Taylor Fourt

Big thanks JooHee!

This October, we were lucky enough to have super-talented JooHee Yoon join us for a day as a visiting artist to our department. 

Visiting Artist JooHee Yoon with Assistant Professor David Terrill

Visiting Artist JooHee Yoon with Assistant Professor David Terrill

Needless to say, we were all very excited to have JooHee join us for a day. Her fun, colorful, printmaking-inspired work is something that many of us have admired for some time. Her recently released books, Beastly Verse and The Tiger Who Would Be King, both published by Enchanted Lion Books, have created quite a buzz, in addition to her multifaceted editorial work.

JooHee surprised our students by giving them each a print from her recent book, Beastly Verse -- it was a bit of a stampede as students went up to claim their print! She also brought a stack of her recent picture books to sell. I think she sold every last one!

What a wonderful surprise!

What a wonderful surprise!

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At the end of the day, we all get together for a Q&A session with our visiting artist. This is a chance for the students to ask JooHee all sorts of questions. The students had a lot of great questions and JooHee provided some wonderful insight.

The Q&A discussion begins!

The Q&A discussion begins!

Every visiting artist that comes to KCAI Illustration gives our students a project. All the students within every level in the department participate and create a piece for the project; they usually have about a week to complete it. For her project, JooHee challenged the students to create an 18x24 inch travel poster to a place that could be real or imagined. As an instructor, I always love to see what the students come up with and once again, I was amazed. There were some wonderful pieces!!

The final step for our visiting artist is for them to select what they consider to be the top 25-30 solutions for the project. Out of those 25-30 pieces, they select their Top 3 solutions. The students whose work is selected as one of the Top 3 have the opportunity to go to dinner with the visiting artist! Congrats to the Top 3 picks senior Taylor Fourt, junior Ethan Tucker and sophomore Gabrielle Brandini!

Taylor Fourt

Taylor Fourt

Ethan Tucker

Ethan Tucker

Gabrielle Brandini

Gabrielle Brandini

Dinner with JooHee at Cafe Trio, Kansas City, MO. Also present Assistant Professor David Terrill, Assistant Professor John Ferry, Instructor Hector Casanova, Instructor Kyle Strahm and Assistant Professor Maura Cluthe (taking the picture!). What a f…

Dinner with JooHee at Cafe Trio, Kansas City, MO. Also present Assistant Professor David Terrill, Assistant Professor John Ferry, Instructor Hector Casanova, Instructor Kyle Strahm and Assistant Professor Maura Cluthe (taking the picture!). What a fun night!

There were so many strong solutions to this project, that JooHee had a hard time narrowing it down to these final three. So, she chose 3 Honorable Mentions as well. Congrats to senior Alison Polston, senior Karolina Akimov and sophomore Max Peake! 

Alison Polston

Alison Polston

Karolina Akimov

Karolina Akimov

Max Peake

Max Peake

Thanks again, JooHee, for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and visit with us!


ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014

Once again, we're nearing the end of the fall semester which means that we're close to our end of the semester show. ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014 opens this Friday night, December 5, and we couldn't be more excited! Between the ILLUSTRATION NOW show and The Harvest Internship Event and all the work the students are finishing up before the winter break, the studios are buzzing!

Since the exhibition space within our department is somewhat small, we decided to keep this show simple and manageable. This year 34 students (out of 96) were selected by full-time faculty and invited to submit up to 2 pieces for consideration in the show. Once all the pieces were submitted, one piece per student was chosen. 

Here's a little preview of some of the work that will be in the show. Check it out!

Taylor Fourt

Taylor Fourt

RT Smith

RT Smith

Nathan Hall

Nathan Hall

Nicholette Haigler

Nicholette Haigler

Emily Stout

Emily Stout

JC Franco

JC Franco

Kristopher Martin

Kristopher Martin

Wesley Derstine

Wesley Derstine

Johannah Miller

Johannah Miller

Alison Polston

Alison Polston

Coleman Stampley

Coleman Stampley

Kendall Quack

Kendall Quack

Tobias Rose

Tobias Rose

Twodee Weaver

Twodee Weaver

Thanks for checking out the work! Join us this Friday night at 324 East 43rd Street from 5-8 pm. Be sure to stop by the other departments on campus for the 2014 End of Semester shows!