Illustrator Portrait: Emma Watson

Todd R. Forsgren

-A photographer focusing on ecology and environmentalism.

Originally, Forsgren began his college experience in pursuit of a biologist career. At attended Bowdoin College, a small liberal arts school in Maine. Within his senior year, he began to realize his passion was photography, originally of black and white film. With this, he would take time to explore the environment, his other passion, with his camera in hopes of happening upon found intimate gardens, for example his twisting tree photograph.

Forsgren was offered a job with a focus of biology and ecology Australia post graduation. After time at his job, he realized science wasn’t his utmost passion, art was. This discovery resulted in his leave from his job and the start of his backpacking in Australia to begin his career.

Upon returning home to Ohio, he found interest in the Fenway Victory Gardens in Boston, MA. This garden was much different than what he was previously use to, being that his garden was not a park yet just in the middle of a city. Here, he discovered his passion in creating large landscapes within small landscapes.

After Boston, Forsgren had the opportunity to travel to Cuba as an archeological photographer in hopes of discovering more small garden communities. Following this opportunity, he received a grant allowing him to travel to Mongolia. Due to the severely cold climate (negative degreed in February), they have minimal outdoor plant growing. Most of their plants are grown in greenhouses, including cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, and upon occasions, cucumbers. Here he had the opportunity to photograph the small amounts of growth available within this climate, which is a different view of plant growth than he has been previously accustomed to. This project was stunted upon his return to Washington DC where he began his new project.

         Due to his interest in field guides, a mix between art and science, he began a new project photographing differing species of birds in the act of being caught up in netting. This series was typographic, in which he held his flash and background constant.

         After quite the cultural experience in photography, Forsgren attended graduate school in the Czech Republic, receiving free education due to his connections. Following this, he moved from typographic work and experimented with wet paint photography, in which he used in his pseudo lunar landscape. Here, his Bowdoin thesis was finally put to use in his use of the effects of digital technology on landscapes. Here, he used the text of his thesis as a component in his work, forming it to an image y making it visually similar to that of old camera noise and joined with a clouded sky using lo-fi. He also created an animation replicating macular degeneration and cataracts.

         Currently, as a visiting professor here at St.Mary’s College of Maryland Forsgren teaches photography to liberal arts students. In his stare time, he attempts to continue with his quirky riddle photography, such as Pacman Orange. He also is working on his collection, Unusual Weight, depicting images such as Styrofoam trash and Styrofoam rocks. Forsgren carries his camera everywhere in hopes to find time to explore the county and discover its treasure so he can share them to the world through his photographed interpretations.

Tony Robbin

Tony Robbin

Robbin is an American artist and author born in November of 1943.  He specializes in sculpture, paintings, and digital art. Robbin is also a part of the artists in the Pattern and Decoration (P&D) art movement. That is a movement in the mid-1970s to early 1980s involving the focus in minor forms, patterning, in art. His work shows true exampled of such activism in the movement.

Quasicrystal geometry in architecture is an idea that he discovered.  That is, an object that is ordered but not periodic. These patterns fill the entirety of space and can have only two, three, four, and six-fold rotational symmetries. This imaging is similar to those of a kaleidoscope pattern, with many differently oriented mandala-like objects with countless differing shapes and colors.

His digital art uses the fourth dimension, common among cubists, surrealists, and many other abstract artists. Robbin wrote multiple books; among these is his Shadows of Reality,The Fourth Dimension in Relativity, Cubism, and Modern Thought. He has used this technique since 1981, using Quasicrystal geometry and the fourth dimension.

http://tonyrobbin.net/

http://tonyrobbin.net/work.htm

https://blackboard.smcm.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-94089-dt-content-rid-444320_1/courses/13FA-ART214.01/13FA-ART214.01_ImportedContent_20130826114536/Art%2C%20Code%2C%20and%20the%20Engine%20of%20Change_1.pdf

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Helen's Fantasy

Helen Huang

Helen currently lives in Los Angeles, but priorly was born and raised in China. Having this heritage helps her to apply different ideas and views to her pieces. She established a pseudonym of CQcat. although art has always been a factor on Helen's life, pursuing a career in art or as a designer in China was seen as an unfulfilling job. This lead Helen to graduate college with a degree in law. Post graduation, Helen received her visa and moved to the Unites States and graduated grad school with a degree in Advertising. This landed her with an office job in which she did not find challenging enough. She began to experience with a program called Flash in her spare time, which in turn resulted in her new job and a digital artist.

Helen is a digital artist with an expert knowledge in Adobe Illustrator. In her works, her use of Adobe Illustrator is inherently clear. Her main focus is on digital fantasy, fashion, and editorials. She starts by sketching on paper, scans her work, and transforms it on Illustrator to create her ideal image. This allows for her to create her lines digitally after establishing what form she wanted them to take through hand drawing.

Most of her images are fantasy female characters created from vector images. Her female focus stems from her past admiration with fashion. Her passion for fashion is prevalent in her work displaying many different styles. Her use of color expands her work because each piece contains a very attractive color scheme. All pieces flow together greatly due to her use of color, mainly pastels or somewhat vibrant colors.

Fun fact, Helen Huang's favorite Illustrator tool is the pen tool.

http://www.helen-huang.com/
http://vector.tutsplus.com/articles/interviews/interview-with-helen-huang/