Perrin by Lisa Perrin

Perrinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grandfather; Max Perotsky with her father in Brooklyn, NY

Table of Contents

Prologue -- In the Beginning ......................................................... Page 4 Chapter 1 -- Inspiration & Background ....................................... Page 9 Chapter 2 -- The Nature of the Beast ....................................... Page 13 Chapter 3 -- Say it in Yiddish ...................................................... Page 19 Chapter 4 -- Creatures and Characters ....................................... Page 25 Chapter 5 -- In the Kitchen ......................................................... Page 33 Chapter 6 -- The Garden (Interiors) .......................................... Page 45 Chapter 7 -- Works on Paper ....................................................... Page 51 Chapter 8 -- Crafting the Identity ............................................... Page 59 Chapter 9 -- The Exhibition ........................................................ Page 63 Epilogue -- And Everything After ............................................. Page 67

To the casual observer Perrin would appear to be from a small harbor town on the northern coast of Long Island, when really essentially, she is from a much older and stranger world. Her whole life, all she ever wanted to do was make pictures and tell stories. Perrin’s work is informed by the humorous and strange world of Eastern European Jewish culture, language and folk tales. This is a direct reflection of her family’s heritage and Perrin’s way of connecting to it. However, rather than merely repeating these influences she is reimagining and modernizing them to appeal to a current and sophisticated palette. Perrin is excited about the advancements that are re-informing how creatives make, promote, distribute their work. Makers have new opportunities to engage in self-directed projects that can easily reach potential consumers. With this is mind Perrin always applies an entrepreneurial approach to her work. She likes to consider what an illustration can be in addition to a beautiful printed image and how to translate it into functional and unique products.

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At its heart Perrin’s work explores the old world in a new way, combining humor with darkness, and beauty with strangeness.

As a child I always had a great love of story telling, theater, and art. This passion for narrative led me to dual bachelors degrees in Drawing and Painting, as well as English. I felt that what I was reading in my literature courses impacted was I was painting in my art courses, and I always appreciated the dialogue that emerged between those genres. The story, so I have been told, is that my father’s father emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1906. When he arrived he made the conscious decision to change his last name from ‘Perotsky’ to ‘Perrin’. There are many conceivable reasons why a person might elect to abandon their name. It could have been to create a more Americanized identity for himself, to craft a new persona for a new place, or make a clean break from everything he knew before. Names are very important in Jewish culture and tradition. In Ashkenazi -- Eastern European Jewish -- families it is tradition to name a newborn after a beloved relative that has passed on. If the child should be named for a living relative the fear is that the angel of death could become confused and take the baby of the same name before its time. In attempting to define and rebrand myself as an Illustrator I decided to return to my roots. I have chosen to go by my last name, Perrin, professionally. The twirling vine-like shapes that encompass my logo and emerge in much of my work are roots to represent that connection. Like my grandfather I was ready to adopt a new persona for the next phase of my life.

My BFA thesis exhibition was inspired by rich Elizabethan decorative elements, tragic heroines from history, and a cabinet of curiosities aesthetic. I knew what I liked and was attracted to in terms of art making. I loved pouring over details and telling a story with an image, reaching into history and literature for my inspiration. I created portraits of Marie Antoinette and Queen Elizabeth the first, personalities I was fascinated by, but had no personal connection to. My paintings were flat and stylized, while my drawings were dense with line work and focused on realism. Because my degree had been in fine art I was discouraged from approaching my creations as Illustration, and was frequently reminded to “take the words out of my pictures.” I finished my undergraduate education with a strong portfolio, but an uneasy feeling that I did not fit in to the fine art world. I wanted to begin again as an illustrator. This meant finding a style that suited me and felt sophisticated, as well as discovering the story that would inform my illustrations and make me different.

All of these factors contributed to my decision to attend graduate school.

Melancholia, my artists book from the first year of the program.

