a leader- students in the form of scholarships, Charitable Gift Annuities (CGAs) ship role in supporting priority needs campus improvements, and specific and Bequest Intents are great ways to at Otis. Your annual gift of $1,000 or program support. Each gift, each year, support Otis. Donors establishing one more provides critical funding to sustain makes a significant difference for of these or any other planned gift will be academic excellence, and creates greater our students. You may double or even recognized as part of our Legacy Society. access for all students. Members also triple your gift if your employer has One of the great benefits of membership enjoy several exclusive art experiences a matching gift program. Contact your is the opportunity to meet with students each year, such as private art tours Human Resources Department for and see firsthand how your gift impacts to Marfa, Texas, and Ojai, as well as more information about your company’s the lives and careers of young artists hands-on art experiences on campus. matching gift programs. and designers. Above: Patrons Circle member Ellen Castleman on San Diego Art and Design Tour

The greatest satisfaction will come from knowing that your gift will continue 01 02 03 the work of Otis College of Art and Design. For information about these exciting giving opportunities, please contact Kristi Kraemer, Director of Development, at (310) 665-6859, [email protected], make your gift 310. otis.edu/ today using the envelope in this magazine, or online at www.otis.edu/givenow. 665. givenow 6859

52 Spring 2014

Kour Pour All The King’s Horses And All The King’s Men, 2013 Acrylic on canvas over panel 96” x 72” from his solo exhibition at Untitled, N.Y. Non-Proﬁt Org U.S. Postage Otis College of Art and Design PAID 9045 Lincoln Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90045 Claremont, CA Permit No. 77

VOL. 15 310.665.6800 / OTIS.EDU