Andrea Price and her artwork, “Not My Art History,” 2019.

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Artist Andrea Price, BFA ’19, resists an accepted Eurocentric perspective of art and beauty that represents people of color in positions of oppression. In her opinion, historical images of slaves that are considered beautiful are nothing more than the representations of black people created by those who colonized and enslaved them. Seeing these images in an art history class awakened a passion in Price to contribute to a new vision. “My heart literally broke, and I got angry because,” she asked, “why is the esteem that we hold in art attached to European views of what art should look like? That really began my journey to decolonize, to think … how can we create art that involves everyone; where I see myself in a piece of art; where other people of color can see themselves and know that they’re beautiful; and it’s not through the perspective of our white comforts?” Price told SHELOVES Magazine.

“Get You Some Sensitivity, Thanks” 2019, Andrea Price

Price creates art that denies those representations and introduces a different perspective that celebrates artistic diversity. Using drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and fiber art, Price weaves a new image of the African American experience through these media, focusing her work on social justice in relationship to people of color.

SHELOVES Magazine’s interview with Price features her art piece, “Not My Art History,” a powerful fiber-based work that reimagines history’s views of black art and black beauty.

“I hope that you can search your heart and see this piece and think: Huh, is art history really completely Eurocentric? Is what I’ve been taught from a very young age very Eurocentric, and why is that? Why are we not talking about all of the indigenous cultures that create beautiful things that we like to label as savage, as lesser-than, but not understanding the level of intelligence it takes to create something because they’re doing it with meaning?” Price says.

“Rug of Equality,” hand crocheted 4’m 2020, Andrea Price

Price advocates for the recognition of black artists, such as one of her favorite artists, Carrie Mae Weems. “Even throughout my whole educational experience, I think one thing that gets brought up so often is Kehinde Wiley. And I love Kehinde Wiley, but he is not the only person of color that is creating art about people of color,” Price told SHELOVES Magazine. She says that it’s necessary to backtrack through decades of the works of other artists and cultures that are “equally beautiful.” She says the writers of our history books are not telling the full story.

SHELOVES Magazine video interview.

Instagram: @andreaandherart

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Alicia Disantis, BA ’08, combines a set of artistic and entrepreneurial skills that have led her to establish a successful design and marketing firm, 38th & Kip, in Denver, Colorado. She also serves as brand manager at Aux in Lakewood, Colorado, where she develops and executes brand strategies that drive company recognition and profitability.

Her writing, graphic design and marketing expertise come together in marketing campaigns that include website design, print collateral, videos and trade show materials. Disantis’ own company provides creative pieces in various industries that include professional services, manufacturing, non-profit, technology and more. In the non-profit sector, Disantis has volunteered pro bono design services, including developing a targeted infographic for the Feline Foundation of Greater Washington, an animal welfare organization.

She founded 38th & Kip in 2010 with a mission to provide “exceptional, fairly priced marketing and design services to improve people’s lives.” Disantis’ business philosophy aligns with living in a just world, where fairness and equality are the norm, and the injustices of racism and bigotry are not tolerated. She says on the 38th & Kip website that her company is “committed to a better tomorrow.”

Disantis, who earned her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art, New Media, at UToledo, said about her professor, Deb Davis, “You know, I think of your classes often. You were challenging but your principles and passion for art stuck with me.” Alicia also earned a master’s degree in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management at Columbia College in Chicago. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from both colleges. She notes that she is inspired by retro design, Scandinavian minimalism, street art and bold colors. As an avid backpacker, she has traveled through many countries, stopping to visit as many museums as possible.

Product Promo Illustration Client: CU Service Network

Illustrations and type are hand-drawn, then scanned and colored.

Create concept and illustrations for product ads and a series of educational events that focus on specific services.

Aux Rebrand Client: CU Service Network

All rights 38th and Kip.

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Caroline Jardine, BFA ’17, BA Education ’16, identifies with art on a variety of levels — her personal artwork, the community-driven, public mural projects she leads and the creative expressions of her young students.

As a teenager, Jardine was introduced to place-making while she apprenticed for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. Through her passion for community-based art, Jardine became further engaged with local residents and arts practitioners, creating and leading mural projects, installations and other collaborative projects for organizations, businesses, schools and community events.