I had never known or met anyone who was an illustrator and felt that I had been peering into this world through foggy glass. I was following every illustration blog I could find and entering contests. But after returning to my parent’s home in Long Island for a year after graduation I felt I was spinning my wheels without going anywhere. I sought a community of like-minded people who wanted to achieve the same things that I did. I craved having a group of people I could connect to and respect. Networking and making friends was a strong motivator to further my education.

While working I thought about the market for these items. A lot of Jewish-themed products I had seen were kitschy and looked like they belonged on a grandmother’s bureau. I thought about my Jewish friends, who are hip, sophisticated young adults with good taste, and how none of these items appealed to them. I felt there was a hole in the market for these up and coming young adults who wanted to feel connected to their culture in a modern way.

This revelation set me down a path of developing my own line of illustrated products that were influenced by Jewish I was also ready to test myself, to see if culture without the heavy hand of religion. I wanted to make things that I would want to I could hack it. I had never taken a buy. With this in mind I created silk scarves, class in Illustration and needed to prove tea towels, and ceramics with my illustrations. Some connect more literally to Jewish themes to myself that I deserved to be there. and others were subtle allusions. This backIn my first year of the MFA in Illustration story was really for me, to help inform my Practice program at MICA I experimented decisions and craft a cohesive body of work. relentlessly. I made a limited print edition of The goal was to make things that Jewish fifty copies of an artist’s book I had designed. people would feel a special fondness for, I embroidered a decorative mask, developed but that everyone could enjoy and feel a series of repeat patterns, painted a vinyl toy, connected to. made a stop motion animation, and created a series of greeting cards, among other projects. My thesis is the culmination of all of the I learned a great deal from these various thoughts, plans, and work that I have assignments but was still feeling scattered described. It has accomplished what I sought as an illustrator. It was not until the summer out to do, which was to find a unique and before my final year in the program that I cohesive story to pull sophisticated illustrated discovered the thread that would connect all products from that is personal to me. One hundred and fourteen years later Max of my work to come. Perotsky’s granddaughter is piecing together One sunny afternoon I was walking home the breadcrumbs of her history to find her from my summer internship at the Jewish way back, and to better understand herself Museum of Maryland. I had been helping to through the lens of her illustration. do inventory in the museum shop that day.

Photographs of Perrinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great, great grandparents Fanny and Avigdor Axelrod

My work stems from several very specific sources; my personal history, the illustrators that I admire, and targeted research I have conducted. I absolutely collect elements of visual culture and arrange them in Pinterest boards or in folders on my desktop. Collecting inspiration has always come naturally to me. I love the feeling of discovering something, getting thoroughly excited by it, and squirreling it away. In many ways it is difficult to distill exactly what has shaped my work because I am influenced by everything that I see and absorb in my daily life. With my thesis work I was aiming to truly define a clearer aesthetic and motivation for my illustrations. My personal history was explained briefly in the prologue. My family is currently settled in suburban Long Island, New York. Before that my fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father was born in Russia before relocating to Brooklyn, NY when he was eight years old. My motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grandparents are from what is now considered Ukraine. Jewish people from Eastern Europe are described as being Ashkenazy, whereas Jews from Spain and Portugal are Sephardic. My whole family are Ashkenazy Jews, and the traditions I grew up with reflect that. My mother was raised more religiously and kept kosher until she was in college. She has told me the thrilling account of when she ate a cheeseburger for the first time. She instilled an importance in Jewish education for my brother and I. We attended Hebrew school from the time we were three until we were eighteen years old. My mother worked as a Hebrew school teacher in the same we attended.

I can recall feeling very connected to Judaism in my early teens. That bond faded significantly as I ended my high school experience. A family trip to Israel in my senior year was very significant in that decision. I travelled to this important country and all I could feel was sadness that it had been so devastated by religious war and hate. Everyone told me that the trip would bring me closer to Judaism, but all I felt was push me farther away. I loved the traditions and heritage I had grown up with, but felt disconnected and disappointed by the religious aspects.

