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Illustrator profile - Louisa Bertman: "I like to create narratives that bring awareness to social injustice"

By Robert Newman   Thursday October 6, 2016

Louisa Bertman is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based illustrator, animator and visual journalist who has created a series of powerful works “which bring about thought and change.” These include illustrations for numerous magazines and newspapers and memorable video projects, such as TITS and Dear Vagina. Bertman says she is interested in working "where the intersection of visual narrative, technology, and social advocacy meets," and her imagery reflects that marriage of graphic storytelling and social consciousness—as well as being a bright, artful visual treat.

MY LIFE:
It’s an understatement to say I grew up with and am surrounded by art, artists, and all-around crazy. Both my parents were/are incredibly artistic and supportive. My father Richard Bertman is an artist, sculptor, and world class architect (CBT Architects). My mother Sandra Bertman, PhD (we call her Dr. Death) is a Professor of Medical Humanities and founder of the Medical Humanities department at UMass Medical School (she travels around the world giving visual presentations incorporating grief, the arts and death education).

I live and work in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

MY WORKSPACE:
When I used to work large, tangible, and analog, I’d work out of my studio—a funky old renovated carriage house. Now however as my career's  expanded into the digital realm, not only don’t I need much space, but I tend to travel quite a bit, so depending on the project I can pretty much work anywhere (thank you Jobs & Wozniak)! I know it doesn’t sound as sexy as my loft, but when stationary, my kitchen table (with our Australian Shepherds, Pixel and Glitch by my feet) has become my workspace of choice.

HOW I MAKE MY ILLUSTRATIONS:
I hand draw with both analog and digital tools including pens (Bic, Wacom’s Intuos, or Apple pencil—with a shout out to Kyle Webster’s digital brush library) paper (Macbook, iPad, or Cintiq) ink (Dr. PH Martin, or all things Adobe: Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects), and a huge saved library of previous analog inks, bleeds, and splatter from past work. I also experiment with collage.

MY FIRST BIG BREAK:
Ah, the irony of my feminism…Penthouse magazine. (ADs John Faraci and Jessica Pietrafeso)

MY INFLUENCES:
My kickass family. My first dance teacher and mentor Danny Sloan. My incredible Parsons  Illustration teachers: Diana Bryan, Jan Faust, David Passalacqua, and Steven Guarnaccia. My fantastic SVA Visual Narrative teachers: Edward Hemingway, Nathan Fox, Jim Rugg, Ben Zackheim, Leonard Marcus, and my brilliant SVA Computer Art teachers: Adam Meyers, Kathy Brew, and Trilby Schreiber.

MY MOST ADMIRED CREATIVE PERSON:
I have many, but Jill Soloway is top of my list! Embarrassingly I had never known of her work until my brother, filmmaker David Bertman edited the first season of her Emmy award-winning series, Transparent. Since then I’ve been absolutely hooked. Her storytelling genius is fucking off the charts! I’m also a huge fan of her and Rebecca Odeswifey.tv.

MY CREATIVE INSPIRATION:
Vaginas. My work seems to continuously come from (pun somewhat intended) and be inspired by the feminine.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF WORKING ALONE:
Human interaction—or lack of it.

MY FAVORITE ART DIRECTOR:
I’ve worked with so many incredible art directors that it’s impossible to name just one. But I will take this moment to give a huge shout out to creative director Deborah Lawrence (The Rotarian Magazine). Her talent is not only off the charts, but (as I’m sure many of us reading this can attest to) her tireless support for and the amount of top notch illustrators she’s hired and put on the map is incredible. I would bet—similar to Tom Carlson (The Village Voice), Len Small (Nautilus), Michael Hogue (Dallas Morning News—and one of my favorite illustrators), and Heather Hopp-Bruce (Boston Globe)—Deborah Lawrence has given at least half the illustrators in our industry opportunity (creatively and financially). I bow down to and thank this true supporter of our industry.

