Anna & Elena Balbusso

In our work there is a clear reference to artists and paintings. The Italian art plays a key role in our work, it is an important source of inspiration but not the only. Every project is different, we do not work in series.There is not a specific art period but art in general, from Ancient Rome mural painting (frescoes at Pompeii), Italian Renaissance, Romanticism (prelude of modern art) Modern Art (symbolism, surrealism, Russian constructivism, Italian Futurism) and Contemporary Art. We use mixed media, traditional methods (acrylic, gouache, pencil, pen) were combined with digital programs, however we do not use the virtual paint brushes instead relying on doing all our brush stroke by hand with black gouache on paper. We work in many fields of communication with different styles: graphic style and painterly style.

Title: a_e_balbusso_sorrow_and_such
Caption: Of Sorrow and Such, Tor Books
Description: Winner image selected from Society of Illustrators 58 New York Annual Competition 2016. Cover art for Angela Slatter’s Of Sorrow and Such, a dark fantasy novella published by Tor Books. Mistress Gideon is a witch. The locals of Edda's Meadow, if they suspect it of her, say nary a word-Gideon has been good to them, and it's always better to keep on her good side. Just in case. Gideon is captured, bound for torture and a fiery end.
Title: balbusso_among_the_thorns
Caption: Among the Thorns, Tor Books
Description: 2015 BEST OF SHOW JOSEPH MORGAN HENNINGER AWARD SILA 53rd Illustration West. Selected Society of Illustrators 57 New York Annual Competition 2015. This artwork accompanies the dark fantasy novella “Among the Thorns” by Veronica Schanoes, published on Tor.com, 2014.
Title: a_e_balbusso_house_fire
Caption: House on Fire, Reader's Digest Magazine
Description: 2016 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE COMMUNICATION ARTS ILLUSTRATION ANNUAL. Winner image selected from Society of Illustrators 58 New York Annual Competition 2016. Our artwork accompanies the true story "House on fire" by Hollye Dexter for Reader's Digest Magazine, November issue 2015. My House Burned Down, and Here’s What It Taught Me: One Mother’s Heart-Pounding True Story.
Title: balbusso_burning_girl
Caption: Burning Girl, Tor Books
Description: This artwork accompanies the dark fantasy novella: "Burning Girls" written by Veronica Schanoes. Our artwork represents a final episode of the story. It is a clear reference to the The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three; it was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in the history of the city of New York. The story tells about a Jewish girl growing up in an increasingly hostile environment in Poland in the late nineteenth century. She is forced to emigrate to the United States in search of work.
Title: balbusso_autoimmune
Caption: autoimmune disease, The New Yorker Magazine
Description: 2014 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE COMMUNICATION ARTS ILLUSTRATION ANNUAL The Image accompanies the article written by Meghan O’Rourke “Personal history by Meghan O’Rourke. Living with an autoimmune disease”. “Soon I could no longer write or read: focusing my eyes and my mind was impossible”. We imagined the symptoms of the autoimmune disease as a network of branches within the body.
Title: balbusso_modern_love
Caption: Modern Love, Middlebury Magazine US
Description: Image for Middlebury Magazine to accompany “Modern Love” by Leah Fessler, an in depth exploration of the desire for emotional commitment amidst the hook-up culture of college life.
Title: balbusso_moral_distress
Caption: Moral distress, Scrubs Magazine
Description: Image for Scrubs Magazine to accompany “Occupational hazards: Burnout. Compassion fatigue. Moral distress”. The article explores the causes and effects of nursing's most formidable occupational hazards.
Title: a_e_balbusso_mischief_midnight
Caption: Mischief at Midnight, cover art, Scholastic US
Description: Winner image selected from Society of Illustrators 58 New York Annual Competition 2016.
Title: balbusso_the_kept
Caption: The Kept, Middlebury Magazine
Description: Winner image selected from Society of Illustrators 57 New York Annual Competition 2015. Book review "The Kept" by James Schott. Article "Mother's sins" by Regan Eberhart, Middlebury Magazine 2014
Title: balbusso_tatyana
Caption: Tatyana
Description: 2013 GOLD MEDAL SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS NEW YORK- AWARD OF EXCELLENCE COMMUNICATION ARTS ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE...and other honors Image from the book "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin, The Folio Society 2012
Title: a_e_balbusso_richard_II
Caption: Richard II, cover art, Penguin UK
Description: Winner image selected from Society of Illustrators 58 New York Annual Competition 2016. Cover art for the book “Richard II” by Laura Ashe. Our personal artistic interpretation of the portrait of the Richard II King. The title is part of the "Penguin Monarchs", series of books about Britain’s kings and queens. It is the ambitious new publishing project from Penguin, which will see 45 titles. Each book is written by a contemporary historian.

