Eastern Market Flower Day, the words can’t describe the spectacle that awaits. One who’d never been could not expect the the enormity, energy & beauty of this event. Mother nature provides the acres of eye candy, the shoppers,vendors & musicians  provide the festival like vibe, a perfect combo for a great time . 

After waking to the sound of rain hitting our bedroom window, we naively assumed we’d find easy parking and light crowds……wrong! It takes more than bad weather to deter flower day attendance. We parked a couple of blocks away, as soon as we hit the shelter of the outdoor sheds the umbrella went down and the shopping began. The mass of men, women, and children walked down the center aisles, the right and left sides a rainbow sea of color, Lilacs and Stargazer lilies perfumed the damp air. Annuals in flats and pots, trees, shrubs and vegetable plants as far as you could see. Vendors bundled up against the elements, drinking something warm and calling out prices. The sound of plastic sliding across the concrete as flats of Impatients and Petunias were loaded up. Smiles on the faces we passed, mini conferences between partners deciding between this or that, wagons piled three or four shelves high, not even pouring rain and 40 degress could dampen the spirit on Russell Street.

We walked the market twice, which was no easy task, and then it was time to warm up and get some food. We had parked on the side of Sala Thai, which is also located on Russell Street, the restaurant occupies an old fire station, and is enchanting inside. This is the very first place we ever had sushi or Thai food, we lucked out because both are delicious here. We have returned many times since and continually enjoy it. They make the best Fresh Rolls I have ever eaten, so we had to order them, Kris is nuts about the sauce they come with. We had the California Roll, a standard, and the N4, sorry, that’s what we know it by. Tender egg noodles, we order ours with tofu, in a spicy brown sauce covered with bean sprouts and crushed peanuts, delectable. I was satisfied with a pot of jasmine green tea, Kris went for the plum wine, each warming us up just right.

The College For Creative Studies was holding their annual student exhibition and sale at the Argonaut Building, so we thought we’d have a look. Floors 8-11 display the work of graduating seniors in each of the College’s ten studio departments.  This is not your average art fair, CCS is one of the top design schools in the country, whether it’s ceramics, fashion, or painting, everything here has an urban feel to it.The work is exceptional, cutting edge, the prices, moderate. We found many things we would have liked to purchase, but they already had little red “sold” stickers on them. It’s worth a visit just to have a look at the caliber of work that comes out of CCS, and the view from the building isn’t half bad either!  The sale continues through May 27.

Check it out !

“Tinkerers” at heart, we were intrigued by the inventions of Dale Dougherty and Make Magazine, and excited that Maker Faire will be coming to our own backyard (The Henry Ford) this summer. Wello grabbed our attention with more than just its name, offering the WaterWheel as an inspiring solution to water transportation challenges throughout the world. Chevrolet wowed us with the inner workings of the new Chevy Volt, while Ford impressed us with its simple yet inspired “ask the audience” customer involvement. IDEA left us with no shortage of inspiration.

Check the links to these ingenious presenters for now, and shortly we’ll let you in on a few of Alpha’s own ideas that arose from the conference.

Southeast from Roof, Michigan Central, 2009, Scott Hocking © Scott Hocking, 2011

Recent photographs of Detroit will be the subject of an exhibition to open October 16, 2011, in the Albert and Peggy De Salle Gallery of Photography at the DIA. Featuring the work of Detroit-based and international artists, Detroit Revealed: Photographs 2000-2010 examines the challenges and dramatic visual transformation that came to characterize the city in the first decade of a new century and millennium that mark the post-industrial era of Detroit. Related programming is in the works and soon to be announced. In addition to photographs, the exhibition will feature video work by Dawoud Bey and Ari Marcopoulos.

Two artists representing a new generation of photography in Detroit -  Scott Hocking and 2009 Kresge fellow Corine Vermeulen – will contribute their vision of the city to Detroit Revealed. The two artists will also take part in upcoming city-wide ART X Detroit events this week – Corine’s photographs will be on view at MOCAD with other Kresge grantees in the ART X Detroit exhibition opening Wednesday, April 6. And Scott recently opened a solo exhibition at Hamtramck’s Public Pool and will join the panel discussion The Art of the Commons: A Discussion About Contemporary Art in Detroit” at an ART X Detroit related event to take place at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) on Friday, April 8 at 6 p.m.

Other goings on around town will prove to be a full slate of art-related events this week including the first ever local conference devoted to creative communities and urban development and renewal in Detroit and elsewhere. Hosted by my alma mater, the College for Creative Studies, the Rust Belt to Artists Belt conference will feature a line up of local and national influential voices on city development and the role of artists. If you are looking to hear a photographer’s perspective, check out Minneapolis-based artist Wing Young Huie who will contribute to the April 7 panel “Proving Ground Experiments in and with the Public Realm, and their relationship to the post-industrial environment.”

