student work

May 2022 Student Feature: Shane McCullough

May 05, 2022

After quite some time we’re bringing back the student feature for the KCAI Illustration department. We’re nearing the end of the semester but we wanted to give a shout to an excellent student: Shane McCullough!

1. Tell us about yourself! What’s your name, where are you from?

My name is Shane McCullough. I am a 22-year-old non-binary illustrator and collage artist born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. I am an introvert but love meeting new people so reach out to me or say Hi when you see me on campus.

2. What brought you to KCAI? Why Illustration?

KCAI was originally my first choice school. However, I went to another school in Iowa first but, I wasn't in love with the program so I moved back to KC. I decided that KCAI was going to be the school for me so I built a portfolio and within a year I was accepted. I chose illustration despite having a more graphic design background because I wanted to explore and not be bound by a medium.

3. What do you like about Kansas City?

Kansas City is by far my favorite city, although I am biased. I love KC’s tight niche artist community and the importance placed on small businesses. I also have to say that we have a very under-appreciated skyline.

4. What is your favorite snack?

My favorite snack changes a lot but one constant is fruit. Especially blueberries, bananas, and mangoes.

5. What medium do you prefer?

I prefer digital collage mediums but I often add either ink or acrylic mark-making that I will scan and work into my digital collages.

6. What’s your favorite project thus far and why?

My favorite project was probably the movie poster project in storytellers and myth-makers because I love movies and I would like to do poster design at some point in my career. The project also required vector art as the medium, which I have a lot of experience in and enjoy doing.

7. If you were not doing art, what do you think you would be studying or doing instead?

Honestly, I think art is the only area of study I would be happy doing. However, before deciding on an art degree I was interested in psychology, architecture, and chemical engineering.

8. What do you like to do outside of class? What hobbies do you have?

Most of my time outside of school is spent cooking and going on walks with my fiancé Elise, taking care of our dogs: Lovey and Tylee, or having dinner and game nights with our friends. Outside of school and work I’ve just been focused on building community and building friendships.

9. Who and/or what is an inspiration for you in art-making?

Big inspirations I have are artists like Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring, Basquiat, Franziska Barczyk, Eliza Ivanova, James Jean, Keith Negley, Hilma Af Klint, Maxime manga, and Essam Marouf the list could go on forever. Besides artists, I’m inspired by the power an image has for change especially when the image’s intent is for social or environmental justice. The history and impact that art has had on the human concept of the world are also interesting to me and I hope to be a positive voice and influence in this way.

10. Do you have a go-to tool for sketching and idea generation?

My go-to sketching tools are either a ballpoint pen, mechanical pencils, or oil/chalk pastels. I use a ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil for loose idea generation or when line work is the most important. When color and shape blocking is more important (for things like vector) I use oil or chalk pastels.

11. What type of art do you want to make?

Currently, I want to work in editorial illustration, movie/tv poster design, and album/music visuals but I am open to all kinds of work and experimentation.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out more of Shane’s work @m.shane.mccullough (Instagram).

Congratulations to senior Jackson Adriano!

February 04, 2022

Hi everyone and Happy New Year! Now that we’re back and have just about finished the second week of the semester, we wanted to share this exciting news with you. Senior Jackson Adriano (‘22) will be featured in the upcoming March/April issue of Communication Arts! Congratulations Jackson!!

Special Project: Covid-19

April 23, 2020

Like many colleges across the country, we have been doing remote teaching for almost 4 weeks now. Adjusting to this process has been challenging at times and it’s meant rescheduling and reshuffling some things that we had planned for this second half of the semester, including our Mystery Project and our Visiting Artist day and project.

We have traditionally jump started the second half of the semester with an all-department project we call The Mystery Project. Although we typically challenge students with this project the Monday morning after we’re back from Spring Break, they don’t know what the project is going to be (thus the “mystery” aspect of the project). In the past, we introduce the project to the students at 8:00am and they have 3-4 hours to complete it. Then, once they're done, the pieces are hung up in the studio flex space for everyone to see. With nearly 100 students in the department, it’s really fun to see the variety of solutions for the same prompt. We’ve had some wonderful projects in the past, which are generated by the full-time faculty and/or in collaboration with individuals from the community. This spring it was Assistant Professor Il Sung Na’s turn to come up with the premise of the Mystery Project.

