Soldiering on


I have a bunch of hot things on my desk. None of which is exciting and many with way too many opinions and fingers poking it...so the outcome has a high potential of being mediocre. I mean, it should be helpful, really helpful. We can sing in choruses and choirs. We can play on teams. However with that, everyone has a role, a position where we are allowed to be good at what we do. The dynamic with design and illustration changes. The designer or the illustrator who has the role to make the images or create the environment is not allowed to be good at what their assigned role is. You are hired to be the expert and then everyone mother hen's you to bits --because everyone knows everything when it comes to the visual. Would you direct your heart surgeon during his work on you? Does one detail ideas, or direction to the dentist as he fills your tooth? I dont think so. However, our jobs are to struggle to keep credibility in the work and try to have it as high level as it might be if left alone. Urg. It is all pretty septic for me...and perhaps my meeting this morning with the fun foodies will get my head into a different place.

I am liking what's happening with the forever valentine. I output the shape and am noodling all over the layout to make the pieces to finish it. I am looking at borders and corners and an explosive willowtree (also in a heart shape) for the top. The heads of the left and right skull are going to get a little refinement. And the rose needs to be placed. Should be pretty active. I really am beginning to get the hang of this. I did draw it 3 times before I really got it. I had a bunch of layouts in my book from SF--so I came onto the big drawings with a better understanding of what I was to do than before...so it came together better. But what is surprising me is that I am enjoying the tweaking and noodling to finish the work when a year ago I might not have had the patience or interest in really taking it another step. Now, this is a place I am happy (and now anticipate) going. Another feather from the Hartford program. No one pushed me into this...it just has evolved from doing the work. Andrew Carnegie's "my heart is in the work" continues to be one of my favorite "go tos" as it so speaks to everything you do.

I'm sounding preachy. Sorry.

on the boards


worked up in ink. Did two complete ones and felt they werent going anywhere. This one, though is...and the middle head is flipped. I like what is happening with the feathery wings. Handlettering...might look at dolling it up a bit. There is some drapery and maybe an urn to go in the lower segment, and a willowtree with a reversed out tombstone at the top. Also a big schmaltzy rose?

Notes on SF: Travel as part of the educational process


The San Francisco trip was my last ISDP trip with my graduate degree in illustration. I am somewhat bittersweet about the journey and the multiple paths it has taken. I have seen, experienced and engaged in so much with such a range of people that this study has been a blessing and gift for me. The travel is key to the program as it reinforces whatever path you are at the time. The exposure to such a wide range of speakers combined with the self teaching that the travel provides to each individual is jarring and revealing in the mystery of what one learns. Sometimes it’s a direct hit, an immediate “Yes!”. Sometimes the lessons are more prolonged--happening over time--providing support as the bumps emerge or the questions remain unanswered. But for a week, you walk in other people’s shoes; you see what they are doing, how they do it, and what their hopes, goals and aspirations are at that moment. These presentations are another measure for an illustrator to say, “hey, this is where I am” or “I could do something like that” creating options that may not have presented themselves otherwise.

With Hartford’s program, it’s even richer as it has Murray and Carol Tinkelman. They provide their combined experiences as an illustration and education team--along with deep friendships with many of the speakers that one gets carried along with the current of these relationships. Just a small example is that Carol encourages us to contact those speakers who we responded to and write a quick thank you note. I did this with Don Ivan Punchatz and have had some nice conversations with him post trip. He is another guide that I have acquired on this path to learn and grow--another branch in the progress, another person to talk and lean on. The amazing collegiality of these professionals is generous, kind and they all seem to want to reach out, to teach, to inform.

Our trips inspire others. It was so wonderful to hear Courtney Granner and Robert Hunt, in two separate instances, make a point of telling Murray Tinkelman that they too, were taking their students on the road to learn, listen and see illustration in
different cities with different orientations and markets. You could hear the pride and excitement in their voices as they embrace this other way to teach and learn. It is to the Tinkelman’s credit that this universe continues to expand organically--giving and taking, learning and teaching, adding and building the community of illustrators and image makers. It is a sweet cycle that I am honored to have been included in. It will continue as will the conversations, relationships, ideas and personal evolution now that new groups are integrating this into their learning.

