Illustration: Marshall Arisman

Marshall Arisman’s paintings and drawings have been widely exhibited both internationally and nationally, and his work may be seen in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in many private and corporate collections. Chairman of the M.F.A. degree program at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Arisman was the first American invited to exhibit in mainland China, and he is the subject of Tony Silver’s full-length documentary Facing the Audience, The Arts of Marshall Arisman.
Arisman has written and illustrated a new children’s book The Cat Who Invented Bebop (Publishing date Spring 2008). His previous children’s book The Wolf Who Loved Music was published in 2004. He is the co-author of three books with Steven Heller including The Education of An Illustrator, Inside the Business of Illustration, and Teaching Illustration (Allworth Press). They are currently working on a fourth book entitled "The Future of Illustration".

NIGHT WATCHMAN HAD THE PRIVILEGE TO TALK SHOP WITH THE LEGEND THAT IS MARSHALL ARISMAN. (sep 2005)

NW: Yeah. It also helps because there is never much information available about illustrators, as far as interviews and things like that, unless you can find something in an illustration or design trade magazine. It’s a shame. There seems to be a real stigma against illustrators, as far as whether or not they are "real" artists. And yet you have been able to straddle the worlds of illustration and fine arts. Do you see a difference between the two?

MA: Not in outcome, meaning that a bad painting on a printed page is equally bad on a gallery wall. I think the illusion for most people who don’t know what illustration is, is that they think it is highly directed by an art director who tells you what to do. And my experience in illustration has not been that at all. Art directors, in essence, call me for what I do. So I see publishing as they are trying to use me, and I am trying to use them. I’m trying to take what I do and get it into print, and it doesn’t seem to me that the printed page itself is a bastardization of the art process. But that dilemma is an old fight, and it’s not over. It’s just a misinformed perception of something; particularly the fine art world, in terms of what that is and how it operates. The art direction I get is primarily emotional. They send me an article, it’s about cancer, and basically say to me, "We don’t know how you illustrate this." (laughs) "Our hope is that there would be some feeling in this." And that’s the kind of art direction I get. No one has ever asked me to put a suit on anybody or put anybody behind a desk or anything. read more...