Mentorship Update from TEAM’s Studio

A few floors above Lucky Risograph are Dani and Valeriia mentoring with Hua Chen and Derek Kochat at TEAM design studio. Both Dani and Valeriia are super interested in product design and have been hard at work brainstorming and designing their own concepts. Let’s see what they have come up with!

Valeriia, hoping to get into brand design in the future, came up with Astra Beauty, stemming from her interest in cosmetics and skincare. She wanted her designs to be elegant and delicate, and has been playing around with fonts to enhance the style of her logo. Valeriia has also done mock ups of how her designs will translate onto the final product.

Dani is working on promotional tour material and merchandise for the K-pop group TxT. Along with Valeriia, Dani has also been pondering about the font details to better suit her tour theme. Dani has taken inspiration from other graphic designers that she has seen online and TxT’s newest album cover. Dani has enjoyed her time with TEAM because she likes having the creative freedom to work on a project that inspires her outside of the classroom. She feels that her mentors give advice that allow her to think outside of the box in terms of her designs.

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Through their mentorship with TEAM, both Dani and Valeriia expressed their development in graphic design skills. They learned how images, words, and colors can affect each other, and the usage of TEAM’s space has allowed for the two mentees to create amazing visuals and we are so excited to see their finished products at the Art Ready Exhibition this May!

Mentorship Update from Isabella’s Studio

Over at Lucky Risograph, Alden, A, Anastasiya, Boba, with the help of their mentor Isabella, are in the early stages of planning their final projects for the Art Ready Final Exhibition. Let’s see what the mentees have been up to at the risograph print studio!

As an introduction to risograph printing, the first project the mentees worked on was a collaborative zine, each contributing one page. With the knowledge they learned from printing a zine, they then each created their own art print. Through the art print, each of the mentees learned how to print with multiple colors through different methods of layering. Recently, the mentees also collaborated on a poster together; the image, color and format were all a conjoint effort. 

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Now for their final project, each mentee will create their own piece using all their knowledge of risograph printing they have learned thus far. 

Alden is thinking about making a zine with each page being able to be a stand alone piece. He is planning on working large and has decided to work in layers to produce the colors he would like for his poster rather than use the method of color separation.

A is thinking about making a poster. Throughout their time in this mentorship, A has challenged themselves to use color and work bigger than they usually do.

Anastasiya is thinking about designing character collectable cards, she is inspired by the French Revolution period and hopes to draw color and fashion inspiration from historical figures during that time.

Boba is thinking about working on a zine on a smaller scale, using the colors blue, pink and yellow. Boba is also interested in challenging themselves for this project and is planning to try to work in realism for their design. 

The students have already learned so much about risograph printing in just the first couple weeks of the mentorship. We can’t wait to see their collaborative and final projects installed at the exhibition!

Mentorship Update from CAM’s Studio

Two weeks ago we decided to check in on Dionne, Bella and Pamela and see how their mentorship with CAM has been going! The mentees are each working on a series of paintings with their own unique themes. 

Dionne has enjoyed feeling inspired by CAMS studio space and realizing the different ways that color and shapes can be used. She is looking forward to creating something that she can be proud of and feeling accomplished at the end of the program! Her series of paintings are focused on the concept of time and how much an individual can change throughout it. She is interested in working with timelines and loop-holes and observing how dependent we are on time. 

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Bella is making a series of oil paintings, as she is familiar with the medium. Her paintings didn’t have an original theme to start, but as we were discussing her works so far, we found that her paintings have a relaxed and almost calm quality to them that relates to how she feels working in CAM’s studio. She has really appreciated the independence that CAM has given her to work in his studio and enjoys the guidance that he provides when she feels like it’s needed.

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Pamela’s theme for her paintings are focused on flowers. Originally, she wasn’t sure what the theme for her series would be, but she was eventually inspired by a quote about a flower growing in adversity. The painting she was working on during our visit had a smoky background which she wanted to use to contrast a bright red rose in her painting. Pamela has enjoyed having the freedom with her work so far to begin painting with an idea and seeing where it takes her.

Dionne, Bella and Pamela are all interested in possibly completing a large-scale collaborative painting together for the exhibition! A common theme for all of our mentees so far is that they are all excited to see what their peers have been working on at the Art Ready exhibition on May 22! 

Thank you to CAM for allowing us to visit, and we are looking forward to seeing what our mentees complete in the coming weeks!

Mentorship Update From Rebecca’s Studio

Here at Smack Mellon’s media lab, Ella, Camille, Gabriella and Lois have been brewing up something spooky with Art Ready mentor, Rebecca Shapass!

