Sam Martine (BFA 1980 Media Arts), an artist and illustrator who taught for 40 years at SVA, died on January 29. He is predeceased by his wife, Janine, and son, Marc, and survived by daughters Michelle and Monica and grandchildren Michael, Matthew, Kristen, Amanda, Luke and Cole. 

Born in Brooklyn, Martine enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and was stationed in France, where he met his wife, Janine. He enrolled at the College in 1956 and graduated with a certificate in 1960. Twenty years later, he received his BFA and in 1983, he received his master’s degree from C.W. Post, Long Island University.

As a young illustrator, Martine found representation with the Lester Rossin Creative Group, a prestigious artists’ and illustrators’ agency based in New York. Over the course of his career, his clients included the ABC and CBS television networks, Ballantine Books, Grey Advertising, IBM, Panasonic and Pfizer; his work graced book covers, advertisements, brochures, periodicals and even film sets.

He joined the SVA faculty in 1966 and taught undergraduate and continuing education drawing and illustration courses continuously until his retirement, in the spring of 2005. He also taught at Marywood University, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Pratt Institute.

“I met Sam in 1966, just after he had been hired,” says longtime colleague Marshall Arisman, chair of MFA Illustration as Visual Essay. “Over coffee, in the student lounge, Sam said, ‘I’ve never taught before. I hope I can pass on my love of drawing.’ For the next 40 years, Sam did just that. Beloved by students, respected by faculty, Sam’s students learned how to love drawing as much as he did.” 

“His classes were often over-enrolled, as he never turned a student away,” says SVA President David Rhodes. “He remained one of the most popular drawing teachers until his retirement, attracting students with his warmth and conviction that what they were doing together was of the utmost importance.”

Former student Alex Knowlton (BFA 1987 Media Arts) has established a website dedicated to preserving Martine’s legacy, from which this text has been adapted. “I was a graphic design major,” he says, “but Sam’s drawing and illustration classes did more to inform me as a designer, art director, teacher and artist than any other. He was truly the most impressive person I’ve ever known.”

Students or colleagues of Martine’s are invited to contribute their memories; to do so, and to find out more about the art and life of Sam Martine, visit sammartine.com.

Adalis Martinez died on July 14, 2020. Born and raised in the Bronx, Martinez was a gifted artist and graphic designer, best known for her work in publishing. Through her work for Farrar, Straus and Giroux, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House, she created book covers and jackets for titles by such authors as Simone de Beauvoir, Emily Bernard, Michael Chabon, Angie Cruz, Lauren Groff, Melissa Rivero and Moira Weigel. Her designs regularly appeared on “best of” lists. In May 2013—the week she was scheduled to graduate from SVA—Martinez was diagnosed with cancer. After surgery and treatment she went into remission for a period of time and married her husband, Jairo.

In 2016, Martinez spoke with CBS News about her battle with the disease, crediting her family and faith as her sources of strength. That same year, she spoke with the Visual Arts Journal about her jacket design for Christian Kracht’s novel Imperium, for which she created her own font. Given the story’s tropical setting, “I wanted something that had a sort of wave in it,” she said, “but couldn’t find anything that worked.” The cover, named one of the best of 2015 by The New York Times, was Martinez’s first.

Benita Raphan (BFA 1984 Media Arts), a filmmaker, SVA faculty member and project coordinator for BFA Advertising and BFA Design, died on January 10. 

Raphan grew up in Manhattan, where a high-school internship with photographer Albert Watson set her on a life in the arts. After graduating from SVA, she spent several years in Europe, earning an MFA from the Royal College of Art in London and working for fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, among others, in Paris. She began teaching at SVA in 2004 and joined the staff in 2007.

In her independently produced, experimental series of “genius” films, Raphan envisioned the inner lives of exceptional creative minds. Filmmaker and mentor Alan Berliner (faculty, MFA Social Documentary Film) called her approach “unprecedented and singular,” and praised her works for their “beauty, illumination and extreme visual sophistication.” Her subjects included poet Emily Dickinson, mathematicians Paul Erdös and John Nash, architect R. Buckminster Fuller and author and disability-rights advocate Hellen Keller. 