Back at it. Setting em up. Knocking em down. Showed the thesis work to Murray and Mr. Andersen last week with good insights and reviews. Need to do a bit more hand lettering. Need to redraw the octopus from the good push from Murray "you are not loving your line" and "remember, as forms move away from the trunk, they taper" and he was right. Totally. So, the octopus gets a redraw, letters to be done...and need to find a resource as Doug Andersen suggested one or two of the pieces go up in size. I have already scaled up the Sweetheart piece (and probably the double snakes) to 30" x 40" which will be the centerpiece around which 2 groups of 4 will be hung. There may be more valentines in the paper/thesis proper...but 10 pieces for the show is fine.
I will have a valentine for San Francisco and a Memento Mori one that says "Forever".

Work awaits. Erich is out sick.

From SF: A bit on Brian Singer and his work.



“Engaging through inspiration”

Brian Singer, graphic designer for Altitude and creator/funder and engine behind the 1000 Journals Project summed up the general feeling in his final words to the group, “You have ideas. If you don’t take the initiative, if you don’t make it happen....you have...right......Nothing”. Brian Singer, also known as “Someguy” knows this to be true as this is his modus operendi for his graphic design and independant project work. Brian Singer does projects to engage the world, or as he terms it broadly, “marketing an environment”-- setting up public conversations in unusual and noteworthy ways. His dog poop project is one such example.

Singer, as a way to engage the community in expressing their distain for George Bush and his administration, established a website (www......com) with photographs of his litttle civic installations. Singer would search for dog poop which seems to be plentiful and a metaphor for his feelings about the former President--and stuck little chrome yellow flags with Bush’s face on them into the fecal matter. Photographs of these vignettes along with downloadable flag graphics were put up on an internet site (www. com) and the community engaged in the discussion. This project along with his art making from the poster and graphic detrius were just the warm up to his current project, !000 Journals.

Singer created a concept over a five year span, to drop a thousand hard bound journals into the environment allowing people to express themselves freely without limits or public expectation. The concept was inspired by the graffiti Singer read in the public bathrooms while he was in college. Singer felt that the expression and messaging in these environments created open ended, anonymous conversations that gave permission to people to express themselves freely. The journals were to take that free expression to another level--having it become part of an individual’s journey, to hand it off or leave it for another, and so on. To create an open environment to communicate and then, in the end, to have these books return for further understanding. There was a system for the these numbered classic Canson sketch books to be scanned and quoted on an independant website whenever possible,

Brian Singer had no end plan. He wanted to get the books out through handing them to friends, leaving them in places, introducing them quietlyto see what would happen. He had no expectations about what was next. He had no expectations for public relations or image building for him. From his modest and self effacing demeanor, his passion was not necessarily for the outcome, but for the process, for the project and for the communication with the world at large. This project is where he put his money and time with no plans at all.

Four years later, thirty of the books have been returned. A documentary film has been created. He has been noted in the media from National Public Radio to television. There is an exhibit on display of a few of the journals that Singer was engaged in helping to design at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Much of the news puts the project first with Brian Singer as the orchestrator and concept artist. I believe this is intentional on his part because for him, that is what is important.

Brian Singer believes that an artist must “engage through inspiration' using personal work, self authorizhip, fine art and professional work. He feels that all four aspects of this engagement must all happen in order to drive better work and thinking and cannot be allowed to languish. Singer lives up to this high expection of private and public voice to nspire us through his actions, words and projects.

I agree with Singer’s four prong approach to one’s work and career. I have repressed personal work, self authoring and fine art to exclusively focus on my professional work as a graphic designer until entering the ISDP programs at Syracuse and The University of Hartford. In hindsight, this is time lost. I believe that in developing personal projects, self authoring and fine art exploration through blogging, the creation and distribution of zines, web creation, on demand printing, drives personal projects, personal expression and a sharpening of a personal message, brand and understanding. To force this self expression beyond the boundaries of a job or a profession allows me to better understand what makes me tick, where my boundaries are, sharpen my communication skills and to delve into ideas. This personal expression has fed my professional work as a designer and has permitted me to better understand my own vision in addition to that of my clients.