ART X Detroit events from April 6-10 feature city wide performances, discussions and exhibitions featuring appearances by recent Kresge Foundation fellows at museums, colleges and other sites around town.  Artists, writers and performers will be on hand to present their work and discuss their relationship to Detroit as an environment for creativity.

Of particular note, and for those interested in photographs of Detroit, is a Saturday, April 9 panel discussion entitled Chronicling a City in Change. Moderator and Team Detroit mogul Toby Barlow will join forces with local photographers and Detroit’s most respected art critic Vince Carducci (I may be partial to Vince knowing he regularly visits photo exhibitions at the DIA with his CCS students!). One notable young photographer Sean Doer will be on hand as well – if you don’t know Sean, his work graces the pages of a recent publication Lost Detroit.

The DIA will get in on the Art X Detroit action this Saturday, April 9, with a full day of events devoted to the pursuits of Kresge fellows. One of many highlights is a program with nationally acclaimed writer Luis Aguilar on Saturday evening when he presents The Troublemakers: The True, Epic Story of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Depression Detroit, with readings, historic images and original music composed and performed by Jessica Hernandez.

Going on as well this Saturday, in what may well be the big photo event of the spring, is the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography (DCCP) exhibition Artists Choice: Photographic Works by Michigan Artists which will open in their new digs at the Russell Industrial Center. DCCP Founding Director Kyohei Abe mentioned the current space is temporary until renovations are complete on another space at the Russell. Kyohei will be present as well at the DIA for the upcoming panel discussion Perspectives on Photography - Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m.

Josh Linkner, CEO of Detroit Ventures Partners and Founder of “ePrize”, is part of the speaker lineup. He says Detroit is at a pivotal point in time.

“I believe that what we need to do is to reconnect to our entrepreneurial roots, reconnect to that creative ability that got us here in the first place. To me that is exactly what this conference is all about….image the possibilities and really transform our region,” says Linkner.

Conference organizers say they want to get the best creative minds in one place to learn how to best use a unique mix of assets and spark economic growth.

“To me what an artist means is somebody who takes risks and imagines the possibilities and tries new things. Whether you are using a brush and canvas or a laptop or whether you are using a spreadsheet, I think we all need to connect with that artist inside of us,” says Linkner.

The conference runs April 6-7 at the College For Creative Studies.

Check out all the details at CBSdetroit.com/events.

This year’s semester-long program — involving 15 senior-level students — focused more on impending government regulations to slash fuel consumption and emissions by 10 to 20 percent. Navistar International’s truck designers also consulted on the project.

“The new government regulations will change the way companies make trucks,” said Mark West, professor and aassistnat chair of MFA transportation design at CCS. “As professionals in the field, we know that it is important that students stay abreast of any new laws. Designers must look at the entire picture when designing a vehicle not just the aesthetics. We are confident that our CCS students are well prepared in this regard.”

West noted that the students’ designs addressed fuel efficiency, sustainability and recycling, and aerodynamic issues. The students also closely considered the vehicle’s life expectancy, hybrid powertrains, integrated solar panels, highway safety, driver comfort and safety, and serviceability.

The multi-phase design program included extensive research, on-site visits with suppliers, and this year, some students were selected to receive scholarships. This year’s first place scholarship winner was Kelly Stieler, followed by second place winner Stephen Rapaski and third place winner Robert Liddell.

Students also developed digital models and physical scale exterior models of their concepts with valuable input from ArvinMeritor, along with engineering designers at Navistar International Corp. The student models that will be built to scale and displayed at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. in mid March are from Stephen Rapaski, Devon Palmer and Austin Fodell.

The collaboration between CCS and ArvinMeritor was established in 1998 with the “Visions of the Future” automotive design competition. The company continues to support educational institutions and programs worldwide with more than 50 percent of its contributions budget.

Said Dave Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative: “This award supports the NEI’s focus on restoring the structures necessary for a robust entrepreneurial eco-system and capitalizes on our region’s existing creative economy assets.”

The grant will support creative sector business services and development programs, including shared business development programs with TechTown, Detroit’s research and technology park. Additionally, the grant will provide funds for a studio build out that will house the DC3’s operations and serve as an open source flexible, gathering and professional development space for Detroit’s creative community.

“This grant will allow us to provide a menu of programs that meet the different needs of the creative businesses we serve,” said Matt Clayson, director of the Detroit Creative Corridor Center. “The new space we build with the grant will allow us to create a café culture for creative businesses where ideas, best practices, and relationships can be developed.”

Added Rick Rogers, president of the College for Creative Studies: “With this initiative, we are helping to ensure a future for the vast creative talent we have here in the Detroit region.”

And Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, said: “The Detroit Creative Corridor Center is an integral part of the ongoing effort to help attract and retain more creative sector businesses and workers, and help change the global image of our region. Growing greater Detroit’s creative economy was one of our six Road to Renaissance initiatives and we’re very pleased with the progress to date.”

Visit http://www.detroitc3.com/ more information.

(c) 2010, WWJ Newsradio 950. All rights reserved.

