Meet Iveta Karpathyova

Iveta Karpathyova
Iveta Karpathyova
Iveta Karpathyova

Iveta Karpathyova blends her interest and expertise in traditional animation, bachata dance and Shaolin Kung Fu through what she calls “the lens of embodiment.” Her investigation into the epistemic structure of these different disciplines reveals the knowledge generated through our bodies, and explores martial arts and Latin dance movements, gestures, training forms and body articulations.

 

Phases of Dance, the short animated film Karpathyova created for her Master of Design research project in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design (IAMD) program, analyzes aspects of visual expression, performance and bachata technique through a series of 2,100 individual drawings. She developed the animated film using a rotoscoping process. After first choreographing a bachata dance sequence, Karpathyova performed it with her dance partner, Pavlo Farmakis, filmed it, then interpreted the movement with her drawings in a way that illustrates her masterful understanding of movement and motion.

Karpathyova used the IAMD program as springboard into animation. Her artistic practice is grounded in commercial illustration work and graphic design, fields she spent nine years working professionally in, after earning a Bachelor’s of Design from Ryerson University, with a major in Fashion Communication.

 

“The more research I’ve conducted on the interdisciplinary connections between my practices, the more I came to recognize Norman McLaren’s notion of animation as an art of motion that has more in common with dance than with static arts like painting” she says. “My background in dancing and martial arts defines the perspective through which I view motion and understand movement as an animator.” Analyzing the musicality, technical and performance elements inherent in dance, while drawing it frame-by-frame, those of muscle tension, points of impact and expression, also enabled her to bring a new perspective to her dance teaching and performance. 

 

Karpathyova presented her research and Phases of Dance at the Animation and Philosophy Symposium Conference in Stuttgart, Germany, in April 2018 as well as the Society of Animation Studies Conference at Concordia University, Montreal, in June, 2018. Her martial arts animations premiered at the Fighting Spirit Film Festival in London, UK in fall, 2017. She freelances in San Francisco and Toronto and continues to teach; most recently she created a class on rotoscoping animation, instructed at the Toronto Animated Image Society in January 2018.
 

 

Find out more: www.ivetaka.com

 

Writer/author/editor Suzanne Alyssa Andrew is also the president and biographer-in-chief of Biograflyer.

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Suzanne Alyssa Andrew
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On great design and border crossings: Meet Ivan Sharko

Ivan Sharko
Ivan Sharko
Ivan Sharko

Ivan Sharko made news for his final project in the Graphic Design program in 2011, by exploring the intersections of art, technology and culture with “The Boring Gallery,” a series of digital paintings created from complaints, kvetches and banality on Twitter. Now he’s making business headlines for his start-up company, Sherpa.

Sharko is the Chief Product Officer for Sherpa, which he describes as “the easiest way to get a travel visa.” Sherpa’s IOS and Android applications help explain and simplify the process of applying for a travel visa, to help customers save time. The company also offers business solutions and provides consumer information about vaccination and passport requirements.

“Right now we’re focused on bringing great design into the border crossing experience, and eventually we want to replace passports altogether,” Sharko says.

Design has always been important to Sharko. “Graphic design was a passion of mine from a young age,” he says. “OCAD U seemed like the obvious school to attend and advance my skills, meet exceptional like-minded people and learn from the best.”

At Sherpa, Sharko drives product development, establishes strategic goals and leads product design. “Design is one of the cornerstones of Sherpa,” he says. “Carefully crafted user experience, visual design and branding are huge differentiators for our product, and this commitment to design is valued and praised by our customers. We employ design thinking as part of our product development cycle to continuously improve our products.”

 

In 2016 the company also joined OCAD U’s Imagination Catalyst start-up incubator, a community Sharko credits for Sherpa’s recent growth: “We’ve had the opportunity to work alongside very talented and driven peers, and we constantly push each other to achieve better results. We’re also exposed to a vast network of brilliant mentors, investors and partners via the Imagination Catalyst’s community, which is extremely important for a company at an early stage.”

As he continues to build his company, Sharko looks forward to sharing his experience with students. “Toronto is a very vibrant city for young designers, with many opportunities to shine. Graduating can be intimidating, as there’s no single carved out path for a designer. So if creatives are keen to learn about the start-up world and experience-driven design, I would be happy to chat with them.”

