RISD XYZ Magazine - Winter 2011

Rhode Island School of Design’s alumni magazine
WINTER 2011
MENU
appetizer
entrée
dessert
BREAD
WINNER
F O O D for
THOUGHT
CRAZY ABOUT
SW E E T S
+ other food art, RISD-style
3
Conversations
online, incoming,
ongoing
5
Listen
to reflections, opinions, what’s
on our readers’ minds
6
Look
at edibles/eating, eating out,
kitsch(en)ware + groceries
6
10
14
22
Bread Winner
Food for Thought
As one of the leading pastry chefs
in America, Ciril Hitz 91 ID is
pushing the boundaries of baking.
Art inspired by edibles can be very
satisfying—whether it’s made
with food or simply alludes to it.
47
CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT
E v e ryon e lov es food, or at l e ast, n e e ds it.
54
34
Six Degrees
28
updates from clubs, the Alumni
Association, Alumni Relations
39
Crazy About Sweets
By translating her love of materials
to experimentation in the kitchen,
Krystina Castella 89 ID has found
a second career creating cookbooks.
Two College Street
Maeda’s message, faculty news,
a glimpse of studios/student life now
44
Impact
news about scholarships, donors,
the RISD Annual Fund
46
Where We Are
class notes and profiles, undergraduate
first, graduate second
63
Where We Were
photos/memories from
the past
64
Sketchbook
a visual commentary on the
world as we know it
57
Artistic people seem to have a particularly nuanced
relationship with all things culinary. Maybe it’s part
of their creative chemistry—a desire to live life to its
fullest. Cooking, tasting new flavors, trying exotic
cuisines, experimenting with recipes, inventing your
own, growing, making, baking—all seem to hold
special appeal for artists and designers, and certainly
for the alumni highlighted on the following pages.
This issue of RISD XYZ has been especially fun
to pull together because it focuses on alumni who have
a special relationship with food—not just as a source
of sustenance or perennial temptation, but as a muse,
tease, distraction, inspiration, provocation, occupation.
The connections between food and art are obvious.
With its flavors, textures, colors and aromas, food is as
sensual as art. Both are inextricably entwined with
human existence, yet in the animal world, only humans
have elevated eating to an art form. With the explosion
of food as a pop-cultural phenomenon in America—
via the Food Channel, foodie blogs and sites, celebrity
chefs, writers like Michael Pollan—the meaning of food
in our lives has changed radically in recent years.
What I like about looking at the relationship
between food and art—especially in a RISD context—
is that they’re both so wrapped up in notions of hunger,
flavor and taste. RISD artists and designers clearly have
enormous creative and intellectual appetites. You’re
known for work with a distinctly personal flavor. And
almost instinctively you know when something is
visually off or aesthetically displeasing or conceptually
suspect—when it just doesn’t taste right.
Let us know what you think about this issue: risdxyz@risd.edu.
Taste and flavor are clearly based on personal
preferences, but they’re also among the variables in
life that make it so interesting. Even though the artists
and designers mentioned in this issue share the experience of having gone to RISD, they use their own unique
ingredients in expressing themselves through food.
Each of the alumni we cover in the feature articles—
pastry chef Ciril Hitz 91 ID, artist/designer Lauren
Garfinkel 91 AP, painter Shawn Kenney 93 IL, sculptor
Melissa Armstrong 07 ID and cookbook author Krystina
Castella 89 ID —creates with distinctly different flavors.
In this issue, we also look at alumni who make
and market culinary products, work in the restaurant
business or just can’t resist responding to the everyday
reality that everyone needs to eat. Of course, the flipside
to this—which isn’t addressed in this issue—is that
in today’s world, these basic needs still go unmet. There
are literally hundreds of millions of people—13.6%
of the estimated global population—who never get
enough to eat. This is a huge, ongoing humanitarian
issue that I hope RISD graduates will help address
in the years ahead.
For the many Americans struggling with weight
issues or eating disorders, food can also be a perpetual
source of anxiety. Yet, the relationships most people
have with food are a lot like the ones artists have with
the creative process—it’s something to love, hate, crave,
flee, think about, embrace. It can cause real anguish
and suffering, and provide great joy and satisfaction.
Ultimately, both food and art are fundamentally and
inextricably a part of what it is to be human.
editor’s
message by
Liisa Silander
illustration by
Caitlin
Keegan 02 IL
CONTRIBUTORS
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
Online, incoming, ongoing
Becky Bermont
EDITOR
Liisa Silander
lsilande@risd.edu
401 454 6349
C R E AT I V E D I R E C T I O N
WellNow Design
wellnowdesign.com
Criswell Lappin MFA 97 GD
Nancy Nowacek
Dungjai Pungauthaikan MFA 04 GD
01
03
D E S I G N/ P R O D U C T I O N
02
05
04
Kate Blackwell
Kaleb Durocher
Elizabeth Eddins 00 GD
Sarah Rainwater
Karen Vanderbilt MFA 12 GD
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Anna Cousins
Susan Curran
Francie Latour
Paula Martiesian 76 PT
Liisa Silander
D I R E C T O R O F A LU M N I R E L AT I O N S
Christina Hartley 74 IL
PRINTING
Lane Press
Burlington, VT
printed on 70# Sterling
Matte, a recycled stock
R I S DX Y Z
Two College Street
Providence, Rhode Island
02903-2784 USA
01
02
02
Scott Conary 93 IL is the artist behind our cover,
which shows a detail from his painting Wall Chop (see
lower right). This winter he has shown selected meat
paintings in both Portland, ME and Portland, OR,
where he lives and recently started painting again after
an especially difficult year. His first child, Jane Elliot
Conary, was born in January 2010 with Hypoplastic Left
Heart Syndrome, a rare and dangerous heart defect
that has required multiple life-saving surgeries and will
require more in the future. Despite the traumatic year
and the difficult times ahead, Scott is quick to point out
that life is good and he’s producing better work than
ever. See page 53 for more on his meat paintings, and
go to conary.org for more of his work.
Caitlin Keegan 02 IL (caitlinkeegan.com) lives and
works in Brooklyn with her “intern,” a dachshund named
Ollie who only nominally assisted with her illustration
of our word-du-jour on the previous spread. Caitlin
works as a designer for Sesame Workshop, while doing
freelance illustration for a variety of clients. Her biggest
project this year is completing a fully illustrated version
of Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets, which Chronicle Books
plans to publish in spring 2012.
RISDXYZ
03
Karen Moss 66 PT (karenmoss.com), who contributed our Listen piece (Food Gone Bad) on page 5, first
discovered the allure of pop culture imagery in RISD
painting classes with the late, great Richard Merkin
MFA 63 PT, who taught her to appreciate style, humor
and comics. Since then she has exhibited in scores
of shows throughout the country, including the current
exhibition Karen Moss: What Remains, which continues
through March 19 at The Art Institute of Boston.
04
Karen Vanderbilt MFA 12 GD (karenvanderbilt.com)
05
Melissa Meyer 06 IL lives in Providence with her
interned at Metropolis last summer, where she found
magazine design to be fun and interesting. As soon
as she got back to campus, she asked if she could help
out with XYZ and now brings her good eye and easygoing attitude to various departmental spreads (Six
Degrees, Two College Street, Impact). Prior to coming to
RISD, Karen worked in the design department of Oxford
University Press in New York City.
sweet dog-muse Linus, and keeps bowls full of root
vegetables in the kitchen. On any given day she can be
found eating a taco, drawing comics or out on a neverending quest for the most beautiful rock. You can see
some of her recent drawings in Sketchbook (page 64)
and find more at bearhatstudio.com and bearhatsketch
book.blogspot.com.
Let us know what you think of this issue: risdxyz@risd.edu.
Published three times a year by
RISD’s Media group, in conjunction
with Alumni Relations.
Postmaster: Send address changes to
Office of Advancement Services
RISD, Two College Street
Providence, RI 02903 USA
O N T H E C OV E R
Wall Chop (2011, oil on canvas, 22x28")
ART WORKS
RARE SYNERGY
OUCH!
I wanted to let you know
this news after an official
announcement, but the
process is getting longer so
I decided to email you first.
There was a RFP for an
identity design of the US
National Endowment for
the Arts a while ago. About
560 design firms in the
US applied and finally
I (Why Not Smile) got it.
Now I have been working
with the NEA to develop the final identity and create
application designs. Because I am a RISD graduate and
taught at RISD in the past, the NEA is planning to have
an announcement event at RISD with John Maeda, NEA
people and Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
Just got the new XYZ and am so
happy to see the style even improved from the last issue. My
Dad (Peter Hesse 48 IL) called me
up and was just as won over by the
new issue. He is also amazed at
the diversity we show in all ways.
This all dovetailed with my
going to our.risd.edu and seeing
the new group on campus, STEAM,
and the recent lecture by the
amazing Richard Saul Wurman.
Then there was the story on
EXPOSÉ, the new studentorganized store downtown, and
topping it all off was the link to
The All-Nighter—what an amazing
e-journal [see also page 40].
This sort of synergy is rare.
I am proud to be part of it.
RISD XYZ looks much more like
a wealth management plan’s
annual report these days. Not sure
that’s the best look for a design
school’s alumni magazine, but,
hey, what do I know?
Nat Hesse 76 SC
Alumni Association President
Santa Fe, NM
Bob Aldrich
(sent via email to risdxyz@risd.edu)
PHEW!
I told a [phonathon] caller I
wasn’t giving to RISD this year
because all my donations are going
to the environment. But when
I got the XYZ alumni magazine
I realized that if art dies out earth
won’t be worth living on. So [I sent
in] my check. Wish it were more!
Arlene Wilson 91 TX
Nashville, TN
Hoon Kim MFA 08 GD
Brooklyn, NY
Editor’s note: That announcement took place on Friday, February 10, 2011 when
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and Senator Whitehouse visited Providence for
a roundtable discussion on art and the economy.
from the NEA’s Art Works blog, December 15, 2010
When I make the case for investing in the arts, I use just two words that
have three meanings: “Art works.”
“Art works” first refers to works of art themselves—the performances,
objects and texts that are the creation of artists. “Art works” reminds
us of the ways that art works on audiences to change, confront, challenge
and inspire us; to allow us to imagine and to aspire to something more.
“Art works” is a declaration that with two million full-time artists and
5.7 million arts-related jobs in this country, arts jobs are real jobs that
are part of the real economy. Art workers pay taxes, and art contributes
to economic growth, neighborhood revitalization and the livability
of American towns and cities.
Those three elements—the works of art themselves, the ways art
works on audiences and art as work—together are the intrinsic value
of the arts. Hoon Kim MFA 08 GD, principal designer of Why Not Smile,
created this visual representation of the three meanings of “Art Works,”
which you can now see throughout arts.gov.
Rocco Landesman
NEA Chairman
Washington, DC
Follow RISD at twitter.com/risd and facebook.com/risd1877.
President Maeda has been hosting
a series of conversations on creativity
this year—complemented by good
food (of course). Find out more at
creativeconnoisseurs.com.
WINTER 2011
03
SELL IT
I’d been meaning to write a
response to the redesigned magazine a while ago. In short: it’s
fantastic. Wellnow [Design] did
an amazing job. I could even
imagine it being sold on regular
magazine racks. Thanks and keep
up the great work.
Tim Belonax 04 GD
Newhall, CA
TOO much FOR THE USPS?
from Facebook / Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery /
December 17, 2010
Apparently, the Glass Garage Gallery’s invitations are
too steamy for the USPS. The backside of the invitation
for our current exhibition The Year of the Chimera 6.2
features the painting Return to Eden: Animal Attraction
by Steven Kenny 84 IL (above). It is an image of Adam
and Eve returning to Eden, still naked, but this time
unashamed and unabashedly making love in Paradise
surrounded by all sorts of other animals also mating
without shame.
We were advised that this was far too explicit an
image to travel unsheathed through the USPS. Thus, we
were required to censor the image (below). Somehow,
being too sexy for the USPS suits us just fine.
Facebook / Steven Kenney / December 18, 2010 at 3:15 pm
This isn’t the first time I’ve been censored for depicting
our first couple. Years ago I was commissioned by
a financial publication to create a depiction of Adam
and Eve (with fig leaves firmly in place) being expelled
from Eden for a national newspaper insert. However,
it was deemed too provocative by some and excluded
from those editions of the newspaper circulated in
America’s Bible belt. This resulted in 25,000 copies
being tossed into the landfill. Now the Post Office
refuses to distribute postcard reproductions of my
new painting of Eden in all its guilt-free glory as it’s
referred to in the Bible. How ironic that such an idyllic,
innocent and harmonious image causes such shock
and umbrage in the same circles that revere the
written Word as sacred and unassailable.
Hi there. Just wanted to say that
the newly designed alum magazine
is AWESOME.
Hyun-Yeul Lee BID 96
10
WOrds
or less
We’ve still got our
appetites!
Tim Harrington 96 FAV,
from Appetites, the first song on Les Savy Fav’s
latest album Root for Ruin
Boston, MA
I have this to share—I was included in the first issue of our new
XYZ magazine. Fellow alumna
Annie Feldmeier Adams MFA 02 PH,
who works at Encyclopaedia
Britannica, saw my piece and
passed it on to her people. I was
solicited by Michael Levy,
executive editor at Britannica,
to share my work on their blog
and was pleased to accept. Cheers
to the wonderful associations
made possible by RISD.
Wendy Wahl MAE 85
West Kingston, RI
Thanks for doing great work at
XYZ. It’s a GREAT new magazine,
and makes me proud to call RISD
my creative “home.”
Hallie Warshaw 89 GD
San Francisco, CA
REBORN AT RISD
Like many others, not a day goes
by that I don’t thank the stars
in the sky for my wonderful years
at RISD. Without a doubt I was
reborn the first day I arrived
in Providence.
Gretchen (Schmauss)
Santoro 60 TX
Vancouver, Canada
I love it because it’s only
$2.22 for two slices.
Robbie Lillquist 13 IL
confessing that his top
“guilty pleasure” is 7-11 pizza
Oh, believe me.
Mine is much worse.
Jemima Kirke 08 PT
as Charlotte in the film Tiny Furniture,
responding to the question,
“Do you have the same sense of
entitlement as my daughter?”
RISD Pricks fencing club
informational meeting
from the January campus calendar
(positive proof that RISD’s sports team
naming tradition lives on!)
On that nerdy note,
I’ll see you guys
next time!
Karen Kavett 11 GD
signing off from another design-focused
video on her YouTube channel
04
RISDXYZ
Keep in touch. Write to us at: risdxyz@risd.edu.
Readers reflect, write, shout, share
what’s on their minds.
FOOD GONE BAD
W e a r e l iv in g in a n e ra of food ob s ess ion .
When I was growing up in the 1950s, there was little
awareness or discussion of what we ate. We learned
to choose from four basic food groups: meat, carbohydrates, fruits/ vegetables and dairy. And there was
Jello with marshmallows for dessert!
These days if you’re planning a dinner party you had
better interview your guests beforehand as they might
be omnivores, locavores, vegetarians, vegan, lactoseintolerant, boycotting high fructose corn syrup or on a
salt-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, Slim-Fast or other fad
diet. Now it’s all about personal choices and barebones
economics—from high-end organic options to massmarketed junk food.
In my Coloring Book Hybrids series I have replaced
the simple childhood pleasures depicted in the coloring books I had as a child with our current obsessions
with media, mall culture and fast food. My recent
paintings focus on eating disorders in children ranging
from anorexia to obesity. For instance, in No Thanks
(above right: acrylic on paper, 40x26 1/4"), I portray
a dangerously thin girl offering toxic-looking cupcakes
to a creature who is rejecting her offer in favor of a bag
of fresh vegetables. Adoration of the Corn (acrylic on
paper, 30 x 22") is one of several of the pieces I’ve made
in reference to health problems brought on by our
seeming addiction to corn syrup in processed foods.
In a country where over-consumption and supersizing are the norm, there is an ever-widening gap
between rich and
poor, especially
when it comes to
food. The plague
of anorexia and
bulimia continues
among young girls
and women from
wealthier families
who feel pressure
from society
and the media to
be pencil thin.
Less advantaged
children—who
live in neighborhoods that have notoriously poor
access to supermarkets and fresh vegetables—are at
a real disadvantage. Their working parents have little
time to cook and often buy highly caloric and chemically laden processed foods at convenience stores.
This, in turn, leads to poor nutrition, weight gain and
chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
These children often pick up snacks from vending
machines on the way home from school and are then
apt to munch their way to obesity while plopped in
front of a TV or computer. Most children today don’t
play much outside or participate in organized sports—
at least not at the levels that were common in the
1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
I hope that increased media attention will shed
new light on these issues and that with Michelle
Obama’s campaign to curtail childhood obesity and
promote healthy options, we will stop sending mixed
messages to children about food. Instead, we need
to help everyone growing up in America today to eat
healthier, live better and let go of insatiable desires
for more of everything.
article +
artwork by
Karen Moss 66 PT
“In a country where over-consumption
and super-sizing are the norm, there
is an ever-widening gap between rich and
poor, especially when it comes to food.”
To submit your own commentary, email risdxyz@risd.edu (subject line: listen).
WINTER 2011
05
Peter
Hewitt
Edibles/Eating
86 ID
TEAS PLEASE
In 2003, when he set himself the “modest” goal of “reinventing
the entire tea ceremony,” Peter Hewitt 86 ID wasn’t exactly sure
how he meant to do that. But by applying a sculptor’s sensibility
to retooling the tired teabag, he designed a peaked pyramid in
an open-weave fabric that allows the water to flow freely around
the teas—like brewing an entire pot of tea in a single cup. His
stylish Tea Forté infusers, filled with premium whole-leaf teas and
rough-cut herbs, are now found at top retailers, resorts and spas
around the world—as well as online, where the Tea Forté website
offers all the teas, accessories and information you need to infuse
your own life with comfort and flavor.
teaforte.com
Erica
Saladino
00 GD
Sweets on Wheels
The only thing better than going out for fresh cupcakes is…
having them come to you. Erica Saladino 00 GD and Kristin
Amico, partners in Sugarush, tapped into a collective craving
when they converted a 1950s International Harvester Metro Van
into Providence’s only bakery on wheels. The two make their
yummy baked goods daily—all-natural cupcakes, cookies,
whoopie pies and other treats, including vegan and gluten-free
varieties—and bring their coveted sugar rush to hot spots
around town, updating followers on their daily route via Twitter
and Facebook. With snow piled high in LaProv this winter,
they’ve been focusing on special orders and baking for the
Cable Car and risd|works. But they promise the truck will be
making rounds again by the end of March. Sweet!
sugarushtruck.com
Designer Goes Nuts
It’s the classic story: Indonesian Designer
Afflicted with Lupus Finds Hope in…
Cashews? Well, maybe it’s not so classic.
But for Cyrilla Suwarsa 95 GD, life as a NY
designer took an unexpected turn when
Culinary Chemistry
she was diagnosed with the autoimmune
For Peter Morse 87 SC, the leap from
disorder and had to return to her family
Cyrilla
Suwarsa
95 GD
AND THERE’S
MORE
06
RISDXYZ
Look, You Can Cook!
making 3D art and design to marketing
base in Indonesia. Unable to work
full-time, she contributed her design
Look and Cook: A Cookbook for Children has long been a
quite as big as it sounds. After all, the
talents and her love of food to her sister’s
favorite among families who not only like to eat together, but
chairs, tables and accessories in his
nascent cashew business. The sisters
get a hoot out of exploring the magic of cooking, too. Author,
Ferrous Non Ferrous line are made of
chose to buy the nuts directly from
designer and cookbook collector Tina Davis 72 GD turned
aluminum, steel and other earthy
Indonesian farmers in order to help local
to some of her favorite vintage recipes and artwork to create
materials—almost as elemental as his
families. They developed delectable
a book meant to capture the fun of cooking. From popcorn
Mor-Sels finishing salt. It also doesn’t hurt
Peter
Morse
flavorings based on family recipes and
balls to salmon loaf, it’s full of classics easy enough for a
that Morse just happens to be as creative
87 SC
Suwarsa designed appealing packaging
Julia child to make with a bit of adult supervision. Davis also
in the kitchen as in the studio. Starting
and collateral. Today she’s back in New
explains rudimentary cooking techniques, various utensils
York, handling marketing, helping to run
and their uses, how to measure ingredients and best of all:
the Nuts+Nuts store in Brooklyn’s Dumbo
why a good little chefette always cleans up afterward.
neighborhood and working to launch a
risdworks.com
salt to people who love to cook wasn’t
Tina
Davis
72 GD
with mineral-rich grey sea salt from
Guérande, France, he adds locally grown
herbs and lemon zest for an exquisite
culinary accent. Find Mor-Sels in east
new outlet this spring at New Amsterdam
coast Whole Foods stores or online—and
Market. And the best part of the story: the
watch for more of Morse’s clever culinary
proceeds from online sales and customer
chemistry due out soon.
donations go to support lupus research.
mor-sels.com
nutsplusnuts.com
ferrousnonferrous.com
Clay Gordon 83 PH thechocolatelife.com
Clay Gordon shares his passion for chocolate by bringing together an online
community for “chocophiles.” In the mid-’90s, noticing “there was no one
talking about chocolate the same way as wine,” he had an “entrepreneurial
epiphany”: why not become the world’s best chocolate critic?