In the Spring of 2009, I gave a lecture to students at the prestigious College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. I shared with the students some advice about commissions and contracts, marketing and promotion, and spoke to them about what gallery directors look for in artists and their work.

Following are my 5 key tips for aspiring artists:

1. The distinction that you are either a “commercial” artist or a “fine artist” is a thing of the past.  Today, fine artists need to know commerce; commercial artists need to keep their artistic “flame” alive to keep their work up to par. You can achieve any success for which you strive with no limiting “labels.”

2. The art world today is hungry again for aesthetic beauty and for the artist to point the way to the beauty, mystery, and miraculous in life. The world is tired of dead animals in glass boxes, ashtrays full of cigarette butts, and starving dogs tied up to leashes that are all called “art.”

3. Art was the “spearhead” of culture and throughout history a narrative was created, with one generation of artists building upon the last. Now is the time for young artists to pick up the thread of aesthetic beauty that was cast aside by the conceptualists, and re-engage the narrative.

4. Work is the key – your art is not “precious.” It’s all about the hard work, determination and perseverance. There are no shortcuts to excellence. Look at Pablo Picasso, arguably the greatest ever – the amount of work he created is nearly incomprehensible. The Zervos catalogs of Picasso’s paintings and drawings consists of 34 volumes.

5. Know art history. All of the great ones were heavily steeped in the important art that came before them. They sublimated it and then it came through them in their own new incarnation. It’s now the young artists’ responsibility to reach back into time, to bring the history of art into this time, and move it forward.

By Roger Witherspoon

Ed Welburn was the picture of a man who was right where he always wanted to be.

The setting wasn’t spectacular. This was the 2010 New York Auto Show and General Motors, just climbing back from bankruptcy, did not splurge on space or amenities.  But there was Welburn, a quiet Black man whose bald pate was reflecting the overhead spotlights, seated on a plain stool between two of the latest products from his creative palate.

On his left, glistening on a slowly moving turntable, was silver, supercharged, 556-horsepower, Cadillac CTS-V; on his right, the new edition to his growing rolling flock, was a silver CTS-V station wagon.

Which prompted the question: “Ed, why would you make a 150 mile-an-hour station wagon?”

“Because we can,” replied Welburn, grinning. “Besides, does that look like a station wagon to you?”

In fact, the functional station wagon did not look like one at all. The rear was more tapered, the windows were trapezoids under a sloping roof reminiscent of Acura’s crossover, the ZDX, and the front was the aggressive grill of the Cadillac cat.

“Who wouldn’t want one?” asked Welburn.

The question was not really rhetorical. Buses and trains are modes of transportation. Cars are the largest form of utilitarian art most families ever invest in.  It is how a potential buyer feels in or next to a car which closes a sale.  And while news from the various 2010 auto shows was that GM and Chrysler are coming back from the brink and again competing in the marketplace, success will not rest on the existence of small cars, fuel efficient hybrids, the use of quality materials, and the latest electronic gadgets. That technology is widely known and every car company has them.

To sell cars by the millions, GM and Chrysler will need fleets with pizzazz, with flair, with allure, with styles that will bring buyers back into the showrooms saying “wow!” as they reach for their check books.

The future of these two troubled, historic, American automakers now rests largely with the fertile imaginations of two Black artists: the sculptor, Ed Welburn, Vice President for Global Design at GM; and the graphic designer, Ralph Gilles, Vice President for Design at Chrysler LLC.

The two men are cut from different cloths.

Welburn, the 60-year-old Philadelphia native, is a generation removed from Gilles, whose Haitian parents stopped in 1970 in New York to visit relatives and give birth to him on American soil before immigrating to Montreal, Canada where he was raised. Welburn grew up in the era of the 1950s “hogs;” those long cars with huge tail fins whose styling cues came from lumbering, big-winged, Air Force bombers. Not surprisingly, while his wife tools around in the sleek, Saturn Sky roadster – one of Welburn’s favorite designs – Welburn prefers to tool around in his vintage, yellow and black, 1969 Camaro.

Giles, on the other hand, is a product of the 70s and 80s, when stealth jets and sleek, fast, fighters dominated the design cues of transportation artists. While his hand is in all of Chrysler’s cars and trucks, his wheel of choice is a black on black, 640-horsepower, 200 mile per hour, Dodge Viper.

And they are artists with different missions and starting points. General Motors came out of bankruptcy a slimmed-down giant with four successful, ongoing brands – Cadillac, Buick, GMC, and Chevrolet – which Welburn had been developing new cars for. He was most sorry to lose Saturn, a line he had just finished completely redesigning.

“But I understand it fully,” he said. “It is a business, like they said in The Godfather, which is still my favorite all time movie. I’m still proud of those designs.”