En route

At the airport-- drinking some lovely, rich coffee and trying to load some charge into my powerbook so as to be able to write my paper for the week--to free up time for finishing my thesis work, completing the paper and doing a few more pieces for the final. I have a "forever" valentine in the works along with a Chinatown one ( with big color) at least. Additionally, I need to think/plan how to blow up two of the black and white ones for the show ( thinking is to translate to vector to be able to scale it up like crazy. Need to find a great output resource. Sometimes big takes the pieces to a whole different space.

More later.

Sorry

I've been remiss. I am just taking whatever I can during this time with the HAS program and let it all seep in and see what emerges as an impression independant of the detail, the people and the work. I am picking up on some interesting things with the flow of information and the very direct things that are being said by our very bright and talented guests that come tomorrow may come tumbling out.

SF: Tuesday: from a wonderful private collection







We boarded the big red and white bus this morning after coffee with Chad and Linda at the italian coffee shop around the corner from the Handlery. After an hour on the bus with Murray regaling Linda and me with tales about his exchanges with Maurice Sendak which were telling, charming and sweet but depicting a rather prickly, edgy smart man--which makes sense given his lovely line drawings with pigs in poke bonnets, or little stolid girls doing sensible things, or the Night Kitchen (referencing his childhood), Wild things, of course, and his love of opera and theater which he uses as a device for many of his illustrations.

We got to our destination with our 89 year old hostess greeting us at the end of the driveway (framed by robust, blooming rosemary and fragrant and full lemon trees)--ushering us into her house (where I had visited with Syracuse) and directing us to boxes and bushels, bedtops and flatfiles filled to the top with illustration that represents the who's who of the profession. Children's book, commercial illustration, from big oil paintings of iced cream in a glass, to Cornwell, to Rockwell Kent to the rare and totally adoreable Lorraine Fox( grey and pink and table top illustrations at the bottom of this mix)--Al Parker and Lawson Wood...something for everyone from paintings to a proliferation of pen and ink that I was, this visit stunned and delighted by. It was a visual feast that by the time the two hours planned rolled around..we had all reached critical max--and needed to change channels as it was just way way overwhelming. The house is simple and very lived in-- with the bathroom art as curated as any exhibition in any museum. Even the laundry was surrounded by images and art. Our hostess showed us Gibsons and art that were used for the covers of sheet music that she used to learn to sing from which she demonstrated for us. And, to top it off, as she was getting out of the driveway to attend an appointment, she opened up the trunk of her car to get something and showed us a mask she works on repairing for a volunteer job she does. The owl is our hostess.

We were dropped off in town for lunch and had a great assortment of restaurants to pick from for lunch. We settled on indian and had a lovely time outside in the weather which had changed from a misty drizzle to a beautiful blue sky. Trees were out, flowering trees were popping, it is extrodinary and spring in paradise.

We then visited Patrick Coyne, editor at CA Magazine. (Communication Arts). We were greeted by Chester, the CA Beagle who sniffed and wagged and was the perfect welcoming committee. Patrick is a gentle kind man who told us all about his open, green building. The magazine is celebrating it's fiftieth anniversary this year. It was started by Patrick's father and a partner who had a small agency and needed to find more work for the printing press they acquired. The magazine became very important for Mr Coyne, and he then worked full time since for the publication. It is mainly a subscription business which is beginning to expand into the web...creating an added electronic value for the readership at a nominal price. It is staffed by 20 people, whose offices were determined in location by a feng shui expert--funny but kind of worked. Patrick told us that the Illustration show gives them about five thousand entries that are winnowed down to 150--which makes last year's entry of shady even more meaningful for me. I didnt know how rare this is. He was insightful about his shows, the juries and how they try to talk about the "beat" that is happening annually in the work--which sounded like the real treat for our guide and editor. Mr Coyne was open and engaging, wanting to talk with us as much as to us..and my heart was lightened by this quiet energy that came from this very esteemed publication. Key take away was essentially enter often and many...