Caroline Jardine working on a mural in downtown Toledo with muralist Maya Hayuk.

Her 2020 work includes a collaboration with fellow muralist Maya Hayuk, whom Jardine assisted on a mural highlighting the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “Maya Hayuk has been my favorite muralist for years, so this was so meaningful to

me to be able to not just meet her, but work with her,” says Jardine. The year also saw Jardine working on a project for local business owners of the Stubborn Brother pizza restaurant, a project in which she hand-lettered all of the text.

Two additional Toledo projects from 2020 include a board-up mural at 1105 and 1109 N. Huron, and an interactive spray chalk mural on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art. Caroline was also the lead designer for the first Community Collaborative artwork for the Arts Commission Momentum ’20. The “art-by-number” pieces that were broken into smaller 6″ X 6″ squares completed by the community and placed within a larger installation on Adams Street.

Images: Caroline Jardine

Jardine, who teaches 6- 12th-grade art at St. Ursula Academy, blends Ukrainian symbolism into her personal, mixed media artworks to represent themes of identity, connection and history. “When working on personal artwork, I allow my own voice to guide the process,” says Jardine.

Voice is a significant distinction between her personal and public artworks, she says. “I believe that when leading a community mural, the mural must be informed by the members of the community; my voice should not be the loudest in the room. In creative place-making, community members lead the direction of the artwork. My role is to listen, ask questions, and facilitate the creation of an artwork that is representative and reflective of the voices of the community.”

BCAN video features the community mural work of artist/educator/muralist, Caroline Jardine.

The UToledo Department of Art is proud to feature our alumni who are supporting inclusion and diversity in their careers and artistic activities.

Jym Shipman is currently the Member Experience Coordinator for the Sylvania YMAC/JCC at YMCA of Greater Toledo.  Jym Shipman, BFA ’04, reaches thousands of readers every week all over the world with his LGBTQ comic strip, “Diamond in the Rough.” Shipman launched the comic strip on his birthday, May 25, 2013, intending to expand the audience for stories about LGBTQ people. “My goal was to produce an LGBTQ comic strip that was family friendly,” says Shipman. When he decided to share his storylines, most LGBTQ comic strips focused on adults and many were sexualized.

“I want my readers to leave my strip with the ‘warm fuzzies,’ he says. “Even though many of my storylines are serious, I try to spin them in a way that uplifts the readers. It’s what I look for and read in the strips I follow.”

Two fellow cartoonists, Bart deGraaf and Tom Batiuk, offered Shipman support and nudged him to put his art out there for the world to see. He took their advice. While “Diamond in the Rough” began on Facebook, it now is published on Webtoon, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, Boredpanda, Tapas, Ello, and Tagpacker.

In the past, Shipman’s strip appeared in print, but most of the traditional print publications are either obsolete or transitioned to online only. “Universal Click and Comics Kingdom are the two all-in-one big players of the day,” says Shipman about current sites featuring LGBTQ comic strips. “It brings me joy knowing that the voices in my head that brought me comfort as a gay child and now as an adult are being viewed in physical form via “Diamond in the Rough” — not just locally or in the United States, but all over the world.”

Creating “Diamond in the Rough” helps heal the tough experiences of living an LGBTQ life, says Shipman, as does the feedback from his audiences. “Being LGBTQ is not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

Boston Voyager found my work on Instagram a few weeks ago and we ended up doing an interview. It was a good opportunity to reflect on years of decisions that led me to where I am today. Read all about the hustle. 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ani Avanian.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My drawing professor and mentor in college, Diana Attie, once told me, “Keep doing what you love and keep your eyes open for opportunities. Good things will definitely happen.” I don’t even know if she remembers telling me this, but it was Diana’s response to my “What do I do now that I have an art degree?” In 2006 I was graduating from the University of Toledo with my Bachelors of Fine Arts, proud, but terribly stressed out about getting my first job out of college. How would I become financially self-sufficient and yet do what I love every day? It sounded very abstract at the time, but it all came together in a very unexpected way. Read more…

CoCA Student,

Want to see your design or artwork up in lights? The Art Department is currently calling for entries for electronic billboard display in 2016. The billboards will be displayed in the Toledo area in January and February. All UT student majors in the College of Communication and the Arts are eligible and encouraged to submit an entry.