Covid-19 and the coronavirus pandemic have drastically changed the way we do things every day. It has permeated our conversations and our way of life. Considering the way it has impacted education and the fact that we are not in class together this second term of the semester, Il Sung was interested in seeing what kind of imagery the students would create in response to Covid-19. Here’s the brief that was given to our students:

On February 11, 2020 the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, first identified in Wuhan China and has now been detected in almost every location internationally, including the United States.
In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona’, ‘VI’ for ‘virus’, and ‘D’ for disease. COVID-19 is a new disease that has not previously been seen in humans. So what is COVID-19, how does it spread, what are symptoms, how do we prevent it, what treatments do we have, and what do you do if you are sick?
Depict how Covid-19 impacts our daily lives / Create a visual story about Covid-19.

Students were also encouraged to research and read articles about Covid-19. Unlike our past Mystery Project timeframe of 3-4 hours, students were given a little over a week to create their final pieces.

There was some amazing work created for this project (!) and although it’s not all pictured here, we have created a special page that contains work that the faculty selected to be featured here (see link above). Additionally, the five pieces shown below are the Top 5 pieces selected by the faculty for their creativity, risk-taking, idea development and commitment. Congratulations to these students and to all of our students who participated in this project for your dedication to your work.

2018 End of Semester Show PREVIEW!

April 26, 2018

This time year always approaches so quickly, but it's that time once again! Join us TOMORROW, Friday, April 27 from 5-8pm for our annual End of Semester Show featuring work by KCAI Illustration sophomores, juniors and seniors. Light snacks and refreshment will be served. C'mon by, we'd love to see you! If you can't make it to the opening, the exhibition continues Saturday, April 28 from 10am-5pm and Sunday, April 29 from 12-5pm.

Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition

April 25, 2018

Every year thousands of students from across the United States enter the prestigious Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition, but only a small fraction of those entries make it in to the final exhibition. The exhibition is held annually at the Museum of Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York. We are proud to announce that four of our students had work selected for exhibition! Congratulations to Jasmine Mendez ('18), Hannah Gibbs ('19), MacKenzie Fulmer ('19) and Isaac Lee ('20)!!

The Student Scholarship 2019 Exhibition opens on May 8 and runs through June 9, 2018.

Seniors draw at Kansas City University of Medicine and BioSciences

April 10, 2018

Assistant Professor David Terrill recently took his senior Cultural Safari sketchbook class to observe medical students dissect donor cadavers at Kansas City University of Medicine and BioScience (KCUMB). These donors gave their bodies to science to further our knowledge of the human anatomy and to train our future doctors. David and the seniors worked alongside the med students and anatomy fellows. They drew as they dissected the cadavers. When I asked David about it, he said "It was a humbling and fascinating experience." After their visit, David received an email from one of the anatomy fellows with a watercolor attached. He was so inspired by their visit that he went out and started drawing himself.

Everyone that enters the classroom lab is required to wear a lab coat. KCAI Illustration seniors Kaitlyn Jordan, Jose Leal, Miles Klos and Jesse Bonniwell are ready to draw!

The professor is “live” dissecting a cadaver at the beginning of the lab in a central part of the lab. The students all have a monitor above each station where they are dissecting at the same time. They pause and watch, get the idea of what to do, and go from there.

I wanted share some of the pages from my sketchbook from our first trip to KCUMB yesterday. It was an AMAZING experience. I ended up with 14 seniors observing med students actively dissecting the donors. We had the ability to roam and draw what we liked. Even the opportunity to dissect ourselves. Lots of great conversations with the Medical Fellows and mutual love of drawing. It was a crowded environment with well over 100 med students with a 30-ish cadavers on tables. Lots of technology as well broadcasting the professor demonstrating the dissections on the head and neck.

We are going back tomorrow morning from 10-12. We will have a different experience Wednesday where we will have the dissection theatre to ourselves with a Fellow showing us anatomy and dissections in a "one on one" environment. We can dissect if we wish to.

The students held up well. Only one student had to step out on a couple of occasions. We even had one student attend that wasn't originally going to come. He was glad he did.

We were officially through at 3pm, but my ride wasn't arriving until 4:15. I was allowed to stay and draw in the next session of students coming in to dissect. One of the seniors stayed with me and we were able to get another hour of drawing in.

I am now so fascinated with the anatomy, perhaps I would have been an anatomist is another life. It’s pretty sobering and amazing at the same time.

- David Terrill, March 2018

David is currently gathering images from the students. Below are a few from the initial trip. Many thanks to the folks at the Kansas City University of Medicine and BioSciences for allowing our students to come by and draw.

TWO EVENTS this week!!