Within the SVA community, Raphan was admired equally for her artistry and her dedication to the College’s students, alumni and faculty. “For me, her work was an expression of genius,” says Richard Wilde, the founding chair of BFA Advertising and BFA Design, who retired in 2019.

“Benita was easily the most naturally gifted member of our class,” says classmate and colleague Gail Anderson (BFA 1984 Media Arts), current chair of BFA Advertising and BFA Design and creative director of the Visual Arts Press, who in 2012 wrote an appreciation of Raphan’s films for Print. “She was also a tireless cheerleader for BFA Advertising and BFA Design. She loved our students, even the interns who left their detritus outside her office door.” 

Raphan’s work has aired on such channels as HBO, PBS and Channel 4 (UK), and screened at such venues and festivals as AFI DOCS; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Sundance, Telluride and Tribeca film festivals; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Her recognitions included residencies at MacDowell and, in 2019, a Guggenheim Fellowship. 

In a 2011 interview, Raphan talked about her process. “Naturally my colleagues and I embrace every new technological development that we see or read about,” she said. “However, I prefer to remember that there is no substitute for naiveté, raw energy, collaboration and conversation.” 

Kevin Joseph Adams died on October 18, 2020. After graduating from Kennebunk High School in Massachusetts in 1978, Adams spent one year in Ireland working on his uncle’s farm in County Kerry. He studied at the University of Maine before transferring to SVA, where he met his beloved wife of 32 years, Fariba Ghassemi. After college, he taught high school art for two years, first in Jay, Maine, then in Springfield, Vermont. He also taught drawing at Southern Maine Community College and York County Community College. Adams worked in graphic design for children’s wear in Manhattan’s garment district for more than 25 years and in 2000 he won the Washington Post Writers Group Fine Toon Fellowship Award for Coasting, the comic he created and collaborated on with his wife, Fariba, for more than 20 years. In addition to Fariba, Adams is survived by his son, Jonathan, and his wife, Hannah; daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Chris; daughter Emily; mother, Shelia; brothers Michael, Brian and John; sisters Ann, Kate and Maureen; and many nieces and nephews.

Doug Crane died on December 17, 2020. Crane was born in Bronxville, New York, and attended Eastchester High School. After graduating from SVA (then the Cartoonists and Illustrators School), he began his career at Terrytoons, before joining the Army in 1958. While serving, Crane illustrated pamphlets, designed and painted parade floats and signage, and created a comic, Tiptoe and Timber, which ran in military newspapers. Once discharged, he and his family resettled to New Rochelle, New York, and he rejoined Terrytoons. Through his 65-year animation career, Crane worked with such greats as Art Babbitt, Preston Blair, R.O. Blechman, Al Capp, Gene Deitch, Bill Hanna, Grim Natwick, Joe Oriolo, Ernie Pintoff, Vlad Tytla, Richard Williams and Jack Zander. With Red Auguston, he opened and operated the Hanna-Barbera East studio in New York City. Crane animated for film, television and advertising; drew comics and storyboards; and worked in character creation and background design. He taught cartooning and animation at Eastchester High School in Eastchester, New York; at the Institute of Animation and Film at the Academy of Art and Design, Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China; and at SVA. He was an artist in residence at the Thornton-Donovan School, in New Rochelle, and served Westchester County as an auxiliary police officer, a grand knight at the New Rochelle Knights of Columbus and the municipal arts commissioner, in which role he oversaw the 40th anniversary celebration for Terrytoons in 1982. Crane is survived by his daughter Maureen; daughter Erin and her husband, Mark, and their daughters Megan, Katie and Kerry; son Thomas and his wife, Debbie, and their children Sean and Brianna; daughter Colleen and her husband, Art, and their children A.J., Aidan, Tiernan and Riley; daughter Caitlin and her husband, Shawn; son Kevin and his wife, Erin, and their children Abigail and Nathaniel; and daughter Rose-Ellen and her husband, Andrew, and their daughters Sam, Shannon, Jordan and Hayley. He was predeceased, by two days, by his wife of 61 years, Maureen, and by his son Douglas, Jr., in 2018.