Cristina Rodriguez 02 ID crwork.net/lovely-daze
Collaborating with a pastry chef, Cristina Rodriguez created a series
of lovely abstract drawings for a special edition of the journal Lovely Daze.
The bilingual (French/English) dessert recipes incorporate the essence
of roses as a primary ingredient, as do Cristina’s delicate illustrations.
Gregory Poulin 99 IL gregorypoulin.com
Painter Gregory Poulin doesn’t exclusively focus on creating food-inspired
compositions, but when he does, the results are tasty. To sample some
of the visual treats the New Hampshire-based artist has exhibited in shows
like Plain, Powdered and Sugared, click on ARCHIVE on his site.
Victo Ngai 10 IL victo-ngai.com
Though Victo Ngai’s Noodle Fantasy and Dim-Sum t-shirts only exist as conceptual art, the New York-based illustrator is clearly talented at capturing
the culturally quirky flavors that have infused her consciousness since
growing up in Hong Kong. Can we convince her to actually produce these?
WINTER 2011
07
Michael Lyn
89 ID
Eating Out
Denise
(Dubuque) Lyn
LIKKLE PRICE, FOOD NICE!
89 IL
Read the Facebook banter on Island Grill, a restaurant chain in Jamaica and
Barbados, and you can practically hear people salivating: “Everyday I wish for
Island Grill,” “Yummy in ma tummy!” “When are you coming to Toronto?
Miami? New York? London? Here?” Michael Lyn 89 ID, director of marketing
for the family business, shoots the “food porn” photos that keep their fans
hungry for more; as director of strategy and development, Denise (Dubuque)
Lyn 89 IL keeps the 18 restaurants and 480 employees focused on providing
quick but mouth-wateringly authentic Jamaican food. Sound like a big
departure from RISD? Not really, says Denise. Keeping a big family business
humming in a developing country “truly requires all the critical thinking and
problem-solving skills RISD gave us.” She found her passion for food during
her EHP year in Rome, and now “Mike and I feel that food is one of life’s
greatest pleasures.”
facebook.com/IslandGrill
Jeffrey
Beers
BArch 79
Positively Palatable
Just a couple of decades ago, “eating habits were
very different,” notes Bruce Tillinghast 68 GD,
chef and owner of the recently expanded Providence restaurant New Rivers. “People couldn’t
deal with the fact that they could come in and
get something off the same menu that was Asian
and also Italian.” Multiculturalism hadn’t made
it to menus yet, but Bruce and his late wife
Pat knew they were on to something good when
they opened their doors in 1990. The couple
approached the dining experience from a uniquely
artistic perspective: “I tend to treat tastes the
same way I treat color,” Tillinghast says. “It’s easy
for me to put colors together mentally, and it was
an easy transition to flavor.” Twenty years later,
New Rivers is still one of the few Providence
restaurants that’s fully booked on weeknights.
How to Make It Better
As an illustrator who’s particularly strong with line art, Joe McKendry 94 IL does
a lot of editorial work focused on food—adding lovely little spot illustrations to
recipes in Runner’s World, depicting varieties of poofy poultry from the barnyard
Chalk it up to the chef’s artistic instincts—and his
Sara
Jenkins
sense of humor? “It’s a terrible pun,” Tillinghast
admits, but the shift from RISD to restaurants was
“just a change of palettes.”
87 PH
newriversrestaurant.com
in Portland Spaces and creating captivating how-to drawings for Esquire and
Men’s Journal (as in: how to mix a Stinger, how to shuck an oyster, how to eat
a lobster roll, how to enjoy a glass of port). Last fall he collaborated with two
Alluring Ambiance
Cornell researchers to present their ideas about how to counter childhood obesity
Sure, fresh charcuterie and farmstead cheeses selected
out precisely how cafeterias can be intelligently reconfigured to “nudge students
Porchetta, the restaurant Sara Jenkins 87 PH and her
toward making better choices on their own.” His clickable Lunch Line Redesign
cousin opened in the East Village in 2008, quickly
illustration ran on the op-ed/op-chart page of The New York Times’ interactive
earned a loyal following for its succulent, savory pork
edition and helped make a strong case for designing smarter lunchrooms.
sandwiches. The recipe comes from central Italy,
joemckendry.com
where Jenkins grew up eating porchetta as a treat at
by redesigning school cafeterias. McKendry created a clear illustration to map
by Todd English would taste good anywhere—but such
delicacies are sure to taste that much better in a sumptuously appointed interior designed by Jeffrey Beers BArch 79.
Known for crafting exotic environments for restaurants,
bars and hotels from London to Tokyo to Dubai, the
Perfecting the Pig
markets and street fairs. Her hunch that New Yorkers
celebrated hospitality designer recently created an inviting
would take to it, too, was right on. Now she has
array of market and dining areas for the newly opened
opened a second restaurant nearby called Porsena—
Plaza Food Hall by Todd English at the Plaza Hotel in NYC.
such as Fuse in Nashville and Tabú in Las Vegas—recently
Joe
McKendry
chosen by Club World for Best Interior Design and Best
94 IL
Beers’ interior genius is also evident at sultry nightspots
an eatery that puts pasta dishes at center stage.
Food lovers who can’t make it to Manhattan
might want to try some of the recipes Jenkins
posts via her regular online contributions
Lounge awards, respectively.
to The Atlantic, where she also shares the
jeffreybeers.com
ups and downs of running a restaurant.
Among them: “you spend all day solving
problems”—a lot like in RISD studios.
porchettanyc.com
theatlantic.com/sara-jenkins
Olga Bravo MFA 88 CR
olgascupandsaucer.blogspot.com
Since Olga Bravo moved her seasonal bakery in Little Compton, RI to
a year-round operation in Providence, Olga’s Cup + Saucer has become
a Rhode Island staple. The appealing little café serves delicious food and
artisan breads in a totally comfortable atmosphere. Bravissimo!
08
RISDXYZ
Fred Lynch 86 IL fredlynch.com
Illustration Professor Fred Lynch loves coffee—and the diner-style cups it
came in before the Starbucksification of the universe. Interested in making
the ordinary extraordinary, he paints the most captivating coffee cups this
side of Jupiter. Click on artist and paintings for a true treat.
William Hall 70 IL
Last fall Illustration faculty member Bill Hall created the commemorative
menu for a dinner honoring President Obama in Providence. The menu
featured illustrations of a Rhode Island Red (chicken) embellished with
shellfish and a striped bass—iconic foods representative of the Ocean State.
Bruce
Tillinghast
68 GD
Adrianna Bamber 01 IL
abamber.etsy.com
From pierogies playing tennis to holubtsi holding hands, the food characters Adrianna Bamber draws for her greeting cards are so silly they’re worth
sharing beyond the Slavically inclined. Check out the Ukrainian Food Variety
Pack, which includes a happy little borscht + spoon pair.
WINTER 2011
09
Inspiration Bears Fruit
Talk about looking good enough to eat. Several years ago
Deborah Tuch 96 JM was ready to take a break from making
Kitch(en)ware + Groceries
fine jewelry in her San Francisco studio. So she concocted
a mixture of glitter resin, spread it on dried lime slices
and—voilà! Glitterlimes took root. To her surprise, her fruity
Jason
Amendolara
PLEASE PLAY
WITH YOUR FOOD!
Deborah
Tuch
96 JM
little concoctions were an instant hit and before long her
“experiment” was paying the rent. Tuch has since added
94 IL
persimmon, lotus, kiwi and a dozen other varieties to the
fruit line—and branched out into candy. It’s all part of her
quest to “bring glitter to the masses.”
glitterlimes.com
Jason Amendolara 94 IL takes it as a compliment when people call
his work immature. As the creator of silly ceramic face plates that
invite kids and kidults to do a lot more with their peas, potatoes
and gravy than eat them, what else would he expect? His Food Face
and Ms. Food Face tableware for Fred & Friends features charismatic
characters that just beg to be personalized by people playing around
with their food. Amendolara has nailed the culinary kitsch niche
with other refreshing designs for Fred, including wooden spoons
that double as drumsticks, a message-in-a-bottle stopper with the
plea “Send wine!” and shot glasses labeled DRINK that turn into
DRUNK when they—or you—are.
worldwidefred.com
Deserted Shoppers
Providence may not look like a desert, but according to Lindsay Kinkade MFA 10
GD, Erika Tarte MFA 11 GD and Beth Weaver MFA 12 GD, research shows that the city
fits Michelle Obama’s definition of a “food desert”: more than 30,000 households
have no ready access to healthy food. The recent grads hope to address this
problem via the Grocery Loop, a bus service they’ve proposed to deliver people
to and from a variety of grocery stores using low-emission hybrid buses. A RISD
Graduate Studies Grant helped get the project off the ground and last fall it
got a boost from winning the Better World Challenge at RISD’s 2010 Better World
by Design conference.
adaptiveprovidence.tumblr.com
Luxe Libations
The person who has everything doesn’t have these—but would he or
she want them? That’s the very question Louie Rigano 10 ID—a Fulbright
Louie
Rigano
10 ID
Brendan
Ravenhill
MID 09
fellow who’s exploring Wabi Sabi design in Japan this year—had in
mind when he dreamed up his Leather Martini Glasses. Reflecting on the
Lindsay Kinkade
long history of animal-skin vessels, Rigano notes that leather has since
MFA 10 GD
gained such status as a luxury material that it’s now used indiscriminately and sometimes inappropriately. Martini glasses themselves
Beauty Removes Top
Erika Tarte
symbolize leisure and opulence, but “would a functional leather martini
No frou-frou materials, garish logos or gimmicks here:
MFA 11 GD
Brendan Ravenhill MID 09 has created a bottle opener that
Beth Weaver
glass be as desirable as a fine leather jacket?” To find out, he made
some, sealed them with beeswax and planted a single crystal in the
is as brilliant as it is pared-down. With an inlaid magnet to
void of the hollow stem. Though his limited run of leather glasses was
capture the bottle cap and another to attach it to the fridge,
a conceptual exercise, there’s at least “a theoretical potential for
MFA 12 GD
this natural beauty relies on a bent nail to do the top-popping.
mass production,” he hints.
Available in dark walnut or light beech, it’s a must-have
louierigano.com
in every kitchen.
areaware.com
Sascha Kaposi 97 ID progressiveintl.com
The Boston Globe calls Sascha Kaposi’s silicone suction lid a brilliant “green
alternative to plastic wrap.” Designed to create an instant airtight seal, it
fits on a variety of kitchen containers and is just one of many items he has
dreamed up as product design manager at Progressive International.
10
RISDXYZ
Sarah Kern 10 IL
rifoodbank.org
Working with Women Ending Hunger, Sarah Kern recently designed a
colorful reusable shopping bag that is now being sold and used at grocery
stores throughout Rhode Island. All proceeds help to support the state’s
Community Food Bank.
Audrey Barnes MID 12
Aimed at second graders, the Lil Rhody Native program makes use of
a Farm-to-School Kit designed by Audrey Barnes. A new kit is distributed
to students each season and includes a selection of local produce, recipes
for cooking it and a poster with fun and relevant information.
Sean O’Hara 96 ID
nambe.com
As if eating salad weren’t enticing enough, Seah O’Hara makes it as
aesthetically pleasing as it is delicious with his Yaro Salad Bowls for Nambé.
He turns his bowls to accentuate the grain of acacia wood, a dense, durable
hardwood that doesn’t absorb stains or odors, and can be hand-washed.
WINTER 2011
11
“I’ve got a stack of
cookbooks on my
nightstand that
I read like novels.”
Shawn Kenney 93 IL
“I don’t think
I realized how
therapeutic
it would be.”
Lauren Garfinkle 91 AP
“Immediately I’m
like, ‘I don’t do
that.’ The only
competition I
ever got involved
with was playing
soccer...” Ciril Hitz 91 ID
12
RISDXYZ
“Even though I’m
working with an edible
material, my studio
ends up resembling a
mad scientist’s lab.”
Melissa Armstrong 07 ID
“I’ve become so
sensitive to ingredients that when
I write a recipe I
can taste it.”
Krystina Castella 89 ID
WINTER 2011
13
BREAD
WINNER
At RISD Ciril Hitz didn’t exactly
consider dough an artistic medium.
Now, as one of the top pastry
chefs in America, he’s pushing the
boundaries of baking.
by Francie Latour
Is it possible to accidentally stumble into becoming one
of the world’s leading culinary artists? To hear Ciril Hitz
tell it, you could almost believe it is.
Those who know him call Hitz a visionary, an artist who
has transformed the world of decorative baking. Both at
Johnson & Wales University, where he chairs the International
Baking and Pastry Institute, and in the baking world, where
he makes prize-winning bread sculptures in the heat of timed
competition, he’s known as a born innovator and master
of a radical aesthetic in baking that shocked old-world artisans:
Think French Impressionists rocking the salons of neoClassical Paris, only with bread instead of brushstrokes.
His technique has spawned legions of followers. (In the
bread arts world, it’s not uncommon for judges to see a
sculpture by an unknown baker and say, somewhat dismissively, “Oh, just another Hitz.”) His tenure at Johnson
& Wales has ushered in a new generation of bakers whose
rigorous training rivals European standards. His brand,
Breadhitz, encompasses DVDs, books, YouTube videos and
appearances all over foodie TV. And in January, the towering
18-foot-tall bread sculpture he erected last year at Johnson &
Wales was officially entered as a Guinness World Record for
tallest bread structure. The feat, a 48-hour baking marathon
involving students and faculty, was documented in the TLC
network program Extreme Food Sculptors.
“The way Ciril approaches the bread arts, it’s fun, it’s wacky,
it’s in your face. But really what it’s about is quality in every
arena,” says Abe Faber, vice president of the Bread Bakers
14
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Ciril Hitz BFA 91
WINTER 2011
15
“I have no
idea how this
happened.”
“Immediately I’m like, ‘I don’t do that,’” Hitz says. “The
only competition I ever got involved with was playing soccer
back when I was a kid.”
A short time later, Hitz got a call from the Bread Bakers
Guild, saying he had made the initial cut—after his colleague
submitted an application in his name, without telling him. He
got through every round, right down to the finals, vying for the
decorative baking slot on the American team. “I have no idea
how this happened,” he says, using a phrase he returns to more
than once in explaining the trajectory of his life. “But I went
to this competition, and I won.”
What happened, colleagues say, is that Hitz began showing
professional bakers with no art training things they had never
seen come out of an oven. And he seemed to do it effortlessly.
In 2002 his creations for the US team—part sculpture, part
tapestry and 100 percent dough—helped the team win second
place at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, edged out
only by Japan and beating all the European masters at their
own game.
Despite all this, Hitz considered himself a novice. In
some ways still sees himself as somewhat of an outsider, noting
that “my training was not in baking bread.” It was in design,
ceramics and pastries, and in Europe, the bread and pastry
professions are kept fairly separate, Hitz explains. “When
I was running away from trade school in Switzerland, I did
Ciril Hitz BFA 91 ID
Guild of America and owner of Clear Flour Bakery in Brookline,
MA. “When you see one of his dragonflies that looks like it’s
moving and pulsating with this delicacy of form, it’s something
you could appreciate just as much as if it were made out of
bronze or clay. He’s one of these big-deal Renaissance men.”
That’s not exactly the story Hitz tells. His story starts with
a violin he built in high school, hoping it would make up for
his lackluster grades and get him into RISD. It goes on to include
his Industrial Design degree project, when he made ceramic
dinnerware and then realized that his platters looked like
empty canvases—then, improbably, came three years at a
trade school in Switzerland, his homeland, making chocolates
and truffles in a classroom full of 14-year-old apprentices.
To escape, Hitz fled to France to sneak in a class or two
baking bread.
Fast-forward a few years to his first faculty position in the
baking and pastry program at Johnson & Wales, in 1997. There,
Hitz began taking part in culinary competitions. “We had this
food show we would do every fall down in New York. You had
to have a sugar piece, a wedding cake, all these different platters.
And you also needed decorative bread,” he says. “I opened
my big mouth and said, ‘Well, I’ve taken this class in decorative
bread back in Switzerland. If you want to, I can take on that
part of it.’”
That was in 2000. Hitz downplays his role, but when
Johnson & Wales won that show, a colleague urged him to try
out for a spot as the artistic designer on the Bread Bakers Guild
of America team. The winner would go on to compete in the
World Cup of baking, held every three years in France.
16
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Ciril Hitz BFA 91
Hitz reluctantly
entered his first
bread baking competition in 2000 and
won. Before long
he had landed a spot
on the US bread
baking team at the
the Coupe du Monde
de la Boulangerie, the
World Cup of baking.
spend some time with bread bakers to learn the craft, but I
never really understood what was going on. So I’m not a baker,
and now there I was on the baking team. I was definitely the
odd man out.”
MAKING MAGIC WITH DEAD DOUGH
This much Hitz will admit to: In the intensive, months-long
training that propelled him to the US team and the baking
world’s premier international stage, he found the outlet for
his three-dimensional design mind that he had been searching
for since leaving RISD. With dead dough—the soft, yeast-free
material used by decorative bakers—he had a structurally
sound medium with the integrity of clay. And like the ceramic
dinnerware from his RISD days, the dough seemed to cry out
for something more—for something like color.
“During that time, I created this language or art medium,
if you will,” says Hitz. “I started to develop formulations where
I took natural ingredients—spices, infused syrups and things
like that—and created a color palette that had not been seen
before. As I started to blend them, I could evoke new colors.
And as I developed this marbling technique, it became even
more exciting.”
The trial-and-error phase was considerable: The only way
to find out how baking time, temperature and proportions
would affect the color process and intensity was to bake a piece
“During this time,
I created this
language or art
medium.... And
as I developed [it],
it became even
more exciting.”
As he started sculpting with decorative
bread dough, Hitz
realized that the
missing ingredient
was color. So he
began to experiment
with adding natural
colorants—beet
powder for purple,
turmeric for yellow,
chili powder for red—
in order to create a
vibrant color palette
that had never been
used before.
WINTER 2011
17
Left: Last year Hitz
masterminded the
construction of an
elaborate, 18-foottall decorative bread
sculpture made
during a 48-hour
building marathon.
The TLC network
broadcast the feat
on its program
Extreme Food Sculptors and this year
Guinness confirmed
that the piece set a
record for the tallest
bread sculpture in
the world.
“What I saw in Ciril was somebody who
might have landed from Mars and decided
to make his idea of a bread sculpture.
He had no preconceived notions. He wasn’t
bound by any old-school ideas.”
Mitch Stamm
completely every single time. After early attempts failed, he
had to abandon infused syrups for powders. But eventually,
Hitz’s experimentation with color—beet powder for purple,
turmeric for yellow, spinach powder for green, chili powder for
red, dark cocoa for black—brought his artistic journey almost
completely full-circle.
At RISD “there were some instructors that really worked
with the absence of color,” Hitz says. ”You had to create with
a purely monochromatic palette. The form had to stand by
itself, and that was a very important exercise. But as an artist,
that becomes limiting. Your palette and your style tend to
evolve, and your technique could potentially change. That’s
sort of what was happening to me.”
Hitz’s debut at the Coupe du Monde was chronicled in the
documentary The Best Bread in the World. One night in 2003,
Mitch Stamm, now a colleague of Hitz in the baking program
at Johnson & Wales, sat down to watch the show on the Food
Network. At the time, he was working as an executive pastry
chef at a ski resort in Sun Valley, ID.
Stamm says he watched as Hitz, whom he hadn’t yet met
and had never heard of, sculpted an abstract Navajo blanket,
New York’s iconic Unisphere and a rippling American flag, all
from dead dough. He was slackjawed.
“What I saw in Ciril was somebody who might have landed
from Mars and decided to make his idea of a bread sculpture.
18
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Ciril Hitz BFA 91
He had no preconceived notions. He wasn’t bound by any
old-school ideas,” says Stamm, who had witnessed the Coupe
du Monde in person several times. “A lot of times in these
competitions, you would see bread sculptures that were
dioramas—like Swiss people skiing down a hill, or when a child
draws a little scene—[but never anything] like symbolism or
abstraction.” With Hitz’s work, there was a beautiful use of
color and line, Stamm says, but also structural risk. “You would
see pieces leaning where there was not a lot of stabilization,”
he says, “and you couldn’t really see how it was put together.”
The day after the show aired, Stamm’s phone rang. It was
Hitz. “It was like Babe Ruth calling me or something,” says
Stamm. “He informed me that Johnson & Wales was looking
for a new bread instructor and that my name had come up. At
this point, I was in my mid-50s... I’d been doing this for a while,
and here’s this kid—a sculptor, a tireless mentor, a master at
his craft—and he’s just blowing it out. He’s got hand skills I’ve
only seen on very few people.”
Hand skills, but also people skills: “He says things that
make people laugh,” Stamm says—“things that I would
probably get hit for.”
CULTURE CLASH
People skills are something Hitz has definitely needed. In
2002 the competitive baking world wasn’t entirely ready for
WINTER 2011
19
“When I started this
Breadhitz concept,
I had no clue what
I was doing.”
color. The culture clash he experienced years earlier, when he
did his pastry apprenticeship in Switzerland, pointed to what
was to come.
“There’s something to be said for learning something the
traditional way, and doing it over and over and over again
because that’s how your teacher did it and how his father did it
and his father did it before that,” says Kylee Hunnibell Hitz 91 ID,
Ciril’s wife and the other half of Breadhitz, who traveled to
Switzerland with him. “But doing the apprenticeship was a big
challenge, especially coming from a place like RISD, where
you’re constantly encouraged to push the boundaries of what
you know. In a Swiss pastry school, if you don’t fit inside their
box, they don’t know what to do with you. And they had no
idea what to do with Ciril.”
