STYLE SVA
Mask Up Mix Up!
The SVA community is serious about being safe by wearing masks. But that doesn’t mean that face coverings need to be boring! Some students, like Mia Incantalupo (right), made their own and others modeled some fabulous finds.
1./2.
BFA Design 3./4.
BFA Fine Arts 5.
BFA Animation 6. Victoria DeBlasi, BFA Design 7. Jose Carneiro, BFA Design 8. Nimran Kang, BFA Design 9. Giulia Campello Aguiar, BFA Film 10. Michael Barletta, BFA Cartooning 3 7 8 9 10 6 5 1 2 # STUDENTS # SHARE # SECRET # STUFF > SPRING 2021 ©2021, Visual Arts Press, LTD 4
Mo Hinojosa,
Chris Cortez,
Mia Incantalupo,
ART IN THE AGE OF
SKETCHBOOKS Drawing During the Shutdown Post-It and Pencil Portraits (below) During the isolation of lockdown, third-year BFA Illustration student Maithili Joshi had a unique way of making her workspace a little less lonely. She created a wall of drawings of her classmates, sketched during Zoom lectures. 10 “I’m experimenting more with goache and ink. I’m trying to get more comfortable with the medium. I’m just observing things: what I see out my window or what I see on television—sometimes ironically. My dog, Murphy, is still smiling and sleeping despite everything going on. I don’t know how! It’s therapeutic. I’m documenting a lot of things, such as dates and my face in different lighting.” Jordan Lisicky Third-year BFA Illustration student 1 9 10 ✺
As the pandemic turned our lives upside down, SVA students reacted using their creativity to document, inform and process
anxieties.
COVID SKETCHBOOKS A Covid Diary with Comic Relief Tianqi Chen Third-year BFA Illustration student “SINCE I CANNOT GO OUT, why not make a journal recording my daily life, like a visual diary. I’m trying to make one drawing every day. They’re ironic and funny. I’m doing stupid things when I’m alone. Why be so serious? I want to draw something that can cheer people up.” 1. Untitled, Xichao Cao, BFA Fine Arts 2. Untitled, Timothy Stypulkowski, BFA Photo & Video 3. Untitled, Yunyao Chen, BFA Illustration 4. Untitled, Ziwei Jin, BFA Illustration 5. Underground Spring, Ming Wang, BFA Illustration 6. Untitled, Xuehua Cai, BFA Design 7. Untitled, Alena Ivey, BFA Fine Arts 8. Moon Odyssey, Siqi Yan, BFA Interior Design 9. Combat COVID, Sarah Katharine Myers, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay 10. Stay Home, Isabelle Elizabeth Brawley, BFA Design 11. The Lovers, Shelley Lake, MFA Art Practice 2 3 4 5 6 11 7 8
SKETCHBOOKS
Being 20 in 2020
As a 20-year-old entering 2020, Maithili Joshi was “super excited. I had all these plans.”
Then COVID hit. In her Illustration class that semester, her teacher, Tom Woodruff, told students to start keeping a COVID sketchbook. Out of this, Maithili created a project called, “A Litte Message from a 20 in 2020.” In her drawings she chronicles the anxieties and new realities of living through this pandemic, and looks ahead to a future where she believes she and her peers will look back and be proud of what they accomplished.
Staying Safe New York Style D
uring the strict lockdowns of spring 2020, social media became essential for staying connected while we stayed apart. Second-year BFA Design student Mona Monahan was scrolling through Instagram in early July when she came across @newyorknico’s post announcing a mask design contest. Newyorknico, aka Nicolas Heller, has attracted more than 500,000 followers for his feed that focuses on all things New York. After COVID hit, Heller used his influence to bring attention to businesses in need and raised funds for various related efforts. “He did contests over quarantine just to get New York City together,” Mona said.
One such contest, #BESTNYMASK, challenged artists to submit New York–centric face coverings. Winning designs would be manufactured and sold, with profits going to charity. Mona was inspired to design 12 variations, which included nods to Seinfeld, the NYC Subway and its ubiquitous ads, and favorite spots in the city.
While she earned a finalist spot in the competition, she didn’t win the top spot. But, like a true intrepid New Yorker, she sourced a manufacturer on her own. Mona now sells her masks online at monashop.threadless.com. The response has been strong. “It’s hard to work and get a job right now,” she said, “so, [selling the masks] has been great.” In the spirit of the original competition, Mona is sending a portion of her profits to MedShare, a nonprofit organization that helps distribute medical supplies to needy hospitals. You can follow Mona @monamonahanart.
SHARE YOUR SKETCHBOOK WITH US! SEND A FEW SHOTS, OR A VIDEO, TO STYLE@SVA.EDU
NYERS HELPING NYERS: Nicholas Heller (@newyorknico) partnered with Bongiourno Brands (@bongiorno) to produce #BESTNYMASK designs and rasied more than $15,000 for God’s Love We Deliver. (FUN FACT: Nick Heller is the son of MFA Design co-chair Steven Heller and SVA faculty Louise Fili!)Maithili Joshi
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Third-year BFA Illustration student