Eric Dinyer died on February 15. Dinyer received his BFA from Washington University in St. Louis before attending SVA. A prolific artist and a passionate advocate for music and the arts, he created, published and managed projects for music artists, international design publications, packaging and book covers. His clients included publishers St. Martin’s Press, Doubleday, Scholastic, Time Warner Book Group; record labels like Columbia, !K7, RCA Victor, TVT and Warner Brothers; and periodicals such as Harper’s, Newsweek, The New York Times Book Review and U.S. News and World Report, as well as publications in Brazil, Hong Kong and South Korea. He also created the cover illustration for Bruce Springsteen’s 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad, which was also included in the limited-edition boxed set Bruce Springsteen: The Album Collection Vol. 2 1987 – 1996. Dinyer was a proud member of the St. Louis Art Museum, Patron of the Eliot Society and Wrighton Tribute Fund at Washington University and a member of Americans for the Arts. 

Sweetbryar Ludwig died on November 30, 2020. Born in Brooklyn, she was the daughter of the late Nathan and Esther Sax Deutsch. Ludwig was a painter, sculptor, musician and calligrapher. She left home at 15 in 1964 and moved to Woodstock, New York, as a mother’s helper. Her travels took her to San Francisco, where she was a part of the city’s 1960s art scene. She returned to Woodstock in the 1970s with her husband and daughter. She also lived in New York City for a period of time, becoming a noted calligrapher and running her own business for more than 25 years, working for such clients as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, filmmaker Tim Burton and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She is featured in the book 100 New York Calligraphers. Ludwig was an active member of the Woodstock arts community. She was a member of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock Artists Association and Museum and Woodstock School of Art, and her art has been shown at all three institutions, as well as at numerous local venues. She performed her music to critical acclaim and recorded an album. Ludwig is survived by her husband of 49 years, Robin; daughter, Acacia, and her husband, Jason Bowman; grandson, Macky (McKinley Spider); brother, Barry Deutsch; and an enormous community of friends. 

Joseph Roberts died on October 24, 2020. Roberts was president of Klauber/Roberts, a graphic and exhibit design corporation in New York City. As principal, he worked as a designer for corporate identities, annual reports and financial literature; retail visual merchandising; trade advertising; publication design; and publicity campaigns for Abrams Publishers, AIG, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Aperture, AT&T, CIGNA, Ortho Pharmaceuticals, SuperStructures and Yale University Press. Roberts previously was art director of the Philmont Software Mill, a computer consulting firm in Philmont, New York. Roberts began teaching at Pratt Institute in 1981 and served as chair of the undergraduate communications design department from 1994 to 2005; from 1997 to 2001, he served as president of the academic senate. Following his time as chair, Roberts returned to teaching full time but continued to mentor his colleagues by chairing the peer review committee. He retired from Pratt in fall 2018. Some of Roberts’ wisdom can be found in former colleague Scott Santoro’s Guide to Graphic Design (2014), in which Roberts was profiled. “When a designer can cause more than just a reaction, and takes us to a point where there is a returned response, then a solid communication is made,” Roberts says in the book. “The setup causes meaning to be created. Within the confines of a design problem, this is an effective way to get people engaged and get them to remember your design.”

William Alfred Venn IV died on July 23, 2020. Venn was born on Long Island, New York, to Joanne Venn (Chycota) and the late William A. Venn III. He graduated from Half Hollow Hills High School and attended SUNY Stony Brook before enrolling at SVA where, upon graduating, he received the Francis Criss Memorial Award for his artwork. His career began with artist and then SVA faculty member Paul Waldman, of the Castelli Gallery. He lived in Astoria, New York, and Santa Cruz, California, before moving to New Smyrna, Florida, where he worked as a machinist at Goss, Inc. His mechanical ingenuity earned him the reputation as someone who could fix anything on the shop floor; such repairs were said by his coworkers to be “Venn-gineered.” He had a love for the outdoors and the beach, where he fished and rode his bike. Painting was his true passion, and he used every medium to express his creativity. Venn was also an avid “rock hound,” traveling throughout the western United States to search for fossils, adding to his collection. In addition to his mother, he is survived by his daughter, Alexi Venn; sister Arian Kaufman and her husband, Gregory, and their children Brett and Gregory; sister Barbara Venn; sister Jennifer Capron and her husband, Richard, and son Jacob; and many beloved aunts, uncles and cousins. ✶