In this talk, cartoonist and coach Jessica Abel will share three concrete steps to tame the chaos and make flow a regular part of your creative practice. Fair warning: it takes facing some hard truths and making tough choices. But isn't it worth it to spend more time doing the work you love?

Jessica Abel is a graphic novelist, author, business coach for creatives, and the founder of Autonomous Creative. Abel rejects the notion that creative fields are necessarily precarious and instead works to put the tools of making real money in less time—without creative compromise—into the hands of the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who need them.  Since 1992, Abel has published with indie houses, commercial publishers, magazines, newspapers, and as a self-publisher. Among her works is Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio (Penguin Random House), and the graphic novel La Perdida (Penguin Random House, winner of the 2002 “Best New Series” Harvey Award). She has been teaching at the university level for 25 years and is currently chair of the Illustration Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Her work has been reviewed and quoted in The Guardian, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, and, even better, in hundreds of personal blogs and Instagram stories by people who’ve utilized her work to take control of their creative lives.

 

 

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Philly Comics Now: The Art of Graphic Storytelling will be on display October 12, 2024 – December 15, 2024 at Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel University

Curated by Partners and Son (Tom Marquet and Gina Dawson) in conjunction with Pearlstein Gallery (Mark Stockton).

Pearlstein Gallery is thrilled to announce Philly Comics Now: The Art of Graphic Storytelling which will transform the gallery in October. This epic exhibition features over sixty contemporary Philadelphia-based artists exploring the diverse possibilities of independent comics. Large-scale prints, a black-light room installation, a monstrous reading room, and multiple newly conceived, collaborative print projects will be shown in conjunction with the tools and materials of comics, including thumbnails, hand-drawn sketches, and artist notes. Curated in conjunction with Partners and Son (Tom Marquet and Gina Dawson) and focused around creative workshops by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, Philly Comics Now unleashes the incredible underground energy of comics into the cavernous Pearlstein Gallery.

Set against freshly conceived works, archival materials will highlight Philadelphia’s depth and breadth of alternative comic history. During the course of the exhibition, a portion of the gallery will metamorphose into a wild and colorful, interactive reading room with an immersive installation by Soso Capaldi.

Additional special projects are created in collaboration with local printers including:
A trippy black light installation featuring Rodger Binyone, Anuj Shrestha, Pat Aulisio and Ian Harker
A nested exhibition of Charles Burns’s speculative Kommix covers
A wall installation of Lale Westvind’s wordless publication GRIP

• A mural of Meghan Turbitt’s illustrated Overheard at 30th Street Station
• A selection of horror-inspired prints by Tia Roxae

 

 

The Rankin Scholar-in-Residence Series, named in honor of former Dean Marjorie Rankin and established through the continuing donations of her friends and colleagues, seeks to bring noted individuals to campus who excel in the multidisciplinary education championed by the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. The goal of the Series is to inspire students, stimulate research, invigorate professional networks, and aid in the continuing development of the Drexel community.