November 26, 2017

Hi everyone! It's been a busy, bustling semester! After months of planning, we have two events coming up THIS WEEK here in Kansas City, both of which highlight and feature the work of our junior and senior Illustration students.

Our first event, The Harvest (held on Thursday, November 30, from 5-8pm), is an annual event that enables students to make connections, meet people and share their work with various individuals from the creative community of Kansas City that we invite to our department for the evening. If you're looking for an intern or are curious about the work that's currently being created within the department, we'd love for you to join us! The event is set up trade-show-style; juniors and seniors will have their portfolios available and will be in attendance for the duration of the evening to answer your questions and share their work with you.

Our second event, ILLUSTRATION NOW (held on Friday, December 1, from 5-8pm), features exceptional junior and senior work that was selected, curated and juried by the faculty. This show is also being held in the Illustration department and coincides with the campus-wide End of Semester shows at KCAI. This show, along with the End of Semester shows, continues throughout the weekend on Saturday, December 2 from 10am-5pm and on Sunday, December 3 from 12-5pm.

The work featured below is a sampling of some of the work that will be featured in ILLUSTRATION NOW 2017. We hope to see you at The Harvest and/or ILLUSTRATION NOW!

KCAI Illustration is located at 324 East 43rd Street, KCMO, 64111. Street parking is available.

The 2017 Covers + Pages Anthology is on its way!

April 12, 2017

Covers and Pages is a junior-level sequential storytelling course in which illustration students are encouraged to tell short, sequential, visual narratives. Oftentimes these narratives are without text, so the narratives rely exclusively on visuals as a means to tell the story.

Every spring, Assistant Professor Maura Cluthe and Assistant Professor Hector Casanova compile and curate the content for the anthology. The covers, however, are judged by various comic book artists from the Kansas City Community. This year, we were lucky enough to have Buster Moody and Matt Fox stop by and jury the covers this year. What an honor!

Buster and Matt graciously joined us one evening in March to jury the covers. With 28 students in the junior class, there were plenty of great covers to choose from. After some back-and-forth deliberation, Buster and Matt narrowed it down to 6 covers and then narrowed it down again to these final 4. For the final anthology, we'll be printing 2 separate books with 4 different covers but the content within the two books will be the same.

Please join me in congratulating Emily Alvarez, Astrid Blurr, Max Peake and Brinnon Schaub whose work will be on the covers of the 2017 Covers & Pages Anthology! Congratulations, too, to runners-up Gabbi Brandini and Cameron Kunkel! Congratulations all!

Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski visits KCAI

March 14, 2017

Every semester, we the faculty put together a 3-hour Mystery Project for our students. Although the timing of the Mystery Project is typically on the first Monday after Spring Break, until it's announced, the students don't know what the project is going to be - they only know that they'll have 3 hours to complete it. Every full-time faculty member takes a turn to create a Mystery Project and this spring, it was up to Assistant Professor John Ferry to put it together.

John had heard Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski speak at Hallmark several years ago when he was working there as a studio manager. What she had to say about her experiences was life-changing, impactful and unforgettable. In an effort to expose our students to Sonia's story, John reached out to Sonia's oldest daughter, Regina, who helps to coordinate Sonia's many speaking engagements. Sonia loves speaking to young people, specifically, as it is her hope to tell her story so that it is not forgotten and so that the atrocities of the Holocaust never happen again.

Sonia and her daughter, Regina, were kind enough to take some time to stop by and talk with our students yesterday. Senior Coti Meier posted about her experience in hearing Sonia speak and summarized her visit so eloquently:

"Yesterday KCAI Illustration hosted Sonia Warshawski to tell her story of how she survived the concentration camps during the Holocaust. She told some horrific accounts of what happened to her, what she saw and stressed the importance of reading history, but the most important topic of Sonia's speech was love. She said, "MOLD THEM WITH LOVE," emphasizing the importance of shaping a child's life with love. This resonated with me because she went through immense trauma at a young age, yet she is still here today to tell us to love and to put out hate. Something so simple, yet has the ability to do so much. She is an incredible woman and I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to listen to Sonia speak."

After hearing Sonia's story, we asked each student to create an image based on her story using the words CONVICTION or RESILIENCY as a springboard for their idea. Here are a few pictures from Sonia's visit as well as a few of the images that were created.

BIG THANKS to Sonia and Regina. Sonia, thank you for sharing your story. Our hearts are with you! Hats off to John Ferry, for making this happen.