Find out more: joinsherpa.com

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Esmaa Mohamoud: “My practice is unapologetically black and industrial”

Esmaa Adam - Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams)
Esmaa Adam - I Am Series 1
Esmaa Adam - I Am Series 2

Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams), Esmaa Mohamoud’s medal-winning installation in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design program (2016), consists of 60 underinflated basketballs. Each basketball is made from a concrete cast and weighs 30 pounds. The work explores contemporary notions of black masculinity from Mohamoud’s frame of reference as a black woman. The visual markers of basketball depict institutionalized violence.

The work was part of Mohamoud’s first solo show, #00000 Violence, held in Spring 2016 at YYZ Gallery. The show also included “I AM MICHAEL JORDAN” x “I AM SCOTTIE PIPPEN” from her I Am series, an oversized basketball hoop made from repurposed chain and steel that’s large enough for a person to stand inside, for an eerie effect.

Mohamoud went on to create a new installation included alongside Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams) at the AGO’s 2017 exhibition Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood, as well as at the ROM’s 2018 exhibition Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art.

“I would describe my art practice as unapologetically black and industrial,” she says. My thesis was about the intangibility of blackness, and black masculinity in relation to athleticism.”

She says she’s working on similar ideas and concerns for her next solo exhibition, although with a wider frame: “I have broadened my concerns to address issues of gender, culture and religion,” Mohamoud says.

Mohamoud decided to study at OCAD U after receiving her BA at Western University because she was seeking a supportive environment: “I love Toronto and the diversity of the communities that exist in this city,” she says. “I wanted to study at a university that welcomes diversity and embraces it wholly.”

Mohamoud describes her advisors while at OCAD U as “amazing and generous with their time and knowledge” and remains very involved in the OCAD U community. “I continue to support my former colleagues in their endeavors and exhibitions. I hope to teach in the sculpture department,” she says. She’ll also be busy continuing to build her art practice in Toronto, which is gaining momentum. She was named one of “14 Emerging Women Artists to watch in 2017” by Artnet.

Find out more: esmaamohamoud.com

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Inclusive interior designer Doaa Khattab

Doaa Khattab
Doaa Khattab
Doaa Khattab

While studying Inclusive Design at OCAD U (MDes, 2016), Doaa Khattab became an expert in the field. Her goal was to investigate design that enables people to access, understand and use their environment to the greatest extent and in the most independent way. Her master’s research project, a comprehensive wayfinding system design for visually impaired shoppers in grocery stores, garnered her the Milliken Annual Design Research Award from the Interior Designers of Canada for demonstrating excellence and innovation in interior design. She was also awarded the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal.

Khattab is now a senior interior designer, bringing her inclusive design insights, space planning and project management to Makow Associates Architects in Toronto, where she often designs spaces for clients who need accessible washrooms, kitchens and pathways.

“As a passionate interior designer, I believe that everyone deserves to live in an incredible space that brings supreme comfort, lasting value, beauty and innovation,” she says.

It’s a message she’s teaching to up-and-coming designers, too. She developed the Inclusive Design and Social Responsibilities course for a University of Toronto and Sheridan College joint program, together with a colleague, Julie Buelow. The course focuses on how human-centred inclusive design empowers people of all ages and abilities. It also analyzes products, buildings and communities from an inclusive perspective. “We look at how to develop form from function to increase the usefulness and responsiveness of our physical world for a wider and more diverse range of people,” she says.

Khattab is a frequent guest speaker in inclusive design classes at OCAD U, and sits on juries to help evaluate OCAD U student projects. She publishes papers on inclusive design topics in scholarly journals. She’s active and engaged in her field as a member of the Ontario Association of Architects, Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario, Interior Designers of Canada and Jordan Engineering Association; she’s also in the process of receiving her National Council for Interior Design Qualification in the U.S.

“Inclusive design is beyond accessibility,” she says. “It’s design that enables and empowers a diverse population by social participation, and improves human performance. Inclusive design makes our lives easier, healthier and friendlier.”

