{"id":15832,"date":"2023-01-31T08:35:31","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T13:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=15832"},"modified":"2023-01-31T08:35:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T13:35:33","slug":"episode-524-thomas-woodruff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-524-thomas-woodruff","title":{"rendered":"Episode 524 – Thomas Woodruff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 524: Thomas Woodruff<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_524_-_Thomas_Woodruff.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

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“You have to say, ‘I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do it beautifully,’ which is kind of a queer sensibility: I want ornaments on everything. It was a challenge and you need a lot of sharp pencils, but I would just go at it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artist and illustrator Thomas Woodruff<\/a> joins the show to celebrate his amazing new graphic opera, Francis Rothbart! The Tale of a Fastidious Feral<\/a> (Fantagraphics). We get into how Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan<\/em><\/a> floored him and inspired him to make this 300-page extravaganza, what it was like to finally make a comic after decades of critiquing them in his role at the School of Visual Arts<\/a>, and how living through the AIDS crisis forced an emotionalism into his art. We talk about the terrible glamour of his art, his predilection for making series of works (like his 365 paintings of apples and his ongoing series of apocalyptic, graceful dinosaur paintings<\/a>), the virtues of carbon pencil and his hunt for the last supply of his favorite paper, and why he treats teaching drawing is like a religious rite. We also discuss his legacy vis-a-vis the students he taught and the programs he built, his philosophy of using the same model for a full year of drawing classes, the story of his first tattoo and the apotropaic act, the difference between having a sensibility vs. a style, why he retired from SVA after 20 years of chairing the Illustration and Cartooning departments, how students changed over that span, the mind-melting experience of watching Diver Dan<\/a> as a child, The Next Project, and more! Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Francis Rothbart! The Tale of a Fastidious Feral<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“A drawing is a map of where the eye has been.”<\/p>\n

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