balloon parade

Here's a piece that's a little late for Thanksgiving.

photos: the book show, the call of cthulhu, and credible correspondence

Here are a few photos from the show...still up in Chelsea until December 13th.

the daily heller: monday, november 24, 2008

http://blog.printmag.com/dailyheller

“The Book Show” is an exhibition of graphic novels, comics, and children’s books by students in the School of Visual Arts' MFA as Visual Essay department, curated by Marshall Arisman and Carl Nicholas Titolo. Books in the show include Alphabetic Ballyhoos by Anna Raff, which is a fresh take on both the conventional ABC book and medieval illuminated manuscripts; Edwin Vazquez's War Story, which illustrates his father’s experiences during the Vietnam War; Joanna Neborsky’s Shmo, a book the author describes as "a guide to the great unknowns"; Sybille Schenker's The Way Things Run, a story inspired by marathon running; and Rich Tu’s Crispy Kid, the tale of a nine-year-old burn victim.

The exhibition also features the work of Rachel Hope Allison, Lisel Ashlock, Joshua Bayer, Maria Berrio, You Byun, André da Loba, Matt Cavanaugh, Ray Jones, Yuriko Katori, YJ Lee, Youngsun Liu, John MacConnell, Heejin Roh, Nu Ryu, and Russ Spitkovsky.

"The Book Show" runs from November 21 to December 13, with a reception on November 25 from 6 to 8 pm at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor, New York City. (Closed from Wednesday, November 26 through Sunday, November 30, for the Thanksgiving holiday.)

3 shows

pundit in progress...

I've almost got this one down.

Happy (belated) Halloween!

pundit-like personality

pundit peanut gallery

So many pundits, so little time...

the book show | call of cthulhu | credible correspondence

As mentioned in an earlier posting, I am participating in three simultaneous exhibitions this fall at the Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea, as part of the School of Visual Arts MFA Illustration program. My contribution to “The Book Show,” curated by Marshall Arisman and Carl Titolo, is the culmination of nine months of work on Alphabetic Ballyhoos—or Crotchety Draconian Expletives. For “The Call of Cthulhu,” curated by Viktor Koen, I created a series of illustrations for the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft, and compiled them into a novella. “Credible Correspondence,” also curated by Carl Titolo, features an imaginary postcard mailing. While the reception is Tuesday, November 25th from 6 to 8PM, you’ll have more time (and space) to see the shows during normal gallery hours (10AM to 6PM) from November 21st through December 13th. The gallery is located at 601 West 26th Street (between 11th and 12th Avenues) on the 15th floor, and is closed on Sundays.

credible correspondence

This November, along with the fabled “Book Show” (dates to be announced soon), I am participating in two other exhibitions at SVA’s Visual Arts Gallery: “The Call of Cthulhu” and “Credible Correspondence.” Here are elements from the latter as a tiny teaser.

it’s a book!

Yes, “Alphabetic Ballyhoos: or Crotchety Draconian Expletives” has been put to bed, just in time for the beginning of my second year at SVA. Stay tuned for information about the upcoming Book Show in New York in November, and how you can get your own copy of this riff on the traditional forms of the ABC book and illuminated manuscript—a story of great verbosity with virtually no verbs.

How do you get on a Carnegie Hall Playbill cover?

All it took was practice, practice, practice. One of my pieces, entitled "Spring", has been selected as cover art for the Carnegie Hall Playbill program books for March 2009.

views from governor's island

Some friends and I went to Governor's Island today with a picnic and rode bikes around. Although it's so small, you can see everything on foot. There are old barracks, houses, some art installations, gorgeous views of the city, and it's a great place to do some drawing.

me and my art

I showed 3 pieces at the Point O' Woods Art Association exhibition “Natural State” on Fire Island a few weeks ago. Special thanks to my pal Marianna Perrier, curator and exhibition photographer extraordinaire!

Long Island Museum

Two of my etchings have been selected as finalists in the Long Island Museum’s “Summer on Long Island” juried art show, in lovely Stony Brook, New York. Yay! 

c-clamp

Yes, there's a metaphor here for the state of my mind these days, but it was really just sitting around my apartment. I used it for my bookmaking class. (More on that stuff in a later post.)

ICON5 king of spades

As a promotion for this week's ICON5 illustrators' conference in NYC, Xerox printed a deck of cards featuring art from all the participating schools. I was asked to design a suit for SVA and given the king of spades for my piece. In this photograph, you can see the...um...knight, and the box art by Edel Rodriguez.

hairy or harry grasses?

You decide.

annaraff.com relaunch-part 1

After months of preparation, I finally relaunched annaraff.com today. You may recognize the sandwich motif from my other promotional materials. I'm calling it "relaunch-part 1" because an animated version is in development, starring the ant you see at the top of my blog page. So stay tuned...

evil dewars

I had the idea for this piece several years ago at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. I wonder who would be angrier, Dewar's or the evil-doers? Bring on the fatwa...

drawing on location

One of the major projects this semester was a book of images drawn on location. I chose to document some of the city's unique ball fields. (More images will be featured on my website, when it is relaunched in May.) Conveniently, in early April, the class took a field trip out to Yankee Stadium. Above is the classic view of the bleachers in center field. And below, a drawing of the grounds crew.

silkscreen prints

In high school, I did a lot of silkscreening, and was awarded the title "Master Printer" in my senior year. Well, things have changed a lot in 20 years. I'm learning "new" techniques, while going back to the basics, and slowly making prints with more colors. I'll be taking another silkscreening course this summer and will post my new prints here as they are completed.

Happy Easter!

Here are some Easter eggs featuring characters from a book I'm developing. In case you can't tell from their costumes, the setting is the Middle Ages.

tasty details

Here's two detailed views of the "sandwich" and "chips."

Shameless self-promotion

I am currently in my first year of graduate school in the Illustration program at the School of Visual Arts, here in NYC. One of our biggest assignments this semester has been coming up with an identity for our work to use in self-promotion, on our websites, mailings, etc. You know, some shameless way to create buzz about ourselves. (There's always blogging...)

I got a little obsessed with the motif of a sandwich, which will make an appearance on my website in the next few months after I do a redesign. In the meantime, here's a photo of the entire promotional package, which comes in a lunch box and contains: a "sandwich" (a series of 6 postcards featuring my art with a bite taken out of them), a "juice carton" of candy (in wrappers featuring more art), a "bag of chips" (which are really buttons featuring even MORE art, thanks to my classmate Edwin...www.edwinvazquez.com), and a relatively useless fork, knife, straw and napkin. Who knows? Maybe someone will find the work that delicious.

blogging...1...2...3

So this is blogging...