A short lived but fascinating exploration of the world of printmaking. These illustrations reveal my exploration of the ethereal quality of trace monoprint portraiture. Subjects include a professor of ceramics at the University of Michigan, a model photographed by Max Collins of the University of Michigan, and my younger sister Olivia.

During my four years at the University of Michigan I worked on three publications. The Michigan Daily, Consider Magazine, and the Gargoyle. For Consider I was active on the art staff -- brainstorming ways to highlight the weeks content and harness an audience. The Gargoyle gave me free reign to explore ways to draw in viewers -- and I used the opportunity to push the boundaries of an 'expected' publication cover.
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The following are a sampling of covers completed over three years.

My second project for Howland Research, published through the Triple Anvil Press, is a series of illustrations of Winston Churchill. The publication is an essay on the history surrounding an important letter written by Churchill. The essay is by Richard Marsh, a retired attorney and president of the Winston Churchill Society of Michigan. The publication, including a facsimile of the letter, is scheduled to be in print mid year 2012.

The official letter from the Illustrator published along with the drawings:

Illustrating Winston Churchill for Richard Marsh’s essay on this important letter pertaining to Churchill, Pierre Flandin, and Ralph Wigramis an honor and an inspiration in three ways.

The library where the author’s Churchill books, letters, and documents are preserved is a remarkable space. Its creation occupied six months of the professional life of a cabinet maker, fabricating, fitting, and finishing each piece of alder wood. The second inspiration is the books in that library, most of them significant association copies, and the variety of Churchill letters and documents,several formerly in the collection of Malcolm Forbes. And, if one needed a third inspiration, it would be the enthusiasm of the author himself, his encyclopedic knowledge of thirteen generations of Churchill family history, and his generosity in sharing the history of artifacts in the collection, including the letter that is the subject of this essay.

Before rendering the final illustration, based on the iconic scene of Churchill and Brendan Bracken standing amidst the rubble of the bombed House of Commons, I read March’s essay. As the essay reveals, when Adolph Hitler entered the Rhineland in 1936,Churchill was one of the few individuals who foresaw the consequence of not challenging Hitler at the only point in time when Hitler could have been defeated without the horrific cost that was eventually paid.

As you read the essay and contemplate the details of all the illustrations but the last, I hope you will share my sense of inspiration. As you encounter the rendering of the final illustration, I hope you will share my sense that the entire terrible war might well have been avoided.

Ann Arbor RoseJaffe
July 2011


***The third illustration is a drawing is inspired from a GETTY image reproduced by the New York Times in a 2010 article. The original photo depicts Winston Churchill inspecting the bombed out remains of The Debating Chamber in the House of Commons during World War II.

This is an excerpt from a June 2011 presentation I was a part of, pertaining to the the Hamlet Project. Delivered at University Commons, Ann Arbor --

The artist and illustrator, John Austen, lived from 1886 until 1948. He illustrated in the style of Aubrey Beardsley for only a decade, early in the 20th century. During that time, he illustrated only one of Shakespeare's plays. We are glad it was Hamlet , and pleased that he did over 80 illustrations.
One vignette illustration appears on every page of this near century-old edition. Two years ago, when a copy of the historic edition came into the Howland Research collection, it was recognized that the characteristics of line, composition, and gesture, in Austen's black and white vignette illustrations would make them ideal for water coloring.
This year, Ann Arbor artist Greta Barnard and I were invited to collaborate on the project. We approached every aspect the art of John Austen with the same respect that our textual collaborator, Jasmine Noel An, showed for the historic text of the Globe edition, which was the text utilized in the antique Austen edition. Austen’s original black and white illustrations were scanned at 300 dpi, and enlarged to four times original size. The background tone of the old paper was removed using Photoshop, and the illustrations were reproduced, using micron-type waterproof black ink, on watercolor papers, specifically Stonehenge, BFK Reeves, and Arches.

The final product is scheduled to be published mid spring of 2012. More information at http://www.howlandresearch.com/

Design examples:
Business card design (front/back) for Detroit based DJ
Logo Mockups for Invite Only Management LLC
Logo Mockups for local pesto maker in the Washington DC area
Cover image of music video for Fromuth Productions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZbaDR4Imwc)