Graphic artist Bri Hermanson graduated in May 2005, but she already has some impressive credits on her résumé. During the 2004 spring semester, Hermanson interned at Universal Limited Art Editions, a fine art print facility on Long Island, N.Y., under the mentorship of OSU alumnus Bill Goldston, master printer and president of ULAE. Goldston has provided the art department a semester-long internship with his firm since 1987. “It was an incredible opportunity,” Hermanson says. “I lived in the house where the business started and was surrounded by amazing art. I worked with established artists and attended openings. I spoke to people I’d read about in art history and saw how high-end art is created and produced. The experience gave me more selfconfidence and influenced my art. “The company paid for everything — a place to live, food, even train fare if I wanted to go to Manhattan.” Along with the ULAE experience, Hermanson took the opportunity to look at graduate schools. “The internship led to future plans,” she says. This year Hermanson won a certificate of merit in the annual competition of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles for two pieces, one of her tarot cards and Fried Piper. The Tulsa Art Directors Club awarded her the best of student illustration, and she won best of category in the Dallas Society of Visual Communicators National Show with her tarot cards, titled My Major Arcana: An Experiment in Social Tarotism, and Reflecting on Picasso (shown on this page). She can also add to her résumé working as a graphic designer for Eskimo Joe’s, where she was employed this past summer. Hermanson didn’t begin college as an artist. “I came alive in college. That’s where it all started. I didn’t think I could draw until I met Mark Sisson. Working with faculty can bring out things in you that you didn’t know were there,” she says, naming faculty member Carey Hissy as another influential figure. Hermanson’s future plans include earning a master’s in illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and then working as a freelance illustrator. “A lot of illustration is commercial, soulless, with no life behind it. But it can be so much more. It can be art. It’s not just a craft for me,” she says. “I try to connect personally to get the audience to connect.” For instance, the illustrations on her tarot cards reflect her beliefs and values, she says. “My boyfriend posed for Spring of the Soul (cover art), and I used photos taken behind the Subway. These connect to me, to my experiences. And Picasso connects directly to my work, the abstracting. How he viewed his art and himself in it is how I view myself in my art — reflection reflecting reflection.” Eileen Mustain Connection A Personal
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