CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS THE OF COLLEGE CALIFORNIA A publication for the CCA community CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS San Francisco / Oakland Fall 2014 FALL 2014 Glance Fall 2014 Volume 23, No. 1 Editor Lindsey Westbrook Contributors Benjamin Austin (MFA Writing 2016) Chris Bliss Laura Braun Kelly Dawson Glen Helfand Christopher Ireland Robert Morrison (Animation 2015) Denise Newman LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Jim Norrena (MFA Writing 2013) Jodi Redmon Dear friends, Clay Walsh As president of CCA, I’m often asked what is special about the college. What Rachel Walther makes it different from traditional colleges and universities? Lindsey Westbrook I believe that CCA’s most tangible asset is the distinctive structure and style of Design teaching and learning that occurs daily on our campuses, across all disciplines. It’s CCA Sputnik, a student design team the kind of pedagogy that many schools are beginning to recognize and strive to incorporate. Faculty Advisor Teaching and learning at CCA can be summed up in the motto found on the Bob Aufuldish college’s seal: Theory and Practice. Our students, regardless of their major, engage Design and Production Manager in project-based learning. Our students learn through making. They learn integra- Meghan Ryan tive, team-based thinking and how to build their ideas through iterative, progres- sive modeling. They gain empathy and learn to appreciate how different disciplines Designers bring distinct approaches to solving complex, real-world problems. They learn to Lisa Ferkel focus their creative ideas and to make art that matters. Jack Koloskus Our students learn within a culture of critique, where they present their creative Glance is a twice-yearly publication of work to peers, faculty, and outside experts in a public forum. Feedback is not California College of the Arts hidden in private comments from teacher to student, but delivered in a forum of 1111 Eighth Street diverse and sometimes conflicting views and opinions. San Francisco CA 94107-2247 If all of this separates us from traditional academic colleges and universities, [email protected] then what sets us apart from other independent art schools? The differences are Change of address? Please notify the more nuanced, but still important: CCA Advancement Office 1. History and legacy. CCA was founded on the educational ideas of the Arts & 5212 Broadway, Oakland CA 94618 510.594.3784 Crafts movement, which espoused the belief that engaging young artists with [email protected] social, political, and economic concerns would improve the quality of art pro- duced and also benefit the communities in which the artists were working. Sign up at cca.edu/subscribe to get CCA news and events delivered by email. You 2. Location. The Bay Area has long been a center for social, political, and can also change your mailing preferences technological innovation, and this has had an enormous impact on our from postal mail to email here. institution. 3. Campus. CCA’s expansive open-plan campus foregrounds transparency and Printed by Quad Graphics, Inc., on 10 percent postconsumer waste paper. promotes integration, providing the backbone for exactly the kind of pedago- Our printer is certified by the Forest gy that we celebrate. Stewardship Council™ (FSC(R)) and the Many of you reading Glance are alumni. Please let us know how CCA’s distinct Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Printed education has benefited you. with inks that contain a minimum (27.3%) by weight renewable content. Sincerely, Stephen Beal President feature stories 2 award-winning student work TABLE OF CONTENTS 10 diy careers: the art of inventing your job kevin christison (sculpture 1998) zak brazen (ma design 2009) tyler pew and kate ganim (march 2012) 16 holland cotter: critic, advocate, realist alumni stories 18 gregory kloehn (glass 1998) 20 mimi pond (drawing and printmaking 1978) 22 frank merritt (architecture 1999) and teri gardiner (graphic design 2001) 24 how they did it: alumni success at nike tory cross (industrial design 2002) tim perks (architecture 1991) katy tisch (graphic design 1989) jeff wertz (illustration 1992) faculty stories 26 tammy rae carland (fine arts) 28 lauren elder (diversity studies) 30 douglas burnham (architecture) college news 32 exciting new developments on the back lot 34 new trustees: catherine courage and maria giudice 35 stumble upon cca student & alumni work on tumblr 36 how i got here: robert morrison (animation 2015) 37 bookshelf 38 wearables summer course yields big ideas 39 at the cca wattis institute 40 awards and accolades philanthropy 42 blue prints, blue jeans & bluegrass gala in honor of art gensler 44 spotlight 46 in memoriam 48 notes from the studio: denise newman (writing faculty) Photo credits All images of student work appear courtesy the students, copyright California College of the Arts, unless otherwise noted. Images of alumni and faculty work appear courtesy