I struggled with how to define myself and reconcile those conflicting feelings. For college I attended a small, liberal arts university in upstate New York where I double majored in English and Painting. There were Jewish organizations on campus, but I was not involved with them. My artwork during that time was scattered in terms of inspiration and subject matter. I made paintings of European monarchs and realistic drawings of nature. My work was about things I liked, but not imagery I was personally connected to. I was looking to Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, and Mark Ryden for inspiration. I had a love of exquisite detail and storytelling that is reflected in these early works, however, they lacked a certain sophistication.

After moving to Baltimore for graduate school I was hired for two very specific jobs that redirected me back to thinking about my culture. I was an intern at the Jewish Museum of Maryland as well as a Hebrew school teacher at a local synagogue. I was surprised to have returned to this world after so long. I would never have foreseen myself making illustrations about my Jewish background.

Maybe it was bershet, the Yiddish word for ‘fate,’ but I found myself thinking about my culture and my place in it. Warsaw Village Band by Carson Ellis

I wanted to reconnect with it in my own way. There are several contemporary illustrators that were very inspiring to me as I began this project. I discovered Carson Ellis’ work at a Decemberists concert in 2008. I had never seen folk-art style approached in such a sophisticated and modern way. I was attracted to her muted color palettes, lush and playful imagery, and the layers of depth infused in every image. She has an attention for detail that is startling with its complexity. It makes the viewer want to lean in closer to explore the rich work in more depth. Along similar lines to Ellis, I was equally fascinated by the work of Yelena Brysenkova and Becca Stadtlander, both are alums of the Illustration program at MICA. They are also referencing folk-art with flattened perspective, patterning, and decorative line work. These illustrators often return to similar themes of flora and fauna, and interior settings. They are visual storytellers who can convey a narrative with their paintings.

Illustration by Yelena Bryksenkova

All three of these illustrators work exclusively traditionally, in watercolor and gouache. The first half of his year I worked the same way, later I discovered digital painting and was able to mimic the effect of traditional media using a new tool.

and design references. I was also inspired by Treasures of Jewish Heritage: Jewish Museum, London which catalogued the museum’s collection of lifecycle objects, silver and textiles. All of these inspirations came together to form what resulted in my master’s thesis work.

I knew that it would behoove me to do more extensive research before mounting my thesis project. I was excited to read Yiddish folk tales, study idiomatic expressions, and be able to reference Jewish iconography. I felt that my work would be more meaningful it I curated my choices to make careful references that were specific. With this in mind I headed to the Decker Library at MICA. I also utilized the interlibrary loan system for more rare An example of a decorative. embroidered challah cover resources. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore edited by Nathan Ausbel and Yiddish Folktales edited by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich were my sources for folklore. It was fascinating to see what the subjects of Yiddish folktales were, the characters, the plots, and the morals. In many ways they were parallel to fairy tales I had read from other cultures. I liked the universality of these stories that everyone could connect to. For my series on Yiddish phrases I borrowed a book from my parent’s house, The Dictionary Of Popular Yiddish Words, Phrases And Proverbs by Fred Kogos. This book is both a The Dictionary Of Popular Yiddish Words, Phrases And traditional English to Yiddish dictionary, as Proverbs by Fred Kogos and Yiddish Folktales edited by well as a treasury of the colorful expressions Beatrice Silverman Weinreich I was looking for. I also looked to The Jewish Wardrobe: From the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem by Daisy Raccah-Djivre for clothing

My Nature of the Beast series consists of two rabbits and two snakes. One rabbit is black and looking over its shoulder, the other is grey and alert. One snake is wriggling on the move and the other is curling into a heap.

I felt I had reached a break-through in terms of style with these images that I was excited about.

These illustrations were created traditionally In Yiddish folklore rabbits represent fear and in gouache and watercolor. They were later snakes represent. It is not pivotal to me that scanned in and digitally manipulated. As the viewer is aware of this particular meaning well as existing as prints, these pieces were imbued in these illustrations. It is more of a transformed into ceramic tiles to be coasters story for me, to inform my decision-making. or trivets. I purchased a quantity of square ceramic tiles from a hardware store, as well as cork backing, paint for the edges, and a resin I wanted to create imagery that can to pour over the top to seal the surface.

be enjoyed and appreciated by anyone, regardless of whether they have any connection to Judaism or not.