In 2002, as her husband’s experimentation with color
elevated him to the US team, it became clear he would have
to rein in those creative impulses in order to have a chance at
winning. “It seemed almost comical at the time—no color?
What? That was so strange to us as creative people,” says Kylee.
“But in these very traditional environments, it’s their
competition, it’s their country. They set the rules.”
Balancing old-guard dictates with his innovative drive, Hitz
managed to color within the lines, using mostly muted earth
tones. “I understand it, and I don’t hold it against [the Guild] at
all,” he says. “But it was very frustrating. It was like discovering
a new language and becoming fluent in it, but then not being
able to use it to express yourself.”
If the competition felt stifling, it also opened doors to new
opportunities for Hitz to, as he puts it, “go nuts” afterwards.
That meant an explosion of color, but also sculptures that were
larger and more ambitious in scale. With his once-muted
colors now fully expressed, his unique skills as a sculptor really
soared. In 2004 he swept all three individual bread awards at
the National Bread and Pastry Championship in Atlantic City,
NJ. Two years later, he served as the competition’s head judge.
In 2007 and 2008, Pastry Art and Design magazine named
him one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America. Corporate
clients came calling with commissions for bread sculptures at
building-naming ceremonies and other events. So did NBC’s
Today show.
Not surprisingly, a long line of students—from the US and
abroad—also formed, all with requests to take classes and learn
some of Hitz’s techniques. But for the most part, these weren’t
college-age students looking for a four-year culinary degree.
They were baking professionals and enthusiasts seeking
tutorials and tricks of the trade in a user-friendly form. Enter
Breadhitz, launched with a four-part and then an eight-part
DVD series, Bread Art and Better Bread. It was the start of
a web-based educational business that has branched out into
books and television, fueled by Hitz’s continued visibility in
competitive shows and seminars around the country.
20
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Ciril Hitz BFA 91
But if there’s a grand design behind this emerging bread arts
empire, Kylee isn’t quite sure what it is. “Let’s just say we have
yet to have our official corporate retreat where we get together
and do a five-year plan,” she says.
Hitz is even more blunt. “When I started this Breadhitz
concept, I had no clue what I was doing,” he says. “A lot of times,
an opportunity just presents itself, like when we were
approached by a publishing company asking if I would be
interested in doing a book. And I’ll say, ‘Yea, sure. Let’s do it!’
And then Kylee’s the one who has to bring me down to earth
and say, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’”
Right now, Breadhitz is certainly thinking global, while also
thinking intensely local. In fact, according to Hitz, the only
plan he ever really had as a baker is one he’s failed to realize:
owning his own pastry shop.
Then again, if you were a Renaissance-man-cum-breadsculptor, you might not need to go through the hassle of leasing
commercial space for your baked goods. You could, as Hitz did
last year, retrofit the shed outside your house with a woodfired oven and turn it into a baking studio. And just to get back
to real fundamentals, you could put up a sign in Rehoboth, MA,
the town where you live, and have a bake sale: sourdough,
French, focaccia, whole wheat, fruit cake and “the instant heart
attack,” as Hitz likes to call it: cinnamon buns.
“We decided on a Thursday that we were going to do this. We
didn’t really advertise. We didn’t tell anyone about it. And we
Based on requests
from amateurs and
professionals alike,
Hitz developed a fourpart DVD series called
Bread Art, followed by
an eight-part series
called Better Bread.
He has also published
two books to share
his knowledge and
techniques for baking
perfect artisan breads.
just baked bread—about 100 loaves,” says Hitz. “We dropped
a share off at the local CSA [Community Supported Agriculture
farm] and just prayed to God that someone would come by and
buy the bread. We sold out in 45 minutes.”
The following week, Hitz tried it again, this time doubling
the amount of bread. It all went in less than an hour, with some
customers coming from as far as 45 minutes away and others
knocking on their door days after the signs had come down.
By week three, when Hitz quadrupled the amount of bread and
still sold out in less than 90 minutes, he had stumbled onto
his next idea.
“At that point I’m thinking: This is just madness. This shed
doesn’t even have running water,” says Hitz. “So we brought
a construction crew in here and we designed the space as a real
production facility. My ultimate goal now is to teach boutiquestyle baking classes out here in the summer. Private parties,
team-building, whatever you want to do. And have it all at our
house.”
A few days after he lays out his latest vision, Kylee cautions
that the Breadhitz bread shed is a grand plan still in need
of some actual planning. “It’s a work in progress,” she says in
a phone call from her home. She talks about starting small and
doing some basic bread baking, when a voice cuts in in the
background. “That was Ciril,” she says. “He told me, ‘Nothing
is basic.’
“He’s just joking. I think.”
Hitz and his wife Kylee Hunnibell Hitz 91 ID
plan to sell fresh baked breads and pastries
from the bread shed they built at their home in
Rehoboth, MA and then see where that takes
them. Maybe workshops, retreats, bread-baking
parties? “It’s a work in progress,” Kylee says.
WINTER 2011
21
Political Pablum
As the works on
the following
pages indicate,
art inspired by
food can be
very satisfying.
by Liisa Silander
As Garfinkel developed each dish—
Lauren Garfinkel has been using
Potatoes Abu Ghraib (mashed potatoes,
food as a medium since 1998, but
bread crumbs, nutmeg, mild & sharp
even before then she found inspiration
cheddar cheese, scallion, black & white
in unlikely places. At RISD she designed
pepper), Wire Tapioca (tapioca, white &
a senior coat collection inspired by
milk chocolate, red & blue sugar) and
ham hocks and sketched garments that
several more—she couldn’t stop thinking
“looked like roast chicken, with tendons
about the impact of the political
as laces.”
messages we’re all fed and the irony
Garfinkel now runs a vintage clothing
and textiles studio in Brooklyn, but looks of the expression “you are what you eat.”
As she took the time “to research each
to “cooking for catharsis.” And she has
person and event—seriously and with
discovered that making art with food is
due respect”—she worked to incorporate
a strangely satisfying means of digesting
the politics of the day. The initial inspira- “ingredients and techniques that
illustrate what I believe to be the essence
tion for her Feast for Bush series started
of each subject.” The exercise proved
with the Katrina disaster in 2005, the
to be “a sobering experience,” she says,
day she heard President George W. Bush
adding, “I don’t think I realized how
applaud FEMA Director Michael Brown
therapeutic it would be. It was a relief to
by saying, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck
channel some of the deep disillusionof a job!” That comment eventually led
ment I felt.”
to her Heck of a Job Brownie (below),
Feast for Bush didn’t surface until
in which a flood victim sculpted in dark
2009, but since then the series has been
chocolate takes refuge from a mass of
featured on eatmedaily.com, Salon.com,
chocolate syrup by huddling on the roof
the Washington Post Express and by
of a house made from walnut brownies.
Agence France Presse. “To have a project
that means so much to me be so well
received was kind of incredible,” Garfinkel says. “When it appeared in the Post
I hoped that maybe a few of the people
I had researched took a look.”
Next up in her ongoing fascination
with food and politics: she has a new site
in the works called Edible Government.
Garfinkel channeled
her frustration with
the Bush administration into pieces like
these: Baba Rumsfeld
(a combination of
baba au rhum cake,
pears, plums and pistachios), Dick Cheney
Birdshot Salad (made
with a cornucopia
of fresh ingredients)
and Heck of a Job
Brownie (brownies and
chocolate syrup).
22
RISDXYZ
APPAREL DESIGN
Lauren Garfinkel BFA 91
feastforbush.com
WINTER 2011
23
Painting for Food
Shawn Kenney began making food
paintings about five years ago—as
part of a self-imposed “artistic boot
camp” to get in shape after being away
from the easel for too long. He painted
one small study a day, using a makeshift
shadow box and the classical “sight-size”
method. Yet, his goal was anything but
traditional. “I wanted these paintings
to be fresh, informal, off-kilter, lit-bythe-fridge-at-night,” he says. “They’re
rustic Italian in both sensibility and
execution.”
In terms of the subject matter, “food
was an easy choice” for Kenney since
it has always been something he knows
and loves. “My wife and I take great
pleasure in cooking and planning trips
based on culinary adventures. And I’ve
got a stack of cookbooks on my nightstand that I read like novels.”
Once his inventory of appealing
little food studies grew, restaurateurs,
café owners, grocers, wineries, friends
and collectors began to snap them up—
initially online and now through
galleries in New England and California.
Before long he had figured out a way to
combine his lifelong commitment to
good causes with a passion for painting
the items people have in their refrigera-
People seem to
like the flavor of
Kenney’s paintings
and often commission him to paint
their favorite foods.
Shown here: Lobster
(2010, acrylic on
panel, 8x10")
and Midnite Fluff
(2010, acrylic on
panel, 6x6").
24
RISDXYZ
ILLUSTRATION
Shawn Kenney BFA 93 shawnkenney.com
tors and cupboards. Through a project
he calls Will Paint for Food, he has been
donating a portion of the proceeds from
the sale of his paintings to food banks
and other hunger-relief organizations,
including the Rhode Island Community
Food Bank, Women Against Hunger,
Share Our Strength/Operation Frontline
and Heifer International.
“It’s a natural fit for me and a way to
give back,” he explains. “We price the
food paintings lower to make them more
accessible to buyers and to help the
project. Ultimately, we’d like to grow it
to the point that others could adopt it as
a model and contribute to their own
local organizations and pantries.”
As for his ongoing fascination with
food—whether through cooking, reading
or sampling local favorites wherever he
goes—Kenney says that all of his work is
“unabashedly comfort-driven.” He
recognizes that his food paintings are
technically still lifes, yet in his mind that
makes them “feel far more intellectual”—
and far less visceral and emotional—than
his relationship with the subject matter
itself. “It’s really about connecting,
shared memories, celebrating the table,”
he says. “It’s about the joy of experiencing those simple pleasures with others.”
Since he began
painting foodstuffs,
Kenney has covered
the gamut, from
sweet to savory,
animal to vegetable,
edible to drinkable.
Blueberries (2007,
acrylic on panel,
8x8") is among his
many seasonally
fresh paintings.
WINTER 2011
25
Seduced by Sugar
“I got my degree in ID and have always
been really interested in the intersection
of art and science,” she explains. “I now
recognize that they have much more
in common than I ever thought.” Through
her studio “lab” experiments, she began
researching how super-saturated sugar
solution can grow on hand-knit lace, transforming it from a soft, malleable material
“into literal rocks and crystals through
a very simple scientific process.” She
found the results to be both “beautiful
and baffling,” especially as the sexual
overtones crystallized in pieces like dura
mater, a scanty, full-scale “suit of armor”
that represents her first large-scale piece
of rock candy art.
“I love that these feminine knit pieces”
become “infused with entirely new
associations of the edible, the sweet and
seductive, the feminine and the
inaccessible,” Armstrong says. Thanks
to an NEA grant, she’s continuing her
research into rock candy art this spring
during a residency at the Virginia Center
for the Creative Arts in the foothills
of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
photos by Warren Buckles
By growing sugar
crystals on lace,
Armstrong has
found an exciting
new medium for
expression. In late
2010, she completed
her first full-scale
piece, called dura
mater—a super sweet
“suit of armor” for a
5'8" female. A detail
from Telano (2010,
handknit cotton, nuts,
skewer, food coloring,
sugar, 12x36x4") is
shown above right.
Melissa Armstrong is the first to
admit that candy isn’t the easiest
material in the world for making
art—especially when it involves actually
growing the crystalline sugar most
of us know as rock candy. “Even though
I’m working with an edible material,
my studio ends up resembling a mad
scientist’s lab with pots of boiling sugar
and aquariums full of crystal-growing
sugar solution,” she says.
Armstrong initially began experimenting with candy during a 2009
residency at the Vermont Studio Center
in Johnson, VT. “All of my previous
work had dealt with permanence and
impermanence, and would degrade or
fall apart in various ways,” she says.
“So when I went to Vermont and wanted
to play with something totally new,
I chose candy—initially hard candy—
because I knew it would melt, dissolve
and be edible, allowing room for all types
of degradation and interpretation.”
Beyond its transient qualities, candy
appeals to Armstrong because “there
is an innate playfulness and innocence
in the material” that creates a tension
between the sugary substance itself
and its application. But as she began
making candy art, she quickly realized
that the idea of actually growing sugar
crystals presented even more intriguing
creative potential.
26
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Melissa Armstrong BFA 07 msarmsdesign.com/new
WINTER 2011
27
By translating her
love of materials to
experimentation in
the kitchen, Krystina
Castella has found
a second career
creating cookbooks.
by Liisa Silander
28
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
At RISD they used to call her “the materials girl.” It was the ’80s, Madonna
was hot and though Krystina Castella admits that she couldn’t draw as well as
everyone else in her class, she could make just about anything—out of anything.
“When I wasn’t in class I would be out collecting all types of materials—fabrics,
plastics, metal scraps,” she says. “I had boxes and boxes of materials in my RISD
studio and my apartment, so when we got an assignment I would just go through
my boxes and start building and making.”
Two decades later Castella still takes a materials approach to design, but now
she’s doing most of her making in the kitchen, where she specializes in sweets. She
has traded her boxes of widgets and plastics and whatnots for bins brimming with
white, wheat, corn, yucca, potato and rice flours; white, rock, light and dark brown
sugars, along with turbinado, honey and agave; plus mix-ins and decorating
ingredients.
After selling her product design business a decade ago, Castella began teaching
full-time at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and figured that she would
eventually start a different type of business—one that would allow her to actually
design and “work on ideas” more and manage employees, contracts and cash flow
less. It didn’t take long for her to concoct a new idea: researching, writing and
art directing attractive and accessible cookbooks for amateurs who love to experiment in the kitchen. Since Crazy About Cupcakes hit the market in 2006, she has
published Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone (2008), Booze Cakes (2010) and just last fall,
Crazy About Cookies and the sumptuous A World of Cake. On the following pages
the “materials girl” talks about how and why creating cookbooks is such a natural fit
for her interests and talents.
Krystina Castella BFA 89
All five of the
cookbooks Castella
has written focus
on sweets. From
cupcakes to cookies
to ice pops and cakes,
she fills her books
with images that are
as appealing to the
eye as her recipes
are to dessert lovers
around the world.
As a designer, how and why
did you decide to write your
first cookbook?
In late 2000, after selling my design
business and starting to teach fulltime, I was at a real turning point.
I figured I’d start another business
at some point, but structure it differently. In the meantime, I took a
break, which to me means exploring.
So I rollerskated at the beach, experimented with photography, took a few
writing and cultural studies classes at
UCLA and baked all the time. I began
developing recipes and designing my
own cupcakes—just for fun and for
every birthday and party I went to.
I made each cupcake different and
photographed them all.
As a designer who’s interested
in cultural trends and always on the
lookout for market niches, I saw
the cupcake thing coming a few years
later. The “kidult” phenomenon
(where adults act like kids) was
growing so fast that in New York,
for instance, perfectly rational people
with real jobs on Wall Street were
standing in line at midnight to top
off a night on the town with cupcakes
from Magnolia.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
I try to. I write recipes with just
enough detail that they’re not intimidating. And I always add variations
and substitutions for ingredients
so people feel free to customize and
personalize the recipes. Being a
designer and a visual person, I also
think about the entire book—the
recipes, the images, the sidebars,
the layout and how they work together to make the book into a journey
in itself.
No, not really, because there were
so many facets. The first few years
I collected recipes from people at
school, spoke to food historians,
folklorists and cookbook librarians.
I tested and created hundreds of
recipes. By that time, Crazy About
Cupcakes had been distributed
abroad and I had an international
audience, so the research became
much more interesting.
When a woman from Singapore
asked how to steam cupcakes in a
wok, we went back and forth to figure
it out and I ended up adding her recipe for a Pineapple Huat Kuah
steamed cupcake. When a man from
Zimbabwe asked me if he could use
one of my cupcake recipes at his
bakery, I said, “Sure. But now tell me
about the cakes of your region of
Africa.” And he did, so I included
recipes for a lot of African fried snack
cakes. When a food blogger in Brazil
emailed to tell me that she loved my
cupcake book, I asked her advice on
what to include in A World of Cake.
So far every cookbook I’ve proposed
has found a home with a publisher
pretty quickly. But doing the research
and experimentation in the kitchen
and preparing a solid proposal really
takes time. The proposal for Pops! Icy
Treats for Everyone took me about six
months to create. First I developed
most of the recipes and then did a
photo shoot with a food photographer
so that the acquisitions editor could
see what I was talking about.
There’s this fine line between putting enough value into what you’ve
developed to make someone want to
work with you and putting so much
into it that it’s no longer malleable
enough to fit what a publisher needs.
It’s very important to know just
where that line is.
Really? It definitely looks
like your most ambitious and
impressive cookbook to date,
but how did it turn into such
a long-term project?
I can imagine. And beyond the
proposal, the production process
is even more involved, isn’t it?
Shortly after Cupcakes was finished
there was a bake sale at Art Center
with all of these amazing cakes that
I had never seen before, mostly made
by our international students. Rice
cakes, mooncakes, phyllo pastry
cakes, Indian sweets… I loved how
each person had a story to tell about
their favorite cakes—and everyone
had a cake they loved no matter
where they were from. The memories
were more about how we experience
cake—at birthdays, weddings, harvest
festivals, baby showers and even
funerals—and I thought, “This is
amazing! I want to learn more.” So
I started my journey to find the most
interesting cakes of the world.
Yes, but some books take longer then
others. Booze Cakes and Pops! each
took about nine months from the
signing of the contract to the final
photo shoot and a couple of more
months for layout and edits. The
two Crazy books each took about 18
months, and A World of Cake literally
took six years.
She immediately recruited people
all over the country to help out by
highlighting a regional specialty.
Has what you learned at RISD
helped with your cookbook
career?
Well, I approach baking with the
same materials approach I used
at RISD. I like to create books that
inspire play in the kitchen and I
actually develop new recipes by
playing with a pantry full of ingredients, cabinets filled with baking pans
and a tool kit of decorating supplies.
Taste, texture, form and color all
come together in the process of
baking and decorating. For the gingerbread constructions in Crazy About
Cookies I designed a mid-century
gingerbread house, fifth-wheel trailer
and Christmas tree, then
made scale drawings, built foam-core
models and made them out of gingerbread. I used skills I first learned in
my RISD Pre-College architecture
classes. In Pops! I showcase everything I know and learned at RISD—
including mold-making.
“When I’m
trying to
develop a
new recipe,
it’s more like
a combination
of design and
science.”
Krystina Castella 89 ID
bottom, far right: photo xxxxxxxxxx
I did my research and at the time
there was not a single cupcake book
on the market. I felt very confident
about doing one because in addition
to having developed hundreds of
recipes and taken some beautiful
images, I wrote a publishing proposal
that established a strong case for
a cupcake book from a business perspective. It included a detailed
marketing and distribution plan
along with persuasive numbers on
the target market and the growth
curve. Authors usually don’t submit
that kind of thing, so my proposal
really stood out. When several publishers called me back within a few
weeks, I was in shock, but was also
really excited.
RISDXYZ
I bet it was quite a journey. But
was it tough to sustain your enthusiasm over so many years?
Has it been easy getting postCupcakes books published?
Given the preponderance of
cookbooks out there, how did
you manage to find a publisher?
30
Do you think that you bring
something new or different
to the cookbook market?
Krystina Castella BFA 89
WINTER 2011
31
“I really love the
creative opportunities
that sweets provide;
it’s one realm where it’s
completely acceptable
to push the limits.”
Do you think there’s an analogy
between artistic and culinary
creativity—in that they both
involve improvisation, taking
risks and using your intuition
and instincts?
Probably. But when I’m trying to
develop a new recipe, it’s more like
a combination of design and science.
With baking I usually study four
or five of the same types of recipes to
really understand what’s happening
What similarities do you see
between creating in the kitchen
and in the studio?
There are so many! In both cases
I like to work alone and get inspired
by the materials at hand. I’ve become
so sensitive to ingredients that when
I write a recipe I can taste it. I know
how sweet or buttery or salty it will
be, how much volume I have to work
with and what color it will be after
I bake it. I know if I swap out one
ingredient for another how much
more or less I need to use and how
it will change the flavor.
It may sound strange but it’s the
same when designing with, say, wood;
I know how soft the material is and
what type of radius it could hold or
joints and fasteners I can use to give
it structure and form. If I finish it
a certain way it will create a warmer
feeling; if I do it another way it will
be more modern. The same holds
with making sweets.
32
RISDXYZ
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Krystina Castella BFA 89
physically and chemically. Then
I develop my own take on it, write it
down and make it—over and over—
until it tastes and looks exactly like
what I envisioned. It’s the same
thing with products. Say I’m designing a bookcase. I make about 10 or
12 full-size corrugated mock-ups.
Then I look at them all and edit from
there. In both cases, I make a lot
of “prototypes” and then choose the
best to develop.
Have you always been more
interested in baking than
in cooking?
That makes sense. So creating
new recipes feels less like
making art than combining
science and design?