Off with a small troupe for sushi in the neighborhood.

a bit more Sunday




After sleeping the sleep of the dead...and waking up early and putting thinking about pictures and snoozing again, we woke up and went to breakfast at a great, grandaddy of breakfast places, Sears--recommended by Ricky Werman's book for pancakes (we all had eggs) and coffee. The restaurant was great--tile floors, dim lights, the real thing just north on Powell from the Drake (about three blocks up from Powell and Geary). Then off to Chinatown to "go deep" in the little bins of stuff, smell the teashops and see the food. We saw silks and jackets. Wonderful bags "hey, these are the Chinatown Vera Bradley" in silks and stripes with knotted closures. Darling shoes with fabric flowers and frills a la McKenzie Childs ($49. a bit steep but almost, just almost worth it). Wonderful wool vests with interesting fastenings and detail. Jewelry from cinnabar and black bangles, majong piece bracelets to complete stores of stones.All of which we did from the lovely teas and tea tasting, to a live chicken place with plucked birds (deep grey without any feathers -- a bit primordial and scary). We bought all sorts of little things for friends and family. We heard all sorts of popping and drumming to go around the corner to find these three white lions/dragons performing with a group of middle school/high school musicians urging them on with drums and other instruments. A man threw a few handfuls of lit firecrackers into the mix to keep it interesting and a bit frightening. Around the corner we went after this show and there were golden dragons doing the same only the firecrackers were much more extrodinary and loud...the banners brighter and the decor streaming out of the windows behind these drum dancing beasts were wildly colorful and festive. Made the brilliant pink bakery boxes make sense on a color day like today.

en route

Murray and Carol called from San Francisco to tell me that Murray will be featured for the next week in Leif Peng's wonderful blog, Today's Inspiration. Peng does a remarkable job talking about the history of illustration focusing but not limited to the illustration of the 1940s-1980s. Peng has a very lively personal collection of ephemera and posts wonderful Flickr sets on the illustrators he covers in addition to the insightful writing he provides us. So, take a look. We will see the decorative Murray peeking out at us this week to all of our delight.

I was packing and unpacking. Taking things out of my bag and replacing it with something different. Taking out the giant sketch book and just putting a regular one in place. Do I have my cell phone plug? Do I have a zip drive? Did I burn the CD of my NYC project? Did I write the requisite weekly checques and gather up bus fare for K?

Now, I am sitting having a quiet moment before getting myself primed to get on the second leg of my flight to SF. In the packing and unpacking, the wandering around and looking at stuff, I cracked open my two Memento Mori books and read a bit of the narrative that I wrote here on the blog while I was thinking on the topics of my reading and sketching. What struck me the most was that I am developing a big project style with images and writing that are often insightful and interesting (particularly when I am not sitting on top of the topic). The process almost demands writing to help me sort out my thoughts conceptually or remember approaches as I go through the work. It was telling that on one of the spreads--I was reflecting that I needed to better understand mirroring images within the context of developing frames and borders. I had forgotten that...and now, here I am...working that out. One feeds the other. I need to remember that...and when copy is needed on the picture, to go back to the source as there might be something more succinct or fresh to help to focus the work that is already written. Bring on the white out and editing pencil!

Murray is going to give me direction on these heads. The nose and mouth I have, he says...so it must be the scary eyes. Keep it light, open, feminine. I have been sketching on Punch on the flights and he is developing with his traditional big nose and big chin. He is a wicked boy...There was a wonderful reference shot that someone posted from a photograph taken of a wooden Punch from the Henry Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA. There is a leery, edgy thing that this Punch has (along with a mask) that has me intrigued. And Judy is such a simple housewife (maybe a bit of a nag) that Punch whollops with his big scary stick. The alligator gets it, the baby gets it, the cops get it, clowns get it. That's Punch, the guy with the whippin stick. I just peered up at the TV while writing this, and CNN was reporting on James Brown...speaking of Punch and his stick...JB was a bit of a Punch himself, whapping his wife with a telephone. Interesting where the world goes.