I learned a lot from this experiment. And the coasters sold out at Art Market, MICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual holiday art and craft fair.

I decided to create four illustrations that could This confirmed what I had suspected. interact with each other in different ways to Consumers are looking for unique illustrated create different narratives. An image could objects that they can use. stand alone, or be informed by the piece next to it. Two rabbits could sit together, or a rabbit could be sitting precariously next to a nefarious snake. I also wanted to try my hand at that folk-inspired style I had been admiring. These pieces feature flatness in perspective and decorative pattern.

Left: Curling Snake (close up). Above: Black Rabbit

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a market for beautiful utilitarian objects.â&#x20AC;?

Hand crafted ceramic tiles from Nature of the Beast

I grew up hearing the Yiddish expressions said by my parents and grandparents at home. I knew that it was a mixture of German and Hebrew spoken by the common Jewish people in Eastern Europe for many centuries. It was considered to be a dead language when the vast majority of its speakers perished in the Holocaust. Yet the language is currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Yiddish has also found a way to linger and affix itself permanently into the English language. Many have remarked at its ability to express a sentiment in a concise and clever way.

Yiddish expressions are colorful, humorous, creative, and always poignant.

culture pigs are not kosher, and therefore are never really appropriate. The final piece was, “Roast pigeons don’t just fly into your mouth,” a reminder that we have to work for the things we want, and not wait for them to be handed to us. All of these illustrations were originally 8 x 10 inches and painted as separate elements in gouache, before being scanned in and digitally arranged. I wanted to modernize these images and sayings. For many young Jewish people, Yiddish is the language of our grandparents. I wanted to make it cool and trendy with contemporary colors and styles.

I decided to create a series of illustrations inspired by interesting Yiddish phrases. These illustrations are mostly lettering-based I loved the idea of bringing these old with some smaller graphic illustrations. This expressions back in a fresh way. project was my love letter to hand lettering, which I enjoy doing tremendously. I also wanted these illustrations to have a special appeal to people who knew the I settled on four expressions for this first references, but could still amuse and attract series, which ended up having a subtle food people who had never heard them before. and kitchen theme. The first, “Don’t grow like an onion with your head in the ground,” I had all four designs printed as post cards is probably the most well known and and designed a functional back so they could recognizable of the phrases I selected. This be mailed. In the future I would like to is one that my grandfather used to say. It is promote them as mini art prints as opposed equivalent to, ‘don’t act like an ostrich with to post cards because that affects how they your head in the sand!’ This first piece set the are perceived in terms of value. tone and palette for the other three to come. The second piece was, “The reddest apple I envision them as prints for a kitchen or has a worm in it,” urging us to be weary of as recipe cards. I also hope to expand upon perfection. The next was “It is as appropriate this idea and create a whole book’s worth of as a pig.” This saying is ironic, since in Jewish illustrated Yiddish expressions someday.

post card compliation

Like an Onion, goache and digital, 8 x 10 inches

Appropriate as a Pig, gouache and digital, 8 x 10 inches

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Yiddish â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a dead language - was once very much alive, and bursting at the seams with the colorful phrases and idioms that inspired this unique illustrated postcard set. www.madebyperrin.com

Top: The Reddest Apple, gouache and digital, 8 x 10 inches with sketch. Bottom: post card backing design

I started to think about the creatures and characters that would inhabit this world I have been creating. They needed to make sense and take my images to the next level.

told tight to her babushka, or head scarf. She is wandering through this snowy landscape on a mission that surely involves the glowing skull in her care.

I wanted them to feel as refined and purposeful as their environments.

Bird women are present in many Russian folk tales and are similar to the harpies of Greek stories. I love the idea of these powerful hybrid creatures.

These characters are all loosely based on my grandparents and myself in some sort of curious composite. They combine old fashioned styles with modern trends.