At Chrysler, on the other hand, Gilles is starting from scratch with no new cars in the showrooms and in the immediate pipeline. Chrysler ended a stormy relationship with Mercedes by bringing in a new CEO, Robert Nardelli, whose chief qualification was having spent the previous five years running down Home Depot, earning a reputation as one of the nation’s worst chief executives, and walking away with  a $210 million severance. Nardelli cut cars he didn’t like, including the aggressive Dodge Magnum, the signature Dodge Durango and the iconic, retro-styled, PT Cruiser. But he did not green light a new set of winning wheels.

Chrysler, which went bankrupt and become the partner of Italy’s Fiat, is primarily a domestic auto maker. It is the weakest of the three American car companies and, historically, it has concentrated on large sedans and trucks – and area where Gilles made a name for himself. He now wears two hats: president of Dodge cars and vice president of design for all of Chrysler. His mission is to take Fiat’s expertise with developing small, fuel efficient cars, and make those little boxes appealing to American tastes in addition to ensuring that Chrysler’s remaining brands turn out an arresting fleet of high performing, eye catching sedans, SUVs, and trucks.

That requires something of a race against the normal three-year development timeline. Chrysler introduced a new Grand Cherokee in June – characterized chiefly by a remarkably upgraded interior – and hopes to produce modified or new versions of the rest of its line by the end of the year. But it will take more than tinkering with the interior to keep Chrysler in the black.

General Motors is still the world’s largest auto maker and Welburn, as design chief, controls a variety of crayon boxes to meet the world’s disparate motoring tastes. He is the sixth design chief in GM’s history, with his stamp on every vehicle conceived by the more than 1,600 designers at the company’s 11 design studios in eight countries.

“I don’t think what I am doing is the same as what Ralph is doing,” mused Welburn.  “I have a lot of respect for Ralph. But I am dealing with a global design organization dealing with a lot of different cultures. I am in and out of a lot of places I never thought I would be in and out of, and leading teams of people from cultures I never thought I or any one else of African American descent would be leading.

“I’m working with Australians for that market; folks from China or Korea for the Asian market; or Brazil or here in the United States. I don’t dwell on that, but it doesn’t escape me at all that it’s a long way from Philadelphia.”

For a young Ed Welburn, the 1958 Philadelphia International Auto Show was the key to his future. It wasn’t the eight-year-old’s first exposure to the intricacies of cars. His father, Edward, owned and operated an auto body and repair shop in nearby Berwyn, Pa., and young Ed spent hours watching his father working on the cars from the skeletons out.

“The ‘50s were a very car-oriented period,” Welburn said. “And it was a period in which cars had a lot of flair. You could easily identify different brands by their looks. They all have very strong character.

“It was a very exciting auto industry, and I grew up in a family where there were always new cars around.”

But the Auto Show was special. Designs were changing as American society shifted into a mobile culture. The automakers were experimenting with new designs, configurations and bold styles.

“I like a design that has flair,” said Welburn, “that is very expressive and has character that can mean very different things on different types of vehicles. Some designs need to be expressive, and others need to be quiet.

“But they all have to be contemporary. And that is what the big fins on the cars – especially the Cadillacs – were all about. They were built on the new technology of the time.”

His parents encouraged him to read everything he could about car design and by the time he was 11, he said, “it was my dream to be a designer, and I did not think of it as a field in which there were not a lot of African American designers. I just thought of it as a field I was extremely interested in.”

He took the unusual step of writing a letter to General Motors “and I just let them know I was an 11-year-old kid in Berwyn, Pa. , who was interested in auto design and wanted their advice.  What courses should I take in high school and what other preparation would I need to go to a university?”

GM responded with a high school curricula and a list of the competitive colleges they recruited from. Welburn followed their advice and went to Howard University, which allowed him to design his own course of study, specializing in sculpting. He joined GM’s design center in Warren, Mich., in 1972 and began a steady progression upward.  In his early years, the Cutlass Supreme, 1977 Buick Park Avenue, and the Oldsmobile Riviera sprang from his creative pad. Then, in 1985, GM asked him to design a 1,000-horsepower car for the legendary race driver A.J. Foyt to pilot in the Indianapolis 500. His 1987 Aerotech, with Foyt at the wheel, set a world land speed record, averaging 257 miles per hour and topping 300 on the straightaway.

In 2003, GM promoted Welburn to vice president of design, making him the highest ranking black executive in the auto industry. Two years later, the title was expanded to head of global design. In that capacity, if he is not globe-trotting, Welburn is in his office facing the equivalent of a giant video parlor.

“The screen I am looking at,” he explained, “is 18-feet wide. Today, the studio in Brazil is working on a car for their emerging market, and it’s like I’m in the studio with them – but I’m here in Michigan. The guys in our studio in Australia are part of the design review because I asked for their input. Every studio has roughly the same equipment. It is fast moving, full of energy and very creative.”

The participants in these global video design conferences depend on Welburn’s artistic feel for the strengths of his staff. “It really depends on the project,” he said. “I know my people and I know them all around the world. I know that the team in Australia has the emotion I was looking for.