In addition to the fantastic five listed above, my list continues to the passion, vision and dedication James Kaelan (Seed & Sparks' Bright Ideas Magazine) and Patrick JB Flynn (The Baffler) bring to visually show the guts and truth of each piece they assign. Frank Max (High Times), Justine Amodeo (editor, Pacific Coast), Bernadette Dashiell and Matt Dorfman (The New York Times), Wes Bausmith (Los Angeles Times), David Pybus, Angela Morris, Ketrina Hoskin, Manny Velez (Wall Street Journal), Lynnette Galloway (Ebony), Robert Best (The Nation), Laurie Henzel (Bust), Joe Heroun (The New Republic), Laia Garcia (Lenny), and Michael Gerber (American Bystander) are all people I’ve been incredibly lucky to have worked with over the years. I always look forward to seeing their names grace my inbox.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE ILLUSTRATORS:
I tingle from the kickass work of Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry, Anita Kunz, Edward Hemingway, Roz Chast, Mimi Pond, Kara Walker, Tadanori Yokoo, Ray Bonilla, Jackie Ormes, Kim Deitch, Joseph Daniel Fiedler, Julie Doucet, Cynthia von Buhler, Ekua Holmes, Melanie Reim, Barbara Nessim, Jennifer Camper, and Njideka Akunyili.

MEMORABLE ASSIGNMENTS:
I’m humbled and honored to be commissioned by the Evers family to capture the likeness of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers and his widow—activist, journalist and NAACP chair Myrlie Evers-Williams—for their private estate. Very proud to have illustrated the dual covers for The Village Voice’s Queer Issue (AD Tom Carlson). My recent illustrations for Seed & Sparks Bright Ideas magazine (AD James Kealan). My animated award-winning, TITS. I illustrated Greg Holden’s Boys in the Street animation—an important music video about growing up surrounded by homophobia. Illustration and animated gif about speaking out for The Baffler (AD Patrick JB Flynn). Pepper—an upcoming creative nonfiction animated short following a teenage refugee and her courageous journey into the U.S. (written by anonymous and singer/songwriter Tanya Donelly). Dear Vagina—as featured on wifey.tv. And finally, my soon-to-debut SVA MFA thesis film, #manmade, an animated short commentary focusing on the demand side of the commercial sexual exploitation of adolescents in the U.S.

DREAM ASSIGNMENT:
I’m all in for any assignment that allows me to visually show and go where cameras can’t or won’t—enabling me to write, illustrate, and animate narratives that bring awareness to social injustice and advocate for minority voices and political change. I’m also currently looking for an agent/rep with a cutting-edge forward-thinking directive who’s excited by my work and sees the open-ended possibilities technology, new media and social networks have for immersive storytelling.

HOW I STAY CURRENT:
I’m incredibly interested in the future of digital storytelling and where the intersection of visual narrative, technology, and social advocacy meets. My brilliant husband James McElhiney (CTO of Iora Health) is a technologist, musician and serial entrepreneur. He always seems to have his finger on the pulse of fresh and current. I try to keep up with his thirst for knowledge by continuously reaching out into the unknown and unfamiliar. I’m always game for new inquiries especially if it’s projects which bring about thought and change. I’m a workaholic. I love what I do and if I had my way I would literally do this 24/7 without break. So in terms of staying current, I guess the desire to constantly push myself and continuously take my career to a higher level in and of itself is what keeps me current.

HOW I PROMOTE MYSELF:
I try to begin each day spending an hour or so updating my social network, touching base with past/current clients, or introducing myself to possible future clients. I do send out monthly email promos via Emma, but I assume most if not all get deleted along with the other 100K illustrators signed up with the same email service. Honestly, it’s really been via social media, word of mouth, and by people seeing my work and having the fabulous insight to reach out and hire me. As an introvert I know my strengths are not human interaction and self promotion, but the difference between a hobby and a profession is business. So in order for me to stay a viable business and have the luxury of working as a professional illustrator, I force myself to get out of my comfort zone and self promote. The annual AI-AP party…made up of one part creative misfits like myself, two parts human interaction and 20 parts I-have-no-fucking-clue-what-is-in-that-neon-orange-guaranteed-to-leave-a-hangover-liquid-punch-but-yes-sir-may-I-have-another has to date been a solid recipe for meeting new, catching up with old, and at the very least, creating some fabulously embarrassing incoherent walk of shame moments with those who shall not be named.

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT:
1. Our pen is our voice—speak out!
2. Never be late or miss a deadline.
3. Keep your sense of humor front and center.
4. Don’t be a dick.
5. Repeat

See more Louisa Bertman illustrations, new work and updates:
Louisa Bertman website
Facebook
Twitter: @louisabertman
Vimeo




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