I sought to invent a creature that was both beautiful and terrifying.

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Harpy was created using watercolor and gouache and is 9 x 12 inches.

To Market is a simple character study in a more modern and bold, graphic style. I had hoped to reference Mary Blair with playful use of shape and color. I was also thinking about Coles Phillipsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; classic â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fade-away girlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; where a portion of the illustration is not clearly delineated and therefore blends in to the background. I see this image as more simple and whimsical than some of my other illustrations. She was digitally painted on a Cintiq.

Similarly my Dybuk references a character straight out of classic Yiddish folklore. A dybuk is an angry, spiteful spirit of a deceased individual that inhabits the body of a living person to conclude unfinished business. There is a famous story about a bride who becomes inhabited by a dybuk on her wedding day. This is my portrayal of that character in the moment she is overtaken by that evil spirit. She is also painted in gouache, 9 x 12 inches.

In Stormy the character is roaming the woods on a dark and stormy night. I hoped to tell a The Star, though not directly related to my story in a singular image and let the viewer thesis shows another kind of character all imagine the details. I also wanted to show a together. This piece is a digital painting, 13 x character in the context of an environment 19 inches. with this piece. Through the wind and rain she

Harpy, gouache on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Dybuk, gouache on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Left Top: Sketch, Left Bottom: Detail. Above: Strormy, digital painting, 9 x 12 inches

Left: Sketch, Above: To Market, digital painting, 8 x 10 inches

Much of my thesis work was product driven. The goal was to see my illustrations take on new shape and application when paired with more functional objects. In Yiddish shmata means ‘rag,’ this implies I feel that everyone needs things; we may something disposable and worn. With this in mind I designed my second tea towel to be an as well have things we like. ironic shmata. Far from being a throw-a-way this was intended to be a beautiful, glorified And there is something powerful about rag. This piece was my first to be created illustration and imagery that attracts us. With entirely digitally using a Cintiq. I was able to this in mind I created designs for one-off achieve a high level of detail with this new editions of tea towels and ceramics. tool that helped me achieve a look of faux embroidery. My Shmatas line was a series of four tea towels. Once again I drew inspiration from Yiddish expressions that I found fitting. The Hidden within the intricate designs are first design I created was from the phrase “It little flies to remind the viewer that this could always be worse,” which I appreciate shmata, however pretty, is still just a rag. for its strange approach to positivity. I was inspired to create a natural scene that was I loved the idea of flies as a decorative not what it seemed. Near the top half of element sneaking into household objects and the image the flowers are vibrant and strong, this inspired my third tea towel in the series. I but towards the bottom they are wilting created a simple repeat pattern using the flies and dying. I included sunflowers, which are and color palette from the previous piece. For significant symbols in numerous Yiddish folk my exhibition I used this fabric to reupholster tales. Specifically there are many stories about a vintage chair I purchased from a thrift store. a witch called Baba Yaga who eats a special sunflower to stay young and ward off death. The final tea towel is a repeat pattern of There are other memento mori type allusions decorative rabbits carefully painted in cream in this piece. The bee at the top center of and blue to evoke the feeling of china the illustration refers to the biological event porcelain. The illustration was traditionally when male bees are killed in the act of mating, painted in gouache before I scanned it in to not to mention the more literal skull at the create the pattern digitally. I hand-hemmed bottom. This piece was originally painted this tea towel to be on display for my final in watercolor on paper. It was later digitally exhibition. printed onto fabric that was half linen and half cotton.

Left: It Could Always be Worse, watercolor on paper, 18 x 27 inches, Above Left: Detail, Top Right: Detail, Bottom Right: Sketch.

It Could Always Be Worse, in progress photograph

Left: Shmata, digital painting, 18 x 27 inches, Above Top Left: Lettering detail, Above Top Right: Illustration Detail, Below: In-progress Screen Shot

Left: Rabbit Pattern Sketch, Above: Rabbit Repeat Pattern

Ceramics

It was a long-standing dream of mine to see my illustration applied to ceramic items. I love the idea of utilizing illustration to suit the surface it is applied to. I did not feel that the illustration should look merely â&#x20AC;&#x153;slapped onâ&#x20AC;? to a bowl or plate, but should be considered in terms of form.

