Amber Huff
Amber is a Chicago-based graphic designer and illustrator. She has a BFA from Boston University and recently graduated with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her love for storytelling has recently taken the form of comics, writing, and sculpture.
Website:
www.berhuff.com/Residency Period:
Sep 2017–Dec 2017Project Statement:
For my Spudnik Press 2017 Residency, I will create a body of work that combines writing and graphic design with comics, printmaking, and sculpture. This project is largely an extension of works that I began to explore for my MFA Show at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I recently graduated with an MFA in Visual Communication Design. Called Little Tomorrow, my exhibition featured self-contained kits and vignettes that consisted of print-based narrative with video and ceramics. Little Tomorrow featured a strange genesis story of conquest and conflict between creatures of land and sea, a comic about loneliness, and poems about curiosity. This project will work within this universe but with newly generated sculpture, imagery, and writing made during the three-month residency period.The project I propose will be a small (3-5) edition box kit. Consisting of:
(1) Mini-comic/zine(s)
(2) Fold-out print
(3) Ceramics
(4) Large prints, to be displayed on wall
A lot of research and inspiration will be involved, including ethnopoetics, mythology, totems, icons, board games, package design, elements of ritual, and memory. I am well into this process already, so this will not be a large part of my time at Spudnik. The initial third of the residency will be dedicated to generating written content and illustration, thumbnails/storyboards, sketching, and print experiments & exploration. The remaining time will be dedicated to the production of prints and box kits. Non- print material, such as the ceramics that will accompany each narrative, will be created out-of-studio.
In my two years at SAIC I did a little bit of screen printing, but focused more heavily on offset and risograph printing for larger editions of work for events like Chicago Zine Fest and Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. While I will continue to produce work in this way, at Spudnik I am most eager for the chance to return to more traditional forms of printmaking and bookmaking to create editions that are smaller and more precious.