In the past weeks spent with Rebecca, the students have been collaborating to create a short film that’s a little horror and mystery and a lot of thriller. Students began the process by creating storyboards and collages which helped them in deciding what direction they wanted to take their film.

Having now decided the scenes and concept of the film, it was time for prop design! The mentees were creating paper mache masks that will act as an integral prop for their film. The identity of all of the characters in the film will be shrouded with mystery, and the students got creative in crafting the premise of the film through the masks.

While listening to their collaborative playlist, here is what Rebecca’s mentees have to say  about their mentorship so far:

Ella learned different terminology for camera movement and how to use the editing program Premier.

Gabriella also found that learning how to use Premier was very helpful and a skill that she can carry with her.

Camille learned how to write a full story as they have struggled with following through on a plot in the past. 

And Lois learned that making a movie is a time consuming process, but has grown her interest in filmmaking

Collectively, everyone agreed that before working with Rebecca they didn’t realize how much planning goes into filmmaking.

Rebecca has enjoyed watching her students collaborate during this process and how welcoming they all are to each other’s ideas. We are sending good vibes as the filming progresses and we look forward to seeing the final film at the opening reception of the Art Ready exhibition on May 22nd!

January 3rd and 10th: Art Ready Days 8 & 9

Days 8 and 9 marked the end of our studio visits with our 2023-24 Art Ready Mentors.

On day 8 we visited mentor Megan Mi-Ai Lee at Greenwich House Pottery. Megan is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn; she has held multiple residencies and her works consist of sculpture, drawings, and ceramics. At our visit to Greenwich House Pottery, students were able to meet Megan and learn about her work as an artist. Inspired by the physical representation of an American spectacle, Megan creates works from her childhood visits to Las Vegas. Megan then led an activity for the students to create exquisite corpses out of clay. The students had some great creations! Check them out below →

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Day 9 consisted of a visit to Lucky Risograph to visit mentor Isabella Wachsler. Isabella is a Brooklyn based illustrator and art educator specializing in risograph printmaking. At Lucky Risograph, Isabella explained and demonstrated what risograph printing is. Isabella then led an activity that allowed the students to each contribute a drawing of whatever they wanted that was printed into a collective poster using the risograph technique. Together, the students created a beautiful poster and each of them signed the original copy and were able to take one home. Check out the process!

Thank you to Megan and Isabella for having us and organizing two great visits. The art ready program is moving on to its next phase, to learn more, look out for Art Ready updates via our Instagram and blog! 

December 20th 2023: Art Ready Day 6

Art Ready ended the year with two studio visits on December 20th.  There were two mentors to meet for the day, the first was Rebecca Shapass and the second was Team Design Studio.

The students first met 2019-20 Smack Mellon studio resident, Rebecca Shapass, where she discussed her career, her journey in film-making, and her goals as a mentor. Rebecca is a text based artist and filmmaker who focuses on documentary form and archival practices in her works. Rebecca showed students  how she used archives from an older factory town as inspiration behind some of her films. As a mentor, Rebecca would guide students through the many different forms of filmmaking and assist them in discovering their own inspiration. Rebecca then led an activity with the students to create calligrams which are a set of words arranged to create an image, check them out below!

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The students then walked over to Team Design  Studio! Team is an independent strategy and design studio that works with brands to create an image. Team first explained some of the projects they have done in the past, including rebranding The Bronx Museum, Pfizer and Thom Browne. Team will focus on showing their mentees, how broad graphic design is and how impactful a brand’s digital identity is. The students then exercised their memory in an activity led by Team in which they drew popular logos from memory →

After an action packed day, the students were able to see two different paths that they can take in the artistic field. Thank you to Rebecca and Team for meeting with us! To learn more, look out for Art Ready updates via our Instagram and blog!  

December 13th 2023: Art Ready Day 5

This past Wednesday was day five of our Art Ready Program here at Smack Mellon! Our students were able to take a tour of our new exhibitions, There is No Far and No Nearby Anne Wu and The House of the Solitaryby Frank WANG Yefeng. The tour was led by Smack Mellon’s Director of Exhibitions,Rachel Vera Steinberg. The students were able to take a look at the unique installations from the artists and ask Rachel questions about the meaning behind the pieces. Stop by the gallery for a look at these colorful works, up until January 28th!