Deadline for submissions is November 30 by 5pm.
For more information, contact:
Barry Whittaker
419.530.8320
William.Whittaker@utoledo.edu

A flyer with all the detail is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/f3ing3vevf1fuq7/4thUTBillboardExhibition.pdf?dl=0

UT student works on display in “Gross Anatomy” at Imagination Station

“More Eyeballs,” “Section of the Neck,” and “Relax” are a few of the 11 works of art by University of Toledo students currently on display at the Imagination Station. Using the book Gray’s Anatomy as inspiration, students in Arturo Rodriguez’s Lithography class and Ben Pond’s Anatomy class collaborated on a large bound book project called Gross Anatomy. Students used lithography as the basis for their initial drawing and then embellished the pages with additional drawing media. Two copies of the large book were created and another series of prints was made for display. One book was donated to the library at the UT Medical Center, and the other to the Toledo Museum of Art library, where it is currently on view. The project was made during fall semester, 2012.

Works on display at the Imagination Station were created by Alyssa Brown, Stacey Cruzado, Sarah Emch, David Folck, Lisa Franko & Wes Rucker, Dylan Gallagher, Katie Heft, Dingzhong Hu, Josh Klein, and Shirley Mei.

This exhibition, like Grossology, runs through September 2. For more information about admission and hours of operation, visit the Imagination Station website at www.imaginationstationtoledo.org

When the International Digital Media and Arts Association Conference was held this month in Miami, FL, the University of Toledo College of Visual and Performing Arts was well represented. Not only did Dean Debra Davis and Associate Dean Holly Monsos attend the conference, a project from the Art Department won an award and Film faculty member Holly Hey presented a paper.

The Stories from Toledo billboard project won the 2012 Achievement in Digital Art & Design Award–the student award for digital art at the conference, http://idmaa.org/showcase-university-of-toledo/ The project, developed by Art faculty member Barry Whittaker for his class Time, Motion, Space, features the work of students in the class as well as the work of the department’s BFA students on electronic billboards, donated by Lamar Outdoor. 17 works are displayed on the boards which are located throughout the Toledo area. For more information on the works and a map to locations, visit the project page.

A number of special topics presentations were made by academics across the nation on the second day of the conference. The special topic for the first paper session was “21st Century Tools for Teaching.”Lindsay Grace, Miami University, spoke on “Producing Results with a Student Based Creative Design Studio.” Allen Jones, Puget Sound University, talked about “Visualizing Invisible Cities: Using the Cave to Teach Postmodern Literature.” Holly Hey, The University of Toledo, spoke on “The Objective Machine and the Subjective Experience: Meshing Methodology and Ideology in Digital Non-Linear Editing.”

The first night featured the iDEAS Art Opening and the Student Showcase in the New World School of the Arts Gallery. Artists from across the nation exhibited their work, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the IDEAS exhibit. Students from the following schools shared their work with the conference: University of Akron, SUNY Oswego, University of Houston Clear Lake, University of Georgia, University of Florida, University of Detroit Mercy, East Tennessee State University, Utah Valley University, University of Toledo, Columbia College Chicago and New World School of the Arts.

I worked as an extra this summer on the movie “Fun Size.” What did you do?

Fellow 2011 University of Toledo Theatre & Film graduates, Shane Monaco and Nate Elias, spent part of the summer working on the upcoming Paramount Pictures film, “Fun Size.” The film centers on a girl who loses her little brother on Halloween night and endures a series of comedic misadventures trying to find him. “Fun Size” will appear in theaters in 2012.

Here’s Shane’s experience in his own words.

My Fun Size Experience

I recently got the chance to work as an extra for Paramount Pictures’ Fun Size. It started when fellow UT grad Nate Elias, who was already doing work as a stand-in, let me know they were looking for more extras. I immediately emailed them with a picture of me and all my information. A few days later I got a call asking if I could start work the following night, I agreed, and they advised me to get some rest. It was good advice.

The scene I would be working on for the next four days took place at night, so my call time was 6:30 PM and my shift was scheduled to end at 6 AM. Needless to say, any interaction with people not involved with the production was minimal during my time on the movie.