Find out more: makowarchitects.com

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Illustrator Christopher Dupon-Martinez

Christopher Dupon-Martinez
Christopher Dupon-Martinez Snowman
ChristopherDupon-MartinezTheJudge

Christopher Dupon-Martinez

Christopher Dupon-Martinez creates bright, colourful illustrations of complex scenes and characters. They are images that reveal layers of detail when you give them a closer look. While he enjoys infusing his imagery with humour and drawing cartoons, he’s also comfortable interpreting serious themes. “Illegitimate Funds,” his thesis project in the Illustration program referenced case research from news periodicals to expose financial crime.

 

Dupon-Martinez also brings his real life observations to his work. “I’m focused on observing my environments. “Taking courses like The History of Chairs and Canadian Architecture at OCAD U helped me appreciate things that are easy to overlook,” he says, noting that he also enjoys drawing while on the bus, where he often has time to reflect and draw interesting people.

 

If you notice a certain classic quality to Dupon-Martinez’s work, it won’t surprise you he’s a fine paper aficionado who browses antique shops for old paper and pocket notebooks from the 1930s. He likes working in watercolour, gouache and ink. His work also references classical paintings and sculptures in depictions of contemporary characters and scenes, bringing together contrasting elements of past and present.

He is also almost always drawing: “I always have a sketchbook on me,” he says. “When I approach working on a painting I source drawings and notes in my sketchbooks. They become libraries of references, imagery and impactful notes from books, scriptures or sermons.”

 

Dupon-Martinez says his work can be very personal. “The main concern in my work is to connect with my inner child,” he says. “I try to leak out secrets in my work, by including diary logs and notes from my sketchbooks.”

Prior to studying at OCAD U Dupon-Martinez took Art Fundamentals at Sheridan College. While at OCAD U he was a recipient of the Diaglish Bursary. For him, completing an OCAD U Illustration degree also meant establishing himself as a freelance illustrator— a task he took to hear by brushing up on his business skills through small business programs in his hometown of London, Ontario. These included the Next Generation Entrepreneurship Program and a program called Starter Company, both of which provide training, mentorship and capital for start-ups.

 

Find out more: christopherduponmartinez.com

 

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Meet multimedia installation artist Aylan Couchie

Aylan Couchie Subvert
Aylan Couchie
Aylan Couchie Sweat Lodge

Aylan Couchie’s first large-scale public art commission soars 70 feet from its permanent perch overlooking the city of Barrie, Ontario as a tribute to the area’s three first nations. An Anishinaabe sculptor, much of Couchie’s work looks to insert Indigenous presence back into the Canadian landscape.

 

Her primary focus at OCAD U as an MFA student in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design program, was on Indigenous monuments and commemoration as written into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. “I am looking at ways in which sites of commemoration can be actioned from an Indigenous perspective,” she says. “This investigation looks to remove the colonial aspects of monuments, especially when they are placed as a reflection of colonial deeds, such as residential schools. It’s about centering and acknowledging Indigenous people and ways of being, versus erasing them with yet another colonial form.”

Couchie, whose multimedia installations juxtapose materials to create a dialogue and further narratives, says she enjoyed the open studio and collegial atmosphere of her program at OCAD U. “Everyone was supportive of each other, both personally and academically,” she says.

 

Couchie, who is from Nipissing First Nation in Northern Ontario and also studied at NSCAD in Halifax where she earned her BFA, has a long resume of exhibitions. She’s shown her work in galleries across Ontario, internationally in Ireland and Serbia and stateside in Chicago and New Jersey, since 2012. In 2015 she won the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Centre as well as the inaugural Barbara Laronde Award from Native Women in the Arts. In 2016 she was a recipient of the Ontario Premier’s Award in the recent graduate category, and received a Delaney Scholarship to attend OCAD U. As part of the IAMD program she worked with world-renowned artist Isaac Julien in the Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation Global Experience Project.

She plans to work towards a PhD so she can teach as well as create art: “There is a very real need for more Indigenous representation within studio and academic spaces to allow younger Indigenous students to feel they can make work within a supported structure. I hope tone day be part of that structure.”

 

Find out more: https://aylan-couchie.com

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Dr. Andrea Fatona: Being human together in the world

Andrea Fatona

Dr. Andrea Fatona, Associate Professor, Faculty of Art and Graduate Program Director, Criticism and Curatorial Practice is an active curator with a busy schedule of upcoming exhibitions. She’s also working on The State of Blackness Database Project, a searchable, web-based, annotated catalogue of works produced by and about black Canadian artists, critics and curators from 1989 (the year of the inception of the Multiculturalism Act) to the present. 