“The team in Brazil is doing a fantastic job. But to give a different perspective, I didn’t want a team that was just like the team in Brazil. The team in the UK, for example, where they are strong, they are really strong with Cadillac – something edgy, something stealth like. They are not the studio I would have gone to for this assignment.”

Welburn sees the world as a global palate, with cultural changes in styles, tastes and textures. Asian artists, trained in intricate brush strokes and shades in jade, provide softer interior design cues for cars than the more brash Australian designers.

“I see the entire world more than anyone else in our organization,” he said. “I was in Korea, China and Australia, and while I enjoyed the time I spent in the studios, I also enjoyed walking the streets, riding the cars, seeing the automotive landscape and seeing how people use and personalize their cars.

In Dubai, the architecture is very edgy on the exterior and very light in color. Inside, it’s a shock when you see all the rich colors; brilliant colors that contrast to the exterior. We need to understand that taste as we sell cars in the Middle East.  In other parts of the world, it may be colorful outside the building but dark and quiet inside.  It is a way of looking at what artistic sense connects with people.”

An example is the critically acclaimed Buick Lacrosse, which was put together by a team from Warren Michigan, taking lead on the exterior, and a team from Shang Hai, China, taking the lead with the interior. The car is a hit in both countries, particularly China.

“The design is much better than what either of those teams would have developed on their own,” said Welburn. “There is an emerging design language coming out of China and it comes from their art, whether it is jade sculpture or cut paper.

“There were a couple of people who switched locations to help the blending process. Through virtual reality, we were looking at each others designs all day, every day, so it was a pretty seamless process.”

The process is far less smooth across town, where Chrysler is working to blend its American staff with those of the new Italian partners. But coming up with eye-catching designs is not a new task for Gilles.

In 2004 Gilles, then head of Daimler Chrysler’s creative Studio #3 was tasked with developing a new breed of cars to distinctly define the company’s major brands. His Jeep Liberty had already proved to be a successful link between Jeep’s comfortable, full sized, Grand Cherokee SUV and its small, off-road, warrior Wrangler.

“Dodge and Chrysler were separating themselves into different types of vehicles, with different customers in mind,” explained Gilles. “Dodge is a mainstream brand with an attitude.

“But Chrysler is more aspirational, more graceful with more high-end products. We’re going to a premium market where the main competitors will be Volvos, Audis and other imports.”

They had scored with the Dodge Magnum, a hot rod with a 340-horsepower Hemi engine masquerading as a family station wagon. They led the track with the 200-mile-an-hour, 500-horsepower Dodge Viper. And they added the Dodge Charger, an updated version of the muscle car of the past.

But it was the Chrysler division where Gilles’ studio needed to shine. Chrysler needed a high end sedan, with a classical look reminiscent of a Bentley, a rear wheel drive like the best from the company’s heyday, and a head turner engineered soundly enough to be parked next to a Jaguar or Mercedes without embarrassment.

The car, said Gilles, “would redefine us as a car company and it would be the kind of car the valets would park out front.”

What they came up with was the Chrysler 300. “That car was a perfect storm of all our ideas,” said Gilles. “That car really resonates.”

And when he sat in the drivers’ seat and stepped on the gas “I was almost in tears driving the car. It felt so right. It’s one thing to make it look good, but the engineers brought it home.”

Critics thought so, too, and Motor Trend Magazine named the Chrysler 300 its 2005 Car of the Year, beating out 24 competitors including Porsche 911, Lotus Elise, and BMW 6. Together, Gilles’ cars led the way in an amazing turnaround for DaimlerChrysler, whose bottom line went from an $806 million loss in 2003 to a $1.3 billion profit in the first nine months of 2004. In all, 2004 was a banner year for the 34-year-old artist from Montreal, Canada’s black community.

And it all began with crayons on a kitchen table.

Gilles was five when his parents took him to visit his Aunt Gisele on Long Island and she watched him drawing.  What differentiated Gilles from kids at that early age was the fact that his drawings were clear and made sense.

“My aunt saw my sketches,” Gilles, recalled, “and she turned to her husband and said ‘Hey Mike! My Nephew can draw! Give him some paper to draw on.”

So he began sketching wherever he went, passing dull moments in school with fanciful drawings of cars and other modes of transport. At 15, Gilles wrote a letter to Chrysler head Lee Iacocca, asking what it would take to become a design artist for the giant car company.

“And wow, they wrote me back,” he said. “I was so impressed. They wrote giving the different names of colleges they hire from, and that was all I needed.  I felt a certain loyalty to Chrysler because they wrote me, and it changed my life.”

Gilles attended the College for Creative Studies  in Detroit, which trained about 40% of Chrysler’s designers, and went to work for the firm after graduating in 1992. Within a decade he had worked his way up to head Studio #3 in Auburn Hills, Michigan, one of the company’s seven design studios. Gilles equates the design studio with a movie lot.