Well, to me the best ideas also need
to consider the audience. Sometimes
a recipe I like as an artist is not what
I’ll choose to bring to market. I like
to create things for the average consumer, so I make sure that the recipes
I develop are easy to make and for
foods people will really eat. If I design
a bookcase, it needs to fit into a
mainstream home and be affordable.
And I make sure that both reveal my
playful creative twist.
With a book like Pops! I bought
a stand-up freezer and did hundreds
of scientific experiments with freezing different ingredients to see how
the process transformed their texture
and taste—and in the case of the
cocktail pops, to find the perfect balance where the alcohol would freeze
along with other ingredients.
For Booze Cakes, which wasn’t
quite as fun to research as its title
suggests, I spent months baking, icing
and soaking cakes in wine spirits
and beer to figure out how to keep the
boozy flavor in the final cake. Since
this type of experimentation hadn’t
been documented before, I was literally starting from scratch. But now
that I’ve published the information,
bakers can take it and run with it.
What part of the cookbook
creation process do you find
most satisfying?
I love developing the recipes and art
directing the photo shoots. When
I pitch a project I ask to art direct and
manage the photo shoot, and work
with the designer on the layout. It’s
a lot more work but it allows me to
more closely express my vision for
the book. I also produce a website for
each one and get involved in publicity
and audience-building because, as
with any product, distribution is everything. The best-selling cookbooks
are tied to media personalities (and
now also to bloggers) who bring an
audience to the table. So my advice
to anyone who wants to write a cookbook: build an audience first.
I love to cook, too, but to me baking
is more satisfying because mostly
it involves making something special
for someone or for an event. I really
love the creative opportunities
that sweets provide; it’s one realm
where it’s completely acceptable
to push the limits. Sometimes I want
to create something healthy, other
times I want something cute, or
fancy and indulgent. I guess I could
try the same thing with soup, but
it just doesn’t seem as sculptural
or imaginative.
Do you have any other
cookbooks in the works?
I have a few proposals in development and others that I’m talking
to publishers about now. But I can’t
really say much about them yet.
What I can say is that the earliest
you’ll see a new book from me will
be next fall—and when you do, it
will definitely be sweet.
Check out Castella’s
cookbook sites here:
crazyaboutcupcakes.com
icypops.com
boozecakesbook.com
crazyaboutcookiesbook.com
aworldofcake.com
The members of
RISD/Hong Kong,
one of the newest
clubs in the alumni
network, always
seem to be beaming when they
get together and
apparently got
a good laugh out
of the last issue
of RISD XYZ, too.
Keep connected to RISD through the Alumni Association’s
network of 38 clubs around the country and the world.
CARPENTER
IS A NATURAL
BUILDER
A real people person,
Polly Carpenter
77 PT loves getting
to know all sorts of
creative individuals,
both as leader of
the Carpenter Group
in NYC and through
the RISD/NY club.
CLUB Hopping
“I realized early
on that I enjoy the
creative process
and selling,
networking and
motivating others.”
was born in the small town of
Rehoboth, MA—a settlement that
members of her family helped found
six generations back. Unlike her
forebears, she never crossed the
unpredictable waters of the Atlantic
in a small ship, yet she clearly shares
their pioneering spirit.
Bright and positive, Carpenter
started her first business in high
school, marketing her calligraphic
skills to turn a profit. While at
RISD, she taught classes at the
Newport Art Museum. Later, she
successfully founded a strategic
branding and marketing communications firm based in New York
City and got involved in a little
side project—the RISD/NY alumni
club. In fact, Carpenter has always
liked creating both artwork and
opportunities.
PT
34
RISDXYZ
“I realized early on that I enjoy the creative process and selling, networking and motivating others,”
Carpenter says. Her independent, critical thinking
skills were honed at RISD in part by staring down a
white canvas. So afterwards, she simply transferred
her “skills from the canvas to a larger format—a creative business.”
Thirty years ago she founded the Carpenter Group,
a branding business focused on the burgeoning
financial services industry. “At the time, no one really
worried about their financial future,” she says. “People
invested, if at all, in a few stocks and bonds and relied
on social security for their retirement. Today, financial
services is one of the major industries in the US, if not
the world. Our team helps these businesses tell a story
without over-complicating it.”
As a one-stop shop, the Carpenter Group develops
and designs communications programs, product
launches, marketing campaigns, advertising and
business strategies. Her role is to guide the firm and
develop the team, because she believes that “great
people make a great company.”
An avowed “people person,” Carpenter has been
a pivotal player in the RISD/NY club since the early
1990s. “I enjoy meeting new people, networking and
helping alumni to succeed,” she says in explaining
her ongoing commitment. Although club membership has waxed and waned over the years and space
issues in New York make it challenging to hold events,
Carpenter and club co-leader Michael Neff 04 PH are
optimistic about the future.
“This is probably the strongest team we’ve ever had,”
she says of the core planning group. “Now if someone has
an idea, they’ll take it and run with it. They plan and
implement the entire thing, which is good experience.”
Plans for 2011 include a museum event, an educational series on intellectual property and product
marketing, a volunteer opportunity, a gallery tour
in Chelsea and a couple of bar socials. Neff provides
much-needed communications support for these
events by doing Facebook, Twitter and blog posts. And
as for Carpenter, she sums up what’s most gratifying
about RISD/NY with this: “Staying involved with RISD
and alums in the city keeps me up-to-date on what’s
happening in all aspects of the arts. In a way it’s an
ongoing focus group for me!” –Paula Martiesian 76 PT
RISD Etsy-ers
photo by Peter Gregoire 77 PH
An o nly child, Polly Carpenter 77
Jean Wasil 88 TX (above) has taken the
initiative to spearhead a special interest
group for textiles people as part of RISD/NY’s
many activities. Professor Emeritus Maria
Tulokas MAE 74/MFA 76 PR, shown here with
Hyun Koh 09 TX, was among the emissaries
from RISD who attended the first event
in November.
Since Etsy, the online retail network for makers, launched its new
“Etsy teams” feature in November,
the Alumni Relations Office has
been working to pull together
alumni who already sell their work
via the site or who are considering
trying it and would like to be part
of a RISD team.
“The advantage is that by affiliating with RISD, you’ll attract more
potential buyers and can help
fellow alumni do better on Etsy as
well,” notes Christina Hartley 74 IL,
director of Alumni Relations. In
addition to getting the RISD seal
of approval (“After all, the imprimatur is likely to help,” Hartley says),
once the effort gets fully up and
running, the RISD team page will
highlight featured items, include
student work and possibly present
a curated line. “That’s all out there
in the future,” Hartley says. “We got
364 alumni to sign up after our first
email, so we’re off to a great start.”
Contact chartley@risd.edu or
401 454-6794 for more information.
For clubs and contacts in your area go to www.risd.edu/alumni.
RISD may not have a Division I sports team to pull
alumni together, but the Alumni Association offers
plenty more creative ways to meet up and interact.
For example, when RISD/San Francisco alumni
wanted to know what all the fuss was about over the
student stage production RISD: The Musical!, they
found out by arranging for a screening of the DVD
of the show at Zeum, San Francisco’s Children’s
Museum. The screening prompted more than a few
laughs as they reminisced about the wild ride that
is RISD, so wittily conveyed via the skits, songs and
dance numbers students performed.
This fall members of RISD/Philadelphia volunteered at Project HOME, a teen program at the
Honickman Learning Center, working with young
would-be entrepreneurs to create and produce retail
products sold at the Rittenhouse Square Market.
The group ended their day-long mentoring session
with a picnic at Fairmount Park, sharing food and
activities with family members of all ages.
As part of RISD/NY, alumna Jean Wasil 88 TX saw
a desire for Textiles alumni to come together to share
their experiences and exchange practical information on career searches and new technology. The
first RISD Textiles NY meeting in November brought
together more than 120 alumni ready to network and
celebrate their unique RISD connections. Jean is
planning two meetings in 2011, with guest speakers
from RISD’s Textiles Department, Career Center
and industry specialists.
The RISD/Hong Kong club held its second annual
reception and dinner in December, with President
John Maeda attending as a special guest. RISD alumni
and parents enjoyed the split-venue event, first at the
Pearly Studio (hosted by Pearl Ng 98 ID), then at the
Mischmasch Gallery (courtesy of Alice Zhang 06 GD).
Among other clubs, RISD-after-work gatherings
continue to be popular social and networking events,
growing in frequency in New York, San Francisco
and Atlanta. Other events in the works for this year
are studio and gallery crawls, special museum tours,
career presentations and more.
Winter 2011
35
RISD + AS220
Celebrate
New Printshop
RISD SWEETHEARTS
(We got more than our degrees at RISD!)
In January alumni gathered to celebrate
the opening of newly expanded facilities
for the AS220 Printshop in downtown
In her sophomore year at RISD Lisa (Plantenga) Berry
04 PH was glad she put a lot of thought into her Lady
of Shallot costume for the Artists’ Ball. That night,
after she took a look at drummer John Berry 04 IL, she
determined that she just had to meet the musicians
playing the event. She did—and then didn’t even wait
for graduation to tie the knot. The couple married
right after junior year and now, eight years later, Lisa
says, “John is a gem of a man. I’ve often thought that
just finding him was well worth the tuition.”
Since graduation Lisa has met and photographed
a lot of other RISD couples and weddings. As a professional photographer, she says that RISD weddings are
“hands down the most fun and beautiful celebrations.
RISD grads marrying each other is—well, one of my
very favorite things.”
Lisa feels an instant connection when meeting
RISD alumni. “They all plan the details of their
weddings with such care, foregoing current trends
to incorporate their own personal ideas,” she says.
“And there’s nothing like seeing a bunch of alumni
on the dance floor. They’re so fun to photograph!”
Providence. Printshop Director Morgan
Calderini 07 PR (shown here to the left
of Agata Michalowska 07 PR) is one
of the many alumni and key players involved in AS220. She recently convinced
the RISD Printmaking Department that
since its giant Takach Etching Press
was no longer being used by students,
AS220 could give it a great new
home. above right: Among the others
at the opening were Peter Lutz,
Printshop staff member Lois Harada
10 PR and Claire Robinson, associate
Events at RISD.
The Alumni Relations Office wants to celebrate more couples
who connected as students. If you met your sweetheart at RISD,
please send us your story—how you met and a bit about your life
together—and become a member of RISD Sweethearts, a frivolous
little lovers’ club for creative couples. Don’t forget to include
a good photo of the two of you. You’ll get a RISD Sweethearts
bumper sticker or pin, and your story just may be selected to run
in an upcoming issue of RISD XYZ.
John Berry 04 IL and Lisa
(Plantenga) Berry 04 PH (above)
found each other at RISD and
have been together ever since.
He’s now a painting professor at
DePauw University in Greencastle,
IN and she specializes in wedding
photography and particularly
loves photographing RISD couples
getting together. Her photos
of Jon Saunders 05 IL + Emily
Arthur 06 ID (above right) and
Joel Wakeman 06 ID + Miranda
Wall 06 ID/MAT 07 are shown
here. To see more, go to lisaberry
photography.com.
2 ND LIFE recycles quality supplies
36
RISDXYZ
connected, and remind everyone
about RISD resources that could
be helpful, including the Career
Center, the online alumni directory
and the Artworks database.
Becky met with alumni in Hong
Kong in late December, where a
small group gathered at Club 71
in the Central District. They had
fun catching up over drinks and
sharing notes about President
Maeda’s visit earlier in the month.
Follow Becky’s blog posts about her
travels at beckyfong.risd.edu.
top: photos by Arley-Rose Torsone
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BECKY FONG?
As a student, Becky Fong 05 GD was
active on the Student Alliance. As
an alum, she has also been a committed RISD volunteer, whether
living in Rhode Island, Boston or
most recently in Atlanta, where
she served as a club leader. This
year Becky is largely on the road,
visiting far-flung alumni clubs and
those close to home. Her mission?
To touch base with young alumni,
talk about life post-RISD, share
news about initiatives on campus
and off, encourage people to keep
Alumni reunion
weekend moves
to mid-october
director of Alumni Relations + Special
2nd Life, the eco-friendly art supply program run by
RISD students, offers repurposed materials at greatly
reduced prices and is a welcomed cost-saving resource
on campus. But to make the program “completely
self-sustaining,” Joseph Escobar 13 JM and the other
students who run it want to strengthen their connections with alumni.
Escobar points to two recent donations—from
Jacinda Crew 99 IL and Scott Bodenner 93 TX—as
examples of how the program ideally works. Bodenner
gave textiles supplies he no longer used, while Crew
donated a lot of paper along with acrylics, watercolors,
a French easel and colored markers and pencils. “I
remember how expensive materials were for me when
I was a student, so I was delighted to donate supplies
that I knew RISD students would value,” she says.
Though 2nd Life sells its materials, it charges
only a fraction of what they would cost on the open
market. “We’d love to give the materials away for free,
if we could,” says Escobar. “But charging allows us to
cover our costs.” It also lets students know that 2nd
Life offers “quality materials” and doesn’t just re-sell
“stuff people want to toss.”
Escobar says that students and faculty are enthusiastic about the program, which has enabled 2nd Life
to pay student workers, open a third location, sponsor
For clubs and contacts in your area go to www.risd.edu/alumni.
a recent exhibition involving Eco-Rhode Island and
launch a new website. “We’re growing, so we need
to plan adequately for our future”—which includes
reaching out to alumni, Escobar says. “They know
from their own experience how critical it is for young
artists to have access to quality materials.”
For more information about donating materials, go to
risdsecondlife.com.
RISD by Design 2011, our annual
alumni reunion and parents’ weekend, will take place from Friday
through Sunday, October 14–16
this year. Please note that this is
the middle weekend in October
(not the first, as has been the
tradition for the past few years).
We recommend booking accommodations early since mid-fall
is a particularly popular time for
visiting Providence, especially
given all the colleges and special
events in town. Go to rbd.risd.edu
for a list of options.
Remember, if your year of
graduation ends in a 1 or a 6, the
2011 weekend means it’s time
to come back for your reunion!
These gatherings tend to be most
meaningful when members of
the classes in question plan them
together. So why not help? Contact
Claire Robinson (401 454-6379 or
crobinso@risd.edu) in the Alumni
Relations Office if you’d like to find
out how to get involved.
winter 2011
37
A glimpse of what’s happening at the heart of campus—
with the president, students, faculty and staff.
Proud of the
good food served
in RISD’s dining
facilities, President
Maeda spent an
evening working
alongside staff
chefs as a means
of better understanding the
student experience.
rediscover risd
this summer
Give yourself, your family and your friends
a taste of the RISD experience.
Pre-College Program
Explore the art school experience and build
your application portfolio
June 25 – August 6
Textiles Summer Institute
Experience RISD’s renowned textiles studios
and faculty firsthand
June 13 –July 22
Summer Institute for Graphic Design Studies
Delve into a broad range of graphic design topics,
in two-week course modules
June 13 – August 5
Career re:Design Program
Discover a new path as a professional designer
July 25 – August 5
Summer Studies
Tap into a rich variety of six-week RISD studio
and liberal arts courses
June 27 – August 5
Registration is now open.
Study Abroad Programs
Take your art to new places:
Switzerland + Beyond: Art, Architecture + Design
August 7 – 19
Stir Copenhagen: Design, Culture + Your Senses
August 7 – 21
risd.edu/summer
RISD Continuing Education, 345 South Main Street, 2nd floor, Providence, RI 02903
800 364-7473 (press 2) 401 454-6200
FOOD HELPS
CONNECT
THE DOTS
message by
John Maeda
RISD’s President
Years ago, as a professor at MIT, I discovered
the power of two simple words: “free pizza.” Scribbled
on a flyer or typed in the subject line of an email, it
was more powerful in motivating students to show up
than just about any other enticement. Food has brought
people together since the beginning of time—often out
of necessity, but also because as social animals, we like
to eat together. I like to cook, too, and continue to use
my skill in the kitchen to help bring people together.
Making people work together can be fairly challenging,
but getting them to eat together is vastly easier.
Sharing a meal is a natural catalyst for conversations,
and conversations often lead to collaboration.
Both on campus and off, I’ve been having some
amazing conversations this year—some over good
meals, others with a cup of tea. As a community, one
of the things we’ve been discussing most is the new
“Sharing a meal is a natural
catalyst for conversations,
and conversations often lead
to collaboration.”
five-year strategic plan we’re still fine-tuning and intend
to launch in July. We’re calling it Connecting the Dots
because, with any luck, that’s what it will do for RISD.
From the beginning, we designed this planning
process to be flexible, comprehensive, inclusive and
actionable—especially since RISD can’t afford to create
a static roadmap that gets shelved within months
of being issued. Over the course of the last year, more
than 70 members of our community—including a broad
cross-section of students, faculty and staff—came
together to shape various aspects of the strategic plan.
Together, they’ve shared plenty of breakfasts and
lunches, fitting these meetings in between the other
demands of their day. And over shared meals, they’ve
exchanged ideas, allowed conversations to flourish
or meander, and developed a stronger sense of
cohesion and community.
Led by Provost Jessie Shefrin, the core group
thought deeply about the academic programs,
structure and curriculum at the heart of RISD. Others
investigated life at and after RISD; local and global
engagement; sustainability and the environment; and
healthcare and wellness.
Together, all of these groups looked carefully
at the interests of our students now and in the near
future. Students are entering a world that is vastly
changed from a few decades ago and RISD needs to
meet and guide their needs in a way that is true to our
fundamental values and in line with a clear vision.
So that’s what all the conversations, shared meals and
enticements of “free food” have been about.
I also like to get together with students over meals
at the Met and Carr Haus. It’s a valuable way for me
to connect with them and hear what they’re thinking.
And I regularly invite small groups of faculty to join
me for breakfast—because at RISD, like elsewhere,
one of the best ways to begin to connect the dots is
through food.
For more, go to risd.cc/strategic-plan-background. And follow John at our.risd.edu + twitter.com/johnmaeda.
WINTER 2011
39
Balling Out
Reinvent and Reinvest
RISD students know how to have
a good time—especially when there’s
costumery involved, as this smattering
FOR STUDENTS STARTING OUT
During Wintersession key players
at Kickstarter, Etsy and Quirky—
three of the leaders in online entrepreneurial practices—visited RISD
to speak to students about the tools
their companies offer to creative
start-ups. “I see Kickstarter as a
way around the bureaucracy of
the ‘real world’ and a nod back to
the days when patrons engaged
with artists directly,” noted Charles
Adler , co-founder of Kickstarter.
The site allows anyone to propose a
creative project in any medium and
solicit micro-funding from people
interested in making it happen.
Though each company differs
in its approach, all three speakers
agree that presentation, craftsmanship and a personal touch are
essential. “Curating your own work
and deciding what to leave out is as
important as what to put in,” Etsy’s
rep, Vanessa Bertozzi, told students.
And they shouldn’t underestimate
the importance of good karma,
either. “RISD students are part of
a network of amazing artists and
designers,” she noted. “The more
that people participate, give back,
critique and advise others, the
more community it creates, both
literally [by increasing web links]
and figuratively.”
America’s oldest indoor shopping mall, built in the
Greek Revival style, may undergo yet another revival,
thanks to RISD students and faculty. In December
Architecture and Interior Architecture students presented their ideas for reinventing Providence’s Arcade
to a gathering of professors, architects, historians and
local business people.
The impetus for rethinking how to use the Arcade
came from Professor Emeritus Friedrich St. Florian,
best known as the designer of the World War II
Memorial in Washington, DC and locally, as the architect behind Providence Place Mall. “The Arcade is a
jewel,” says St. Florian, who returned from retirement
to teach Reinventing the Providence Arcade. “No other
building has its landmark qualities and infrastructure.”
The 19th-century building has been empty since
2008 when the credit crunch put a planned $8-million
renovation on hold. Working in teams, students produced design and business models meant to bring the
landmark building and the surrounding blocks back to
life. Not surprisingly, their proposals varied considerably: a boutique hotel using part of The Arcade for its
lobby, with guest rooms in an adjacent high-rise; an
apartment tower with an attached fitness center and
rooftop jogging track; studio and gallery spaces for artists; an urban farm for growing bamboo and promoting
green products; a spa and sports center; and a high
school for the performing arts.
Though it’s still too early to see how these proposals
might influence future development of the Arcade,
RISD studios focused on Providence have a history
of furthering positive urban renewal. “We did it
as a public service,” St. Florian affirms. “We wanted
to move the discussion back to the front burner.”
RISD GETS THE ALL-NIGHTER
More than 50 student writers, designers, photographers and illustrators have rallied behind Editor-inChief Erica Morse 12 GD and Art Director Rachel Hallock
12 GD, the founders of RISD’s new student publication
The All-Nighter. As a team, they’re committed to keeping the online weekly fresh, relevant and lively, despite
having to pull all-nighters to make it happen.
Since launching the all-nighter.com site last fall,
students have been contributing news, opinion pieces,
reviews and events information, along with engaging
imagery to support each piece. The site also includes
“Spotlight” coverage of selected students, alumni and
faculty. So far the All-Nighter crew has been able to
keep to the ambitious schedule of publishing a new issue
every week—after yet another sleepless Wednesday.
40
RISDXYZ
of images from the latest Artists’
Ball indicates. Though not everyone
was in it for the competition, Tyler
DiBiasio 12 FAV and Ian Taylor 12 GD
(left), who spoofed the popular band
Die Antwoord, won for Cutest Couple
and lovely loofa girl Stefania Urist
13 GL (far left) landed the prize for
Most Useful. For the full effect, go to
all-nighter.com and search for
Costume Round-Up, where you’ll see
other winners in the costume contest
and find a link to more photos on
Facebook showing students like these
two giraffes having a ball.
