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Comics and Graphic Memoir
![white woman wearing funny hat smiling into camera with pencil in hand and eraser nearby](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-07/ELLEN_FORNEY_TILE.jpg?itok=JgO3IygV)
Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney is the author of the bestselling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me, and its companion book, Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life. Marbles has been translated into six foreign languages and was the selection for common book programs at the University of Washington Health Sciences schools and UC Davis. She curated an exhibition for the National Library of Medicine on Graphic Medicine, comics about health, and has given talks and lectures internationally at universities, conferences, and institutions, including a recent TED talk. As a visual artist, she created two large-scale murals for Seattle’s Capitol Hill light rail station. She has taught comics at Cornish College of the Arts since 2002 and is currently working on a middle-grade book on making autobiographical comics.
About the Course
Students will need to basic illustration supplies.
Your life is full of stories, from daily observations to epic adventures, and the visual literary medium of comics is a versatile, dynamic way to tell them. In this beginning/intermediate studio class, students will learn basic comics storytelling concepts and techniques, and craft several comics of different lengths to be collected in a final minicomic at the end of the session. The instructor for this class is New York Times bestselling graphic memoirist, Ellen Forney, a Cornish instructor since 2002.
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![Headshot of Winnie Westergard](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/W_WESTERGARD_2x.jpg?itok=E-eRemqd)
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Winifred Westergard is a Seattle based fine art and commercial photographer with degrees from the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts in Creative Writing, Journalism and Art. Her art making foundation is rooted in the early processes of photography, fully embracing the slow processes of 19th century photography. She is a visual creator with a strong base on human emotion and storytelling. She has managed the photography studio at Cornish College of the Arts since 1999 and has taught Photography and Portfolio Development through Summer@Cornish since 2003.
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![Sarah Lavin](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-07/Screenshot%202023-07-24%20at%2012.26.50%20PM.png?itok=2hMyitsi)
Sarah Lavin
I am energized by the spirited exchange of expression and ideas. I am a metal worker, sculptor and installation artist. I have always worked with my hands; gardening, farming, fabricating. I took my first metal working class at Pratt Fine Art Center nearly 25 years ago and went on to get a certificate in Welding/Fabrication at South Seattle Community College specializing in non-ferrous metals and blacksmithing.
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![Headshot of J. Gordon](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/J_GORDON_2x.jpg?itok=LAvu4gXr)
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![Headshot of J. Gordon](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/J_GORDON_2x.jpg?itok=LAvu4gXr)
J. Gordon
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![Headshot of Brad Taylor](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/B_TAYLOR_2x.jpg?itok=vFL4ITxa)
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![Headshot of Brad Taylor](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/B_TAYLOR_2x.jpg?itok=vFL4ITxa)
Brad Taylor
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![Headshot of Maja Sereda](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/M_SEREDA_2x.jpg?itok=VJOYviMy)
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![Headshot of Dan Shafer](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/D_SHAFER_2x.jpg?itok=DZoh_oPC)
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![Headshot of Dan Shafer](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-06/D_SHAFER_2x.jpg?itok=DZoh_oPC)
Dan Shafer
Dan D. Shafer is a graphic designer, artist, and educator living and working in Seattle. He owns Dandy Co., a graphic design studio specializing in book design, installation, and environmental design (as well as event promotion and branding). The studio's clients include Kronos Quartet, American Cancer Society, Salish Lodge, Herman Miller, and Pratt Fine Arts Center.
Shafer is also the creative director at Chin Music Press. His self-initiated social practice installations explore the nebulous territory that exists between traditional definitions of "art" and "design," and investigate how people interact with objects in their everyday lives.
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![Nikki Rice with a brown tank top shoulder brown hair against a white wall.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-10/NikkiBrown%20%281%29.jpg?itok=cAGxQSVM)
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![Nikki Rice with a brown tank top shoulder brown hair against a white wall.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_1600w/public/2023-10/NikkiBrown%20%281%29.jpg?itok=cAGxQSVM)
Nikki Rice
Born and raised in Seattle, Nikki moved to California to attend college, receiving a BFA in Film Production in 2002 from Chapman University. For the next 6 years she worked various office jobs in the film industry while also earning a Masters Degree in Secondary Education. In 2006 Nikki decided to shift her career to Special Effects Make-Up working at Creature FX studios and from there segueing into the stop motion world, beginning in 2008 with Shadow Machine on the Adult Swim hit show, Robot Chicken: Season 3. Nikki has worked as a puppet fabricator, lead fabricator and department head on numbers stop motion television shows, commercials and films, helping create iconic stop motion characters for such shows/films as Happy Honda Days (Socal regional commercial campaign for the last 12 years), Ask the Story Bots, Buddy Thunderstruck, Anomolisa and Ted Lasso to name a few. In 2022, the next adventure brought Nikki back home to Seattle to be closer to family and to hang out her own shingle as Puppets Northwest, offering a one stop shop for puppets of all kinds, SFX, 3D modeling/printing and educational outreach of all of the above.
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