For more information about Sonia and the upcoming documentary about her experience, be sure to visit bigsonia.com.

Sonia Warshawski and Steve Mayse, Illustration Chair and Professor

Sonia Warshawski and sophomore Eien Carpenter

Sonia Warshawski, her daughter Regina Kort and Assistant Professor John Ferry

Sonia, telling her story to Illustration students and faculty

Students - if your artwork is posted here and your name isn't listed, please email me, Maura Cluthe, and I'll add your name by your image. Thanks.

JOIN US for the 2016 KCAI Illustration End of Semester Show!

April 25, 2016

JOIN US on Friday, May 6th from 5-8pm to view the 2016 End of Semester Illustration Exhibition, featuring works by sophomore, junior, and senior illustration students. The exhibition will be open to the public throughout the weekend. Refreshments will be served!

Come on by! We'd love to see you!

Stay tuned for a preview of the work that'll be in the show, here.

KCAI Illustration 2016 End of Semester Show poster by junior Lauren Sieder

Coming to the Kansas City Auto Show!

February 27, 2016

Three Illustration students from the Kansas City Art Institute, in cooperation with the Kansas City Auto Show and the Art of the Car Concours, are wrapping three BMW MINIs with original artwork for display at this year's Kansas City Auto Show. The program is coordinated through KCAI's Sponsored Studio program where students find creative solutions for local businesses. KCAI's Illustration students were asked to create unique designs that could be applied to cars. Representatives from the KC Auto Show, BMW, and Art of the Car Concours selected the top three designs for display at the Auto Show, held March 2-6, 2016 at Bartle Hall.

The three senior Illustration students whose work was selected for the program include Alison Polston from O'Fallon, MO; Emily Woodson from Pensacola, FL and Twodee Weaver from Austin, TX.

The public will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite design while attending the Auto Show. The Automobile Dealers of Greater Kansas City Charitable Foundation will award scholarships to the three students based on public vote. The car with the top votes will receive $2000, second place will receive $1000 and third place will receive $750. The three final designs were culled from 13 student entries.

Additional partners in this project include Baron MINI, who provided the three Mini Coopers and Wrap It Up! Vehicle Wraps in Shawnee, KS.

BiG CONGRATS to Alison, Emily and Twodee!

Fall means....the 4x4s are coming!

November 05, 2015

Every fall, sophomore students in John Ferry's Color & Space class take on the daunting task of creating a 4x4 foot self-portrait. Each portrait, made up of roughly 2300 individually painted squares, comes together over the course of 8-16 weeks throughout the semester. Students create the portraits using oil; for many of them it's the first time they've created a piece this large and it's the first time they've painted in oil. Here are just a few of the wonderful pieces that are popping up within the studio. It's always fun to see these come together!

Sophomore Claire Harlow working on her 4x4

Sophomore Megan Henley working on her 4x4

Sophomore Astrid Blurr with her completed 4x4

Art of the Car Concours 2015

June 18, 2015

We're just a little over a week away from the annual Art of the Car Concours event! Art of the Car Concours was initiated in 2007 by event originator/ KCAI supporter / car collector Marshall Miller. Miller wanted to create an event that highlights unique, vintage automobiles, race cars and motorcycle designs. Additionally, it is also a benefit event for the Kansas City Art Institute Scholarship Fund. For this year's event, Assistant Professor John Ferry worked with Marshall Miller to provide an opportunity to students to create artwork for the event catalogue through John's Illustration elective, The Voice. This year's theme: Dream Cars of the Mid Century.

In addition to having their work printed and part of the 2015 Art of the Car Concours catalogue, individual prints will be available for sale at the event on Sunday, June 28, 2015. Congratulations to all the students below!

For more information on Art of the Car Concours, visit their website.

Senior artwork featured at the WWI Museum event

May 07, 2015

Senior R.T. Smith recently did a piece for an event called Operation: War Fare, held this April at the National World War I Museum here in Kansas City. "They hosted the event and had an unbelievable turn out. The museum said the campaign for this event was one of the most successful they've ever had! We hope to do a series of illustrations for their events throughout the rest of the year," said R.T., who interned at the museum during his junior year.

Attached are a few shots that the museum sent R.T. from the night of the event. The museum decided to use R.T.'s illustration behind the panel of celebrity chef's and Kansas City Mayor Sly James. Too cool!