Bridging the
Art/Science Gap
bottom, right: ©Lillian Bassman, courtesy of the artist and Staley Wise Gallery
This rendering by
Susan Nugraha
11 IA and Benjamin
Sandell MArch 11
shows their vision
of a totally reimagined Providence
Arcade as work
and gallery space
for creative
entrepreneurs.
Cocktail Culture
This spring the RISD Museum is mounting a multi-
by such iconic designers as Geoffrey Beene, Pierre
disciplinary exhibition that will explore America’s
Cardin, Coco Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Christian
mid-20th-century love affair with social drinking
Dior and many others, along with more than 150
and entertainment through the lens of fashion
related objects—from barware and furniture to
and design. Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention
graphics, photography and advertising. The V.Back
in American Fashion 1920–1980, organized by
Evening Dress, a gelatin silver print by Lillian
Curator of Costume and Textiles Joanne Dolan
Bassman, is representative of some of the work in
Ingersoll, features fun examples of cocktail-wear
the show, which runs from April 15 through July 31.
For more on these and other stories, go to www.risd.edu.
In January leaders from the fields
of science, math, engineering,
art, design and education converged
at RISD for a two-day workshop
sponsored by the National Science
Foundation (NSF). Called Bridging
STEM to STEAM: Developing
New Frameworks for Art-ScienceDesign Pedagogy, the workshop
was organized by RISD educators
and Principal Investigators
Christopher Rose and Brian K.
Smith and hosted by President
John Maeda and Provost Jessie
Shefrin . A number of other RISD
people also participated in the
series of inspiring discussions.
The issue is “not about adding
on arts education,” noted Margaret
Honey, president and CEO of
the New York Hall of Science, in
addressing the group. “It’s about
fundamentally changing education
to incorporate the experimentation and exploration that is at the
heart of effective pedagogy.”
WINTER 2011
41
This spring at RISD | CE :
Faculty Newsbites
•Career + Business Management
for Artists and Designers
XS (2010, oil on canvas, 48x48") by Assistant
Professor of Illustration Susan Doyle 81 IL/MFA 98
PT/PR and Lonesome (2007, cast Galapogos
Tortoise carapace, stainless steel) by Professor
of Glass Rachel Berwick 84 GL are among the
works featured in the 2011 Faculty Biennial.
Last fall the Society for Photographic
Education (SPE) presented Photography Professor and Acting Dean
of Fine Arts Deborah Bright with its
• Digital Design Intensives
• Applied Illustration
Honored Educator Award.
•Arts Project + Event Management
Professor Donna Bruton, faculty
and much more!
members Yizhak Elyashiv MFA 92 JM
and McDonald Wright 96 PH, and
Registration now open for spring
RISD Continuing Education classes.
Professor Emeritus Malcolm Grear
are among the RISD people profiled
in NetWorks, a series of fascinating
documentaries about Rhode Island’s
leading artists. The video portraits
risd.edu/ce
were shot by Richard Goulis 84 FAV
and aired locally on PBS. Videos from
the series can also be seen on the Net-
advanCE
WorksProject YouTube channel.
Printmaking faculty member Daniel
Heyman was awarded a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship. His show Bearing
Witness continues through March 13
at Loyola Marymount University in
Los Angeles and this spring he’s showing at Linfield College Art Gallery and
White Box Gallery in Portland, OR.
Assistant Professor of Architecture
Jonathan Knowles has received
a grant from the German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD) to mount
a studio with colleagues at Erfurt
University of Applied Sciences in
Germany, where they teach Passiv-
IT’S FACULTY
BIENNIAL TIME
RISD’s much-anticipated 2011 Faculty Biennial opened
at the RISD Museum on February 24 to coincide with
the start of spring semester. Featuring new work by
more than 190 full- and part-time faculty members,
the show is the largest biennial yet—consuming all
three gallery floors of the Chace Center. As always,
the mix of work is broad and satisfying—painting,
sculpture, photography, prints, installations, textiles,
ceramics, glass, jewelry, film, digital work and more.
The opportunity to see the caliber of work created by
the extraordinary artists and designers who teach at
RISD in a single show is not only exciting, it’s incredibly moving and inspiring. The biennial continues
through March 20.
The RISD Museum
helped open the world
of art and design to you
when you were a student.
It’s still here for you.
Haus construction standards. The
DAAD funding will enable RISD
with their counterparts on two projects over spring break.
Professor Emeritus Kryzstof Lenk
reflects on 28 years of teaching at RISD
through his bilingual (English/Polish)
book, Projects and Doodles. He has
also curated an exhibition of the best
student work produced in his Information Design classes. Accompanied
by a catalogue, the show opened at
Cieszyn Castle in Poland, and will
travel to Warsaw in March and Helsinki,
Finland in May.
Dean of Graduate Studies Patti
Phillips recently served as a juror for
ArtPrize 2010, an international competition in Grand Rapids, MI. Ursula von
Rydingsvard: Working, her 224-page
book surveying 30 years of monumental work by the renowned German
sculptor, is being released in March
by Prestel USA.
42
RISDXYZ
FUNDING FOR FACULTY RESEARCH
The Professional Development Fund Committee
has granted funding to the following faculty members
for projects being undertaken during the first six
months of 2011:
Catherine Andreozzi and Kathleen Grevers (Apparel
Design), for research in China on current and
next-generation knitwear technology and associated
production techniques; Laura Colella (Film/
Animation/Video), for post-production fees related
to her micro-budget feature film Breakfast with Curtis;
Liz Collins 91 TX/MFA 99 (Textiles), to help prepare for
Knitting Nation performances at the ICA in Boston;
Catherine D’Ignazio (Digital + Media), for research
in Arizona to prepare for an installation about the
international border dividing the Tohono O’odham
nation; Gabriel Feld (Architecture), for field research
in Cairo related to a book he’s writing about urban
design and the city as a cultural artifact; Daniel Hewett
(Interior/Landscape Architecture), for research in
India to develop community design/build activities
in collaboration with India’s National Design Institute; Leslie Hirst (Foundation Studies), to help prepare
for a two-person show at REDUX Contemporary Art
Center in Charleston, SC; Anne Hood (English), to
teach a workshop in Uganda on writing about grief and
loss; Mallica Kumbera-Landrus (History of Art + Visual
Culture), for research in India on the divinity of
figures represented in erotic temple sculpture; Alan
Michelson (Foundation Studies), to help prepare for an
upcoming show on international indigenous art at the
Gordon Samstag Museum of Art in Adelaide, Australia;
Peter O’Neill (Film/Animation/Video), release time
to complete post-production work on a documentary
on Hmong refugees; Linda Sormin (Ceramics), release
time to produce work for an upcoming installation
at Denver [CO] Art Museum; Eva Sutton (Photography),
for a video oral history about Cambodian refugees;
Johan Van Aswegan (Jewelry + Metalsmithing), to
study engraving processes he plans to use in making
work for a show at Siena Gallery.
2011 exhibition highlights
Cocktail Culture
Changing Poses: The Artist’s Model
2011 Faculty Biennial
Newly restored Ancient, Medieval and
Early Renaissance galleries
risdmuseum.org
top right: photo by John Groo
students to travel to Germany to work
enhanCE
20% of your Alumni Membership is directed to the Phil
Seibert [BFA ’67 IA] Alumni Acquisition Fund, which supports
the purchase of works of art by RISD alumni. Join today! Call
401.454.6322 or visit us online at risdmuseum.org/join.
sucCEed
RISD | CE
A look at some of the many ways people invest in RISD
and support current and future generations of students.
left: Amanda
Meaningful
Gifts
Daubers Support
Mental Health
In memory of their daughter, Amanda Dauber 06 PT
(1982–2008), Michele and Ken Dauber have made
a cornerstone gift to the Student Development and
Counseling Services department at RISD. Amanda
suffered from depression and substance abuse and
took her own life in 2008.
“Amanda loved RISD and did wonderful work
there,” notes Michele, who is a professor of law at
Stanford University. “We hope that through this
gift we can help to de-stigmatize mental illness on
campus and make help more readily available for
students who need it.”
Thanks to the Daubers’ generosity Samantha
Becker, a clinical social worker who has worked with
college students at Mount Holyoke, SUNY/Stony
Brook and Wellesley, has joined RISD’s counseling
staff. A strong generalist, her areas of clinical
concentration include women’s, gender and race
issues, eating disorders, relationship concerns,
depression and anxiety.
“Mental health is a big issue right now on college
campuses across the country,” notes Ken Dauber,
an engineer at Google. “We want to help RISD
improve in this area because we know how important
it is to reach out to artistically talented individuals
who are struggling with issues like bipolar disorder,
addiction and other mental illnesses.”
As a st ud ent at RISD, Stephen
44
RISDXYZ
Stephen Earle
82 TX contributes
regularly to the
RISD Annual
Fund and has also
endowed a scholarship in memory
of his parents.
to establish a scholarship at RISD in memory of his
parents, Barbara and John Earle.
“My parents had always supported me—both
financially and emotionally—throughout my time at
RISD,” Earle explains. “I felt this was the perfect way
to honor them and help students who are at RISD now.”
After completing the process, he realized that creating
still support the college that changed his life and has
the potential to benefit so many other artistic students
in years to come. In the meantime, he continues to
support the RISD Annual Fund, renewing his membership in the President’s Circle each year as a way of
reaffirming his ongoing commitment to his favorite art
and design school. And through the John and Barbara
Make It Better
“My parents had always supported me at RISD…
I felt this was the perfect way to honor them
and help students who are at RISD now.”
an endowed scholarship is similar to buying a dream
home—it’s a significant step to take, but one with
countless rewards. “Once you have funded a new
scholarship, it’s there forever,” he says. And as with
residential property and real estate, “you can continue
to add to it over time, making it increasingly more
valuable and a true investment in your future.”
Earle is also looking ahead, planning to make a
legacy gift to RISD so that even once he’s gone he will
Earle Scholarship Fund, he sees firsthand the impact
he is making on individual students.
“Once you have that connection with a student—
from the first letter they send telling you why your
support means so much—you’re hooked,” he says.
“The place that gave you such warm memories and
the path to your success is now benefiting from you.
It’s a great feeling knowing that you’re now making
a real difference.”
photo by Michael Neff 04
Earle 82 TX just naturally assumed
that anyone in a position to endow
a named scholarship was wealthy.
He didn’t know any donors personally, but he knew their names
through the scholarships that
were helping many of his friends
and classmates to meet the cost
of a RISD education.
Years later, Earle sees certain
things quite differently, especially
now that he has funded a named
scholarship of his own at RISD. But
he was as surprised as anyone to
discover that doing so was within
his means.
After his first long-term job—
at Martha Stewart Living, where
he worked his way up to a senior
vice president—Earle moved on
to his current position as senior
vice president for Home Design
at Polo Ralph Lauren. He had been
giving what he could to the RISD
Annual Fund every year, in recognition of a quality education that
had given him the critical thinking
skills and confidence to pursue
a rewarding career.
But it wasn’t until 2006 that
Earle realized he could actually
afford to fund his own scholarship.
After learning from RISD’s
advancement office exactly what
it would take, he resolved that his
next philanthropic goal would be
Dauber 06 PT
at her RISD graduation. Her parents
say that she
regarded Ophelia
(2006, oil on
canvas, 45x57")
as her best painting
and the one most
representative
of her work.
On March 11 and 12 RISD is hosting Make It Better,
a symposium on art, design and the future of health
care. Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation (RWJF), the series of open conversations
will bring leading artists, designers and activists
together with health professionals, policy-makers,
entrepreneurs and members of the RISD community
to frame an expanded role for art and design in
improving the healthcare industry.
The RWJF is supporting Make It Better through
its Pioneer Portfolio (www.rwjf.org/pioneer), which
For more on giving to RISD, go to www.risd.edu/give.
supports innovators with bold ideas that push
beyond conventional thinking about health and health
care. As the country’s largest philanthropy devoted
to improving these areas, RWJF shares RISD’s belief
that exploring alternative models for research and
collaboration between disparate fields—including art,
design, medicine, science—can transform health and
healthcare delivery in the 21st century.
The symposium is free and open to the public, but requires
registration at makeitbetter.risd.edu, where you’ll also find
a full schedule and list of speakers.
WINTER 2011
45
underGraduate Class Notes
Eric Engstrom 64 IL
right: In December and January
Eric (Fairfax, CA) had a solo
show entitled Roadside
Distractions at Gallery Route
One in Point Reyes Station, CA.
The work reflects his interest in
history, vernacular architecture
Karol Wade
Wyckoff 58 IL
332 2009
alumni referenced
Illustration
most referenced class
most frequently referenced major in this issue
Sol Armada
92 AP
Chandler O’Leary
03 IL
Sarah D. Haskell
76 TX
Regina Mamou
05 PH
Marsha Zilles
BArch 70
Denise Dubuque-Lyn
89 IL
Cyrilla Suwarsa
95 GD
Peter Maltbie
84 PH
1947
1959
1958
Roberta Hopkins Ayotte TX
recently taught a class to the
members of the Artistic Weavers
Guild in Sun City, AZ, where she
lives. Under her guidance, each
participant created a handwoven
top suitable to her own body type
and size, and then presented it as
part of a fashion show at the
culmination of the class.
Hamtramck
1946
475 65 21,600 59
Bullawayo,
Zimbabwe
# of students in Class of ’14
AE
AP
Arch
most unlikely spot for an alum’s exhibition
% of females in Class of ’14
CR
relative frequency of majors referenced
46
RISDXYZ
DM
FAV
FD
IA
ID
IL
Last spring an article on Tom
Beaudet TX (Westfield, MA)
entitled Ready for whatever
looms in retirement ran in the
Westfield Evening News. Tom
% of females among alumni on record
# of alumni in risd’s database
GD
earliest class year referenced
JM
LA
PH
PT
PR
SC
utilitarian structures without
architects that manage to
define their regions and uses
so perfectly,” he says.
retired to Westfield in 1995
and has been rebuilding,
updating and repairing treadle
looms ever since.
In October Keith Hollingworth
CR exhibited new work at
Gallery A3 in Amherst, MA,
where he lives.
1960
Ellie Schimelman AE
(Brookline, MA) is once again
offering two workshops in
Ghana this summer. For details,
visit culturalcollaborative.org.
1961
50th reunion
October 14 –16, 2011
1963
Helen Webber AE (Paxton, PA)
wrote to let us know about her
blog Helen Webber’s Art Talk
(helenwebberarttalk.com).
1964
New York-based artist Elizabeth
Ginsberg TX (elizabethginsberg.
com) is currently in Italy doing
a second residency via the Emily
Harvey Foundation. This year
she’s working on a new
Allan Peterson 62 PT
TX
far right, middle: photo by Soctt McCue
quirkiest city name in class notes
roads of America. “I’m a great
admirer of rural barns, those
writes that The 1899 Inn, her
B&B in La Veta, CO, is now run
by her daughter and a friend.
Marilyn still loves to travel—
her recent jaunts include trips
to Greece and Savannah, GA.
All four of her children are in
the arts and all four reside in
Colorado along with her seven
adult grandchildren.
Louie Rigano
10 ID
in-between” along the back
Karol writes that she will turn
75 in May, and still puts in long
hours in her studio in South
Yarmouth, MA. Her watercolor
Bass River—Run Pond (2010,
16x20") is among the many
many recent landscape
paintings she shows and sells
through local galleries and her
site: wyckoffstudio.com.
Marilyn Hall AP (La Veta, CO)
Matt Cottam
BID 00
and the character of “the places
Allan’s third full-length book
of poetry As Much As is being
published this year by Salmon
Press in Ireland. The cover
features one of his drawings and
was designed by his classmate
Michael Manoogian 62 GD
(North Hollywood, CA). Last
October Allan (Gulf Breeze, FL)
was among the international
poets invited to attend the
2010 Cuisle International Poetry
Festival in Limerick, Ireland.
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
mixed-media project during her
February — March stay in Venice,
a city she first visited during her
EHP year at RISD. She also recently showed work in Fracking:
Art and Activism Against the Drill,
which was on view in January
and February at Exit Art in NYC.
Work by Sterett-Gittings
Kelsey SC (Roxbury, CT) from
her sculpture series The Kelsey
Bronzes can be found in 88
countries and major museums.
She is currently at work on a new
national monument for the
Freedom Angel Foundation.
Visual learning specialist
Stuart Murphy IL (Boston)
collaborated on a new digital
math instruction program for
high school students that won
a 2010 Award of Excellence
from Tech & Learning magazine.
1965
On September 15, 2010 an op-ed
piece by Rick Shnitzler BArch—
called SS United States: Old
School move over. Right now!—
ran in both the University City
Review and the Weekly Press in
Philadelphia, where he lives.
1966
45th reunion
October 14 –16, 2011
Huddles, a piece by Deidre
Scherer AE (Williamsville, VT),
is featured in A Stitch in Jewish
Time: Provocative Textiles,
on view through June 30 at the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion Museum
in New York City. Her work was
also included in State of Craft,
a recent group exhibition at
Bennington [VT] Museum.
Judy Kensley McKie
66 PT
Tiger Table (2009, cast bronze,
34x60x12") is among the newly
editioned work in bronze and
limestone Judy presented in
a late fall show at Gallery NAGA
in Boston. The gallery also
showcased a large and varied
selection of Judy’s recent studio
furniture. She lives and works
in Cambridge, MA.
Ben Larrabee 67 PT
Fine art portrait photography, recent images of horses (like this one)
and articulated Kozo paper prints were among the works Ben exhibited
last fall at The Gallery at Greenwich Tavern in Old Greenwich, CT.
Ben lives in Darien, CT and also won third place in the B&W photography category in the Rowayton Arts Center’s annual Mavis Fenner
Memorial All Media Juried Show for a photograph entitled Montana.
Karen (Canner) Moss PT
(see page 5)
1967
In December and January work
by Mary Curtis Ratcliff AE
(Berkeley, CA) was shown in
Mercury Multiples: Artists’
Editions, a selection of limitededition multiples created by
members of Mercury 20 gallery
in Oakland, CA. She also exhibited at the gallery last summer.
WINTER 2011
47
C.E. Morse 71 PH
Lanham #13 and Sopoty #63
(each 24x36") and other
archival prints from Christopher’s
series Consequential Abstracts
were featured in a fall solo show
at Harvard University’s Three
Columns Gallery in Cambridge,
MA. For more on the Mainebased photographer’s work, go
to cemorsephotography.com.
the first Tilapia Research Fish
Farm for Woods Hole Oceanographic marine biologists.”
1969
A poem from the Plein Air tanka
series by Ed Baranosky PT
(Toronto, Canada) has been
accepted for publication in the
February 2011 issue of Lynx
Poetry Journal.
Last fall Deborah Cornell PT
(Lincoln, MA) and husband
Richard Cornell presented their
collaborative installation The
Sleep of Reason, A Cautionary
Tale at Bucknell University in
Lewisburg, PA.
1970
Marsha Zilles BArch (Santa
Barbara, CA) writes: “I have my
own architectural firm (Z.A.G.)
in the Santa Barbara/Montecito,
California area…. I also consult
for Hope Ranch, CA 93110 and
run their Architectural Review
Board. For UCSB—I helped the
students raise close to $1 million
to build the new bike path entry
to the campus from Goleta Beach
Park, and completed the Broida
bike path…. I am also green-build
certified and back in the 1970s
built with Fred Fassett BArch
1971
40th reunion
October 14–16, 2011
1972
1973
James Carpenter IL (NYC)
din-din, a solo exhibition of new
was selected by ARTINFO for
work by Jerry Mischak PT,
its Power 2010 list of influential
was featured late last fall at
figures in the art world. “The
Industry Gallery in Washington,
American designer is rescuing
DC. The primary installation,
the modernist potential of glass,”
called dinner table/such a night,
noted the editors. One of the
presented a banquet table
projects mentioned is 7 World
full of dozens of plates, glasses,
Trade Center, “whose glass
flatware and wine bottles
curtain walls create a sort of
wrapped in 3000 yards of orange
vitrine for a Jenny Holzer MFA
vinyl tape, which he uses as
77 PT installation in the lobby.”
a unifying “skin” for many
Tina Davis GD (see page 7)
Jerry lives in Providence and
The Atelier, 2002–2008, a solo
show of paintings by Carleton
Fletcher PT, was on view
Ruth Davis PT (Providence)
for the month of November
has joined the board of trustees
of the Alliance of Artists
Communities, a national
organization that represents,
advocates for and supports
artist-in-residence programs
throughout the US and overseas.
She maintains an arts-related
public relations and event
marketing practice in both
Providence and New York.
at Washington Studio School
Michael (Wyomissing, PA)
was the principal architect for
a recent rehabilitation of the
historic Reading [PA] Pagoda,
a project that earned him a 2010
Historic Preservation Award for
Special Historic Properties from
Preservation Pennsylvania.
of his colorful sculptural pieces.
teaches at RISD, Brown and the
University of Rhode Island.
1976
35th reunion
October 14 –16, 2011
Gallery in Washington, DC.
Carleton lives in DC and teaches
For the second year in a row,
at the school.