“I direct a studio to draw,” he said. “We get together with the other team members and exchange ideas. It’s like when you make a movie, and you talk about the scenes in the movie before you film the thing.

“It’s like that with cars. No one person designs a car.”

In the short term, Gilles is primarily repackaging the cars in the existing Chrysler fleet. “We are spicing up the Dodge Caravan,” he said so it would not simply be a lower cost version of the Chrysler Town and Country. He is adding 20-inch wheels to the sprightly Dodge Nitro and made 19-inch wheels standard on the muscular Dodge Charger.

But, he acknowledged, this year “We are just playing with cosmetic changes.”

That will change. There will be a new edition of the 2010 Viper “and we will have a replacement for the Durango in the fourth quarter. It is all new and redesigned. It has not a stitch in common with the previous Durango and is a thoroughly modern crossover.”

And his team is working with the Italian design shops to redesign the Fiat 500, a popular small, European car, to meet American tastes later this year.

Chrysler, which skipped the 2010 auto shows, is playing catch-up, which puts extra pressure on Gilles and his artisan crew. “Everyone is confused by our new business model,” he said. “Had it been a normal year, the practice would have been to have had 14 to 16 models at the Detroit Auto Show.

“The products are still coming. The level of work is being done – but we are not pre-showing them like we used to. There will be a much shorter lead time. But we are certain we can keep the excitement.”

Gilles has a track record of producing exciting, crowd-pleasing cars. Chrysler’s future rests on his ability to do it again.

By Roger Witherspoon

When July 1 rolled around and the sales figures for the first half of the year began rolling in, it was obvious that Ford and Earl Lucas were having a good year. Sales of the Taurus, the completely redesigned, full sized, family sedan had more than doubled over the first half of 2009 and tripled over the previous June to a respectable 36,000 units. That meant money for Ford, which earned record profits in the first half of the year, and internal recognition for Lucas, who had risen through the ranks to be the Taurus’ chief designer. That recognition – inside Ford and in the showrooms – meant a lot to a kid from Dallas who grew up toting a sketch pad around. His parents encouraged his fledgling art talent, he said, and so did adults in church and teachers in school. “Every place I went,” he recalled, “folks kept telling me ‘you should keep that up. You should go with it.’ At every major moment, there was someone there to steer me in the right direction. My middle school did not have a great arts program, but I had a great art teacher who steered me to the Arts Magnet.” Lucas graduated from the Arts Magnet with a scholarship from Ford, and entered the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, a primary training ground for automotive designers, where he was classmates with Ralph Gilles, now the vice president for design at Chrysler. Many of the Black students made it through the program with the assistance of  pioneer in the car industry, Sam Meyers. “He used to work at Ford for 25 years,” said Lucas, “and he decided to visit the campus of CCS and introduce himself to the admissions department and asked about minority students. “He took all of us into his basement and gave us supplies which we couldn’t afford, and he would teach us. You could bring him a sketch and he wasn’t always nice about it, but he would work with you and teach you what to really do.  I learned so much from him about how to be prepared and how to excel in this environment.” Upon graduating in 1994, Lucas took his pencils to Lear Jets in Texas for two years, working on interior design. From there, he went to Reese Design, a specialty jet design shop “and what a wonderful job that was” he said. “They designed aircraft interiors for the jets of the Sultan of Brunei. I flew all over the country to see that design through. Money was no object, so if I wanted to propose platinum silverware, we would do it. “It’s a different world designing aircraft interiors for the world’s richest man to designing for a car company known as a value brand.”

But Lucas really wanted to be a car designer and, in 1999, joined Ford, working as the senior interior designer for the 2000 Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition., and then for the 2003 F-150 pickup truck. Ford’s F-series trucks, were, and are, the company’s largest selling vehicle. For the first half of 2010, the F-series trucks sold 240,345 units – more than half of all heavy duty trucks sold in America and the best selling vehicle of any type on the road. From there, Lucas moved on to the interiors of the Ford Edge and its Lincoln counterpart, the MKX, as well as the distinctive Ford Flex SUV (  http://rwshiftinggears.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/09-ford-flex/ ). “The Flex is structured and purposeful,” he said, “and has a different type of aesthetic. But it’s a clean, utilitarian shape.  For the interior we wanted a quiet horizon. When you stepped inside there is calmness, a safe haven.” The work on the Flex earned him a promotion to design manager for the exterior of the new Taurus. The boxy Flex SUV and the sleek Taurus sedan had little in common.   “You take a different approach when you design the Flex and when you design the Taurus,” he explained. “The Flex was practical. It was there when I need to take the kids to soccer practice. “The new Taurus was to be a ‘Me’ sedan – something you look good in if you have the kids or don’t have any kids. It needed expressive styling that comes from thinking of people going out to have a good time, rather than just hauling kids and stuff around.  My wife won’t let me go too fast in it, but with a 365 horsepower engine, it’s as fast as a Mustang GT.” It’s an easy comparison for him to make. At home, he tools around in a Mustang, but uses the Taurus when out with his wife and two children. But he chose to drive the Taurus to a reunion of his class of auto designers at CCS. “I was feeling really good when I got there,” he recalled, laughing. “I’m a designer at Ford and I feel great. I’m in my new Taurus and when I walk on campus people are going to recognize me. “Then Ralph shows up in the all new Ram truck, and he is hauling his black Viper. So I realized I’ve got a little ways to go.”

