A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

Bambi Deidre Breakstone

Professor, Adjunct

Bio

Bambi Breakstone is an artist, costume, and fashion designer currently living in Chicago. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bambi has designed costumes for television and film since 1985, including Miami Vice, The Ellen Show, and costumes for Dolly Parton's tours and album covers. One of the costumes she designed for Dolly Parton is part of the permanent collection of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. Since moving to Chicago in 2004, she has worked as a professor of fashion and costume design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to teaching, Bambi created a fashion collection for the Robin Richman boutique in Chicago, designed the costumes for Oedipus Rex at the Reynolds Theater at the University of Chicago, and explores her own art practice—creating artist’s books, collages, sculpture, and photo etchings. The Pavilion Gallery, in Chicago, features her photo-etchings. Her work is exhibited in the Arts Club of Chicago Member’s Exhibition in January and February 2018. She was also selected to exhibit one of her paper pulp collages in the Americas Paperworks 2018 Competition.

 

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In this workshop students develop a practical understanding of the procedures used by costume designers and their assistants and crew in film and television production. Weekly lectures and hands-on demonstrations focus on projects including breaking down a script based on character and scene, doing research towards developing characters through costume choices, and techniques used to present those choices to the director and producer. Students break down a script from a show in current production. Final critiques include presentation of the breakdown with clip file photos and drawings of their costume choices for the entire script.

Class Number

2262

Credits

3

Description

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice. One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

Class Number

1765

Credits

3

Description

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice. One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

Class Number

2214

Credits

3