The Learning Zone

Tell us a little about yourself?

I am an illustration student going into my third year. I like to draw whimsical characters and environments inspired by nature or surrealist paintings. My favourite mediums to work with are inks, watercolour, graphite and pencil crayons. Recently, I’ve been enjoying the process of creating textures using ink washes which I then like to scan and colour digitally.

What influenced your decision to major in Illustration?

I don’t think there was one specific moment or person that influenced my decision to pursue art. However, I remember one of my teachers asking us to envision one thing we see ourselves doing for the rest of our lives, and the answer, for me, was drawing.

I chose illustration because I always liked the storytelling aspect of illustration. In high school, I volunteered at a local art hub near my home, and I met a few artists who graduated from OCAD. Some of them had majored in illustration, and I liked their artworks, so I would ask them questions about how the program was. Their experiences at the school left a remarkable impression on me, which helped me decide on illustration as a major.

Who is your favourite Illustrator?

Victo Ngai is one of my favourite illustrators. She does illustrations for newspapers and magazines, book covers, and packaging and advertising campaigns. What I love most about her work is the surreal atmosphere composed of whimsical characters and playful environments. Her process inspired me to play around with unique perspectives to tell a story.

Rovina Cai and Zoe Van Dijk are two other illustrators whose work I admire. I really enjoy Zoe Van Diijk work because her process inspires me because I enjoy drawing with ink and experimenting with washes to get textures.

How do you discover illustrators?

I discover illustrators mainly through social media such as Instagram and Pinterest. I also look through the Design Annual books like American Illustration and Society of Illustrators annuals in the library for inspiration. For one of my classes, I used Artstor Digital Library to search for historical artists who impacted art movements.

TALKING WELLNESS AT OCAD U! Exhibition

Art and Design Education (ADEL): Community has been investigating various concerns around how we might achieve a healthier art and design education community at OCAD U. We have taken this up through personal observation and in conversation with the staff at the Health and Wellness Centre. Our intention has been not to suggest definitive policy changes nor do a rigourous quantitative research but rather to explore, as artists, through personal discovery and dialogue, what we might envision as an ideal – or even imaginary – healthy community for those who study, teach and work in art and design at OCAD U. This exhibition presents creative voices in declamatory dialogic as they imagine a healthy thriving community for OCAD U.

Artists/Researchers:

Jerad Beauregard, Rhys Castro, Tara Clews, Tania Costa, Hana Elmisry, Zen Huang, Cori Jin, Nataly Kais, Angie Ma, Kaylee Meyer, Kais Padamshi, Cleopatria Peterson, Ariella Polisuk, Sam Young

Project Co-facilitators:

Tal Sofia Braniss, Marta Chudolinska, Pam Patterson, and Robyn Shaw.

Thank you to Vladimir Spicanovic, Dean, FoA for providing assistance for mounting this exhibition, Marta Chudolinska, facilitator and provocateur extraordinaire and the Learning Zone for encouragement and direction, and Amanda Hotrum and Cathy Cappon, ODESI, for resources and support.

A special thank you to the Health and Wellness Centre (HWC) OCAD U for partnering with ADEL artists/researchers and providing goodies: Robyn Shaw, for taking on the role of one of the project facilitators who, with Courtney Ward, Nathan Klaehn, Alanna Fletcher, Tamara Aleong, Alex McLaren, Sarah Cree, Kaitlyn Young, met in many one-on-one conversations with students, and to the HWC administrator, Gloria Han for co-ordinating all these meetings.

On at the Learning Zone Gallery until December 8th. Opening Reception, Wed. November 28th, 2 – 2:50 pm. Please join us and celebrate with the artists, researchers, Co-facilitators and OCAD U partners.

Learning Zone Gallery

113 McCaul St., Level 1. Also accessible from 122 St. Patrick St.

The Learning Zone is happy to announce our Fall/Winter 2018/2019 term. We will be open Monday to Thursdays from 9 am – 9 pm; Friday’s, 9 am – 6 pm and Saturdays, 1 – 6 pm. We are closed on Sundays and all Statutory holidays.