Nathaniel Hesse SC won Best
in Show in the 2010 Marble Falls
Last fall Georgia Marsh PT
Michael J. Kautter
BArch 81
[TX] Sculpture on Main competi-
(NYC) exhibited her paintings
tion. His piece Seated Couple was
at Didi Suydam Contemporary,
featured on the cover of Lake
the jewelry and sculpture gallery
Country Life magazine (10.6.10)
Didi Suydam 85 JM runs in
and will be on display in Marble
Newport, RI.
Falls for a year.
1977
Polly Carpenter PT (see
page 34)
Nancy MacNamara didn’t just go organic once
everyone else did—the trend followed her. Now the
owner of Honey Locust Farm in New York’s Hudson River Valley,
she has been practicing traditional gardening methods since she
was 14. When food co-ops were big in the ’70s, she was one of the
original New York City greengrocers, and her produce is still popular
in Manhattan—though now it’s snapped up by top chefs at highend restaurants.
Pakuwon City: Letters from the
and The New York Times
East (CreateSpace, November
applauded it for “pulsing with
2010), Ricker Winsor PH/MFA
creative experimentation.”
78 (rickerwinsor.com) has been
busy with book signings and
readings. The book chronicles
his own “journey of self-discovery” as both a young man and an
aging one living, working and
“The amount of love and labor put into the product Nancy grows—
it’s like a treasure,” Johnny Iuzzini, the pastry chef at Jean Georges,
noted in a recent New York Times article. For 15 years she has been
his stories were also published
farming intensely on two acres, planting every seed by hand,
cultivating successful lines and developing produce varieties that
can’t be found anywhere else. She is also a sought-after teacher,
with students passionate about traditional farming methods eager
to work with her in the fields.
Nancy admits that it wasn’t a direct path from RISD darkrooms
to the garden. “After graduating, I realized that commercial photography wasn’t for me,” she says. But looking back at the photos
she shot during her EHP year in Rome, she realizes that Italy’s
fresh produce markets were already catching her attention. The
European approach to eating also rubbed off. “In my generation,
a lot of Baby Boomers went to Europe, came back and influenced
how Americans now eat,” she notes.
MA in December. The Village
Voice called it “genuinely moving”
and Central America. Two of
Nancy (Baldwin) MacNamara 69 PH
premiered at the American
Repertory Theater in Cambridge,
Since publishing his first book,
traveling in Europe, Asia, Africa
EASY BEING GREEN
with her musician husband Jim,
recently in France. Ricker is
Valerie Hird PT (Burlington, VT;
valeriehird.com) has created The
Trinity (2010), a limited-edition
book of cards with 30 original
images on one side and text on
the other. Together they tell the
story of a dream she had in which
there were “three of her,” she
explains: “the conscious mind
based in Bradford, VT.
who lives the endless worries
1978
dreamer who dreams the dream
The Blue Flower (theblueflower.
org), a “Dada-inspired romp”
that Ruth Bauer PT co-wrote
and wonders of everyday life, the
holding a sliver of her mind apart,
and the dream which is dreamt
by the dreamer.”
Stuart Karten ID (Marina
Alberto de Braud 83 PH
In November Alberto exhibited
the sculptural installation Opere
su Opere (Works on Works) at
the International Padova [Italy]
Art Fair. Alberto lives and works
in Milan.
Del Rey, CA), founder of SKD,
addressed a group of medical
device manufacturers in
September at the IMD Expo in
San Jose, CA. His topic was the
ways that design can inspire
trust from end users—a topic
especially relevant to medical
manufacturers, many of whose
products must be trusted in
True to her roots, Nancy is a regular at farmers’ markets, where she
sells home-grown and -crafted jams, teas, syrups, pickles, honey
and cider, in addition to herbs, fruits and vegetables, cut flowers and
live plants. And, of course, everything she grows and produces is
done so organically. “If we put people back into a healthy relationship
with the earth,” she says, “everything will fall into place.”
Pop-Pointillist paintings at some
—Anna Cousins
of the top art festivals in the
life-or-death situations.
48
RISDXYZ
Stephen Earle TX (see page 44)
1983
Oil Paintings by Martha Doolin
IL (Newton, MA) were on view
at the Newton [MA] Free Library
last October.
Last fall an article by David
Langton GD (Ardsley, NY)
entitled Social networking is here
to stay was published in
Investment News (9.5.10).
On a TV episode introducing
the new tablet version of Living
magazine for the iPad, Martha
Stewart applauded the work
of the team at Martha Stewart
Living Omnimedia that worked
so hard to make it a success,
including Eric Pike GD,
Michele Outland 94 GD and
the latest RISD grads to be hired,
twin brothers Nate Mueller
MFA 10 DM and Kirk Mueller
MFA 10 DM.
Sarah D. Haskell 76 TX
Last November Sarah (York, ME) exhibited Thread by Thread,
a solo show of woven textiles and mixed-media works, at the Maine
Fiberarts Gallery in Topsham.
Jeffrey Beers BArch (see page 8)
Jonathan Lansberg PT and
Heather Saunders 80 IL
have married and reside in
New York City.
A recent drawing by Alex
O’Neal IL (Brooklyn, NY) was
included in Day Job, an exhibition held earlier this winter at
the Drawing Center in NYC.
1980
In January Mara Metcalf PT
showed Arcadia: New Works on
Paper at Moses Brown School’s
Krause Gallery in Providence,
where she lives. She teaches
drawing at the School of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Wendy Osborne Pierce SC
(Gainesville, VA) exhibited
work last fall in the third annual
Artist Teacher Exhibition at the
Annandale Campus of Northern
Virginia Community College.
1981
30th reunion
October 14 –16, 2011
For the past five years, Tim
McWilliams IL (Roswell, GA)
has been showing large acrylic
country and around his home
city of Chicago.
Nancy MacNamara 69 PH grows extraordinary greens and
a cornucopia of other edibles at her organic farm in the
Hudson River Valley. She regularly sells her produce at
farmers’ markets and to discerning chefs in Manhattan.
spots in Warren, RI at the end
of 2010. The project, a collaboration with researcher Doug
Hinman and mill historian Rick
Greenwood, focused on mill
culture and textile industry
history in the US over the course
of 200 years. The exhibition
included artifacts from Slater
Mill, audiovisual testimonials
from former mill workers in
Warren, photos and mill songs.
1982
1979
Deborah Baronas TX
(Barrington, RI) exhibited The
Warren Mill Project at various
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
Peter Buchman 81 IL
right: Peter showed works such
as “Private” Keeper No. 4 (2010,
acrylics on plastered wood,
found items, resin, 14x16x2")
in two recent exhibitions: the
summer 2010 show Art On The
Edge at The Vered Gallery, and
the October show Fear at
Ashawagh Hall. Both galleries
are in his hometown of East
Hampton, NY.
WINTER 2011
49
Doug Vitarelli 88 FA
Doug recently completed
WhereIsOlifant.com, an engaging
website for kids and other likeminded souls. The site follows
the adventures of Olifant,
the dinosaur shown here. He,
like Doug, lives in NYC—more
specifically in Central Park—
and unlike Doug, spends his
days picking berries, making
pies, “hiding from Dr. Lenteo
and making sure Rahaggio the
warthog doesn’t cause too much
trouble.” The longtime animator
says he dreamed up the idea
seven years ago when his son
wanted to hear a story.
1984
Christopher Benson 84/05 PT
(bensonstudio.com) runs The
Fisher Press (thefisherpress.
com), a small gallery and fine
arts book press in Santa Fe. The
press presented several of its
limited editions at a January
show in NYC.
In September Karen Capobianco SC (New Paltz, NY) had
a solo show entitled Reclaiming
Order at Locust Grove Samuel
Morse Historic Site in Poughkeepsie, NY. A small encaustic
collage from her new series
Darwin’s Dreams was also
included in the recent 5"x5"
show at Unison Arts Center in
New Paltz, NY.
thesis, which looked at personal
memorial objects in the 21st
century.” She completed her
master’s degree in design
criticism at SVA in May 2010.
Last fall Dan Wood PR, who
teaches in RISD’s Printmaking
Department, showed new work at
the AS220 Project Space Gallery
in Providence, where he lives.
1986
25th reunion
October 14–16, 2011
With help from Faceted Thought,
LLC, Peter L. Brown IL recently
launched his Coqui and the Red
Convertible books app for the
iPad on the iTunes App Store.
Peter is based in New Milford, NJ.
Peter Hewitt ID (see page 6)
Angela Riechers IL (Brooklyn,
NY) was one of 25 recipients
of AOL’s 25 for 25 grants. In fall
2010 AOL awarded $25,000
to 25 “innovators and thinkers”
for projects ranging from
photography to drawing to documentary film. Angela explains,
“My interactive multimedia
project Sites of Memory and
Forgetting is based on my SVA
Robin M. Tagliaferri IL/MA 01
For I Live in a Small Town, an
(Cranston, RI) has been
installation of window boxes
appointed executive director of
at the Providence Children’s
The Forbes House Museum in
Museum, Megan Jeffery IL
Milton, MA.
created a series of miniature
Nader Tehrani BArch (Boston)
was recently appointed head
of the Department of Architecture
at the MIT School of Architecture
+ Planning in Cambridge, MA.
He also runs a successful
architectural practice known
as Office dA.
1987
Diane Hoffman IL and Allison
Paschke exhibited together
honor was announced at the
annual INAwards held in Seattle
in October.
scenes featuring 36 handcrafted
puppets and hundreds of
detailed miniature objects she
has made and collected over
Peter Maltbie 84 PH
the years. The scenes were on
view throughout the fall and
into early February.
Sara Jenkins PH (see
page 9)
Peter Morse SC (see page 7)
in January and February at the
1988
Chazan Gallery at Wheeler in
Andrew N. MacInnis ID
Providence, where Diane lives.
(South Weymouth, MA) is
She spent the month of Novem-
pleased to share the news that
ber as an artist in residence at
he and Diane C. O’Brien married
A.I.R. Studio in Paducah, KY.
on October 11, 2009.
documentary State of Control;
in November he started working
on the TNT television show
Southland. Miklos and his wife
Annie have two daughters, Ava
Jane (7) and Lily Ann (5).
1990
Steven Kenny 84 IL
The Year of the Chimera 6.2, a
show featuring realist and surrealist paintings such as The Crux
II (oil on linen, 22x60"), was on
view earlier this winter at Glass
Garage Fine Art Gallery in West
Hollywood, CA. Steven (steven
kenny.com) works out of his
painting studio in Huntly, VA.
So Yoon Lym 89 PT
This is among the “aerial view” paintings of hair and braid patterns
So Yoon (soyoonlym.com) showed in Infinity: The Dreamtime, a solo
exhibition that ran in February at Nancy Dryfoos Gallery in Union, NJ.
This spring she’ll show the same series in Urban Patterns, which
will be on view from April 6–28 at Manhattanville College’s Berger
Gallery in Purchase, NY.
Kitchen + Studio = Foodio
Several alumni were featured in
practice as a master of glass,
a special Design & Living section
starting from the confluence
in The New York Times Magazine
of design, science and art.
(11.7.10): Yvonne Force
Villareal PT, co-founder of the
nonprofit Art Production Fund;
furniture designer Paul
Loebach 02 ID; and the design
tion deal with Houghton Mifflin
which includes Theo Richard-
Harcourt. Zest Books is an
son 06 FD, Charles Brill 06 FD
award-winning and critically
and Alex Williams 06 FD.
acclaimed line of smart and
Karen Gelardi PT (South
Portland, ME) is a member
of The Group Formerly Known
50
RISDXYZ
(made from recycled wood and plastic | fully recyclable)
far right, top: photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
as Smockshop, an artist-run
The Greens by Christopher Raia 95 ID + Andrea Zatarain 96 JM
that her company, Zest Books,
has signed a sales and distribu-
trio Rich, Brilliant and Willing—
1989
Chace Center, 20 North Main Street
Providence, RI
401 277-4949 | risdworks.com
Hallie Warshaw GD (San
Francisco) is pleased to announce
enterprise that generates
income for artists whose work
is either non-commercial or not
yet self-sustaining.
Norman Clayton GD informs
us that after living in northern
California for 20 years, he
has moved his family and his
letterpress shop, Classic
Letterpress, to the beautiful
small town of Ojai, CA.
1991
20th reunion
October 14 –16, 2011
Chris Eboch PH (chriseboch.
com) won a 2010 New Mexico
Book Award for The Knight in the
Shadows (Aladdin/Simon &
Schuster), the third novel in her
Haunted series of books for
young readers. Among the dozen
other fiction and nonfiction
Peter sent in some gorgeous
photos of his current stomping
ground in South Africa, along
with greetings from Capetown:
“Love getting RISD eviews!
Come visit! It’s now summer
down here!” [Editor’s note:
Sounds and looks enticing.
Airfare, anyone?]
Colin Patrick McGreal FAV
(NYC) and Samantha Marie
Fennell were married on
November 20, 2010 at the New
York Botanical Garden in the
Bronx, NY.
Mel Prest PT (San Francisco)
exhibited work in Factor XX,
a group show held in December
at the Los Gatos [CA] Museum
of Art. The exhibition was curated
by Jenny Balisle and highlighted
the work of 11 non-objective
women artists in the Bay Area.
Jason Rice PH (Toms River, NJ)
books for children and teens that
she has written are The Well
of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure
story, and the inspirational
biographies Jesse Owens: Young
Record Breaker and Milton
Hershey: Young Chocolatier.
“Though novel-writing may seem
a far step from my studies in
photography,” Chris writes from
her home base in Albuquerque,
“I credit RISD with giving me an
intensive creative education, and
also with teaching me to analyze
and critique work—skills that are
important for me as both a writer
and a writing teacher.”
has a short story included in Hint
Fiction: An Anthology of Stories
in 25 Words or Fewer (November
2010, W.W. Norton & Company).
Marcia Patmos 91 AP
M.Patmos, Marcia’s new solo
apparel design firm, was
featured in the New York Times’
December 15, 2010 Fashion &
Style section. The write-up
also mentioned Rebecca
Chamberlain AP, whose
drawings Marcia cites as the
inspiration for the collection.
Kyle C. Gaffney BArch,
senior principal and co-founder
of SkB Architects in Seattle,
was selected as the 2010 IIDA
Honor Award winner for the
Northern Pacific Chapter. The
cutting-edge teen nonfiction
titles that focus on the color and
chaos of teen life.
Miklos Wright FAV continues
to put his degree to use in
Los Angeles, where he works as
a motion picture editor. In 2010
he completed the feature film
Dead Awake and edited the
Denise Dubuque-Lyn IL +
Michael Lyn ID (see page 8)
In his new book, Josiah McElheny:
A Space for an Island Universe,
Macarthur Award-winning artist
Josiah McElheny GL (Seattle)
questions the legacy of modernity
from the standpoint of his
Margaret Pettee
Olsen 86 PT
The Occlusion series by Margaret
(Broomfield, CO) was on view
in November at the Studio Art
and the Computer Gallery, which
is part of the UCF Center for
Emerging Media in Orlando, FL.
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
WINTER 2011
51
Yaniv Waisman FAV (Miami)
Chris Leathers 94 PT
writes: “Hello RISD. I read the
Chris and his company Kid
Games Interactive (kidgames
interactive.com) recently
released its first app for the
iPhone, Pre-School Counting
123s. Chris is based in Brooklyn.
magazine every time I get it and I
love the new design. I want to
share what I have been doing
lately. I work with my production
company doing infomercials,
Saints Day—through his company
INNFUSION. He is also
“pioneering the emerging field
of motion comics with my
company, M2 (M2Action.com).
This is a hybrid medium between
comics and animation,” Eben
says, noting that M2 is the only
company doing it in 3D.
corporate videos and internet
content. But on the side I have
created a website where the
Latin community around the
world can share their short films.
The site is LosCortos.com and
today it has almost 70 short films
from different countries. It is
a great community and every day
we have more people sending
me their Cortos. I invite the RISD
community to visit the site and
1992
share their comments with us.”
Sol Armada AP and
Christopher Longo were married
in Edinburgh, Scotland. They
now live in Los Angeles, where
Sol has been working for Warner
Bros Studios for the past three
years as director of apparel.
Urban Reflections, a solo show
of paintings by Sonya
Sklaroff PT, was featured last
fall at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
in Manhattan, where she lives.
1993
Jeffrey T. Dorn Jr. PT and Airi
Maeno PR have married and
now live in Tacoma Park, MD.
Anna (Wareham) Koon IL
(Jamaica Plain, MA) was commissioned to design a snowboard
for the Portsmouth [NH] Museum
of Art’s fall and winter exhibition
SugiPOP! Anime, Manga, Comics
and Their Influence on Contemporary Art. The snowboards
(which were donated by Forum)
will be auctioned off to support
the museum.
1994
Marnie Lieberman 93 SC
Marnie has been farming
organically in upstate New York
since 2006 and recently created
this 30x30" collage of images
to help raise funds for building
the new Namgyal Monastery
in Ithaca.
1995
Nomi Dale Kleinman TX
married Daniel Cayer on
August 1, 2010. The couple lives
in Brooklyn, NY.
Hester (Longley-Cook)
Starnes TX is the lead textile
designer for Robin Hill Textiles
in Atlanta. She and HuckleCurrents, a group show that ran
from September to January
at Albright-Knox Art Gallery
in Buffalo, NY. His installation
A Perfect Home: The Bridge
Project (2010) also ran from
September through December at
Storefront for Art and Architecture in NYC, where he lives.
Jennifer Uhrhane PH (Jamaica
Plain, MA) guest curated Lucien
Aigner: Photo/Story, an exhibition
that continues through April 24
at the DeCordova Museum and
Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA.
Aigner was a pioneering photographer in Europe in the 1920s
and ’30s and a member of the
early Leica camera generation.
berry Starnes 94 SC are
expecting a son in April; Huckleberry plans to leave his position
as design manager at Winsted
Technical Interiors after five
years to stay at home full-time
with the baby—a position he
considers a definite step in the
right direction.
1996
15th reunion
October 14–16, 2011
Carlos Celdran PT, an activist
in the Phillippines, appears on
Forbes’ list of People You Need to
Know in 2011. In the largely
Catholic island nation, he is
page 10)
known for his outspoken opposi-
Alan Pemstein BArch
(Worcester, MA) has joined HMFH
Architects, a firm that focuses on
the design of innovative learning
environments. He is currently
overseeing construction
administration on the Hanover
[MA] High School project.
Sculpture work by Do Ho Suh
PT was included in Beyond/In
Western NY 2010: Alternating
52
RISDXYZ
Les Savy Fav, started 15 years
ago at RISD by bass player Syd
Butler FAV, vocalist Tim
Harrington FAV, guitarist Seth
Jabour IL, drummer Harrison
Haynes PT and guitarist
Andrew Reuland FAV, toured
Lee Leonard PT (Taos, NM)
showed photography in the 2nd
Annual Environmental Photography Exhibition, part of last
fall’s Colorado Environmental
Film Festival in Golden, CO.
Ken Millington 96 IL
Julie (Lappen) Abramson 94 IL
Dan and Julie have been having a great time since welcoming baby
Gloria Bea Abramson to the family on February 17, 2010. Gloria
is shown here learning the challenges and rewards of becoming an
accomplished fine artist along with her big sister Janet, who is 3.
The family lives in Silver Springs, MD.
Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the
Marc Cavello 96 FAV
right: Marc (marccavello.com)
has been a member of the
Chelsea arts cooperative Pleaides
Gallery since 2007, and in November and December had a solo
show there called Inkboy. He also
recently released his first major
music CD release, I’M DISORIENTED. “I’ve been making albums
since meeting wonderful
musicians at RISD,” he writes.
“Studying film and video I learned
all about recording and sound
equipment.” He wrote, performed
and produced the CD and says
that so far, the response “has
been overwhelmingly positive.”
A Lexicon of Persistent Absence: Disjuncture with Shrines (2010,
acrylic and transfer on paper, 16x12") is among Bo’s recent paintings
featured in a fall solo show at Froelick Gallery in Portland, OR. In
December the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston purchased one of his
large-scale drawings for its permanent collection. Bo (bojoseph.
com) lives and works in NYC.
Same! (Little, Brown Books for
Deborah Tuch JM (see page 11)
Young Readers), a book written
1997
and illustrated by Grace Lin IL
Robert Blackson SC has been
(West Somerville, MA), was cited
named director of exhibitions
by The New York Times as a
and public programs at The
Notable Children’s Book of 2010.
Tyler School of Art of Temple
The collection of short stories
University in Philadelphia.
below: Ken (Brooklyn, NY)
wrote to share news of a recent
project: a large-scale public
mural in Geneva, NY titled
Seneca 634 (genevamural.
blogspot.com). He painted the
piece in acrylics and used the
grid system and freehand for
enlargement to the finished
size of three stories by 80'.
The mural “presents local and
national history in a way unique
to the location,” Ken explains.
for young readers was also
named a Booklist Editor’s Choice,
Eben Matthews IL is
a Kirkus Best Children’s Book,
producing the Boondock Saints
a Publishers Weekly’s Best Book
comic series—based on the cult
and a recommended holiday gift
films The Boondock Saints and
by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Boondock Saints II: All
WHY MEAT?
Scott Conary 93 IL
Cyrilla Suwarsa GD (see
page 6)
Jason Amendolara IL (see
Joe McKendry IL (see page 8)
by the Church and for handing
out contraceptives to the poor,
among other acts of protest.
the UK in February promoting
their fifth and latest album Root
for Ruin, which was released
last fall on French Kiss Records.