The illustration should reflect the shape and use of the item it lives on. For example, an illustration could wrap around the handle of a tea cup, or loom at the bottom of a bowl to be discovered when the soup is gone.

That playfulness and wit is what attracted me to the idea of using ceramic decals. The Ceramics department at MICA was very generous with their time, expertise, and resources. After purchasing blank ceramics and a sheet of digitally printed decal paper, the illustrations were placed and fired onto the ceramics. I applied my decals to one plate, bowel, two small teacups, saucers, and one teapot. For my designs I created very graphic silhouetted arms holding these ceramics, as well as a spooky skull to lurk at the bottom of the pieces. These were turned into vectors and made blue to evoke the color and feel of traditional porcelain. Top Left: Before Chair, Bottom Left: After Chair , Center: Fly Pattern, Digital Top Right: Illustrated Cermaics, Bottom Right: Decals

The story of the Garden of Eden has always When I created Eve I had intended it to be a inspired me creatively. I have found drawings stand-alone piece. At the advice of my thesis in sketchbooks from high school interpreting mentor I created a second illustration, this this story from Genesis. time of Adam to complete the scene. Adam is also seated on the same wood floor as his companion. His color palette is more of a steely blue than her vibrant peaches and reds. The plants in this piece are more I sought to create a diptych, which reinterprets branch and twig-like than lush leaves. The this iconic imagery in an unexpected way. So animals present in the piece are his basset I re-imagined them as interior Victorian-esq hound and goldfish, as well as framed insects. scenes. He is also in a curious time frame and could exist in the Victorian or modern world. The For me this was an opportunity to wallpaper pattern for him is more geometric combine a lot of my favorite elements and and modern. The snake slithers on a pillow beside him.

I am attracted to the imagery â&#x20AC;&#x201C; human figures amidst flora and fauna.

imagery, as well as the new techniques and tools I had been learning.

Finally both of these illustrations were digitally printed as large silk scarves. Eve is seated on the floor. Her dress references the Victorian era but has more modern triangles as patterns. The eaten apple lies next to her and her cat. There is a lushness of plant life in this room with bright, unnatural colors. There is also a caged bird and framed insects to represent animal life. The wallpaper evokes flowering plants as well. On the large urn next to the woman is the iconic snake that tempted her. I wanted this piece to be something the viewer could stare at for some time discovering all of the details within it.

When exhibited I chose to have the characters back to back instead of facing each other.

Left: Eve, digital painting, 20 x 20 inches Above: Adam, digital painting, 20 x 20 inches

Left: Eve, sketch, 10 x 10 inches Above: Eve Details

I have a special fondness for unique stationary items.

I feel that paper goods will always be an intuitive and meaningful application for illustration. However, I really appreciate paper goods that have been thoughtfully considered and reinvented to be modern and sophisticated. I created two greeting cards to sell at MICA’s annual art market. I wanted them to have a less conventional feeling in terms of aesthetic and sentiment. The first You Warm My Very Cold, Black Heart was intended to reflect a sweet sentiment in a macabre way. The icon of the anatomical heart has appeared in previous art works of mine and is a recurring motif. The other card in the pair is I Like Ya Face. Something that is important to me when I design characters is to imbue them with traditionally Eastern European Jewish characteristics. I rarely see people that look like me depicted in art and I want to express those features as being beautiful. This is a personal mission. My perpetual calendar became an obsession for me. I discovered vintage examples of perpetual calendars while searching online. These calendars could tell you what day any date would fall on for twenty or forty, or one hundred years! All you would have to do is match up the year with the month and the day using the dial provided. I was keen to make my own perpetual calendar, but this