What’s new this week at the LZ? Research Wednesday kicks off this week with a visit from Danielle Manning, Outreach Officer from Archives of Ontario. Danielle will present highlights from the Archives of Ontario’s extensive photography collection. Danielle will be sharing highlights from the collection which showcase the work of government, amateur and professional photographers. You will take away an understanding of how the Archive’s photography collections are managed and preserved which supports the understanding of Ontario’s past.

Research Wednesdays is a speaker series presented by the OCAD U Library. It’s a forum for anyone to present in a supportive environment. Interested in presenting at Research Wednesdays? We are currently programming our winter schedule (January to April). Send an email to Daniel Payne (dpayne@ocadu.ca). Follow this link to learn more about Century of Ontario Photographs and how you can participate: https://bit.ly/2IyThJt

Check out the gallery below of  past presenters from last year’s Research Wednesdays:

This a call for student workshop leaders: Creative Art & Design Workshops application deadline is October 3!

Student-led creative workshop series returns to the Learning Zone for another year. Our motto is If you know something…teach something! It’s great opportunity for you to develop valuable teaching experience while providing hands-on skill-building and community building for OCAD U students. https://bit.ly/2DQBTBd

Application process:

Please submit a completed copy of this workshop proposal to Marta Chudolinska, Learning Zone Librarian, at mchudolinska@ocadu.ca by October 3rd, 2018. Download the Workshop Proposal template file available on this page.

This workshop series is presented in partnership by the OCAD U Library and the Writing & Learning Centre and supported by funding Ontario Postsecondary Access and Inclusion Program (OPAIP) administered by the WLC.

photo credit Aruvi Rajasingham

Looking for a perfect way to celebrate the New Year with us at the Learning Zone? Join us for some great workshops starting next week.

Marta Chudolinska, Learning Zone and Zine Librarian will be leading OCAD Zine Library Workshop Series: Publish It Your Self.

A fantastic line up of hands-on introductory workshops to get you started on the zine you’ve always wanted to make: Soft-Cover Bookbinding, January 15 & 16; Hard-Cover Bookbinding, January 17 & 22; Intro to Self-Publishing, January 23 & 24; Linocut Printing, February 12 & 13. Open to all OCAD U students.

grOCAD is sowing the New Year with a second hands-on seed propagation workshop lead by Sayeh Dastgheib-Beheshti who teaches Sustainable Practices in the Design Program. Last semester Sayeh shared tips and techniques and native plant seeds to get a jump on Spring. Save the date for January 30th at 2:30 pm, for another chance to get started on that wildflower garden. Open to all members of the OCAD U community.

Other great events, workshops, exhibitions will continue this semester. We will see the return of Career Development: Résumé/CV, Portfolio and Interview Skills Drop-In Clinics every Wednesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 – 4:30pm starting January 10. Open to OCAD U students and recent graduates.

Research Wednesdays returns January 24, 1-2pm with Lindsay Gibb, E-Reserves & Learning Zone Coordinator who will be presenting Researching Pop Culture. Lindsay will discuss the research she had undertaken on actor Nicolas Cage when writing her award winning book National Treasure: Nicolas Cage.

We always look forward to your visit.

POW! ZAP! BAM! The OCAD Zine Library has a searchable zine library catalogue!

You can now search from the comforts of your laptop, classroom or your favourite café — zine title holdings from the OCAD U Zine Library.

Creating a searchable zine library catalogue had been a long-term project for Learning Zone Librarian Marta Chudolinska. Working collaboratively with OCAD U Library Visual Resources since 2011, the zine library catalogue was launched in Spring 2017 and is hosted on Artstor’s Shared Shelf.

Having an open and accessible searchable zine library catalogue to OCAD U community and the general public was a positive step forward for the OCAD U Zine Library collection.

A great article about the challenges of conceiving a searchable zine library catalogue, Staying true to the ethos of zines at OCAD U by Marta Chudolinska can be found on the Arstor Blog.

To keep up-to-date with OCAD U Zine Library, visit the zine library libguide to view new zine displays or to see the activities and workshops by the Zine Collective.

The POW! ZAP! BAM! zine display is about ACTION, like superhero action, activism, BDSM, superpowers — so take action now and search titles for this display here!