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Two graduating seniors have published books, one of them a children's book and the other a graphic novel.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
March 24, 2008

With a fresh copy of his newly published children’s book in hand, Chris Newberg talked about the first time he drew a picture.

Newberg, a University of Arizona senior studying illustration, was in the first grade at the time. “A girl asked me if I would draw a picture for her.” An eagle, to be precise. “And I did,” he said. “When she saw it, she told me I was the best artist in the world.”

So influential was that compliment – not to mention an intense, personal creative energy – that he set out on a path to become an artist. This month, his self-published illustrated children’s book, “The Whisper,” was released.

The book is essentially about love. A woman whispers something to an admirer. But instead of reaching his ear, the whisperer travels around the world.

It is an active time not only for Newberg, who graduates in May, but also for other students in the UA School of Art’s visual communication program.

Fellow classmate JoJo Seames is also publishing a book after having co-produced Gutter Space Magazine for cartoonists and artists last year.

Her graphic novel, “DIS: Life is Hell,” is centered on a family of Olympian gods in a twist on Greek mythology. It is set to be released in New York next month.

“Art is really about communication. We are artists because we need people to listen to what we have to say,” Seames said.

As a child, Seames would hurry off to the public library to read comics while her sister took piano lessons. Today, her artistic life revolves around comic book art and is often humorous and sarcastic.

“People are unhappy and kind of made fun of,” Seames said of her art. “My work is very much about life.”

Seames has earned numerous awards for her work and has landed commissiosn to produce illustrations for a musical production in California and also for several characters for companies and individuals across the United States and in Australia.

Recalling childhood days when he would build costal cities and ships out of clay on the basement floor of his home, Newberg said his work is more about fantasy. But, like Seames, he would prefer to do nothing else.

“It’s almost like we would burst if we couldn’t create,” he said. “How can you not create? That’s how I relax and unwind.”

That may be so, but Seames and Newberg are among a small group of graduating seniors who will soon be in demand.

With the current digital age and the increased reliance on visual representation in film and in novels, the students can expect to become the next graphic novelists and creators of digitally produced cartoon characters, said Ellen McMahon, a UA associate professor of art.

“Illustrators used to basically do advertising and editorial illustration,” McMahon said. “Now, there are a lot of new opportunities. There is a growing niche for storyboard art, concept art and animation. Also, the graphic novel has been adapted into film, and design is another avenue,” she said.

The future is bright for the students, who are part of a class of “really talented graduating illustration majors,” McMahon said.

For Seames, whose ambition is to continue creating comics and eventually design cartoon characters, art is about being socially and politically critical through art – but still being able to be witty and humorous.

So strong was that desire to speak publicly through art that Seames connected with fellow visual communication student Jennifer Kearney. The two pulled Newberg and two other students, Rob Wu and J.P. Peer, into the mix and submitted a collective body of work to the UA’s Lionel Rombach Gallery.

Nearly 40 of their oil paintings, watercolor works, sketches and sculptures comprise the “Better Than a Thousand Words” exhibit.

Like Newberg and Seames, the three other illustration students – all of them graduating seniors – are also accomplished, having earned commissions from across the country to produce illustrations for publications, clothing and characters.

Although some in the art community question the artistic nature of illustration, McMahon said the students’ collective body of work is a clear demonstration of art.

“There is a sort of virtuoso in their work,” she said.

Kearney’s work is sometimes playful and other times historically focused. She earned a Silver ADDY Award this year from the Tucson Advertising Federation for illustrating a zoo poster for Tucson's Reid Park Zoo.

She was also one of the artists who painted a mural honoring the Phoenix Mars Mission. The painting is on the south wall of the mission's Science Opeations Center, 1415 N. Sixth Ave. and commemorates the UA-led mission that is scheduled to land on Mars in May.

“We want people to be more aware of us as artists,” said Kearney, who is pursuing undergraduate degrees in art history and 2-dimenstional studio art.

Wu is interested in drawing and painting, but mostly sculpting. He described his work as being sometimes Southwestern, sometimes tribal.

The work of Peer, who had no formal training prior to attending the UA, takes on a fish-eye appearance and most often involves the use of acrylic and delves into the urban and athletic realm, depicting skaters and athletes frozen in motion.

“As illustrators, the big battle for us is to capture someone’s attention,” Peer said. “I feel like we’re forced to draw in such a way that it is whacked-out with crazy perspectives so you can say, ‘There is no way you can get that view with a camera.’”

Seames said that while the students have been successful in their own right, some of the credit should go to their faculty for pushing them to think outside of what they find to be comfortable and to refine their distinctive styles.

“They want us to be at the top of our field,” she said, “and doing work that changes the industry.”