Jason Seiler, the noted digital artist, teacher and author — who gained worldwide fame for his image of Pope Francis for Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2013 — is being honored by his alma mater, the American Academy of Art.
Seiler will receive his honor at the school’s award ceremony Thursday in River North. Along with the papal image, Seiler received a follow-up commission from Time for its 2014 Person of the Year cover image of Massoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan, who was among the magazine’s runners-up for the honor.
The artist has also worked on character design for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” film, and his artwork has appeared in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to the Wall Street Journal. The Wisconsin native also recently created a series of collectible stamps of five celebrity chefs — first issued in September of last year and featuring James Beard, Julia Child, Joyce Chen, Edna Lewis and Felipe Rojas-Lombardi.