Bo Joseph 92 PT
Alice Kennedy 94 PT
tion to repression and intimidation
Liam Kennedy Gries, born on
June 12, 2010, faces the world
(or at least the camera) head on.
Alice and her husband Scott
Gries are raising Liam and their
first son in Maplewood, NJ.
Stephanie Snider 92 SC
right: Untitled (Set 2)(2010, oil
on panel, 246x155x30 cm) was
among the works Stephanie
showed in an early fall solo show
at Sassa Trülzsch Gallery in Berlin.
From November to January other
works were featured in Masked
Passage, a solo show at Schmidt
& Handrup Gallery in Köln.
Stephanie (stephaniesnider.com)
lives and works in Brooklyn.
In the following excerpts from his blog, Scott Conary
muses about the connections between painting and
taste, and why he’s drawn to painting meat.
Colors linger on the palette from painting to painting. The right
one is cinnamon or salt, the cornerstone ingredient in a great recipe.
Some days, it’s a particular blue—a blend of pthalo and cobalt.
Others it’s a murky gray—umber, ultramarine and cadmium orange.
Painting meat is a
little less conventional
than depicting a flower
or pepper and I find it
much more interesting.
My glib answer to
“Why meat?” is: “You
can only paint so many
pears.” But the real
answer is that a piece
of meat can be stunning
and intriguing.
We have a much more complicated reaction to a slab of lamb than
to a perfect pear. After all, we are meat ourselves. We’ve built cultures
around the animal as part of the family meal. But no matter that
history, no matter how intricate the shapes and colors of the bone,
muscle, fat and gristle, we are keenly aware that it is part of a once
living thing. It’s raw, unclean, primal. And yet it’s beautiful, desirable.
Conary’s meat series includes
the recent oil on canvas
paintings shown here: Rib Chop
(7x9"), Glowing Chop (6x5")
and Arrowhead (8x8").
Scott Conary: Fresh Cuts continues through March 24 at Susan
Maasch Fine Arts in Portland, ME. Another solo show, Scott Conary:
Meat, just closed on February 26 at Nisus Gallery in Portland, OR.
For more on Scott’s work, go to conary.org.
WINTER 2011
53
Karen Azarnia 99 IL +
Michael Cain 99 IL
“over one of our most precious
resources—water,” he explains.
It looks at the contentious issues
KEY
Karen and Michael were
married on July 24, 2010 at the
Newberry Library in Chicago, IL.
The newlyweds live and work
in Chicago.
involved and how can they be
resolved before the waters run dry.
1999
current majors
The Lodge, an illustration
Brian Martin 98 IL +
Amy (Paulin) Martin
98 IL
created collaboratively by Kelly
Brian and Amy are thrilled to
announce the birth of their first
child, Elliott Joseph, who was
born on October 13, 2010. In
other good news, an interview
with Brian accompanies the
presentation of his recent
oil paintings in Blue Canvas
Magazine (issue #7). The family
lives in Seekonk, MA.
the kids’ horror book Haunted
Murphy IL and spouse Antoine
Revoy 99 FAV (Providence) for
Houses (Are You Scared Yet?)
(2010, Henry Holt and Co.), was
in the 29th annual American
Illustration competition.
2000
Matt Cottam BID (Providence
leads the European operations
of Tellart (tellart.com), a
Rhett Turner PH (Atlanta)
Providence-based interdisciplin-
produced a documentary for
Georgia Public Broadcasting
entitled Chattahoochee: From
Water War to Water Vision. The
hour-long film, which aired
in October, describes the bitter
20-year old struggle between
Alabama, Florida and Georgia
ary design company. He enjoyed
a recent opportunity to work
with Google in London on
a fun project for their YouTube
Will Harney 01 IL
above: Will (Newburyport, MA; willharney.com) has self-published
his first illustrated book, a retelling of the cyclical Eastern folktale
The Stonecutter. He was drawn to the story by one of its key
messages—“Always be proud of who you are”—and decided to put
a more positive spin on the traditional tale in his retelling. Will
created the watercolor and gouache illustrations over the course
of five years; since March 2010, The Stonecutter has made its
way into local bookstores in New England and Will reports that
he has met many wonderful and talented people through author
visits and library events.
Dawn Danby ID (dawndanby.
com) is continuing her focus on
Jason (jasonadams.com) was commissioned to do this portrait of
1986 US Olympic handball player and Auburn University multi-sport
standout Reita Clanton to celebrate her May 2010 induction into
the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. The portrait is hanging in the Hall
of Fame in Birmingham for a year and will then be released to Ms.
Clanton’s collection. Jason is based in Auburn, AL.
sustainable design at Autodesk,
where she recently worked with
Drew Beam 99 IL and Eric
Smith 94 GD in creating a
spirited set of sustainable design
education videos. “We didn’t
know we were all RISD grads
until the first day of the shoot,”
says the San Francisco-based
designer. You can watch the
videos at autodesk.com/sustain
abilityworkshop.
Carter Mull PT was named by
Angeleno magazine (12.6.10) as
one of five “new garde” emerging
artists to watch. Reviewer Paul
Young noted the “tactile,
painterly feel” of his “stunning
photographic works.”
Work by Sara Greenberger
Rafferty PH (Brooklyn, NY) and
Whitney Bedford 98 PT (Santa
Monica, CA) is included in
Houdini: Art and Magic, an exhibit
on view through March 27 at
The Jewish Museum in New York.
Erica Saladino GD (see page 6)
2001
10th reunion
October 14–16, 2011
Inverted Harmony: A Handmade
Environment by Jenine Bressner—
her first solo show—is on view
RISDXYZ
Marissa Nadler IL/MAT 04
Symphony Orchestra.
Jason Adams 00 IL
54
In December Lili Maya GD/
MFA 05 DM (Baltimore, MD;
mayarouvelle.com) and James
Rouvelle exhibited their installation traversal53 inside the
former Donnell library, across the
street from MoMA in New York.
selected for web publication
and The Netherlands) currently
1998
the ADC Gallery in New York City
and published in a limitededition volume by Moleskine.
through March 13 at the Houston
[TX] Center for Contemporary
Craft. The show includes
chandeliers of flame-worked
glass and laser-cut textile plant
forms, one meant to look like
glass rain, and other new works
by Jenine Bressner GL
(Providence). In October she
demonstrated glass torch-work
on the Martha Stewart Show.
Chandler O’Leary 03 IL
Last fall Chandler (Tacoma, WA)
debuted her new artist book
in Local Conditions, a solo
exhibition at the University of
Puget Sound’s Collins Memorial
Library in Tacoma, WA, where
she lives. The interactive book
captures the changing faces
of Mt. Rainier.
In October Caroline Adams
Just a few of our favorite class-
Saenger PR exhibited a series
mates. Where are the rest of you?”
of oil paintings at Thos. Moser in
Washington, DC, where she lives.
2003
Mark Barrow PT and his wife,
2002
Sarah Parke 04 TX (NYC),
Jessica Frelinghuysen PR
are currently collaborating on
Jeremy Davis 98 ID
(Hamtramck, MI) exhibited
producing work: he makes
Jeremy lived to tell the tale of
finishing his third (!) Ironman
triathlon last August—Ironman
Canada in Penticton, BC. He
completed the 2.4-mile swim,
112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile
run in 12 hours and 57 minutes.
The accomplished triathlete
is based in NYC.
a collection of sights and sounds
paintings on her hand-woven
entitled In Your Neighborhood
fabric. Their recent exhibition at
in November and December
the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in NYC
at the Public Pool Gallery in
was reviewed in the New York
Hamtramck, MI.
Times (10.1.10).
Last October landscapes by Erik
Christopher Butler FAV
Leighton Koeppel IL (Jersey
(Chapel Hill, NC) sends word
City, NJ) were exhibited at the
that he is on the 2011 REBRAND
Jackson [NH] Historical Society,
Awards jury. He was interviewed
alongside 19th-century paintings
as part of the pre-award
Last fall Misako Inaoka IL (San
by artists of the White Mountain
promotion; you can find the
Francisco) exhibited sculptural
work in the solo show Guided
Growth at Johansson Projects in
Oakland, CA.
School of Art.
interview at rebrand.com. He
was also invited to contribute to
Tana Martin GD (Miami),
Print magazine’s Imprint blog.
creative principal at RMC,
Christopher notes: “The material
recently won the bid to redesign
on the blog is very relevant
(Needham, MA; marissanadler.
com) writes: “I want to inform
other young artists of the
tradition of musicians coming
out of RISD, and I thought the
alumni community would be
interested to see what I have
been up to. I have used a lot
of the tools I learned at RISD to
create an independent music
career spanning four full-length
records that have been released
worldwide, are available in
stores and are widely listened to
online. Most recently, three songs
were used in an ABC pilot airing
on national television. I have
Haavard Homstvedt
00 IL
Ripple Sole, a solo show of work
including this piece by Haavard,
was featured last fall at the
annarumma gallery in Naples,
Italy. The artist is based in NYC.
been in Art Forum, the
International Herald Tribune,
the Boston Globe, the New York
Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, etc.
etc. My first concerts were
actually at RISD, in a little room
upstairs from the mailroom, as
well as in the little coffee shop on
the corner and the now defunct
Custom House Tavern. Since
overcoming most of my stage
fright, I have been touring the
world performing as well as
contributing vocals to many
other bands, and utilizing my
RISD career to design my own
cover art, t-shirts, and other
merchandise.”
Matthias Pliessnig 03 FD
In December the arts advocacy foundation United States Artists
awarded Matthias an unrestricted $50,000 grant in support
of his ongoing work in furniture and sculpture. Fellow RISD grad
Natalia Almada MFA 01 PH (see page 61) was also among the 52
individual artists and collaboratives nationwide selected to receive
2010 USA Fellowships on the basis of the “impact and caliber”
of their work. Matthias, who frequently teaches in RISD’s Furniture
Design Department, has also been named a Knight Fellow, an honor
that includes an additional $5,000 grant to create a community
engagement event in his home city, Philadelphia.
AP
Apparel Design
Arch
Architecture
CR
Ceramics
DM
Digital + Media
FAV
Film/Animation/
Video
FD
Furniture Design
GD
Graphic Design
GL
Glass
IA
Interior Architecture
ID
Industrial Design
IL
Illustration
JM
Jewelry +
Metalsmithing
PH
Photography
PT
Painting
PR
Printmaking
SC
Sculpture
TX
Textiles
former majors
AD
Advertising Design
AE
Art + Design
Education
LA
Landscape
Architecture
MD
Machine Design
TC
Textile Chemistry
TE
Textile Engineering
FIfth-year
bachelor’s degrees
BArch Architecture
BGD
Graphic Design
BID
Industrial Design
BIA
Interior
Architecture
BLA
Landscape
Architecture
master’s degrees
MA
Art Education
(formerly MAE)
MArch Architecture
MAT
Teaching
MFA
Fine Arts
MID
Industrial Design
MIA
Interior Architecture
MLALandscape
Architecture
the website for the University
to practicing RISD alumni and
of Miami’s School of Business.
students looking forward to
OTHER
careers in interactive design.”
CEC
Continuing
Education Certificate
Four alumni were among the
FS
enrolled for
Foundation Studies
only
Jay Salvas GD writes via the
RISD Alumni Online Community:
“Bosco (Juan B. Hernandez
50 winners in Young Guns 8,
Basulto GD) and I are living
the Art Directors Club’s 2010
in San Francisco—happy in Oz,
international competition for
as we say. We are delighted to
creative professionals in their
have guests this month:
20s: Michael Freimuth GD,
Amanda Poray GD (San
Joe Marianek GD, Nikolay
Francisco), Diana Weissman
Saveliev 07 GD and Jessica
GD (Cambridge, MA), and
Walsh 08 GD. The winners’ work
Candice Brooks GD (Boston).
was showcased in October at
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
*attended RISD, but
no degree awarded
WINTER 2011
55
Kim Sikora 07 PH
Sami Arthur GL and other
A photograph by Kim (San
Francisco) was included in
Juried@BAC, a summer 2010 exhibition at the Berkeley [CA] Art
Center. She teaches at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art
and has started a photography
blog called Photo Homework
at kimberlysikora.com/blog.
friends of Justin Yuen IL
have formed Journey for Justin,
(journeyforjustin.com), a
fundraising and support group to
help Justin pay for the expensive
treatments needed for his very
rare form of cancer. A benefit art
auction held in December at Salt
Space in New York featured the
Regina Mamou PH (Bloom-
field Hills, MI) showed work
in The Utopian Airport Lounge,
a group exhibition at Makan Art
Space in Amman, Jordan. The
December 2010 show highlighted
public art projects in the city
of Amman.
work of Robin Williams IL,
Melissa Meyer IL (see page 64)
Emily Bernath PT and many
New works by Casey
other artists.
Neumann PR (Waipahuu, HI),
Jacqueline Rush Lee and
Madeleine Söder were exhibited
from July to October 2010 at
The Contemporary Museum in
Honolulu, HI. The three artists
create complex mixed-media
works that incorporate various
thread-based techniques such
as embroidery, knitting and
crocheting.
Lady Gaga wore a long, slinky
black dress designed by Sally
LaPointe AP (NYC) to the
Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas in January, which she
Emily Snedden CR recently
attended in order to unveil new
married Kyle A. Yates and lives
in Philadelphia.
products she has collaborated
Last summer Eric Telfort IL
had an exhibition entitled When
I Was Six at the Bulawayo Art
Gallery in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe,
where he now lives.
a global competition hosted by
BBC World News, Newsweek and
Shell Oil Company to find
projects that show “enterprise
and innovation at a grassroots
level.” The Isla Urbana team
developed a rainwater collection
and filtering system to ease the
water shortage in Mexico City.
on with Polaroid.
Enrique Lomnitz ID (NYC)
and his team Isla Urbana were
Rich Pellegrino IL (Warwick,
selected as one of 12 finalists in
RI) shares news of a few
exhibitions in October 2010:
the 2010 World Challenge,
In recognition of Hispanic
Heritage Month, Jennifer
Rolfsema GD (Pawtucket, RI)
exhibited multicultural
portraits and local landscapes
last fall at the Johnson & Wales
University Intercultural Center
in Providence.
Three greeting cards by Jennifer
2004
Lisa (Plantenga) Berry PH +
John Berry IL (see page 36)
Ethan Hayes-Chute PT
(Freeport, ME) has exhibited his
work throughout North America
and Europe and is one of four
Maine artists selected by the
Maine Arts Commission to
receive 2011 Individual Artist
Fellowships. Hermitage, his
installation for the 2009
Portland Museum of Art Biennial,
entailed the construction
of a two-story building in the
museum’s central lobby.
Emilie Lee IL (emilielee.com)
participated in Alpine Styles:
Climbing and Mountaineering
Art Exhibition, a group show
held last fall at the Bradford
Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden, CO.
She is a senior Hudson River
Fellow and is based in NYC.
56
RISDXYZ
(Providence) exhibited new
paintings at the Rice Polak
Gallery in Provincetown, MA.
2005
being sold at Target though
a licensing partnership with
Recycled Paper Greetings. The
three cards are part of RPG’s
new line of woman-to-woman
birthday cards.
Bryce W. Bounds BArch
(Savannah, GA) sent in the news
that he is married to Sonia R.
Carias-Samayoa Bounds.
Becky Fong GD (see page 36)
Richard J. Goldstein PT
(Brooklyn, NY) curated
Neo-Vitruvian: The Body Now,
an exhibition that ran at the
Hal Bromm Gallery in Tribeca,
NYC from September to
November 2010.
(Brooklyn NY) writes that he is
the Van Lier/Stein Fellow at
The Center for Book Arts in NYC,
where he is pursuing advanced
studies in book arts.
Sam Sharpe FAV wrote and
directed The Fantastic Magnifico,
a film about an American who
was inspired to join the infantry
during World War I. He worked
on the film with Stephanie
Dufford*, whom he met at RISD
when they were both students;
she earned a 2010 Emerging
Cinematographer Award from
the Directors Guild of America
for her work on the film. Sam
freelances from his home base
in Madison, WI.
Heights, NJ) has opened
Woodhaus Studio (woodhaus
studio.com), a full-service
boutique design firm specializing
in branding, print, web, pack-
Adler CEC (Providence) are
Last summer Sean Thomas IL
Benjamin Reynaert BArch
Beth Slocum GD (Island
2006
2003 continued
a two-person show at Harbor One
Credit Union in Mansfield, MA,
a solo show at Peace Love
Studios in Providence and a
group exhibition at The Space
Gallery in San Francisco.
Katherine Elizabeth
Dalene BArch 03
Katherine and Aaron Matthew
Weil were married on September
18, 2010 at the Old Whalers
Church in Sag Harbor, NY, with
Reverend William Grimbol
presiding. Aaron holds BA and
Master of Architecture degrees
from the University of Virginia.
The couple met at Bates Masi +
Architects in Sag Harbor, where
they both continue to work.
aging and illustration. The studio
also produces a line of handmade
wooden bowls, “burned in with
elaborate patterns” and available
on Etsy.com.
2007
A Polaroid photo taken by Erin
Danna IL (Providence) was
used on the RISD by Design
blog to illustrate the “Roman
Celebrations” (anniversary
of EHP) getaway.
BooBoo Kills Yogi, a short video
created by Edmund Earle FAV
as a spoof of the Yogi Bear
animated film released last fall,
went viral within days of its
release on YouTube, attracting
more than 3 million viewers
in less than a week. The video
was mentioned on blogs run
by The Wall Street Journal,
The New York Times, Wired and
many more outlets.
The Westport Arts Advisory
Committee recently selected
Connor Murphy FAV (Playa
Vista, CA) to receive the 2010
Horizon Award for Visual Arts.
After studying studio-scale
animation at RISD, Connor
interned on Corpse Bride,
Brotherhood and Underdog
before becoming a motion editor
at Giant Studios in Los Angeles.
He worked applying captured
human motion to film characters
on Mummy3, The Incredible Hulk
and Prince Caspian and then
moved on to camera assistant
for director James Cameron
on Avatar. Connor is currently
working on director Shawn
Levy’s Real Steel, a Rocky-style
story about robot boxing in
the future.
Kate S. Sanders-Fleming PT
(Cambridge, MA) is teaching
Spanish classes (“Learn Spanish
Through the Arts!”) to kids at the
Alliance Française in Providence.
Send us your XYZ info!
Tell us what you’re up to and we’ll share
your news with the RISD community.
Here are some of the ways you can contribute to your magazine:
upcoming deadlines:
Ben Bronstein 09 IL
1/ submit updates (professional and personal) to class notes
email risdxyz@risd.edu (subject line: class notes)
April 1 for Spring/Summer 2011 (due out in June)
Ben (benbronstein.com)
recently completed a commission to illustrate a series of
beer bottle labels for Skeller
Brewery, a micro-brewery based
in Providence (where he lives).
He has also been producing
a lot of illustrations for The Wall
Street Journal, PLANSPONSOR
and PLANADVISOR.
2/ send us your responses to the content of each issue
email risdxyz@risd.edu (subject line: feedback)
3/ submit exhibition information for current + upcoming shows
email risdxyz@risd.edu (subject line: exhibitions)
2008
R.K. Projects hosted its second
exhibition in a pop-up gallery
at Conley’s Wharf in Providence.
The November 2010 show
featured paintings, drawings,
sculpture and installations
by Colin Bliss SC, Joseph
Buzzell 06 PR and Alex
Griffith 09 PT, who are all
To submit information via post, write to:
RISD XYZ, Two College Street, Providence, RI 02903
To speak to the editor: call Liisa at 401 454-6349
In September Ani’s work was featured on the MSNBC program
TODAY Money, in the segment “Is it time for American paper money
to get a new look?” She’s building on her senior thesis work for The
Dollar ReDe$ign Project, a grassroots movement to update US paper
currency. Ani submitted a design that focuses on America’s social
history, featuring images of Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
naturalist John Muir and astronaut Neil Armstrong. “Our currency is
a symbol of our country and as a country we’ve come so far,” she says.
“I tried to think about why people risk their lives to come here and
start a new life. It’s not because of our presidents but because of our
freedoms and rights.”
based in Providence.
Elizabeth Grammaticas PT
(Boston) organized and
participated in the group show
9.02.10: Teen TV Residue, on
view last September and October
at The Distillery Gallery in
South Boston, MA.
2009
As a web designer/illustrator at
Google, Jennifer Hom IL is part
of a small team responsible for
posting Google Doodles—topical
illustrations—on the Google
home search page. Among her
recent contributions are Doodles
commemorating the birthday
of Mahatma Ghandi (10.2.09)
and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day (1.18.10). In December
her Doodling work was noted
in a Wall Street Journal article
(12.24.10).
Animation Festival, with RISD
winning Honorable Mention
in the 2010 Best Animation
School Showreel category. RISD’s
school showreel featured films
by Heather Kahn FAV,
Dylan Ladds 11 FAV, Kenneth
Onulak 11 FAV, Jonathan
Seligson FAV, Kim Weiner FAV,
Ted Wiggin 11 FAV and Caleb
Wood 11 FAV.
Line + Relation, an exhibition
featuring the artwork of Charlie
Thornton BArch (New Bedford,
MA) and his father, John Thornton,
was recently on display at
Phillips Academy in Andover,
MA. The exhibition highlighted
the reciprocal relationship
between the two artists’ work
over an extended period of time.
