Calendar

Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration Symposium

-A boxed lunch in Isabel Hall is available to add on for $13 for members and $15 for non-members (must register for box lunch by October 14).  

Session 1

On the Side of the Angels: Fantasy in an Age of Discovery

Alice A. Carter | 10:00am

Throughout the nineteenth century accelerating scientific advancements revealed mysterious forces, objects, and elements at work in the universe. Alice Carter will discuss how these unprecedented, unexpected and often unsettling discoveries inspired artists to create images combining natural phenomena with supernatural elements. Today, we classify these works as fantasy art, but in their day, the pictures were the honest manifestation of a widespread conviction that the visible world was only part of the story.

Alice A. Carter is cofounder and Professor Emeritus of San Jose State University’s award-winning Animation/Illustration program. A member of the Norman Rockwell Museum’s Board of Trustees, and former President, she has served as Co-Director of Education at the Walt Disney Family Museum and as visiting faculty for the University of Hartford’s low-residency MFA in Illustration. Academic honors include San Jose State’s Outstanding Professor award, a Fulbright Fellowship in Cairo Egypt, the New York Society of Illustrators Distinguished Educator in the Arts award, and the Umhoefer Prize for Achievement in the Humanities. Carter’s illustration clients have included LucasFilm Ltd., Rolling Stone magazine, the New York Times, and ABC Television. Carter’s publications include The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love; The Art of National Geographic, The Essential Thomas Eakins; Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age, The Drawings of Edwin Austin Abbey, and Franklin Booth: Silent Symphony. 

Session 2

Curating Enchanted During Challenging Times

Jesse Kowalski | 11:00am

Jesse Kowalski will discuss the process of curating the largest exhibition on fantasy illustration, and the trials of organizing a major art retrospective during a pandemic. He will explain how Enchanted was conceived and planned from beginning to end—developing the framework of the exhibition, communicating with hundreds of artists and lenders, forging through the pandemic, and opening the exhibition to crowds eager to find solace through fantasy.

Jesse Kowalski, Curator of Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration, spent nearly two decades at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before joining the Norman Rockwell Museum’s staff as Curator of Exhibitions in 2015. He has organized several popular exhibitions on the art of Andy Warhol that have traveled around the globe, including Andy Warhol: Portraits; The Prints of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again; and Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal—the largest Warhol exhibition to tour Asia. In addition, he has curated two exhibitions on the work of comic book artist Alex Ross—Heroes & Villains and Superheroes & Superstars—as well as Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning; Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol; Never Abandon Imagination: The Fantastical Art of Tony DiTerlizzi; and The Art & Wit of Rube Goldberg, among others.

Session 3

Never Abandon Imagination

Tony DiTerlizzi | 1:00pm

Join New York Times bestselling author & illustrator, Tony DiTerlizzi, as he shares pivotal moments of his childhood that would later have a tremendous impact on his professional career.

Tony DiTerlizzi has been creating children’s books for over twenty years. From fanciful picture books like The Spider & The Fly, to chapter books like The Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and translated in over thirty countries. The Norman Rockwell museum’s traveling retrospective, “Never Abandon Imagination”, featured artwork from the beginning of DiTerlizzi’s career as a contributing artist for Dungeons & Dragons and broke attendance records. He has been featured in Time magazine, USA Today, CNN, PBS, NPR, the BBC and The Today Show.

Session 4

Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist

James Gurney | 2:00pm

This presentation examines the practical methods that James Gurney has used to translate an imaginative scene into a realistic image. The topics include research, thumbnail sketches, models posing, maquettes, photo reference, and plein-air studies. Gurney will also chronicle the creative development that led to the fantasy universe of Dinotopia. As he tells the history of how Dinotopia developed, Gurney will show various techniques, such as developing maps, inventing a point of view character, creating characters, and hammering out story lines. 

James Gurney is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Dinotopia book series. He designed the World of Dinosaurs stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and has worked on over a dozen assignments for National Geographic magazine, painting reconstructions of Moche, Kushite, and Etruscan civilizations. He has won the Hugo, Chesley, Spectrum, and World Fantasy Awards. Solo exhibitions of his artwork have been presented at the Smithsonian Institution, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Norton Museum of Art. His book Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (2010) was Amazon’s #1 bestselling book on painting for over 150 weeks and is based on his daily blog gurneyjourney.blogspot.com.

-This symposium is sponsored by The Sheppy Dog Fund, Dr. Alan Klein advisor