A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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Jeffrey David Brown

Lecturer

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

BA, 1997, Hope College, Holland, MI; MFA, 2002, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Exhibitions: apexart, New York; Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco; galerie anne barrault, Paris; MCA, Chicago. Publications: Clumsy; Funny Misshapen Body; Darth Vader and Son; Jedi Academy; My Teacher Is A Robot. Bibliography: Publisher's Weekly; The Comics Journal; The Chicago Tribune; This American Life; McSweeney’s. Awards: Ignatz Award; Eisner Award.

Personal Statement

I decided to pursue my MFA at SAIC in 2000 so that I could push myself in new directions as an artist, which led me first to drawing autobiographical comics, and later to creating numerous middle grade graphic novels. I’ve dabbled in screenwriting, music videos, and illustration, but my primary interest is still comics and graphic novels.

Ten years later I began teaching here, and continue to do so because I find that the school's community challenges and informs my work. I hope my students will be less concerned with end results and more focused on their processes—which I believe is the best way to achieve better end results.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

It can be easy for students to become so focused on the final product of art making that they lose sight of the importance of process. To that end, this studio class aims to encourage students to play and experiment within the medium of comics, creating projects with methods they wouldn?t normally use, and avoiding the urge to fall back on their usual or expected ways of working. Students will not need to worry about making a great piece of art, and instead can learn more about their own art practice and what does or doesn?t work for them.

This class will look at a variety of artists, genres, and forms in the comics medium. The types of comics investigated may include everything from traditional superhero genre comics, to handmade art comics, graphic novels, abstract comics, newspaper gag comics, and even content that may or may not be considered comics, depending on how one defines ?comics.? Students will also be encouraged to share their favorite comics or whatever they?re currently reading, and to look into books and comics they aren?t familiar with.

After casual critiquing of the previous week?s work, each class begins a new project or exercise that starts with a prompt or general parameters, which students use as starting points to follow in whatever direction interests them.

Class Number

1641

Credits

3