Students then participated in  a portfolio development workshop  led by artist Esteban de Valle! Esteban  is an interdisciplinary artist based here in Brooklyn. He has been the recipient of several fellowships and residencies, including a studio residency here at Smack Mellon. He has also been on several jury panels  for various residencies  and exhibitions and was able to give our students insight on how to format a portfolio and what jurors who review their portfolios are looking for.

During the workshop, Esteban was able to take a look at some Art Ready students’ artworks and showed them how to use programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, to have high quality photographs of their works which is one of the most important aspects of a portfolio. He advised students on what type of artworks colleges look for in a well rounded portfolio and how to order one’s works in order to start and finish strong. This workshop was especially helpful to our students who wish to pursue visual arts in the future. One of the biggest pieces of advice Esteban gave the students was to make sure that they personally feel confident about their application because it is a reflection of themselves as an artist.  

Thank you Esteban for sharing your experiences as an artist and your advice with us! To learn more, look out for Art Ready updates via our Instagram and blog! 

December 6th 2023: Art Ready Day 4

Day 4 of Art Ready was a studio visit to Sage and Coombe Architects to see one of our returning mentors this year, Max St.Pierre. This is Max’s second year as an Art Ready mentor and he is excited to host a new group of students. Max is interested in working with the students to decide what their final project will look like and he gave lots of advice about his field of work.

Max has worked with Sage and Coombe on many projects and throughout our visit with him we were able to take a look at what he has accomplished. We even got to see some early designs for the Ryder Branch Public Library in Brooklyn, Max’s current project. We also learned about Max’s project that he had designed while in grad school, which was a structure designed for bees that would be placed under transmission towers. Max used this project as an example to emphasize his point that architecture and designing can look like many different things.

The students had some great questions about architecture for Max and were able to gain some valuable insight into the field. One humoredly student asked if a lot of math was involved, to which Max assured the students that very basic math was involved and should not be a factor that deters them from studying architecture.

Finally, we got to take a look at some of the 3D models of projects that the other architects and designers at Sage and Coombe have been working on. Thank you to Max and to Sage and Coombe for allowing us to visit your space and for the new understanding of your work!

To learn more, look out for Art Ready updates via our Instagram and blog! 

Read more about our Art Ready Program here at Smack Mellon!

November 29th 2023: Art Ready Day 3

This past Wednesday, Art Ready took a trip to The Poster House on 23rd st! The Poster House opened its doors in 2019 and is focused on presenting the impact, culture, and design of posters, both as historical documents and methods of contemporary visual communication. We were given a tour by educator, Maya, of their current exhibition, Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde, followed by a workshop.

The students learned about Art Deco and the development of commercializing the Avant-Garde. We saw one of a kind Posters dating back to the early 1900’s. The students were led by Maya in formal analysis of some key works throughout the exhibition. We had a great discussion about the series of advertisements by A.M Cassandre, entitled Dubonnet, which uses a play on words in the French language. Check it out below!We also discussed the representation of industrialization in art. We took a look at one of the first American Art Deco posters, depicting an advertisement for the New Worlds Fair that took place in New York in 1939.

Maya  then led a workshop where students designed holiday postcards in an Art Deco style. We saw lots of geometric, bold, and machine-focused designs from the students. Check them out →

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To learn more, look out for Art Ready updates via our Instagram and blog! 

Read more about our Art Ready Program here at Smack Mellon!

November 15th 2023: Art Ready Day 2

Day 2 of Art Ready was this past Wednesday, and this week we visited another one of our mentor’s studios! We visited  BKLYN Combine which is the studio location of our returning mentor, Phillip Shung.! Phillip Shung is a graphic and web designer, based in New York, he practices photography, interactive development, design, and creative direction. 

The students learned a lot on this visit, as Phillip has been a mentor for Art Ready for around twelve years!  Similar to our previous mentor, Shung has worked with many different forms of art, from fashion to graphic design to photography.We had a great conversation about some of Phil’s past accomplishments like working with Snoop Dog to launch his clothing line, and helping create a magazine about sports players’ lives. We also got to take a look at some past projects that Phil did with his past Art Ready mentee’s, including a time capsule box and a silk screen press.

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Phil then led an activity where students had to create logos that represent themselves. We had a competition to see who could finish their logo first and Anastasiya won, who was awarded with a BKLYN Combine T-shirt! The students had a lot of fun designing their logos, Boba made theirs with their band name and Daria used a donkey as her inspiration! Check out some more of the student’s designs below →

Thank you Phil for having us and you inspired a lot of our students to explore all that creativity had to offer! 

Look out for more Art Ready updates via our Instagram and blog!  You can also read more about our Art Ready Program here at Smack Mellon!