ILLUSTRATION & GRAPHIC DESIGN BLOG: Karen Justl

BIO: Karen Justl is an illustrator and graphic designer. She holds an MDes (Masters of Design) from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto, Ontario. She is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba where she received her BFA Honors in Painting at The University of Manitoba. She is also an interdisciplinary visual artist researching caricature, facial expression, body language, illustration techniques and Freud's theories of slapstick humour & the uncanny. Her illustrations have been published across Canada in Applied Arts, subTerrain Magazine, Chesterfield, Kiss Machine, Herizons MB, Pilot Project and Crow's Toes. She teaches in the Digital Lab at the Toronto School of Art and in Continuing Studies at OCAD University.

karenjustl.ca



Karen Justl and The Ontario College of Art and Design
present
The Dolls in The Playground

a Masters Thesis Exhibition at Launch Projects Gallery, 404 Adelaide St West
June 10 – 13, 2010,
Opening Reception: June 11th, 7pm to 10pm


Rainer Maria Rilke laments that the one's fusion with the doll is a barren union that promises everything and delivers nothing,“dragged as companions into cots, abducted into the deep furrows of illnesses, appearing in dreams, entangled in the disasters of feverish nights -such is the nature of dolls”.


In my thesis exhibition of The Dolls in The Playground, the psychology of disruptive emotions, contemporary Gothic and, a Freudian uncanny is used to frustrate the man-made figure. Its proponents are a band of outsiders celebrating depression and antagonism. It is a grotesquery that greets one with a disembodied hand, a pail of hot oil suspended over the entranceway, the sound of laughing from behind the wall or under the floorboards, or an unmoving small menacing figure in a labcoat with a hatchet or scalpel.





The fusiform face area (FFA)  is a part of the human visual system  
which might be specialized for facial recognition, although there is some evidence 
that it also processes categorical information about other objects, 
particularly familiar ones.

here are some new images of a face and a house (found object)
please click this link for web-site   of my process photographs

The Monstrous One
a collaboration 
Alexei Vella | Karen Justl
OCAD Graduate Gallery
2010

to view more images: please click this link
some past work
click link

The Five Temperaments
New Work

puppet puppeteer
click image to go to animation
Doll_head | 3d scanned image
the plan for this scan is to create large 
facial expressions on molds of this face 
constructed in the fabrication lab at OCAD


I am also collaborating with Alexei Vella on a sculpture called, "The Vessel"
our process photos are here: click link
We will replace the papier machier face with a plaster cast of this Doll_head
Here are more process photographs: click link





New Work
process photographs, click link
1. skinheads and girlgang














New Work
process photographs, click link
2. the dolls in the playground



click the text to go to the link
new animation

introducing
the
grouchy puppet



new animation!
click this link
to see the intro...






Pilot Illustrated Literary Magazine is a Toronto-based periodical with a mandate to print primarily new storytellers, poets, and artists from Canada and beyond. Pilot has an expressly aesthetic approach. Each story and poem is illustrated by professional artists and illustrators. Each volume includes portfolio pieces from our contributors in beautifully rendered black and white.

Pilot is more than just a publisher. It is Pilot's contention that the work of artists and writers improves when supported by a strong community. We feel that you will enjoy the Pilot Portrait Pages, which replaces the traditional bio section with well-crafted written and pictorial portraits.











NEW!
dark gothic fantasy horror dolls and porcelain beings
and their uncanny self-enhancement (braces, unihorn, rhinoplasty) 





handmade dolls
that can't get enough of you












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