required taking an old one apart to figure out the pattern. This was somewhat complicated as it had to account for leap years. I did not want to merely mimic the perpetual calendar I had purchased. I wanted to reinvent and design it in my own way. I painted a much larger version using bright gouache colors in a very ornamental design. After several revisions, my calendar does in fact work for the years 2013-2050. This is a project that I would love to return to. One of the earliest projects I tackled this year was designing a set of temporary tattoos. I wanted to play with the idea of the ‘evil eye’ from Yiddish folklore. The evil eye is a malicious glance that can inflict bad luck. Fortunately the evil eye can be warded off with certain icons and charms. I created three designs for insects that had eyes as a part of their patterns, and drew them carefully in detailed, teal line work. I also designed the packaging for the tattoos where I explained, “Many creatures confuse predators with patterns that look like eyes. Protect yourself against the evil eye with these three temporary tattoos.” I also provided instructions to apply the tattoos. I created a series of simple gift tags and thank you notes as well. I used a variety of card stock colors I had left over from other projects. The consumer would receive six various tags that stated, “thank you” and “to” “from.” They are the size of a business card with rounded corners.

Left Above: Cold Black Heart, gouache on paper, 4 x 8 inches Left Below: Ya Face, gouache on paper, 4 x 8 inches, Above: Greeting Card Examples

Perpetual Calendar, Digital print of gouache on paper, 8 x 8 inches

Left: Evil Eye Tattoos with Packaging Above: Gift Tags, Assorted

Because I was approaching my thesis project from the perspective of launching a business, A major goal before I left graduate school I knew that branding was going to be very was to create and launch a new portfolio important to me. site. I had one made by a friend just after I graduated from college, but it was never quite It would be wise to curate myself as my what I wanted. I also struggled because I could not update it myself. I took a basic web own brand. design class at MICA during the fall semester, which helped me to better understand coding I struggled to dream up a name that made and prepare to create a portfolio site. In the sense before settling on ‘Vey,’ the Yiddish end I purchased www.madebyperrin,com as word for ‘woe.’ I made countless logos for Vey, my domain and a Cargo Collective site as the but nothing felt quite right. I also made the platform. I was able to create a portfolio site decision to go by my last name professionally. that was easy for my to update and change, as well as conveyed my brand. I also created a This was intentional because I wanted to new Tumblr blog and Twitter account for my break away from the work and persona new persona.

that I had before, and start fresh. I liked how my last name alluded to my personal family history when the name was changed from Perotsky to Perrin upon arrival in the United States. I surprised myself when I ultimately decided on Perrin as the name for my brand. I designed a logo with swirling roots to allude to my cultural roots that my brand refers to. I am careful to include this logo on all of my work and in my web presence.

I am currently in the process of creating an online shop as well.

Color palette is important for any brand. Mine circles around cream, black, blue-grey, and various corals and reds. Maintaining this palette is important for brand consistency.

Left: Logo Experiments, Ink and Digital Top Above: Tumblr Screenshot ,Top Below: Portfolio Website Screenshot

My MFA thesis exhibition opened on March To help me design this room I invented a 29th, 2013. This was my opportunity to share character to inhabit it. The character was a what I had done with the MICA community combination between my grandmother and I, and the public. if I were alive then or if she were alive now. She is my ideal customer. This space was a I chose to use this chance to create an fusion of old and new, beauty and strangeness. It reflected what I had made and achieved this environment for my various illustrations past year.

and artifacts to inhabit.

I was able to secure three walls to create a room that I painted to be a cream color. The first wall was my marquis and was evocative of a more traditional gallery setting. My logo and artist statement were in vinyl above a shelf with my business cards. The only pieces on that wall were my two large, framed scarves of Adam and Eve. On the next two walls were all of my illustrations in frames that I had found and altered.

I arranged the pieces in clusters to evoke different conversations and narratives among those pieces. I painted a slender brown root emerging from the floor and growing into the pieces to connect them. There was also a vinyl â&#x20AC;&#x153;rugâ&#x20AC;? of swirling roots in the center of the floor. I also included a table and chair to add to the room setting. I painted both pieces of furniture and altered their design. On the table was a tea towel, some ceramics, my perpetual calendar, and a notebook.

