I love pictures that seem familiar while also seeming completely new; art that speaks in a recognizable language but uses bold, inventive vocabulary words and beautiful turns of phrase. The illustrator's art of re-invention is not unlike Dr. Frankenstein's art of re-animation: the best parts from different wholes are stitched together into a subversive, persuasive, powerful creation (the difference is, of course, the artist toils for good, not evil). The illustrator knows that when it comes to imagery, familiarity does not breed contempt; rather it stirs an attraction in the viewer to look and see more closely, to linger in contemplation.

Illustration and Cartooning are two art forms where quick thinking and problem solving are as important as form and line. Practitioners must be capable of cross-referencing multiple cultural pictorial sources at a moment's notice, then fashion them into memorable images that sear a place in all our brains. Clear content is most often the goal, be it monstrous or benign, deeply personal or scathingly satiric. Leave the obfuscation to those other art forms, more suitably stored in the white-box warehouse gallery and the kunsthalle. Here are some pictures that speak clearly!

This publication celebrates the best work created by the class of 2007 in Illustration and Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts. It was a wonderful group of immensely talented young artists. I would like to thank those who helped me in the selection process: Steve Brodner, Sal Catalano, Gregory Crane, Michael Flanagan, Frances Jetter, Phil Jimenez, Marvin Mattelson, Keith Mayerson, Tim Mensching, and Gary Panter. We also thank President David Rhodes for his vision and support of this ongoing document of our students' achievements.

Thomas Woodruff
Chair, BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department, 2007