Samantha Mash ‘13 Wins Prestigious Society of Illustrators Prize
April 18, 2012
Samantha Mash ‘13 has been selected to receive a $1,000 Nancy Lee Rhodes Roberts Scholarship Award for her work submitted to the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition. Her piece, Sculpture, depicts the back of a figure with mysterious horns and claws shrouded in the mystery of transformation. This award places her work among the best student work in the country for this school year.
Mash’s winning illustration is modeled after something she saw in the Museum of Contemporary Craft during a class visit.
“My Visual Vocabulary class went to the Museum of Contemporary Craft last semester,” mentions Mash, “and our instructor Martin French asked us to make an illustration inspired by one of the pieces on display. I decided to emulate the ceramic sculpture Untitled #5 by Manuel Izquierdo by taking his abstract form and turning it into a human figure.”
Back in February, it was announced that Mash, Sera Stanton ‘12, and Jeffrey Versoi ‘13 had work accepted into the prestigious and highly competitive Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition. Open to all BFA illustration students across the country, 200+ images are juried into the show from over 7,000 entries.
“It feels really bizarre” says Versoi of learning that he was awarded this honor. “I’ve only learned last semester how prestigious this society is, and its just a real huge honor now. A real bizarre, huge honor.”
In speaking about her approach to illustration, Mash cites a relentless process.
“I draw a lot and from all those sketches I turn a few into fleshed-out pieces,” says Mash. “I normally sketch traditionally with graphite on paper and then scan this into the computer where I digitally paint and draw on top of the scan. It is sort of a long process and can take up to twenty hours or more on some illustrations, but I like how meticulous this method makes me.”
PNCA’s Illustration program fuses professional practice with personal vision, pushing students to develop the hybrid skill-set needed to flourish in today’s dynamic, multi-media marketplace. Learn more about the Illustration program’s current students and faculty on the Illustration Tumblr site.