Left: Photo of me in my exhibition space Above Top: Exhibition, Above Below: Table, Chair, and Vinyl

What follows is a hopeful, though fictitious account of what may happen in the future. Over the summer following her graduation Perrin will seek to accomplish several specific goals to further what she began in graduate school. The first of which is to launch her online shop. She will utilize an existing e-commerce platform, such as Storeenvy.com, and edit the design of the sign to suit her sensibility and fit with her existing branding. Then Perrin will photograph her work, write descriptions, determine prices, and shipping costs. She will also invest in protective packaging for the items she intends to tell. These items will include prints, stationary, zines, and calendars, as well as scarves and tea towels. She will develop special additions to accompany purchases, such as a certificate of authenticity, and stamps and stickers to further brand her products. After these preliminary tasks have been completed she will, at long last, make the shop live to the public. Over the summer months Perrin will also design a promotional mailer then she will send to targeted potential clients. She will decide on four compelling images to have printed as post cards, as well as order more business cards. She will compile a long and short list of people and companies she would like to work with to determine her mailing list.

Once summer has ended Perrin plans to really dig her heels into the illustration world.

There are many facets she would love to try and be involved with. She feels that hobbling together many different applications for illustration, as well as having a day job, and teaching will be the equation that measures her career and day-today life.

This interest in trying many things while still having the stability of a more regular job will give her a lot of freedom in the kind of projects she takes on. Perrin has several aspirations for her work. She would like to license her imagery for wholesale and consignment deals, as well as collaborate with various companies and institutions. Having Anthropologie carry her items is a dream job for Perrin. She thinks her ceramic and fabric pieces could find a meaningful home there with a receptive audience. She would also love to work with smaller companies, including Trohv, Blue Q, and Little Otsu. She could license pre-existing work to them or would be open to creating new pieces. In this next phase Perrin plans to create more stationary items, which she knows these companies carry.

Perrin will also reach out to Jewish institutions Perrin really wants to see her products outside internationally to see about carrying her of her studio or a gallery setting, and into the items in their museum shops. She can focus homes and hands of people who could use some of her attention on a Jewish market by them and appreciate them. contacting appropriate blogs, websites, and institutions. She could use this momentum She feels that illustration is at its best to create a line of products more specific to when it gets to interact directly with judaica.

people. This direct accessibility to the She would love to work within some public is one of her favorite qualities of the more traditional applications for about illustration as a field. illustration as well. She envisions editorial and book illustration in her future. Perrin might begin by illustrating the stories of others but eventually will transition into writing and illustrating her own ideas. This will be very satisfying because it will combine so many of Perrinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interests. A dream publisher would be Chronicle Books or McSweenys, as well as Penguin and Harper Collins.

Her ultimate goal would be to see her work integrate into peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives as special objects that they love.

She wants to be someone who champions the things that she is passionate about. Perrin hopes to be a strong voice for illustration, entrepreneurship, and collaboration.

Once she has a couple of books under her To distill all of these hopes, it is fair to say belt Perrin could try more ambitious ideas that Perrin would be content to balance within publishing. Although she would love freelance work with running her own shop, to be picked up by a publisher Perrin is not and maintaining a day job. She does not mark opposed to self-publishing. In fact she thinks success by how many jobs she get, but by it can be a great way to get an idea into the what they allow her to do and if they further world and get started. her goals. She would like to live in a house with a garden and occasionally be able to She would also like to make more small press travel. Perrin does not need much. artist books and zines, join the craft fair circuit, and attend more conferences. When all is said and done she hopes to have a body of work she is proud of, a career she In short Perrin has plans to do everything. is satisfied with, and a drive to keep creating.

Nancy Drew, Book Cover Digital Painting, 8 x 10 inches

The Star, Editorial Piece, Digital Painting, 8 x 10 inches

Containing Risk, Editorial piece, Digital Painting, 8 x 10 inches

ÂŠ Lisa Perrin 2013