Screening

MFA Illustration as Visual Essay presents a screening of Unlocking the Creative Self, a master-class-style documentary directed by faculty member Nada Ray following the work of late artist and MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Chair Marshall Arisman.

Marshall Arisman and Nada Ray began working on this film during the Covid-19 pandemic in October of 2021. In the documentary, Arisman leads the viewer through his exhibition at the SVA Chelsea Gallery. He tells the stories behind the artwork and shares his philosophy of life and the sources of inspiration for his art practice. 

“In my late twenties, after making wrong turns and arriving at dead ends, I made a list of what I really know about. Guns, deer, animals, psychic phenomena, psychotic events, and the never-ending violence we do to each other and ourselves. At age eighty-three, I am still working on that list.” —Marshall Arisman

Throughout his sixty-year career, Arisman’s massive body of work—often described as disturbing and “out of worldly”—in painting, sculpture, illustration, video and prose revolved around the subject matter of fear and the ways of “making friends” with it through visualization.

Master storyteller and native New Yorker Marshall Arisman (1938-2022) was a prolific American artist, painter, illustrator, writer, filmmaker, educator and also a deeply spiritual man. Marshall was widely recognized as an artist with an authentic voice whose works were included in the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art and The Smithsonian American Art Museum as well as public and private collections.

A long-time chair and founder of the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department, a beloved mentor and teacher, Arisman was a formidable figure to generations of School of Visual Arts students from 1964 until his passing in 2022. 

Nada Ray is a filmmaker, BFA Design faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and interdisciplinary producer. Her director’s forte is documentaries, portrait interviews and vivid process videos in which she depicts the joy and challenge of artists’ and visual communicators' practices. Ray made her director’s debut with documentaries featuring Milton Glaser and Paula Scher. In her career, Nada Ray interviewed some of the most acclaimed creatives in the US and abroad.

Arisman had been actively working with director Nada Ray on the documentary until April of 2022. Unlocking the Creative Self turned out to be his last film project.

A Q&A with Steven Heller and Nada Ray will follow the screening.

Cast: Marshall Arisman

Director: Nada Ray

Release date: March, 2023

Duration: 30 minutes

Production: Nada Ray Media

With the support of School of Visual Arts