Commencement Show!!!

My commencement show is up!

Come See it today, tomorrow, or Monday, 11:00AM-11:00PM on the third floor of the Fox Building (take a left off of the elevator, then a right and look at the wall across from you. I'm right there!)

The address is:

1301 Mount Royal Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

21217

A lot of the work in the show hasn't been put up on the blog yet, so it will be new to you!

You can also pick up some of my business cards and postcards...

...Look through my portfolio book and the mock-up for "How I Broke My Ankle"....

...And thumb through one of my most recent sketchbooks!

ALSO, my portfolio site is up! It's actually been online for a while but I was waiting until everything was neat and tidy to start advertising it. I still have some things I'd like to mess around with but I think it looks pretty good for now!

www.jannamorton.com!

How I Broke My Ankle

This is the cover to the book I've been working on this semester! It's the true story of how I was flattened by a tombstone outside of a tropical pet store when I was six. It involves a stranger with a car full of balloons, Catholic school uniforms, and a kid with a question mark for a face.

Some spreads from this project will be up soon! I've got only one week of school left (perhaps my last week of school EVER), then I'll be hanging my commencement show. Things are pretty crazy now but it's all starting to come together!

All Together Now

Welcome to the first blog entry of the new year! Happy 2011, everybody!

I just thought it would be nice to show you how my Secret Garden work looked on the wall during my final thesis critique.

Like I said in my The Animal Charmer post, I'd like to add a cover to the series before Commencement, and maybe another spot. But as it is, I think it looks good!

The Animal Charmer

Behold, my final large piece for my senior thesis, illustrating Francis Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden! Here we see Mary's new friend Dickon in his natural state, entertaining two rabbits, a cock pheasant, and a squirrel while resting in his beloved moor on a late winter's day.

My thesis has been a lot of fun but it has also been very challenging. This medium can be tricky and very time-consuming, and as a result this past semester has been one of my hardest at MICA. Still, I believe that I've learned a lot from this process and next time I start a similar project I will be smarter. In the future I hope to experiment with loosening up my technique and maybe incorporating some painting and drawing to add even more texture and to hopefully make things move a little faster. For now, though, I'm very proud of the work I've done and I look forward to showing it at commencement in May. I plan on making a book jacket for this project over this break and maybe adding in a few more spot-type things in my spare time to round out the series. It's actually quite nice to carry a bit of sewing around with you when you don't feel like your life's blood is on the line.

Are You a Ghost?

3rd piece for my Secret Garden thesis! This is for the chapter "I Am Colin" In which Mary finds out that all this time she's been living in the same house with a mysterious cousin she never knew she had.

Portraits

Here is my second piece for thesis, a spot illustration for one of the chapters in the book. This is from the part when Mary explores Misselthwaite on a rainy day and discovers a lot of dusty old portraits spanning the house's past, including one of a parrot and a little girl who reminds Mary of herself.

Finished!

Here, finally, is the first finished garden piece, which I just found out has been accepted into MICA's juried undergraduate show! If you're in the area come see it on view from October 28th-through the beginning of November (I'll get the closing date up soon. They don't have it on the website).

Progress Shot

Sorry I've been so bad about documenting my thesis! Here's a photo of the first piece about 1/3 of the way through, taken a few weeks back.

Oh, how simple things were back then!

I actually just finished this piece today (finally! omg...) and scanned it but I want to try photographing it too before I post it online.

In the Garden

Thanks to everyone who came to my Sorrento class show! It was great to see you there! I haven't forgotten that I promised I'd put the work up here for those of you who couldn't make it: I've just been pretty busy with back-to-school stuff and THESIS. Ugh, so much to do...I feel like I'm behind already!

Anyway, I want to be better about updating the blog as things are developing, especially with thesis, so here's the sketch for my first piece!