Life at CCAD

CCAD is partnering with the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) to learn about how studying the arts has influenced your life and career, whether you stayed in the arts or pursued a different direction.

The information we gather will be used to strengthen CCAD programs and help other arts educators across the country better meet the needs of their students.

Sixteen distinguished Columbus College of Art & Design alumni have been nominated for the 2012 Joseph V. Canzani Alumni Award for Excellence (AAE). Nominees range from a fashion knitting queen to a Pixar storyboard artist and an art therapy director to an internationally recognized fine artist.

Fine Arts alumna Jill Raymundo (CCAD 2004) will exhibit her work June 19–July 17, 2012 in the City Center Gallery of the OSU Urban Arts Space.

The exhibition, Vato, titled after an Ayurvedic term meaning air and space, will explore Raymundo's graphite and charcoal drawings.

"The concept is literally depicted in the works' subject matter of cloudscapes, a night sky, the empty space of paper, and in my own personal journey in creating the series," Raymundo says in her artist statement.

Fine Arts alumnus Mike Hein (CCAD 1998) will exhibit his work at Mulherin + Pollard gallery in New York City, May 31–July 1, 2012.

Mike Hein: Lean-To will show recent sculptures that emphasize the textural detail of found and handmade objects encasing them with thick sheets of clear acrylic. Hein's work has been included in numerous exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada; he currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Opening reception is May 31, 6–8 p.m.

Alumnus and adjunct faculty Michael Litzau (CCAD 2004) will spend the summer participating in a two-week residency program at Ragdale in Illinois.

Litzau will continue his work on a project that addresses what it is like to be a football fan through quotes and imagery.

By Kendra Hovey

It’s Thursday afternoon and by the look of things, Phong Nguyen might think he is back in college. After all, there are pizza and video games and it’s not even six o’clock. But Nguyen, 25, is not in college. The Texas native graduated from CCAD in 2011 and soon after took his Illustration degree to a new job at Tencent Boston—where every other Thursday is Game Day. “We stop working when the food arrives,” explains Nguyen. Spouses and partners come, and the play can last all night “or whenever we tap out.”

Alumni-founded design company These are Things will be featured in The $100 Startup, a book by New York Times bestselling author Chris Guillebeau.

Columbus Business First, an online and print resource for news in Columbus, OH, has announced their 2012 40 Under 40 Honorees, and a CCAD alumnus made the list.

CCAD alumna Janet Sopp-Sims (CCAD 1985) is a finalist in the 2012 Hunting Art Prize.

The competition is open for all artists 18 and over who live in Texas. Sopp-Sims submitted her acrylic painting For a Young Man, which was inspired by the death of a close friend.

There were more than 1,000 entries into the contest, and 109 were selected by a jury as finalists. The jury will make its final decision on April 28, 2012. The winner will be awarded a $50,000 prize.