the artists unless otherwise noted. Cover, inside front cover, and pp. 16, 44 (4–5) and 45 (6–8): Alison Yin; p. 4 (1–4): Steven Nordstrom; pp. 18, 23, 25 (bottom right), 48–49: Rachel Walther; p. 25 (top center): Zak DeZon; p. 26 (left): Josef Jacques; p. 28: Lindsey Westbrook; p. 32: Jim Norrena; p. 39 (bottom): copyright PPOW and the Martin Wong Foundation, courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin and Cologne, Germany; p. 40 (bottom): courtesy Recology; p. 41 (top): courtesy the artist and di Rosa, Napa; pp. 42–43: Drew Altizer; p. 44 (1–2): Hardy Wilson; p. 48 (top): courtesy the CCA Libraries; p. 48 (bottom): courtesy Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art. AWARD WINNING STUDENT WORK2 AWARD WINNING STUDENT you asked for it, readers... Now here it is! Check out award-winning student work made in the last year. WORK 3 FEATURE STORIES 1 2 3 4 AWARD5 6 WINNING7 8 STUDENT9 WHAT IF A KNEE BRACE COULD MAKE DYNAMIC ADJUSTMENTS THROUGHOUT EACH STEP? AIR KINETIC KNEE BRACE LESLIE GREENE / SAM BERTAIN RSA / SPRING 2014 WORK4 The 7x7 Emerging Talent Award is The RSA Student Design Awards challenge given every year to one stand-out Fashion emerging designers to tackle pressing social, Design senior. The 2014 winner,Erick LopEz environmental, and economic issues through [1–4], says of his collection: “Modified is design thinking. Applicants submit projects inspired by the obsession with molding one’s that they’ve developed as part of their course- body into an idealistic, athletic form. It is pre- work, and the winners are rewarded with AWARDmised on exaggeration: pushing certain ‘more cash prizes, paid industry placements, and important’ elements of the body, mixing in RSA fellowships to kick-start their careers. certain elements of streetwear, and generating CCA’s 2014 winners were Sara ahLi and attitude. The result is a wearable collection Sophia Jain-EmBry (both Fashion Design 2015) with head-turning potential.” and SamuEL BErtain, LesliE grEEnE, and yuchung chEn (all Industrial Design 2015). The Yozo Hamaguchi Printmaking Bertain and Greene’s project [9] was award- Scholarship Award is given each year to ed the first-ever Bill Moggridge Award for a handful of students who demonstrate Interdisciplinary Design, sponsored by Techmer excellence and dedication in the study and PM and personally presented by Moggridge’s practice of printmaking. The 2014 winners, wife (Bill Moggridge was CCA’s 2012 honorary each of whom received $3,000 and was doctorate recipient and died of cancer later showcased in an exhibition in the fall, were that year). They also received the RSA-US SamuEL Forrest aLdErSon [7, 12], Lukaza Leadership Award for Product Design and the BranFman-VEriSSimo [5], LiSa mathiS Techmer PM Award for Design Innovation. WINNING[6, 10], angEL PerEz [14], aLExandra phELpS [16], and Samantha thompSon [11]. The graduate winner was caroLina magiS WEinberg. nina diaz [8] (MFA 2014) was this year’s recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, a competitive award given to exceptional emerging artists working in painting, sculpture, mixed media, or performance art. Created in 2007, the fellowship is given to one graduating MFA student at each of several esteemed MFA programs around the country; STUDENTit brings with it a $10,000 cash award. WORK 5 FEATURE STORIES 11 AWARD10 12 WINNING13 14 15 STUDENT16 WORK6 AWARD 17 18 WINNING19 20 22 23 capline ascender x-height 21 baseline ascender 1 ascender 2 STUDENT24 WORK 7 FEATURE STORIES The Ronald and Anita Wornick Award, Every year, Headlands Graduate Fellowships established in 1998, is intended to recognize are awarded to seven newly minted MFA and encourage talented students in the wood grads, one apiece from CCA, Mills College, arts at CCA. A gifted amateur wood artist the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco himself, Ronald Wornick has been a member State University, Stanford, UC Berkeley, of the CCA Board of Trustees since 1992. and UC Davis. Awardees receive a full year AWARDThe awardees are chosen for their special of studio space, participation in the popu- dedication and craftsmanship, and their work lar Headlands Open House events, and a embodies the values not only of the Furniture Graduate Fellow exhibition. The 2014–15 CCA Program, but of the college as a whole. winner is Victoria Jang [20, 22] (MFA 2014). The 16th annual Wornick Awards winners are Sarah Burgan [17, 18] (Furniture 2015) and rEymundo PerEz iii [15, 23, 25] (Graphic Jun Soo park [19] (Furniture 2015). Design 2014) was recently named one of GDUSA’s Students to Watch, and he received The Barclay Simpson Award is given each year the Monotype Award for Typographic to two to four students in CCA’s Graduate Excellence in 2014. Program in Fine Arts. It is named for Barclay Simpson, a CCA trustee and 2005 honorary anna caroLLo [30] (Graphic Design 2014) doctorate recipient, and involves a cash grant was the 2014 CCA Graphic Design student and a special exhibition on the CCA campus.