10/28/09 - OSU Cartoon Library - New Name, Same Great Programming

The largest single collection of comic and cartoon art is housed relatively close to us - just a few hours drive to the north is Columbus and Ohio State University campus. There you will find the newly renamed: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. A generous donor has insured that they will soon have a facility to more appropriately display their holdings - good news indeed!

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics, the Cartoon Library and Museum is currently located in the basement of the Wexner Center for the Arts http://cartoons.osu.edu/. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet of space storage and exhibit space allowing more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public.

Click here for the complete news release about the name change.

You may want to keep their events URL in your browser favorites - the library hosts many expert lectures and significant art shows throughout the year. They will be hosting the next of their tri-annual Festival of Cartoon Art in a little less than a year - October 15-16, 2010!

Coming up next month is a lecture about Winsor McCay on Tuesday November 3rd at 7PM where John Canemaker, McCay's biographer, presents "The Art and Life of Winsor McCay," a talk on this legendary cartoonist..

10/07/09 - UK Community Arts Group Gallery Show - Year THREE!

Being able to draw the human figure is a foundation skill for cartooning, illustration, animation and many other visual art specialties. Here in Lexington we don't have a whole lot of options for adult learning but there has been one beacon of light that has been a consistent resource for several years. Here is a news release describing a current gallery show from the UK Community Arts Group:

Lexington KY - September 27^th 2009 - The UK Community Arts Group is proud to announce our third annual Gallery Show: "Life Drawing". This group show is from a collective of artists who attend the long running open life drawing sessions in the Reynolds Building. The works displayed are from the past year and were either created at these sessions or derived from work created there. This is a varied group not just in age (twenties to eighties) but in cultural background, degree of formal training and artistic approach.

We invite all to attend during the run of the show but especially hope our current and past models along with absent members and friends will grace our gala reception.

The show dates will be:

• Opening on Monday 9/28/09
• Reception on Friday 10/02/09. Reception times are 6-9pm. Light refreshments served.
• Last Exhibition date: Friday 10/9/09

The show will be held on the UK Campus at:

Raymond Barnhart Gallery
Room 206
Reynolds Building 1
672 South Broadway (near the intersection of Scott Street)
Lexington KY 40506-0101

For further information about the show please contact Professor Arturo Sandoval, Barnhart Gallery Director at (859) 230-9635 (email: aa.sandoval@uky.edu)

This post is getting up quite late - this show will be up for just another three days! But this is a great example of community art and the variety of artists and work that can come from it. This show is a group show show presented in an informal "salon" style of presentation. The link that ties it at all together is that the work was created or derived from studies created in the open life drawing sessions held Saturday mornings and (currently, but subject to change semester to semester) Tuesday evenings in the Reynolds Building. These are open, uninstructed life drawing sessions with a nude model. We have artists with no formal training alongside retired professor emerita. We have an age range from late teens to octogenarians. This exhibition is an exciting time when we actually get to see what our fellow artists have been creating and can compare to our own work - often of the same model or even the same pose!

My thanks go out to UK Architecture Professor Tony Roccanova, who tirelessly coordinates the open life drawing sessions, Professor Hui Chi Lee who among many things acts as a group liaison with the art department, Professor Arturo Sandoval, the Barnhart Gallery Director and great friend to the community arts group and Professor Ben Withers, chair of the UK Art Department, upon whose generosity and support we all prosper.

10/03/09 - 2009 Lexington 24-Hour Comic Day Challenge

Today is 24-Hour Comic Day. Around the whole country cartoonists are working alone or meeting in groups to create 24 pages in 24 hours. That is writing, penciling, lettering and inking twenty-four pages - with no preliminary work beforehand!
Here are some links to sites and blogs about this years events:

• http://www.24hcd.blogspot.com/
• http://24-hourcomic.blogspot.com/

Here in Lexington, the CCG has worked to organize local interest and also was thrilled to find a willing host: Tony Florence, owner of Collectibles, Etc.

Lexington's first official 24-Hour Comic Day challenge started today at 11:00am and will run the full 24 hours until tomorrow, Sunday 10/4/09 at 11:00am. The store will stay open through the whole event - so if you are reading this post before the day is over (even in the middle of the night) go out and visit these brave souls and give them your encouragement. Here's the location:

Collectiblles, Etc.
115 North Locust Hill Drive
Suite 106
Lexington, KY 40509
google map

Show your suport and buy something while you're there to let them know you appreciate them hosting events like this that help build a community for local comic creators. I would like to thank Tony on behalf of the CCG and all those cartoonists attending todays marathon!