 

“What I’m trying to do is increase the visibility of black artists,” she says. “When we look around the art world we see very few racialized artists, particularly black artists, so I’m trying to understand how multiculturalism worked in terms of providing space, and debunk the myth that black people are perennial newcomers to Canada.”  

 

Some of her research findings include lack of production from different racialized groups, and notions around who belongs in fine art. “We’ve had a long history of European artists being the ones who are seen as producing art, while others are seen as producing craft or work that doesn’t immediately fit in the category of fine art.” 

 

Dr. Fatona addresses similar themes in her curatorial practice, which focuses on works by other Canadians and the ways these works enable us to think about Canada in a more complex and nuanced sense.  

 

In the classroom she engages students in thinking about issues around equity and diversity in the context of art. “In my teaching I’m concerned with creating sites of what I call multiple epistemologies and making sure discourses around black art and culture become present in the institutions of art presentation and art education,” she says. 

 

Dr. Fatona brings a long and varied resume of her own academic scholarship, and as such tries to impress upon students that “learning is a very difficult process but a very fulfilling process,” particularly in an art environment. “I believe that art affords us space to discuss the very difficult issues that we face around race, sexuality and class,” she says. “I take an interdisciplinary approach to these issues because I believe a more prismatic approach allows us to find new solutions.” 

 

“Although I focus on blackness and moving past the anti-black sentiment I think has always been there in our world ideologies, I’m really concerned with trying to understand how all of us together, particularly those of us producing art and thinking about cultural theory, might develop what we consider to be a new sense of being human together in the world.” 

 

Find out more: https://www2.ocadu.ca/bio/andrea-fatona  

 

 

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How graffiti culture launched a career: Meet designer Matteo Sgaramella

Matteo Sgaramella (right)
Matteo Sgaramella - Outclass

Matteo
Matteo Sgaramella

Matteo Sgaramella (Graphic Design, 2010) developed a men’s lifestyle brand called Outclass as a thesis project while at OCAD U, and then he turned it into a successful wholesale, retail and online company. Outclass sells its seasonal collections in stores across Canada and the U.S., and its online store merchandise ships internationally. In 2016 Sgaramella opened the first Outclass flagship retail store in Toronto.  

Sgaramella’s thesis project was initially going to be a brand identity design — a logo, website design and brand story. “I took the project one step farther, and began to explore creating a small sample collection of clothing. Having no experience in clothing design, I was lucky to be mentored by local designer Dean Hutchinson, who helped me learn the process of creating a garment from scratch,” he says. “I discovered I wanted to be a more hands-on designer specializing in more than one discipline.” 

Matteo Sgaramella - Outclass
Matteo Sgaramella - Outclass

Sgaramella says his primary roles at Outclass, besides founder, are clothing designer, production manager, wholesale sales manager and web designer. He says his graphic design training gives him an advantage when it comes to technical drawings, web design and print material related to the brand. “I learned to be a very critical thinker at OCAD U and to be a problem solver,” he says. “My graphic design training translated very well to the world of clothing design. The use of colour, texture, silhouette and composition were all things I studied while at OCAD U.” 

He originally decided to study graphic design because of his interest in skateboarding and graffiti culture when he was young. “I spent my days sketching, perfecting my letter structure and skating around the city studying the rich graffiti history of Toronto,” he says. “I had known a few graffiti writers I looked up to people who had pursued graphic design careers, and it seemed like a natural progression for me. It was a new way for me to look at letters, colour and composition with a real future.” 

Now as he continues to develop his company, Sgaramella’s advice for OCAD U students is to “be honest with your work and never stop learning.” As part of his own process, he continues to collaborate with some of his classmates from his thesis year on photoshoots and events. Looking ahead, he plans to open more retail locations and turn Outclass into an internationally recognized Canadian brand. 

Find out more: outclass.ca 

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Roxanne Peckham on words and wood

Roxanne Peckham
Roxanne Peckham
Roxanne Peckham
Roxanne Peckham
Roxanne Peckham
Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham shifted away from canvas and paper, paint and paintbrushes in her graduating year to work with furniture and a wood-burning tool. The result was an intimate, mixed media work for her 2017 thesis project in the Drawing & Painting program at OCAD U.  

Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham

Peckham, who admits she possesses a “healthy obsession with detail,” drew upon her experiences in creative writing elective courses at OCAD U to write an intimate personal text that she then painstakingly burned into antique wood dining furniture. She describes the exacting work with the wood-burning tool as a “poetic performance in absolute solitude.” 

Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham

The work, which won the Robbie Family and Friends Award, explores the damaging effects of verbal and mental relationship abuse and its permanent scars from the perspective of a life lived and learned from. She chose a dining room setting because it’s a space reserved for rituals of celebration with family and friends, but also holds what she describes as “all manner of meticulous behaviour both inflicted and practiced through control, both of self and of others.” The piece is a narrative of the burden of, and liberation from, abuse.  

Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham

Peckham’s work is concerned with the human condition: “I seek to reveal truth in all manner of experience through themes that connect us on the most basic levels of intimacy,” she says. “When I’m making art, I’m doing so with an open heart, from a place of honesty and vulnerability in an effort to be in constant contact with that which is authentic.” 

Roxanne Peckham

Roxanne Peckham

Although Peckham excelled in visual arts in high school in the late 70s and was accepted at what was then called OCA to continue her studies, a family tragedy kept her from realizing her dream of pursuing her BFA until recently. Her experience in the Drawing & Painting program proved positive — she says she found a community of like-minded people to work alongside.  

Peckham also began exhibiting her work: in 2016 at Catalyst and The Tiny Art Show; last year at Unbounded and the En Plein Air Art Show; and this year with Women’s Kit Regeneration at OCAD U, and Come up to MY Room at the Gladstone Hotel (for which she won the Juror’s Choice Award). After graduation she plans to continue to her art practice from an open concept warehouse studio space in Mississauga, which will provide her with the space and freedom to explore new mixed media projects. She also plans to further her studies in a master’s program.  

Find out more: roxannepeckham.format.com 

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Meet filmmaker Min Sook Lee

Min Sook Lee - Migrant Dreams

Min Sook Lee - Migrant Dreams
Min Sook Lee

In Min Sook Lee’s award-winning documentary film, Migrant Dreams, a group of migrant farm workers dare to resist the systemic oppression and exploitation from their brokers, employers and Canadian government in small-town Ontario. The film exposes the underbelly of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Speaking out is the last thing the workers in the documentary can afford to do, but it’s the only thing left to do. 

Migrant Dreams premiered at the Hot Docs International Film Festival in 2016 and has since screened in theatres and festivals around the world, with additional showings on TVO and Al Jazeera (the latter offering global screening through the month of May 2018). In May of last year, the Canadian Association of Journalists recognized Lee for outstanding journalism in the Labour Reporting category; the film also won a Canadian Hillman Prize for Journalism, and in 2018 garnered a Canadian Screen Awards nomination for Best Social Political Documentary. Some of Lee’s other award-winning films are Tiger Spirit, The Real Inglorious Bastards and My Toxic Baby. 

Min Sook Lee - Migrant Dreams
Min Sook Lee - Migrant Dreams

In addition to her practice as a filmmaker, Lee is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Art. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, so I can share experiences, production tips, approaches to making work and advice on submitting work,” she says. “OCAD U is a unique fulcrum where you have practice and theory together, so I’m able to draw students into a theoretical perspective that’s informed by experience in the field. It’s core to have a space to have a practice and reflect on the role of art in society. It’s embodied learning that becomes alive and acclimated. It’s a great space to learn and teach in.” 

Lee advises young filmmakers and multimedia artists to think about content and not get carried away with technology. She also says the point of being in school is to learn about yourself: “It’s a deeply personal process. Self-knowledge takes some vulnerability and opening up. Be aware that it’s part of the making.” 

At the same time, she acknowledges that critiques and, later, reviews, will always be part of the process. “Anybody can be deeply hurt by critique and I know the feeling. My films get reviewed and I read the negative ones and I still feel that. We make what we’re doing to share with people, but you open up to a whole range of experience. You have to find ways to make it useful, know who you are and what’s important.” 

Find out more: migrantdreams.ca  

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