Onward!

Saturday Lift off.


On my way to San Francisco today. Will be checking in from the road via iPhone if anything interesting happens or I am struck by loquacious lightening and need to talk to you. There will be posts while I am there with pictures, I hope...so you are taking a mini break with me and my classmates from Hartford.

tick tock


More of the speedy white out pictures. Its snowing here...a scattering of white and we are all having throaty symptoms which doesnt make this girl happy. I am making lists of things to do and pack for Saturday's lift off to SF. I am packing light and predictably. No fashion shows in the bag. Brief and to the point.This dragging the world with you and then not using half the stuff approach cannot continue. Going to LA at Christmas reinforced that for me--watching my smart kids pack appropriately and having plenty to wear and plenty of layers. I am watching and learning. Hopefully, this test will work.

My phone went on the fritz at the gym, so I am rebooting it...and may reload all the software prior to taking off. The last thing I need right now is a phone that goes south. How come that always happens? Technical breakdown and clients loading you up just hours before a trip. It's in the air. Now, I need to reconnect with the hotel and piece together how to get from the ariport to the hotel on BART. Also, need to get money, charge batteries, find my phone jack, pack my work (this is the most important and knowing how flaky I've been--this is the think I am likely to space on!).

I don't like how the world feels these days. To talk to friends and clients about the tenuousness of their jobs and with some, their identities wrapped in these jobs is nervewracking. Everyone is frozen in place with their hands poised in mid air waiting for the hammer to come down. Tomorrow may change for me,for my family, for our life...tomorrow, may not change for me, my family or my life. With uncertainty and change, many are paralyzed into inactivity which flows to those of us who are steadily putting one foot in front of the next, pretending not to feel the earth shaking. And the anger I feel for the greed and stupidity of unregulated bankers, of childish adults buying houses bigger than they can afford and the "I want it, I need it " headset that has been commonplace for at least a decade. More I think, but def. 10 years. If you cant afford it, don't buy it. And the shake out is that we are all paying in jobs, education etc. We cannot afford this war. We cannot afford to bail out all the fat cats who get million dollar bonuses. Why must some feel the pinch--particularly those hourly folks -- for the errors of so few--the edge sitters in the financial centers who live a fantasy funded by these workaday people? I would like to be a part of the revolutionary lynch mob who are speaking today in Mr. Made Off's trial. Shades of the french revolution. If Mr. Made Off is 70, and we are talking a life behind bars, how more should he pay? Maybe a hand? a foot? His time?

Lots of anger here.

Wednesday



The pictures posted are the new whiteout technique in images that are postcard size. Quick n dirty. Am pushing away at this and then plan to do a peacock valentine inspired by Will Bradley. There is more smearage, and you cannot be as impulsive as I would like...but it is massively quick--blocking with black, laying in the white, drawing and sharpening in black on top of the white. The pace of the lines--black,white, black, white being almost calligraphic in the patterning and balance of the colors.

I am taking a thesis breather until we come back from San Francisco with Hartford. We are off to Jane Eisenstat's house in Palo Alto to see her collection of illustration. We are going to see Communication Arts. There are lectures from an assortment of illustrators many I had seen with Syracuse, we will see David Grove, and Lou Brooks (wonderful cartoon derivative work). I see my thesis advisor and will go through the valentines I have done. Then, when I come back, I will sketch and do more to complete the deck...maybe using the new ink and whiteout technique along with the other new tricks I have started working with.

Alex home today with a sore throat and lethargy. Poor guy all wilty and tall. I pushed water therapy (showers, baths, hot waterbottles, tea) and sleep. Who knows if he put it into play...but part I know happened. Kitty tried on her bathing suit for her part in the play--red with a big stripe. She is thrilling to her dancing and singing with 5 guys complete with silly dance steps and lifts, dips and twirls. Kitty belle of the ball...and she is working like a devil with these poor sore toes that hopefully are healing and will be fine by showtime.

More later, I have to go tend to the pulled pork.