I was instructed to drive my car to Cleveland and park in a church parking lot that the production had acquired for its use. A shuttle arrived around 6:30 to drive all the extras to the set. Through the window I saw something that I mistook for a new fast food restaurant called Captain Chicken. After a second I realized that what I was looking at was actually the set. The crew had turned an abandoned Popeye’s Chicken into this bizarre pirate-themed restaurant that looked far too new for this part of town.

The shuttle dropped us off at the auditorium of another church. This area was dubbed “Extras Holding.” Inside we got signed in and got the Halloween costumes we were asked to bring approved by wardrobe. If they weren’t satisfied with what people brought, wardrobe suited them up with one of their costumes. Next, if any makeup was required, people lined up to have it applied. After that we were taken down to the prop room to be assigned various props that would accent our costumes. The costume I brought consisted of a hat with dreadlocks and an island shirt, so I was given blue-tinted hippie glasses and a peace sign necklace.

After this we were taken by shuttle to another building where we were served “breakfast.” It was 9 PM, but they were actually serving us breakfast foods. This is when I really understood how long of a shift I was in for.

When we were done, we were taken back to holding. For a good three hours I chatted with the other extras waiting to be called to set. I watched nearly everyone get called out and return with the latest news of what was happening in the scene. Word was that they were going to drop a giant chicken statue on a Volvo. Everyone had hopes of it happening when they were out there, but so far it hadn’t.

Finally, I was called and followed the other extras out to the Captain Chicken patio. It was amazing to see the crew busting around to make things happen. The director, Josh Schwartz, was sitting in “video village” with the producers. This is a collection of chairs set up in front of the video monitors that show what the different cameras were seeing.

I saw Nate and his fellow stand-ins doing their job inside the Volvo. Light meters were being shoved in their faces and the lights and cameras were being positioned for the shot. The actors were off to the side, waiting to do their job.

Jason Roberts, the second assistant director, was in charge of the background actors (aka the extras). He explained loudly to the group what was going to be happening in the scene and how we should react.

The actors took their places in the car and the assistant director, Mark Anthony Little, yelled the necessary commands (rolling, action, etc.) The actors delivered their lines in the car and then when given the signal from the AD, we reacted as if the giant chicken statue on the roof fell onto the car.

This went on for multiple takes. The extras were sometimes told to make noise, sometimes we were told to pantomime. They repositioned the cameras a couple of times and the process was repeated.

After a brief stint back in holding and being served lunch, we were brought back onto the set. The chicken had been rigged to actually fall onto the car this time. We were told to react like we had been, only it was really happening. The cameras rolled and after a small explosion (like a firecracker) from under the chicken, it tipped off the roof and smashed down onto the car. Right in front of our eyes! Even more amazing was the fact that a second take was ordered. A crane pulled the giant chicken back up to the roof, and a team of men ran in hammer the smashed car back to its original condition!

That was my first day. The second was primarily spent in holding due to a rain delay and we were eventually sent home early. However, during my time in holding, I had time to talk with Nate and the other stand-ins, as well as the gaffer, Jack English. Jack had graduated with George Lucas, John Carpenter, and a slew of others. He claimed he was the least successful person in his class, yet he has worked on dozens of well-known films like Sherlock Holmes, Big Fish, and Interview with the Vampire.

The next couple of days I spent doing more of the same kind of thing I had been doing on the first day, until they asked me to drive my car up and down the street in the background of the scene. A production assistant named Katie was in charge of this. She equipped all of us car people with walkie talkies. With these she was able to communicate to us when to start and stop and where to drive. Between takes I talked to her a little and found out that she and that other PAs aspired to ultimately become assistant directors. The others did things like manage the extras in holding and stand at the borders of the set to keep it locked down from civilians.

When the final night finally came to an end, the director and second AD brought us back to holding and thanked everyone. I was sad to see it come to an end. In only four days I had already become addicted to the lifestyle. What really fascinated me about the whole thing was how the production operated like a tiny confined city; multiple buildings, multiple jobs, transportation and communication between all, and at the hub was the set, around which it all revolved. It was an amazing experience, seeing what we did as students done on a grand scale, efficiently, and taken very seriously by everyone involved. This little taste of the business was enough to confirm the fact that I made the right career choice and I can’t wait to get myself back onto a set, hopefully for a lot longer than four days.