The last few weeks have been nothing short of A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I know I haven’t posted in awhile, but I’ve got lots to share!

For starters, I officially launched my company, Color Vision!

Check out the cover for my launch party invite.

Meet sisters Simone, Sydney and Sophia.

Color Vision Launch Party Invite Cover- June 2010

Color Vision was born in 2008 as an interior decorating consulting company.  This summer I hosted the official launch event at my home in downtown Detroit to showcase my personal decorating style, highlight Color Vision: The Blog and display my very first art collection, ART by Raynée!

So many of my closest friends came to help celebrate the occasion (despite the mega down pour).  DJ Slo Poke, one of my absolute favorite DJs, spinned all the right classics.  Trust me my area rug took a beating.  I’m pretty sure it was the early 90s mix that did it ; ) Guests also enjoyed a plethora of tasty cheeses and carefully selected wines.  It truly was a fun and celebratory evening.

Karriem Riggins (Musician, Producer), Me, Dwele (Singer, Songwriter), Crystal Black Davis (Author) Picture courtesy of Mister Thrasher

Me & Publicist Extraordinaire, Trina Morris of Style Root

Two days later, I had the pleasure of serving as the Metro Detroit Ambassador for the Shaken & Stirred Book Tour!  Fellow Hoosier, Crystal Black Davis, captured the audience as she read from her spicy novel and engaged the group in stimulating dialogue centered around themes from the book.

Which character are you most like?  Treat yourself to this fun summer read and find out.  Click here to purchase:http://www.shakenandstirredbook.com/

ART by Raynée, in the background, was up for auction to support a local charity.

Crystal Black Davis, Author of Shaken & Stirred @ Crave Lounge, Dearborn, MI

And as if all that weren’t enough, I was fortunate enough to show my collection publicly for the first (of what I hope will be many =) time at the “Eve of Eyes” event at the College for Creative Studies.  I couldn’t believe it!  I bumped into a friend at the Shaken & Stirred book reading that just so happened to be coordinating the “Eve of Eyes” event and asked me if I was interested in showing my collection.  “Heck Yeah!” I replied.  I was one of two artists featured.

Not bad for my first week as an artist ; )

Me @ "Eve of Eyes" College for Creative Studies, Detroit, June 2010 Picture courtesy of Metromix

“Eve of Eyes” event at College for Creative Studies, Detroit, June 2010

The last few weeks have been nothing short of A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I know I haven’t posted in awhile, but I’ve got lots to share!

For starters, I officially launched my company, Color Vision!

Check out the cover for my launch party invite.

Meet sisters Simone, Sydney and Sophia.

Color Vision Launch Party Invite Cover- June 2010

Color Vision was born in 2008 as an interior decorating consulting company.  This summer I hosted the official launch event at my home in downtown Detroit to showcase my personal decorating style, highlight Color Vision: The Blog and display my very first art collection, ART by Raynée!

So many of my closest friends came to help celebrate the occasion (despite the mega down pour).  DJ Slo Poke, one of my absolute favorite DJs, spinned all the right classics.  Trust me my area rug took a beating.  I’m pretty sure it was the early 90s mix that did it ; ) Guests also enjoyed a plethora of tasty cheeses and carefully selected wines.  It truly was a fun and celebratory evening.

Karriem Riggins (Musician, Producer), Me, Dwele (Singer, Songwriter), Crystal Black Davis (Author) Picture courtesy of Mister Thrasher

Me & Publicist Extraordinaire, Trina Morris of Style Root

Two days later, I had the pleasure of serving as the Metro Detroit Ambassador for the Shaken & Stirred Book Tour!  Fellow Hoosier, Crystal Black Davis, captured the audience as she read from her spicy novel and engaged the group in stimulating dialogue centered around themes from the book.

Which character are you most like?  Treat yourself to this fun summer read and find out.  Click here to purchase:http://www.shakenandstirredbook.com/

ART by Raynée, in the background, was up for auction to support a local charity.

Crystal Black Davis, Author of Shaken & Stirred @ Crave Lounge, Dearborn, MI

And as if all that weren’t enough, I was fortunate enough to show my collection publicly for the first (of what I hope will be many =) time at the “Eve of Eyes” event at the College for Creative Studies.  I couldn’t believe it!  I bumped into a friend at the Shaken & Stirred book reading that just so happened to be coordinating the “Eve of Eyes” event and asked me if I was interested in showing my collection.  “Heck Yeah!” I replied.  I was one of two artists featured.

Not bad for my first week as an artist ; )

Me @ "Eve of Eyes" College for Creative Studies, Detroit, June 2010 Picture courtesy of Metromix

“Eve of Eyes” event at College for Creative Studies, Detroit, June 2010

Artwork purchased benefits the Alumni Scholarship Fund, giving current students scholarship opportunities on a merit basis.

Darcel Deneau - "Me and Rachel" - 2009, Oil on canvas - NFS

Annica Leah Cuppetelli - "Halter" 2007, Polyester, nylon, fishing weights - $1500

Lisa Poszywak - "Julia and Amanda at Congee Village", 2009 oil on canvas - $2500

Haewon Yoo - "Communication", Pen, Thread, Rubber print - $250

Thomas Pyrzewski - "Big Murph", 2009, mixed media - $1800

Gregory Simons - "Nesting Chabu", 2009, reclaimed plywood waste, casein, lacquer, paste wax - $750

More info:

Ms. Nicole Jarecz, Fashion Illustrator

NIF: Why fashion?

NJ: I love fashion because it keeps me motivated to be a better artist. There is always so many new things to discover. It influences my illustration work and just makes me excited to work as an illustrator and designer with all of the endless possibilities it offers.

NIF: When/how did you first realize you had a passion for fashion? How did you get into illustration specifically?

NJ: I became interested in fashion in high school when I started to read a few fashion magazines. I found the photography very interesting as well as how fashion was shown as an artform. At first when I applied to college I wanted to be in Advertising Design. One of my teachers in high school who also taught at my college told me I would be a perfect fit in Illustration. After taking a look at the student work, it really inspired me to become an illustrator as well…so that’s how I ended up in Illustration…and I love it!

NIF: What is your favorite element of the fashion industry? (ex: product, designer, career, store…)

NJ: I am very interested in the design aspect of fashion. I love to see the process of start to finish of a garment from the developmental stage to the physical design on the model.

NIF: What is your proudest accomplishment thus far in your life?

NJ: There isn’t one specific thing that stands out to me. But, I’m starting to feel like my work is finally coming together after four long years of college and I feel accomplished about that.

NIF: What are the top 3 reasons you chose to attend this school and would you recommend this school to someone looking to eventually work in the fashion industry?

Click Here to Read More about Nicole’s Fashion Experience at CCS!

Kennedy was a UW-Madison graduate.  From 1997-2007, he served as editor-in-chief at King Features Syndicate .  He was also respected as a prominent comics editor and historian for many years.  He died in 2007.  That same year, King Features Syndicate committed $100,000 to establish an endowed scholarship fund in his honor.

A panel of top cartoonists will judge the students’ artwork and an award will be given to the best college cartoonist.  The recipient will be feted at the NS Reuben Awards Convention, which is attended by many of the world’s leading cartoonists.  The Convention takes place May 28-30, 2010 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Last year, Chris Houghton, a Junior at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit earned top honors, receiving the award, its $5,000 scholarship, and a trip to the Reuben Awards Convention.

For more information, including an application form, click here to be directed to the National Cartoonists Society Website.  Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards Convention attended by many of the world’s leading cartoonists.

Then my friend Mike Glendinning asked if I’d design his new CD packaging.  We went over ideas, and he wanted to see a variety of artwork I had made in the past.  So I sent him to some examples of my artwork and of all the pieces he saw there and on a couple other sites, he picked the same piece my friend John had asked for.  This was so odd, that in this short time period, two people were interested in the same print that I made 13 years ago.  So as I finished designing Mike’s CD packaging, my friend John finally announced what he had done with my print.  He got it tattooed full size on his arm!  Amazing…….

Yet another example that you can’t control the outcome of your actions.  You can only put forth the effort and have an idea of the intention.  Below is the original print, then the tattoo photos, and finally the CD packaging.

Then my friend Mike Glendinning asked if I’d design his new CD packaging.  We went over ideas, and he wanted to see a variety of artwork I had made in the past.  So I sent him to some examples of my artwork and of all the pieces he saw there and on a couple other sites, he picked the same piece my friend John had asked for.  This was so odd, that in this short time period, two people were interested in the same print that I made 13 years ago.  So as I finished designing Mike’s CD packaging, my friend John finally announced what he had done with my print.  He got it tattooed full size on his arm!  Amazing…….

Yet another example that you can’t control the outcome of your actions.  You can only put forth the effort and have an idea of the intention.  Below is the original print, then the tattoo photos, and finally the CD packaging.

These pieces below are fairly large:

These are standard size wall tiles:

Student Exhibition Opening

Work by Kyohei Abe

My name is Kyohei Abe. I grew up in Nagoya City, Japan, but have lived in the U.S for the past 13 years. Taking hints from artists like Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell, I found that I enjoyed toying with the atmosphere in my images, juxtaposing unmatched objects and concepts in building the environments of constructed still-lives. I’m energized and inspired by many different photographers,… I see art-making as an intriguing, satisfying mental process.