2015 End of Semester Show preview!

May 04, 2015

Holy cow there's a lot of incredible work once again this year! To give you a taste of what's going to be in the show, we've decided to give you a little sneak peek and show some of the work here. But don't take our word for it -- come by and see for yourselves! Join us for the opening Friday, May 8 from 5-8 pm! KCAI Illustration is at 324 East 43rd Street, KCMO, 64111. Hope to see you there!

Jasper Swindell / sophomore illustration

Spencer Ryan Edward Pullen / senior illustration

Shafer Brown / sophomore illustration — Shafer Brown / sophomore illustration

Mystery Project 2015

April 30, 2015

It's become somewhat of a tradition in the Illustration Department to drop a "Mystery Project" onto the students from time to time. Although this project tends to happen in the spring, the students really have no idea when one of these projects is going to fall into their lap. The Mystery Project has taken on a few different forms, but it always starts first thing in the morning (at 8 am) and is due by mid-day. Students have about 3 or 4 hours to create a piece around specific parameters, however they want using whatever medium they have on hand.

This spring, instructor Hector Casanova received a generous donation of old vinyl records which he brought into the Illustration Department. On the day of the Mystery Project, each student was randomly given one vinyl record. Their goal was to reinvent the artwork / packaging for the album with fresh sensibilities. They had to keep one element from the original packaging, be it typography, color palette, or any physical element. The results were fun, silly, sophisticated and wonderfully all over the place!

Professor Steve Mayse with students, checking out all the solutions to the Mystery Project

At mid-day everyone put their transformed records up on the wall in the flex space in the studio. Seeing all the different solutions from sophomores, juniors and seniors is always a lot of fun. Department Chair and Professor Steve Mayse then has students vote on some of their favorite submissions. The following pieces are just a few of the results of this project.

The Idea Collective

April 29, 2015

The KCAI Illustration Department recently debuted a new elective this semester called “The Idea Collective.” It operates as an in-house “micro-agency” composed of select senior students, led by assistant professor David Terrill.

Performing the typical tasks of a small creative firm, conceptualizing, designing, illustrating and presenting the work, their first client was the Coterie Theatre, a professional equity theatre based here in Kansas City.

“The partnership has proven to be a success for both the students and the client,” said Terrill. “Students were responsible for preparing and delivering final artwork to the client ready for production. Through this exposure, students received hands-on experience working with the Coterie in a professional manner culminating in tangible results.”

The students created six promotional posters for the upcoming 2015-2016 theatrical season. The posters were designed for “The Miracle Worker” by Kendall Quack, “And Justice for Some: The Freedom Trial of Anthony Burns” by Kendall Quack, “Tomas and the Library Lady” by Kristopher Martin, “Where the Wild Things Are” by Taylor Smith and Kendall Quack, “Dreamworks Madagascar: A Musical Journey” by Rosie Ruzicka and “The Magic Treehouse: A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens” by Kelsey Borcherding, opening during the 2016-2017 season. Check out these wonderful posters below.

We're all looking forward to seeing what The Idea Collective is up to next!

Society of Illustrators Student Competition 2015 winners!

March 03, 2015

We just found out that senior Rosie Ruzicka and sophomore Lauren Seider have had work accepted into the Society of Illustrators Student Competition and we couldn't be more proud! Big congrats you two!

Both of the pieces below will be on display at the Museum of American Illustration in New York, NY from May 6 - 30 with an opening reception and awards ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2015.

Check out the winning pieces below. To see all of the student work that's going to be in the show, visit the Society of Illustrators .

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014 opens TONIGHT!

December 05, 2014

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014 opens tonight! We're so excited! Make KCAI's Illustration Department one of your stops this First Friday and join us this evening from 5-8pm for our opening reception or stop by sometime over the weekend. We'll be open on Saturday, December 6 from 10am-5pm and Sunday, December 7 from 12pm-5pm.

KCAI Illustration is located at 324 East 43rd Street, Kansas City, MO, 64111.

Society of Illustrators Student Competition winners!

February 22, 2014

We just found out that 9 of our students (4 alums and 5 current students) have had work accepted into the Society of Illustrators Student Competition and we couldn't be more proud! This is the fourth year that we've existed as a department since it was re-established and the third year that our students have entered work into this competition. Every year we've entered, we've had more work accepted into the show, which is a great feeling. Big congrats to all of our talented illustrators!

All the pieces below will be on display at the Museum of American Illustration in New York, NY from May 7 - 31 with an opening reception on Friday, May 9, 2014.

Check out the winning pieces below. To see all of the student work that's going to be in the show, visit the Society of Illustrators.