Artist Lecture #2

Steve Brodner

Anita Kunz

I always enjoy the spontaneity of panel discussions, and luckily a few of the panelists had a witty sense of humor. Since this artist lecture did not include slides or visuals, I used my laptop to see each artists' work since I had no previous notion of what their illustrations looked like previous to the lecture. It was interesting to hear how their brain worked in a broad sense on their subject, and then visually understand how their brain worked on individual projects to see the connections.

They talked a lot about individual ideas and how to express them through drawing to communicate with others. They explained how the job of the artist is to combine elements to make interesting combinations and connections to help others think differently about a topic or subject matter. I felt like the overall message these panelists were sending is a very important one and is key to the success of a modern artist in our changing society. But fortunately, I felt like I had received a similar lecture just a year before in my studies in San Francisco. In San Francisco, I got a strong sense of the importance of art and design to change society and influence people. The culture out there was very politically, socioeconomically, and environmentally active and enthused. I learned a great deal about generating ideas and thinking about design differently in order to frame a contemporary issue in a way that makes people question their notions.

Although I think the lecture was a very important one for MCA students to consider, I think the panelists, unintentionally directed their efforts more towards illustration students than any of the other disciplines. Although I believe it is important for illustration students to apply what was expressed in the lecture to their own work, the same ideas are important in dealing with all the arts. In my own experiences, design especially at MCA is underestimated in its ability to make political or social commentaries.