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© 2022
A team of 9 dedicated judges carefully read all 88 proposals of the USK Reportage Grant 2023. They have checked and considered the merit of each proposal with following criteria in mind:
Scroll down to find out more about each member of the Selection Committee.
Shari Blaukopf (Montreal, Canada) is a Montreal-based teacher, painter and sketch blogger who loves to travel and share her love of sketching. She’s the author of The Urban Sketching Handbook: Working with Color, and you can find her online courses at learn.shariblaukopf.com. She’s been part of the Urban Sketchers community since 2012 and taught at many international USk symposia as well as internationally through the Urban Sketchers Workshop Program. Shari holds a BFA from Concordia University and she is a member of the education committee of both Urban Sketchers and the CSPWC in Canada. Her watercolors are in corporate, government and private collections in North America and abroad, and she’s a signature member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour.
Spanish-born journalist, illustrator and author Gabriel “Gabi” Campanario is best known for his storytelling sketches of the Seattle area — which appeared weekly in The Seattle Times between 2009 and 2021; and for his role as the founder of Urban Sketchers, a global organization of artists who aim to “show the world, one drawing at a time” through on-location sketching and reportage. He is the author of Seattle Sketcher: An Illustrated Journal, and The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around the World. In 2022, Campanario launched Sketcher Press, a publishing imprint to amplify the work of urban sketchers and reportage artists.
Simo Capecchi (Naples, Italy) studied Architecture in Venice and completed her Ph.D. degree at the University of Naples (Italy) in Architectural Drawing. She contributed to Urban Sketchers since the very beginning, organized many USk workshops in Italy, taught in 7 Urban Sketchers symposia and has been a correspondent from the last Usk Symposium in Auckland, New Zealand. She loves to draw on location and works as an illustrator. Her main interest is in visual reportage and in the combination of words and drawings. She has published a monthly illustrated back-column on a travel magazine in Italy since 2015 and her last job is the official new map of Pompeii archaeological site.
Uma Kelkar (San Jose, USA) is an engineer by training, an artist by doing, a former Executive Board member, Symposium faculty and volunteer of Urban Sketchers. Before Urban Sketching, she was an online and in-person community builder from age 16. Since 2018, she has been doing one long graphical reportage annually for things as diverse as George Floyd Square to a story of a local radio station. She is a multiple-award winner for plein-air paintings and exhibits in national and international juried shows. She bridges gaps between fine arts and sketching as well as a bridge between several media that she uses that stretch from digital media to watercolors as evidenced from the range of books, magazine articles she has authored/co-authored.
She is invested in building in technology that scales the artist and has pivoted from her ~2 decades hardware design background to machine learning.
Kelkar holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Pune, India) in Instrumentation Engineering with a Biomedical Instrumentation major, and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University (USA).
Mário Linhares (Lisbon, Portugal) studied at the Artistic School António Arroio. Holds degrees in Landscape Design (2001), Equipment Design (2009), a master in Visual Arts Education (2017), and he’s currently a Ph.D. researcher about Drawing. He’s an art educator since 2001, draws compulsively since ever, and idealizes artistic and humanitarian projects since ’97. He does Reportage Drawing in Lisbon but also did it in Ivory Coast, East-Timor, New Zealand, Brazil, and North America. Enjoys walking, taking public transportation and discussing ideas with friends. He founded Urban Sketchers Portugal in 2009, and he’s the former USk Education Director.
Rita Sabler is a visual journalist, artist, and educator based in Portland, Oregon, USA. She teaches Drawing, Urban Sketching and Visual Journalism courses at the Parsons School of Design, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Portland State University and gives lectures and workshops all over the world. In between teaching she works on drawing reportage projects. Rita Sabler has served as the Education Director on the board of the global Urban Sketchers organization since 2019.
Rita has presented numerous lectures and workshops around the world inspiring diverse audiences to cultivate a lifelong passion for urban sketching and reportage illustration. Her work has been featured in solo and group local and international shows.
Rita holds a B.A. degree in Psychology and Art, an M.A. in Linguistics, and a Masters in Interface Design from The Elisava School of Design in Barcelona. She is currently working on a Masters of Science degree in Journalism.
Rita Sabler’s reportage on the Kalaupapa settlement has won Doctors without Borders Coup De Coeur and International Sketchbook Prize at the 2019 Rendez-Vous Du Carnet De Voyage in Clermont-Ferrand.
Rita’s main areas of expertise are Reportage Illustration, Travel Sketching, and Visual Storytelling, but she is often seen on street corners capturing busy markets, festivals, protestors, musicians, and regular citizens living their life in both ordinary and extraordinary ways. When not drawing or teaching she is a busy parent and a tango pianist.
Suhita Shirodkar (San Jose, USA) is a California based illustrator and urban sketcher. She graduated with an MFA in Communication Design from Pratt, New York.
Suhita has won numerous grants for her reportage sketching including a grant from the Knight Ridder Foundation for her project tracing San Jose’s history through sketches and history of it’s vintage signs, and a Belle Foundation grant that supported her reportage project, “Faces of Recovery”. She was selected for a visual journalist residency with WIRED magazine in 2022 and is currently Creative Ambassador to the City of San Jose where she leads sketchwalks around the city and is visual reporter at city-based events.
Suhita has been a member of the former editorial team of USK, and has taught workshops at numerous Urban Sketchers Symposiums.
Rob Sketcherman (Hong Kong) ran his own creative consultancy for a little over 20 years, centering on design and illustration. After discovering the joys of sketching on location, he joined Urban Sketchers Hong Kong in 2014 and is now one of its 4 board members. He is one of the driving forces behind and energetic host of USK Talks as well as part of the Education Committee.
He has been requested to hold iPad-sketching events by Apple HK, and has run several others for various organizations, including an activity at the 6th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Singapore. Rob has also participated in several group exhibitions, and his work appears in various publications, including Sketches Under the Umbrella, a collation of works recording the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, as well as The Urban Sketching Handbook: Reportage and Documentary Drawing: Tips and Tricks for Drawing on Location and The Urban Sketching Handbook: Understanding Perspective: Easy Techniques for Mastering Perspective Drawing on Location.
Ludwine “Ludi” (Ghent, Belgium) is a multifaceted creative. With a Master’s degree in art history and studies in globalization, Ludi offers a unique perspective and deep appreciation for cultural diversity. During her extensive travels abroad, Ludi discovered the power of sketching as a tool to connect with the world, fostering meaningful interactions. Her commitment to promoting the art of urban sketching and facilitating meaningful artistic experiences shines through her dedicated efforts as the USK Coordinator. She is involved with the workshops program, the reportage grant, USK Talks and in her local chapter. Her marketing and storytelling expertise, honed through her work in communications for the Flanders Heritage Agency, further elevates her ability to share compelling stories with the world.
© 2022