A Trip to the Zoo!

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be invited to a special tour at the zoo. Our ABQ Zoo is a fairly small one, and I live quite close (I used to live about 3 blocks away, I miss those days!) and I wish I got over there more often than I do. I think I'm making it a mid-year resolution to go more often, right now.

It was a gorgeous spring day and I was with friends, it couldn't have been more perfect. Although I mainly took pictures this time around (I usually try to do some sketching while I'm there), it was one of the most rewarding and exciting trips to the zoo for me, EVER. But, I'm not suppose to discuss the details online… so too bad for you guys, but wonderful for me and my memories. LOL

Brothers Kiska and Koluk at Inukshuk Bay

My long lost family… look, it's me, the one that's as tall as all the others while sitting down!

NESCBWI: Aesop's Fables -- Award Winner!

Wow.
I mean… WOW.
What a whirlwind of a weekend at The NESCBWI Conference: Celebrating Milestones. This was my second visit to the NESCBWI Regional Conference and I have to say it was the most fun, the most informative, most everything SCBWI Conference I've ever been to - and I've been to some great ones. It really does make me feel like New England is my home and I belong there… I've just gotta move back some day because these are my people. (they like me, they really, really, like me!)

Not only was it just an awesome conference experience: the gathering of like-minds, meeting awesome people, meeting several twitter friends in person, learning-learning-learning, absorbing, retaining (hopefully)… but I also earned myself some recognition! In the past, I've always been one of the many attendees, a face in the crowd - a face on an extra-tall frame, yes (I usually have a good view of all the other faces)… but for the most part, anonymous. And for the most part, I like it that way. It was a challenge making myself speak-up and meet strangers. But this year…

I knew a few people going in - People I met last year, people I met via email volunteering to help out with the conference promo art and registration banners (my name was on EVERY FOLDER label at the conference, how cool is that?!), I knew several twitter people that I had met previously, or I just knew would be there so I could look out for them… and I made myself do NEW WORK before I got there - especially my submission for the Poster Showcase Competition.

I've done these competitions before: Everyone comes in with big hopes and dreams (which is great, it's inspiration)… but (speaking for myself, of course) very often, I go in unsure of myself. I forget that there's limited room (submissions), limited time (for viewing/judging), and overall it's all hugely subjective - it has to be. I've often been completely deflated when my art didn't win or wasn't recognized. I've ended up walking away from conferences feeling hugely inspired, by also incredibly down on myself and my art. I was constantly setting myself up for this massive let down - I was taking it personally. The simple fact is, everyone can't "win".

And then I won. I got not one, but two awards. I received 2nd place in the unpublished category from the conference judges, and the HUGE honor of 1st place People's Choice - meaning everyone from the conference that looked at all the poster art submissions and cast a vote for their favorite. I mean, WOW. I could not believe it! I still don't think it's sunk in.

But really, overall… my conference experience was not much different than it's been in the past in the best possible ways: still great people, still awesome presenters & faculty, still making new contacts, still learning… always learning/absorbing. I think the reason I had such a great and what I consider, successful conference is not because I won some awards, but I felt more confident in myself and my work going in. I worked hard (even if it was last minute) and I truly liked what I'd accomplished (which doesn't happen every time - come on we all know every piece we work on isn't always our best) I wasn't afraid to speak to people (I couldn't hide from them really, I had what felt like minor celebrity - so many people stopped me to congratulate me and tell me they'd voted for me - I still don't have words!). I can't quite describe it, but I just felt like I belonged… and I'd actually done quite a lot to get to that point: being on twitter and cultivating relationships there, volunteering, joining a crit group of AMAZING illustrator peers (all of whom at any given time I consider better, more experienced, more confident, or more successful than myself (it's great to have your mentors all around you, calling you a peer. What a major confidence boost, right?).

It wasn't any one thing, but it all made a difference, and I can still feel it all changing me and how I look at things. And I'm still reminding myself that the 1st place winner in Unpublished also, won 3rd in People's Choice, and ALSO won the "Best in Show" award from R. Michelson Galleries, as well as a spot in their upcoming illustration show - Jeanette Bradley was a TRIPLE winner with her beautiful cover submission! ;) Congrats Jeanette, and all the other winners and participants as well! A bunch of brave souls that put themselves OUT THERE!

Update Masterworks: It's Official… Again!

On April 1, at the Masterworks Show reception, I was awarded 2nd place in the Colored Pencil Miniatures category. WooHoo! My piece, "Massive Sky, Sandias" was the winner… which just happens to be my own favorite of the three pieces I submitted. Here is a picture of me with all three of my entries hanging at the show:

It was a truly fun evening. Each year I go to this show, I recognize more and more faces and they recognize me, I'm really starting to feel like I "belong". Shocker! I know. LOL

SPECIAL: Ripple Donation

"We don't have to feel helpless. We can help. Our small actions together will ripple outward."
I've finally finished my sketchcards for the awesomest of awesome art charity fundraisers: RippleSketches, benefitting the animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. The four Non Profits benefitted are hands-on groups on site cleaning animals: International Bird Rescue Research Center, The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, The Sea Turtle Conservancy, and Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research. My cards will go live on the site next Wednesday and will be available for sale at $10 each.

This has been a really great project to work on. These aren't my typical style either, I really wanted to so some experimenting and thus didn't have an entirely clear idea of what I was going to do as I started out with each piece. Here's a deatiled list of info for each piece:
Brown Pelican: Pen & Ink, Colored Pencil and Gouache on Rag Board, 2.5" x 3.5"
Dolphin: Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil on Arches Hot press Watercolor paper, torn/deckle edges, 2.5" x 3.5"
Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle: Colored Pencil and Gouache on red cardstock, 2.5" x 3.5"
Great Lakes Piping Plover Chick: Colored Pencil and Gouache on blue, ridged cardstock, 2.5" x 3.5"
Sawfish: Pen & Ink, Colored Pencil and Gouache on blue, ridged cardstock 2.5" x 3.5"
Shrimp: Colored Pencil on Arches Hot press Watercolor paper, torn/deckle edges, 2.5" x 3.5"
Sperm Whales: Colored Pencil and Gouache on red cardstock, 2.5" x 3.5"

I did do some homework to find out which animals were or might possibly in the future, be most effected by the tragic oil spill in the gulf. Most of my sketches are based on these already at-risk animals: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle, Great Lakes Piping Plover, Brown Pelican, Smalltooth & Largetooth Sawfish, & the Sperm Whale. I also felt shrimp have been under the radar during this disaster - everyone's talking about the fisherman at risk of & losing their livelihoods, but what about these tiny creatures that they harvest daily for their own financial gain - now being threatened by the very water that sustains their life?

It seems like every day we are finding new and terrible ways to destroy our own planet, and it's always an accident. Big risk, big rewards. For industry, it's another blip - the accidental disaster either destroys them and they're replaced by someone else - or they recover and keeping on doing the same. It's not totally unlike natural selection… only we CAN MAKE CHOICES… and we keep making the wrong ones.

*please note: the red stars on the cards have no particular significance other than to add a somewhat three-dimensional element to the designs and identify then as mine, and part of this group.