Light Grey Iceland Residency 2016 : TEAM ICE
July 29 - August 3, 2016.
The Light Grey Residency Program: Team Ice included a diverse group of concept artists, book illustrators, printmakers, producers, and animators from different areas of the globe. The TEAM ICE residents hail from the United States, Canada, Spain, and Italy. Throughout the program, the artists traveled through Southern Iceland and visited some of the most secluded, wild, and sublime locations. Our day excursions included hikes near creaking glaciers, hidden waterfalls, haunted hillsides, sleeping volcanoes, and more. Equipped with our sketchbooks, cameras, and hiking gear, we set out on an adventure of a lifetime to explore, document, collaborate.
Read more about one of our three 2016 artists in residence teams below.
TEAM ICE: Ana Seixas, Carrie Liao, Erin McPhee, Esther Lara, Evan Monteiro, Francesco Bongiorni, Jedd Chevrier, Kim Ku, Marisa Seguin, Megan Nicole Dong, Simon Chetrit, and Stu Livingston.
Carrie Liao
Carrie really loves eating, traveling, and drawing--and hopes to one day find some sort of magical career where she'll be paid to do all three. Currently she works as a storyboard artist at Paramount Feature Animation, which is also pretty darn swell. She has also worked for Nickelodeon and Disney Television Animation. She resides in sunny Los Angeles, CA, with a perpetually hungry cat roommate.
Erin McPhee
Erin McPhee is a freelance illustrator and designer based in Toronto, Canada. Erin graduated with honours from Sheridan College in 2012 with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Illustration. She enjoys working in a multidisciplinary fashion, and has previously worked as a Print & Packaging Designer for Roots Canada, and as a Contributing Designer for Today’s Parent Magazine. She is currently the Art Director of Canadian literary magazine, Quill & Quire. She is also the Web Art Director for shamelessmag.com, the online branch of Shameless Magazine; an independent publication which publishes intersectional feminist content for smart and sassy youth.
Esther Lara
Esther Lara is an illustrator and print designer born in Murcia (Spain) in 1988, who settled in Barcelona after she graduated in Illustration at Escola Massana in 2012. She spends most of her time working for ready-to-wear fashion print collections, and also developing personal projects of illustration and textile goods, such as Nenäliina scarves and Furoshiki’s clothes, in which she is currently working on. She mainly finds her inspiration in nature and in the little things that make life special.
Marisa Seguin
Marisa Seguin was born and raised in Vancouver, BC and now resides in Milwaukee, WI where she works as a home product designer by day and an illustrator by night. She enjoys traveling to places both near and far and is always excited to experience new places and cultures in the world. Past clients include The San Francisco Chronicle, Galison Mudpuppy, USA Today, International New York Times, and Sephora. When she is not drawing, she can often be found reading, baking, and unsuccessfully trying to complete crossword puzzles.
Francesco Bongiorni
Francesco Bongiorni creates impactful and conceptual images, interpreting and synthesizing complex ideas in an original way. Francesco produces strong and sophisticated illustrations, conveying a clear and direct message to the viewer.
He speaks and works in three languages (Italian, English and Spanish) and splits his time between Milan, Madrid and London. His illustrations have been included in the following annuals: Society of Illustrators Annual, Creative Quarterly, Communication Arts annual.
PARTIAL CLIENT LIST: The New York Times, The NewYorker, The Guardian, Washington Post, Scientific American, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Harvard Business Review, The George Washington University, Yale University, Penn University; Princeton University, The Royal Academy of Arts, Ac Milan, Lancôme, Nautilus, Penguin Random House, Plansponsor, Le Monde
Ana Seixas
Born in 1984 in Viseu, a small town in Portugal. Graduated in Design in 2007 and moved to Barcelona in 2008. While in Barcelona and working as a freelancer graphic designer for magazines, small businesses and art galleries, she co-owned a studio space/gallery/shop in the heart of the city from 2010 to 2012. Then she realised that promoting others creative work wasn't as amusing as creating her how, and then she decided to take her drawing skills seriously.
Studied Editorial Design in Bau in 2009, and attended the Specialisation Course in Illustration for Children's and Teenagers' Publications - Eina, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in 2013. In 2014, her first book (a silent book) was published in Spain, by Apila Ediciones after receiving an honorable mention in the Mexican book contest "A La Orilla del viento 2013" The book tittle is "Run Run" and it features quirky characters running from one page to another.
Now based in Oporto, Portugal, Ana shares a co-working studio in the city center - Cru - where manages a small screen-printing studio with her sister and teaches Silkscreen Workshops. She is also the co-owner of Nenäliina, a brand of Illustrated Silk Scarves, among with Esther Lara. She has worked as a freelance graphic designer for several companies, art galleries and magazines and now dedicates most of her time to screen-printing and illustration.
Represented worldwide by the British Illustration Agency New Division, Ana takes on illustration commissions from several international clients, from publishers, magazines and advertisement agencies.
Kim Ku
Kim Ku is a designer-illustrator-printmaker born and raised in Queens, New York. She received her BA in Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and has since spent her time as a product designer at tech and publishing companies. Her passionate side hustle is making unique screenprinted books which have found homes in Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Brooklyn Museum, and various private collections.
Megan Nicole Dong
Megan Nicole Dong is a Southern-California based marine biology enthusiast, cartoonist, and storyboard artist. She has worked for both feature film and television animation, at DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, and Titmouse Inc. She also does comics for the web (under the name "sketchshark"), and her work has been featured by online news sites such as The Independent, Boing Boing, and Mic.
Stu Livingston
Stu Livingston is a cartoonist and storyboard artist based in Los Angeles. Hailing originally from the islands of American Samoa, he is always up for adventure! His comics have been featured in the Flight and Explorer anthologies, as well as in his self-published works The Table and the Spam Eggs & Rice series. He currently storyboards on Cartoon Network's Clarence, where he spends most of his time, with past credits on shows including Futurama and Steven Universe. A budding Dungeon Master, he loves all forms of storytelling. He has also taught life drawing at Calarts and the Concept Design Academy.
Evan Monteiro
Evan Monteiro is an illustrator based out of Los Angeles that currently works for Riot Games as a Splash Artist. Also really in to making fan art and painting miniatures for his Pathfinder campaign.
Jedd Chevrier
Jedd Chevrier is an American born illustrator and concept designer working in the entertainment industry. After receiving a BA in Illustration, from College for Creative Studies, Jedd has gone on to work on a wide range of entertainment mediums including games, advertising, film, television and print. He currently resides in Seattle, Wa where he works as a Lead Concept Artist for Microsoft Studios.