to you and yours...

for fun

a shot in the dark: miss # 4

yesterday i picked up my portfolio and 3 story concepts i left with an editor at publisher Henry Holt & Company last week:

"Dear Brian -
Thanks so much for dropping off your portfolio. I think your scripts and sample sketches all have merit and are very child-friendly. Even so, I'm afraid I just didn't connect strongly with them so I'm not able to move forward. Thanks all the same for giving me the opportunity to review your work. Best wishes to you and yours."

ahhhh, another compliment and another lesson in subjectivity. i can't blame anyone for not connecting with a story. would you really publish something you didn't make a connection with? i hope not. and i respect the fact she got back to me right away. 4 houses down, many more to go. the quest continues...

putting a positive spin on it

last week i was rather abruptly laid-off from my backpack design job. it's not a bad thing just rather inconvenient. the truth of the matter is i was tired of designing backpacks anyway. (interestingly enough i had just talked to a old friend the night before who said that us Capricorns were going to be struggling a bit.) changes like these always force you to think, re-assess, and re-align forces in the direction of what you really want. (living in nyc is another issue altogether and that forces you to move a little faster to pay those bills for better or for worse. i'll spare you my rant on why this town is too expensive for it's own good for now.)

yes, i've got to feed myself. but i've also got to feed my soul. enter the art versus commerce conundrum. universally sweated by all creators. i've been waist deep in emails, phone calls, online job searches, financial projections and re-projections, filing for unemployment, etc., etc., ad nauseum. and the only way to step out of this space is to sit down and spend some hours of the day when i'd normally be at an office somewhere, creating art, making something new, working on my stuff. it's funny how we sometimes forget to do the things that keep us going in life. so much else gets in the way.

so for 2 days this week, i put down the phone, picked up the pencil and used 2 days of severance pay to get paid for doing my own work. if i think about it, next week i'll be a working artist as well. it's a small victory but one that makes me get out of bed.

oh and keep those fingers crossed, (yes, i still need a day job) i dropped off my portfolio and 3 story ideas with sketches to an editor at Henry Holt & Company today. they're basically the one children's publishing house i've always wanted to work with.

here's one of the drawings from my newly submitted "Animals on the Go!" picture book: