Artist David Suter | Suterisms

American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era, is coming to the University of Northern Iowa. The artist's two-day visit will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

After working as a courtroom artist during the Watergate indictments, Suter went on to become a prominent OpEd and book review illustrator for the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine, Harper's, The Atlantic, The Progressive, and other major publications. His distinctive drawings at the time were comprised of puzzle-like political images that were in part inspired by the work of M.C. Escher. His selected drawings were later published as a book titled Suterisms (see cover above).

Suterisms have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Although he still makes drawings, in recent years Suter has turned primarily to painting and sculpture, and currently exhibits his work in art galleries. While on the UNI campus on Tuesday, he will informally talk to students and faculty about his working process, the evolution of his career and related subjects.

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters by UNI graphic design students that commemorate his work. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

David Suter Poster | Jordan Goldbeck 2016

Drawing © David Suter / Poster by Jordan Goldbeck 2016

Above Poster designed by Jordan Goldbeck (graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa), commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era.

A two-day visit by the artist will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrate his drawings. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

David Suter Poster | Ellen Holt 2016

Drawing © David Suter / Poster by Ellen Holt 2016

Above Poster designed by Ellen Holt (graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa), commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era.

A two-day visit by the artist will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrate his drawings. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

David Suter Poster | Chris Hall 2016

Drawing © David Suter / Poster by Chris Hall 2016

Above Poster designed by Chris Hall (graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa), commemorating the work of American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era.

A two-day visit by the artist will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Suter's editorial illustrations have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters (including the one shown here) by UNI graphic design students that celebrate his drawings. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

Artist David Suter | Hearst Lectures 2016-17

Image © David Suter / Poster by Allison Rolinger

Above Poster designed by Allison Rolinger, graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa, advertising the first event in this year's Meryl Hearst Lecture Series.

Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, this year's series (with the theme DOUBLED OVER: Wit and Irony in Art and Design) will begin with a public presentation by American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era. His presentation, titled "Studies in Form," will take place at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111).

The series is free and open to the public.

David Suter | OpEd Artist Coming Soon to UNI

Above American artist David Suter, whose editorial-page illustrations were widely acclaimed during the Watergate Era, is coming to the University of Northern Iowa. The artist's two-day visit will begin with a presentation titled "Studies in Form" at 7 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2016 in the Kamerick Art Building Auditorium (Room 111). Sponsored by the UNI Department of Art, the event is part of the Meryl Norton Hearst Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

After working as a courtroom artist during the Watergate indictments, Suter went on to become a prominent OpEd and book review illustrator for the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine, Harper's, The Atlantic, The Progressive, and other major publications. His distinctive drawings at the time were comprised of puzzle-like political images that were in part inspired by the work of M.C. Escher. His selected drawings were later published as a book titled Suterisms.

Suterisms have been described as "puzzles and mindbogglers, tricks of the subconscious, and foolers of the eye." Some people call them visual puns or metaphors, but the artist prefers "to think of them as equations…It's a little like algebra. I try to combine two images through a process of finding similarities and canceling out dissimilar aspects."

Although he still makes drawings, in recent years Suter has turned primarily to painting and sculpture, and currently exhibits his work in art galleries. While on the UNI campus on Tuesday, he will informally talk to students and faculty about his working process, the evolution of his career and related subjects.

Concurrent with David Suter's campus visit, there will be exhibits of his OpEd drawings and of a series of posters by UNI graphic design students that commemorate his work. These exhibits will be on view from October 17 through 29 in the Kamerick Art Building (ground floor south) during regular building hours.

Frank Lloyd Wright at Cedar Rock | Fall 2016

Poster designed by Danielle Shearer

Above Poster announcing this year's program for AN AFTERNOON WITH FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, to take place at 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 15, 2016, at American Legion Hall, 102 Water Street, Quasqueton IA.

Organized annually by the Friends of Cedar Rock and supported by a generous grant from Humanities Iowa, the program for this year's event includes Child of the Sun: Great American Campus, presented by Mark Tlachc, Director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor's Center, Florida Southern College, Lakeland FL; and Frank Lloyd Wright and Kenneth Laurent: One Man's Vision to Better Another Man's Life, presented by Jerry Heinzeroth, President, Laurent House Foundation, Rockford IL.

For reservations, contact Cedar Rock State Park at (319) 934-3572 or email cedar_rock@dnr.iowa.gov. Suggested donation is $10.00 per person.

See also: Roy R. Behrens, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT and Mason City: Architectural Heart of the Prairie (2016).

Lytton Strachey's Strange Falsetto Squeak

Photograph c2015 © Joseph Podlesnik

Above Photograph by Joseph Podlesnik. When I first met him in the early 1980s, Joe was completing his BFA in painting and drawing, with a minor in English, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His foremost achievement then was the adroitness of his vision-based drawing skills, and to great extent it continues to be, although he has since branched out to film-making, teaching—and, as this phenomenal image confirms, to drive-by photography. At much as it may appear to be, this is not the product of layered manipulation in Adobe Photoshop. This is an on-site camera shot. A second photograph is below. And a book of his photographs, titled Almost Seeing, can also be previewed and purchased online.

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Leonard Woolf [British writer, husband of Virginia Woolf] in Sowing: An Autobiography of the Years 1880 to 1904. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1960, p. 133—

[Describing the mannerisms of British Bloomsbury writer Lytton Stratchey] His body was long, thin, and rather ungainly; all his movements, including his walk, were slow and slightly hesitant…When he sat in a chair, he appeared to have tied his body, and particularly his legs, into what I always called a Strachean knot. There was a Strachean voice, common to him and to all his nine brothers and sisters…It was mainly derived, I think, from the mother and consisted in an unusual stress accent, heavy emphasis on words here and there in a sentence, combined with an unusual tonic accent, so that emphasis and pitch continually changed, often in a kind of syncopated rhythm. It was extremely catching, and most people who saw much of Lytton acquired the Strachey voice and never completely lost it. Lytton himself added another peculiarity to the family cadence. Normally his voice was low and fairly deep, but every now and again it went up into a falsetto, almost a squeak.

Strachey's strange falsetto squeak was also famously described by British writer Robert Graves in Goodbye to All That, Garden City NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1957—

[During World War I] Lytton Strachey was unfit, but instead of allowing himself to be rejected by the doctors he preferred to appear before a military tribunal as a conscientious objector. He told us of the extraordinary impression that was caused by an air cushion which he inflated during the proceedings as a protest again the hardness of the benches. Asked by the chairman the usual question: "I understand, Mr. Strachey, that you have a conscientious objection to war?" he replied (in his curious falsetto voice), "Oh no, not at all, only to this war." Better than this was his reply to the chairman's other stock question, which had previously never failed to embarrass the claimant: "Tell me, Mr. Strachey, what would you do if you saw a German soldier trying to violate your sister?" With an air of noble virtue: "I would try to get between them."

Photograph c2015 © Joseph Podlesnik