The exhibit features the work of 20 artists who were challenged to explore their creativity. It showcases their work from my book “Creative Grab Bag”. The book and exhibit include design, illustration, photography, painting, sculpture and more and was published in August 2009 by HOW Books.

Artists Talks
February 19th, 2010 at 6:00 PM
Koopman Commons, Hartford Art School

Troy Monroe is a graduate of the Hartford Art School, a designer at co:lab, the president of the Connecticut Art Director Club (CADC) and is currently working on a new initiative called Design is Love.

Randy J. Hunt earned an MFA in design from the School of Visual Arts, is the founder of the design studio Citizen Scholar, is a partner at Supercorp, makers of Supermarket, and can be found online here.

Opening Reception
February 19th, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Silpe Gallery, Hartford Art School

Exhibit
On display from February 19th through March 4th, 2010
Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

About the Book
Creative Grab Bag is a collection of work from 100 artists, illustrators and designers from around the world. Author Ethan Bodnar asked each artist to take on a task outside the realm of their normal work. Each task was randomly selected from a grab bag. This exhibit showcases a piece of their normal work alongside their randomly chosen task. The artwork captures the spirit of exploration and innovation and challenge viewers to push the limits of their creativity.

Author and curator Ethan Bodnar attends the Hartford Art School as a sophomore where he studies graphic design. He most recently spoke on the main-stage about the future of design education at the AIGA National Design Conference. Ethan represents the Hartford Art School on the Student Government Association, currently runs the AIGA Student Group, and is the founder and editor of this blog.

Location
Silpe Gallery
Hartford Art School
University of Hartford
200 Bloomfield Ave
West Hartford, CT 06117

Campus map can be viewed here, parking in Lot K

Sponsored by object | resonance and Design is Love
With Support from AIGA Connecticut and Connecticut Art Directors Club

Speaking and attending the AIGA National Design Conference was a remarkable experince. It was an honor to be there and speak for everyone, alongside Charles Harrison. Thank you to everyone who was there, who I met, and who made it all possible!

At some point there will be a video of the presentation put online, but until then there are several posts that have photos from the conference. In addition, here is the conclusion from my talk.

In closing, I have one final outlook for the future that I would like to share with you. That the design community, this remarkable design community will continue to be there. Speaking personally, you will continue to play a major role in the nurturing of my creativity, my ability to make and to think. You will continue to provide resources, inspiration, connections, knowledge, and representation.

Charles Harrison and those like him will continue to do what they do so well, to educate, inspire, and pass along their knowledge. To represent to others what the upcoming designers have to offer and in doing so pave the way. And that is what I am most grateful for, that we have had this organization for almost one hundred years, that I am part of it now, And for that future that our design community will create together, Thank you.

Above you can find some photos above taken by Wheat Würtzburger for the conference blog.

Very excited to announce that my first book, Creative Grab Bag, has officialy been published and is available now!

This is a book of visual creations from aritsts who have come together through the exploration of their creativity to form Creative Grab Bag. The book has been published by graphic design publishing industry leader F+W Media HOW Books in August, 2009 and is available for sale online and in major book retailers. Each artist was randomly assigned a creative task to complete and be featured in the book, the only rule, this task could not be from their normal field of work. The book also features a selected piece of work from their area of expertise. Each artist has a biography and an artist statement regarding their exploration of creativity through their creative task.

The book is available at the following locations!
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, HOW Books, Your Local Bookshops

The process of making this book was remarkable. I extend my thanks and gratitude to all the contributing artists, everyone at HOW Books, and friends and family. Making a book like this one is something special and has been a beautiful experience that has produced an insightful book made up of visual explorations.

The artists involved were selected from all over the world, are of all different ages, some are well known and some are upcoming artists, each specializing in different styles of work in a variety of mediums. The creative work comes in the form of architecture, art, graphic design, illustration, mixed media, packaging design, photography, product design, typography, and visual story telling. Readers will enjoy the varied styles that are offered in Creative Grab Bag.

A little more information about me, the author. I am a graphic designer in my sophomore year at the Hartford Art School. Creative Grab Bag is my first published book. I am currently involved in the AIGA and working on numerous other projects related to design. To read a full biography and to learn more, you can visit the About page.

Thank you to everyone who posted about the book online, it is very much appreciated. And thank you to everyone who was involved in the project, family and friends, everyone at HOW Books, and all of the artists!

We made homemade french fries on the stove the other night, as well as enjoying an apple pie from our favorite pie shop.

We took a trip down to Long Island for a couple days to visit with our good friend and my roommate from last year and for this coming year. We had a remarkable time and it was good to get to spend time with the three of us.

It is with much anticipation and excitement that I introduce you to my new website! This website serves the purpose to archive, showcase, and share my visual and written work. The new site design features an overall simple design allowing more focus on the photographs, portfolio pieces, and written content. The navigation and menu structure at the left stays in a fixed position as you scroll through pages, making it easy to navigate to other pages.

Contact, Index, and Education are three new pages. The Index page will serve as an archive for all content on the blog and portfolio while the Education page will document my school work and thoughts. The portfolio now includes a year of work from art school and there are larger images throughout the website. For now, comments have been removed, they will hopefully be back eventually, please comment through email or social networks.

There will be more information on other new projects and exciting announcements soon. In the coming months you will continue to see the documentation of my creative work, stories, and ideas as I continue to discover the world and move forward in my education and work.

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For the past several weeks, I have been working two days each week at White Flower Farm. It has been a great experience, I get to spend lots of time thinking and dreaming when I am alone with the plants and then also get to interact with a bunch of people. Going to be working the rest of the summer on this schedule.