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www.balbusso.com
apiue@balbusso.com
212-333-2551

MILANO - NEW YORK U.S. Rep: Shannon Associates New York http://www.shannonassociates.com/artist/balbusso Twins Anna and Elena Balbusso are internationally recognized award winning illustrators team with a unique signature ANNA+ELENA=BALBUSSO who work has been published by major international publishers and companies through out the world on various media types such as book jackets, magazines, newspapers including The New York Times, The New Yorker Magazine, Reader's Digest Magazine, in house corporate, ads. They have illustrated over 40 books (children picture books, classic novels, fiction). Since 2007, they have received a total of 15 AWARDS of EXCELLENCE from Communication Arts Illustration Annual n.48-n.57 (2016). In 2015 they won THE JOSEPH MORGAN HENNINGER AWARD – BEST OF SHOW - SILA IL West 53, the CHESLEY AWARD Best Interior Illustration (ASFA, US), the "ANDERSEN Prize Best Illustrators" (Italy). They have been awarded three consecutive GOLD MEDALS (2011-2012-2013) in the book category of the Society of Illustrators NYC, three SILVER MEDALS (2010-2012-2014) of the 3x3 International Annual Illustration Pro Show. In 2013 They have been named the Winners of the "V & A ILLUSTRATION AWARDS best Book" by The Victorian and Albert Museum (London UK). They have received many other prestigious international awards (please, visit www.balbusso.com). Their artwork has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions and galleries in Italy and abroad. In 2016 Anna and Elena Balbusso have been included among the 18 greatest italian artists in the "Children's illustration: Italian Excellence" travel show organized by the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the Italian Institute of Culture (Madrid and Berlin). In 2015 Balbusso Twins have been included among the 100 greatest artists from around the world in the newly published Illusive Contemporary Illustration Part 4 from German publisher Gestalten. The Balbussos’ work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators NY, Society of Illustrators LA, The AOI UK, Communication Arts Magazine, American Illustration, 3x3 The Magazine Of Contemporary Illustration, Spectrum Fantastic Art Awards, Creative Quarterly, Applied Arts Magazine CA, Lürzers Archive 200 Best Illustrators worldwide, Print European Regional Design, Bologna Children’s Book Fair. They have been members of the Society of Illustrators of New York since 2009 and of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles since 2015. They are represented by Shannon Associates NYC http://www.shannonassociates.com/artist/balbusso

Tags: Professional

Martin French

My professional practice has been focused on taking symbols from daily life and reworking them into images potent enough to strike passing audiences with an experience of aesthetic and intellectual encounter. I’ve been especially fascinated by how an individual artist’s unique vision, when developed and honed, can be at once exclusively personal and yet widely transcendent. This fascination with the expressive and communal paradox inherent in artistic development is what led me away from a career as a design director to start my own illustration and design practice. Its contours and questions still energize my development and practice as a visual communicator.

Thankfully, my disciplinary fascination happens to overlap with what has turned out to be vital professional practice—namely the need for the modern visual communicator to find ways of distinguishing their images in a hyper-saturated visual market. That quest isn’t, of course, something that ends with a degree or an award. On the contrary, its ongoing, evolving challenges form a large portion of what we refer to as professional practice. How does a visual communicator remain savvy and able to read culture? How does a visual communicator retain a vision robust enough to start or redirect zeitgeists rather than being conformed to them? As I engage with these tensions I’d like to think my images could have worked in 1909, or again in 2099—the point being that their appeal depends not on tapping the hype of contemporary culture, but, almost the reverse, on stripping away the hype to offer up an image conveying a timeless appeal.

My move to Portland in 2006 motivated me to explore and apply these ideas through projects aimed at connecting with the city, most notably, the formation of the Illustration Department at The Pacific Northwest College of Art. My hope for student development in and through cultural engagement is the pedagogical extension of my ambition for my own work. I am seeking to deepen the unity between my own professional practice, artistic voice, and cultural involvement. I am energized by seeking greater rigor, expression, risk-taking, and clarity in my work. Naturally, my general teaching philosophy reflects that kind of ethos: I want students to experience my classroom as a laboratory where processes, ideas, and historical/cultural backdrops are live-wires, highly-charged and dynamic elements through which we can better understand, better share, and better tell, our own stories. What’s more—and this is core to my overarching goal for myself and my students—I want the classroom to be a place where we learn how to press ever deeper into that powerful personal/communal paradox that a well-developed vision and a highly-sensitive mind can come together and create.

Title: Create 1
Title: Arab Spring
Title: Calin Matei Street Concert 1
Title: Exile Poster Project / Mass Incarceration
Title: Monk100
Title: Harlem Swing 1
Title: Harlem Swing 2
Title: Masked Marvel
Title: Holy Blues
Title: Wrestling with God
Title: March Madness

Tags: Professional

Hilary Clarcq

After earning a BA in English and Fine Art, Hilary spent many years as a graphic designer before turning to illustration as a way to combine design-thinking with her love of drawing. Her design background is evident in her illustration work, where she employs graphic elements alongside more realistic rendering.

When not drawing or painting, you can find her outdoors or discovering new places. Her favorite means of exploration are bikes, surfboards, and the printed word.

Title: hilaryclarcq_TheMusgraveRitual_72dpi
Caption: The Musgrave Ritual
Title: hilaryclarcq_AScandalInBohemia_72dpi-1
Caption: A Scandal in Bohemia
Title: hilaryclarcq_Constant_Reminder_72dpi

Tags: Initiate

Tim O’Brien – President SINY – Honorary SILA Member

Tim O’Brien is the President of the Society of Illustrators in New York. As President, he is an Honorary Member of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.

Tags: Professional

Anna & Elena Balbusso

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