Louie Rigano ID (see page 10)
Miriam Zisook ID (Providence)
is a new member of Business
Innovation Factory’s design
research team. She will be
working with BIF Design Director
Christine Costello on a variety
of projects and leading fieldwork
for projects in the BIF Student
Experience Lab.
2011
Karen Kavett GD created
the first user-designed logo
for YouTube, which appeared
on Halloween 2010. She also
regularly posts videos to her
YouTube channel about how
and why someone might want
to study design and how to
survive a RISD crit.
In December Gabriela Salazar
PT presented a site-specific instal-
September 1 for Fall 2011 (due out in October)
Ani Ardzivian 10 GD
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
lation as part of flatbreadaffair
and took part in an Artist’s Fete
Dinner inspired by her work. The
event took place in her Brooklyn
studio/home.
2010
Films by RISD Film/Animation/
Video majors stood out at last
fall’s Ottawa International
Tim Belonax 04 GD
Tim (Newhall, CA) designed and
printed these pillowcases for
the RISD NorCal alumni
club (we showed them
in the Spring 2010 issue
of XYZ—being tossed
around at the Valentine’s
Day Pillow Fight in San
Francisco). Since then HOW
magazine selected them for
inclusion in its fall 2010 annual.
WINTER 2011
57
Graduate Class Notes
1978
1986
John Young MFA SC (Seattle)
In January Minnesota’s governor,
Mark Dayton, appointed Sheila
Wright MAE to a cabinet-level
position as the new director of
the Minnesota Office of Higher
Education. She had been serving
as dean of Hamline University’s
School of Education and began
her career as a public schoolteacher in North Carolina. In
accepting the post, Wright noted
that “creativity, ingenuity and
innovation are needed right now”
in order to make higher education
more accessible, affordable and
responsive to the needs of
college students in Minnesota.
recently let us know that he
is the host and writer of a new
PBS TV show called You Call
That Art?! (youcallthatart.net),
which premiered on November
22, with KCTS Channel 9 Seattle
Think ahead.
as the host station. Geared
towards the general public, the
show aims to demystify public
art. “Our hope is that it will
become a national series encompassing 19 US cities,” John says.
RISD’s rigorous blend of studio and crit-based learning gives
students the creative skills they need in the 21st century.
Help ensure that the creative leaders of
the future get the best education possible.
Even if you can’t afford to give much to
RISD now, you can make a huge difference
by planning ahead. Here are a few of the
many options worth considering:
> Make a gift that literally costs you
nothing now yet helps generations
of art and design students in the future.
> Donate your house or vacation
property, keep using it and get a tax
break all at the same time.
Contact Louise Olson at 401 454-6323
or email giftplanning@risd.edu for more options and information.
risd.edu/giftplanning
> Get a tax deduction and a quarterly
paycheck for life in return for your gift.
“Maybe some of our alumni will
be interested in tuning in.”
1982
Anne Pundyk MFA PT (NYC)
participated in The Art of
Captivity, Part One, a fall 2010
Martin Mull 65 PT/MFA 67 PT
War and Peace (2010, oil on linen, 30x42") was among the new
paintings featured in Witness, a solo show on view in November and
December at Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago. In this latest body
of work, Martin presents slightly twisted figurative vignettes drawn
from his memories of childhood. “There was a whole America that
I grew up in [in the 1950s and ’60s] that has kind of taken a hike,”
the artist/actor explained in a TV interview on Chicago Tonight. “The
world has changed in so many ways, and this country has changed
in so many ways, I feel compelled to lay down this madness that I
was raised in—the idea of suburban America as this kind of pictureperfect thing. Of course, it wasn’t. It wasn’t all Ozzie and Harriet.”
1963
deaths
Paul Arthur LaViolette, Jr.
Edith Hatch Budlong 33 AE
of Lehigh Acres, FL and North
Scituate, RI on March 3, 2008.
Anna Tefft Siok 46 TX of
Brooklyn, NY on June 3, 2010.
Raymond Johnson 38 TX
Beverley Palmer 48 TX of
of East Providence, RI on
November 20, 2010.
Philadelphia, PA on January 14,
2010.
Henry F. Erikson 39 MD
51 MD of Charlottesville, VA
on July 9, 2010.
Barbara Warner Maslen 51 LA
of Yarmouthport, MA on April 8,
2010.
Raymond A. Tondreau 51 MD
of Ellis, KS on May 16, 2008.
Gordon Miles Fraize 49 IL of
Hereford, AZ on August 28, 2009.
of Vista, CA on November 21,
2010.
Catherine Walcott Hill 43 PT/
Mary C. Purcell 49 IL of
Robert P. Keating BArch 53 of
MAE 64 of New York, NY on
December 23, 2010.
Glenville, NY on March 22, 2010.
Woodbury, CT on September 19,
2010.
Caroline Fishkin 44 AP
Hartford, CT on October 14, 2009.
Al was Dean of Students at RISD
in the 1960s.
of East Longmeadow, MA in
August 2010.
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RISDXYZ
Alfred E. Hammer 50 PT of
Carol Bourne Skelly 56 LA
of Old Saybrook, CT on
September 4, 2010.
Richard Tipton BArch 69 of
Jeanne (Matheson) Blackwood 57 IA of Santa Ysabel, CA
on September 20, 2010.
John Williams 62 IA of Tucson,
AZ in August 2010.
Phil Carroll 64 IL of Ross, CA
on September 26, 2010.
Taos, NM on January 13, 2011.
Carol J. Pentleton Robinson
74 GD of Chepachet, RI on
February 2, 2011.
Martha Anderson Colvin
MAE 81 of West Brighton, MA on
September 3, 2009.
David W. Pilbrow 64 GD/MFA
66 PH of Indianapolis, IN on
October 9, 2010.
Robert Seydel MFA 90 PH of
Amherst, MA on January 27, 2011.
Ronald O. Wilczek 64 SC
of Bristol, RI in January 2011.
of Kansas City, MO on
December 29, 2010.
Andrew L. Lanphier 02 IL
Vermont Landscapes, a solo show
of recent paintings by Martha
Armstrong MAE, was on view
in November at the Bowery
Gallery in New York. Martha lives
in Hatfield, MA.
1966
Last fall Geoffrey B. Piece
MAE (Lincoln, MA) had a show of
watercolors at the Congregational
Church of Weston in Weston, CT.
1968
Seattle-based glass artist Dale
Chihuly MFA CR was featured
as a Daily Dose pick in October.
“Arguably the greatest artist
in the history of glass sculpture,”
blogger Paul Laster wrote, Dale
has “helped turn the craft
of blowing glass into an exhilarating art form.”
1975
The October 1 conference Why
Design Now? Solving Global
Challenges, presented by the
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum in NYC in conjunction
with its triennial exhibition,
featured Rob Schwartz MID
as a panelist and Boback
Firoozbakht MIA 11 as a student
presenter. Rob is general
manager of global design at GE
Healthcare; Boback is an advocate for sustainable design and a
participant in the annual Clinton
Global Initiative University (see
Spring 2010 issue of RISD XYZ).
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
1977
Pat Dingle MAT (Bowie, MD)
is the Art Department Chair
at Kenmoor Middle School in
Prince George’s County, MD.
Last summer she studied African
exhibition of work by seven
contemporary artists at Fordham
University’s Center Gallery at
Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
Drawing upon her recent
experience with cancer, Anne
American Political History at
translated ontological ideas
the HistoryMakers NEH Institute
about illness and stigma into
in Chicago; she also studied
paint. She followed the sensations
at the Newark [NJ] Museum
of the body as they are paired
as part of the NEH Picturing
with moments of recognition,
America Collaborative
memory and understanding.
Various alumni
Chris Van Allsburg MFA 75 SC
and Mary Jane Begin 85 IL were
guest panelists at RISD’s
November screening of Library
of the Early Mind, a new documentary film about the art and
impact of children’s literature
(a still from the title sequence
is shown below). They are
among the 40 prominent author/
illustrators interviewed in the
film. Other RISD alumni featured
in the documentary are Jarrett
Krosoczka 99 IL, Brian Selznick
88 IL and Grace Lin 96 IL.
Conference. In December, Pat
won a DOTTY AWARD for
Best Children’s Programming
with the Bowie Community
Media Corporation, a local cable
television company. Her program
Talking with Imani features
her six-year-old grandniece,
Imani Patrice, who began
starring in and co-hosting the
program when she was four.
In October Pat launched the
first annual Loretha B. Dingle
Memorial Scholarship dinner
in memory of her late mother.
Administered by Howard
University, the scholarship will
help eligible African-American
working women in the Washington metropolitan area to meet
the costs of a college education.
WINTER 2011
59
David T. Hanson
MFA 83 PH
left: David’s new book Colstrip,
Montana (2010, Taverner Press)
collects 87 photographs he took
in the early 1980s as a study
of one of the largest coal strip
mines in the country; individual
images from the Colstrip series
have been widely exhibited, but
the entire sequence had only
rarely been seen prior to the
publication of this book. David
lives in Fairfield, IA.
1988
Joy Mishkin MFA PH (Arcadia,
CA) and Bill Gemberling were
married on August 2, 2010 in the
Victorian Chapel in Las Vegas, NV.
1993
Yasmina Bouziane MFA PH
(NYC) is working for the UN as
a spokesperson and deputy chief
1996
New works by Milisa Galazzi MA
are included in Tactile Expressions,
a three-person show that runs
from March 29 through April 22
at Moses Brown School’s Krause
Gallery in Providence. Milisa
lives in nearby Cranston, RI.
Mary Kocol MFA 87 PH
Lemon Tree Above the Pool, Los Angeles (2007, inkjet print from film
negative, 23x34") and Apples, October (2009, inkjet print from film
negative, 23x23") were among Mary’s large-scale photos included in
the fall group show Bon Appetit, A Visual Treat at the Concord [MA]
Art Association. She also had a September solo show at Gallery NAGA
in Boston and recently wrote an essay on The Garden in Early Art
Photography for Gardens Illustrated, “a fancy British garden magazine.”
Mary is based in Somerville, MA.
1999
Last fall Audra Wolowiec
MFA SC (Long Island City, NY)
and Alee Peoples SC 10
(Providence) were artists in
residence at the Wassaic
Project, an artists’ collective in
Wassaic, NY started by several
RISD alumni.
of the Public Information Office
for the United Nations Mission
in Liberia. Previously she had
been working in Lebanon.
1994
Recent work by Susan Brearey
MFA PT/PR was included in
the two-month-long fall faculty
exhibition at The Putney [VT]
School, where she teaches.
KITCHEN AS STUDIO
José Fernando VázquezPérez MID (San Juan, PR) was
an invited speaker at the 2010
national convention of the
American Institute of Architects
in Miami, where he co-lectured
on Design for the New Decade:
A Next Generation Look at Design
and Architecture. Last July he
received an international Red
Dot Award for The Spíritree; the
project was also a finalist in the
Good Design Awards in Japan
and the Designpreis Deutschland
in Germany. José Fernando
originally conceived The Spíritree
as part of his Memento Mori
thesis project at RISD, and later
patented and developed it as
a commercial product. It has
been featured in Taschen’s
Design for the Sustainable Era
by Dalcacio da Gama Reis and
was included, along with more
of his work, in the second
Ibero-American Design Biennial
held last fall in Madrid. Since
2000 José Fernando has been
George Germon MFA 69 CR + Johanne Killeen 71 PH
George and Johanne only knew each other in passing while they were students at RISD,
but they both ended up in Italy after graduating. George taught at RISD’s European
Honors Program in Rome, and Johanne worked at a small restaurant outside Florence
while continuing her studies in photography. Serendipitously, they both found their true
calling in food—and through it, they found each other. “The taste [of authentic Italian
food] was something that really knocked me over the head,” George remembers.
Back in Providence, the two met again and fell in love in 1975 when they were working
as cooks at a downtown restaurant. Over the next few years, they shared the dream
of opening a restaurant, which they did on a shoestring in 1980.
“For us, Al Forno is simply an art project that keeps evolving,” Johanne says. “The
kitchen is our studio, and the food we cook is like a canvas that is continually being
repainted, changed and refined.”
far left: photo by Terace Green | middle: photo by Lexi Dantzig
You could visit or even live in Providence for years
and never notice Al Forno, the world-class restaurant
tucked behind a former factory at the bottom end
of South Main Street. But in the culinary world and
among those in the know, the restaurant looms large.
Chef/owners George Germon and Johanne Killeen have earned nearly
every honor imaginable for their creative, northern Italian-inspired
cuisine—including Best Chef in the Northeast from the James Beard
Foundation, the Insegna del Ristorante Italiano by the Italian Ministry
of Agriculture and of Foreign Trade and World’s Best Restaurant for
casual dining from the International Herald Tribune, among literally
dozens of other accolades.
2000
60
RISDXYZ
For more on RISD’s most famous culinary couple, go to alforno.com.
a partner in URBANA:Arquitectura/Diseño, an architecture and
design firm he runs in San Juan,
Puerto Rico, where he lives. He
and Rafael Castro-Montes de Oca
recently earned an AIA Award for
their design of Galería AirMaster
and a CEMEX Award for the
San Pablo house in San Juan.
2001
Cynthia Farnell MFA PH
(Conway, SC) has been appointed
director of The Welch Gallery
at Georgia State University
in Atlanta.
a personal portrait of the
controversial Mexican president
Plutarco Elias Calles, which
earned her the 2009 Sundance
Documentary Directing Award;
and Al otro lado/To the Other
Side (2005), about a Mexican
composer forced to choose
between drug trafficking and
emigrating illegally to the US.
2002
E.D. Taylor MFA PR conceived
and performed in These Walls
were Built by Slaves, a work
Trevor Lee MLA 02
above left + center: While working at OLIN in Philadelphia, Trevor
served as project designer and manager for the Potomac Park
Levee on the National Mall in Washington, DC, which is now under
construction. above right: Trevor also designed and managed
the new Yale Forestry School landscape project (2009) through
OLIN. He is now a design fellow at the Syracuse [NY] School
of Architecture.
of performance art and ancestor
veneration highlighting the
ongoing issue of slavery
worldwide. For the “politically
motivated endurance art”
(as described by critic Eleanor
Heartney), she and actor Anna
Register “continually built
and dismantled a stone wall in
a nasty room deep in the
understructure” of a structure
in Cleveland, where she lives.
In December Natalia Almada
MFA PH won a $50,000 grant
from United States Artists to
support of her ongoing work in
film. She was among 52 individual artists and collaboratives
nationwide selected to receive
2010 USA Fellowships on the
basis of the “impact and caliber”
of their work. Through Altamura
Films, her independent production company in Brooklyn
and Mexico City, Natalia has
made such films as El Jardin
(currently in post-production),
which looks at the drug war
in Mexico; El General (2009),
Susan Skoczen
MFA 02 JM
Susan curated the fall 2010
jewelry/metals show Topography
of Metal for Gallery M/Tap
Studios in Cleveland, and showed
her own work in the September
group show Commingling at the
William Busta Gallery, also in
Cleveland. In her new position
as lecturer of fine arts and art
gallery director at Indiana University/Kokomo, she’s teaching
art classes and plans to start
a jewelry/metals program and
studio. In 2009 Susan’s parents
hosted her backyard wedding
to Freeland Southard.
To submit updates for class notes, email risdxyz@risd.edu.
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WINTER 2011
61
Yong Joo Kim MFA 09 JM
left: Providence-based jewelry
artist Yong Joo has been awarded
a Professional Arts Development
Grant from the Rhode Island
State Council of the Arts.
The grant will support the cost
of photographing her latest
work, updating her website and
publishing marketing materials.
Lin Zhang MFA DM (zhanglin-
media.com) and her husband
Feng Jiangzhou directed a digital
media performance for the
opening ceremony of the 2010
China Sailing Cup regatta. They
live in Beijing.
2012
Jeffrey Peña MArch is one
of four artists who keep Curbs
and Stoops (curbsandstoops.
com), an artistic think-tank he
founded, up and running.
Committed to “democratizing”
Charlotte Potter
MFA 10 GL
2004
2010
During the annual 5 Dutch Days,
a November celebration of the
ongoing influence of Dutch
culture in New York City, the
Trespa Design Centre hosted Still
Life, an exhibition uniting the
jewelry and furniture designs
of Alissia Melka-Teichroew
MID (byamt.com), a native of the
Netherlands, and portraits of
them made Lisa Klappe, an artist
in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
incubator made of car parts
and designed for use in the
developing world (see Fall 2010
RISD XYZ)—as one of its “50 Best
Inventions of 2010” (11.11.10).
Tom Weis MID, Mike Hahn ID,
Adam Geremia MID 07, Emily
Rothschild MID and Huy Vu
MFA 09 GD worked with Design
that Matters and the Center
for Integration of Medicine &
Innovative Technology on
various stages of the project.
2008
2009
TIME magazine selected the
NeoNurture Incubator—an infant
Brendan Ravenhill MID (see
Robert Williams MArch
page 10/11)
and Nina Emery were married
on June 6, 2009. Robert recently
began a new position as a member
of the Business Innovation
Factory’s design research team
in Providence, where he lives.
Jaewoo Kang MIA (New
Rochelle, NY) has married Hyo
Jung Lee.
Lindsay Kinkade MFA GD,
Charlotte (Waitsfield, VT)
collaborated with Adrien Broom,
a photographer taking RISD CE
classes, on the Wonder Series, a
body of work that includes
images shot in the Nature Lab.
The work was shown recently at
Diane Birdsall Gallery in Old
Lyme, CT and in April will be
featured in a show in Brooklyn.
Jeff Barnett-Winsby
MFA 06 PH
Jeff (jeffbarnettwinsby.com)
has published Mark West & Molly
Rose (May 2010, J&L Books),
a photographic account of his
correspondence with convicted
murderer John Maynard and the
social worker who helped him
escape from prison in 2006. He
works out of his studio in NYC.
accessibility to art and design
beyond museums and galleries,
Curbs and Stoops backs public
art and interactive projects,
limited edition prints, progressive residency programs, pop-up
exhibitions and guerilla art
projects and installations.
Ashley Zelinskie 10 GL is
also actively involved and
Michael Yoder MFA 02 PT is
a contributing writer.
Erika Tarte MFA 11 GD,
Beth Weaver MFA 12 GD (see
page 8/9)
Work by Jonggeon Lee MFA SC
is on view through March 6 in the
2010 Emerging Artist Fellowship
Exhibition at Socrates Sculpture
Park in Long Island City, Queens.
Culinary Capers
New things are always cooking on campus, but most build
on traditions—including culinary ones—that have defined
RISD’s character for decades. In the heyday of the Culinary Arts
Program, a two-year full-time course of study, chef Al Falk
(who also oversaw the RISD Refectory) taught students to create
delectable dishes. In the late 1940s, students dined in Memorial
Hall (right) and many of the males (look at all of them!) wore
suits. The fun and food-filled alumni clambakes at Frances Farm
in Rehoboth, MA were popular in the 1950s and ’60s.
left: Pieces from Blind, a new
body of work by Jesse (jesseburke.
com), were on view from November to January at Flanders Gallery
in Raleigh, NC. He also showed
photographs of the homeless in
if on a winter’s night, a December
exhibition at Platform Gallery
in Seattle. Jesse teaches at RISD
and lives in Rumford, RI.
62
RISDXYZ
images courtesy of the RISD Archives
Jesse Burke MFA 05 PH
WINTER 2011
63
by
Melissa
Meyer
06 IL
64
RISDXYZ
I have been drawing beets a lot. I look forward
to beet season every year, but this year I’m
obsessed. If I put a pen in my hand, chances are
I’ll draw a beet. There’s something so magical
about these little secret jewels growing in the
dirt. Maybe I’ll move on to drawing asparagus and
tomatoes in the spring and summer, but for now
it’s beets—all the time, on my plate and on little
scraps of paper scattered all over my studio.
Please submit a page from your own
sketchbook (showing anything that’s
on your mind). Our favorite will appear
in the next issue. Questions? Email
risdxyz@risd.edu.
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Rhode Island School of Design
Two College Street
Providence, RI 02903 USA
Burlington, VT 05401
Permit No. 19
RISD Alumni Art Sales
make everyone happy
Whether you’re buying or selling, the three annual Providence events are
vibrant, fun and rewarding. If you’re new to the marketplace thing, they offer
a great opportunity to dip your toes into the entrepreneurial waters, test out
your wares and get friendly feedback from shoppers—about pricing,
presentation and other practicalities.
The sales are, in fact, so popular that demand for space often
exceeds capacity. So here’s how it works: Alumni Relations
emails application information* and the deadline
for each upcoming sale. If more applications
come in than the venue can accommodate,
a lottery system is used to determine
who participates.
* we don’t send these by post, only email
For more information
about participating, go to
www.risd.edu/alumni_sales
or email alumnisale@risd.edu.
2011 Providence Sale Dates
Proceeds from
admissions fees
support the RISD
Alumni Association
Scholarship Fund,
which is now
benefiting seven
current students.
Alumni Spring Art Sale
Saturday, April 30
10 am – 4pm
Benefit Street (between Waterman + Hopkins)
Alumni + Student Fall Art Sale
Saturday, October 15
10 am – 4pm
Benefit Street (between Waterman + Hopkins)
Alumni Holiday Art Sale
Saturday, December 3
10 am – 4pm
Rhode Island Convention Center