Peter de Seve speaking at the SOI show (click for video)I feel so out of touch with the NYC illustrator glitterati these days. Here's a clip from the recent SOI show. I recognize a couple of faces, but not as many as I should.
The Society of Illustrators building on East 63rd is so cool. They have a permanent collection, then host events and the yearly show, shown in this video.
(I had no idea that Richard Solomon's building was lost when that crane fell a while back. No idea at all. Its tragic, and such a loss. Loss of life (not him), loss of artwork, loss of a piece of real estate and business 'home'.)
I remember back in school how we used to pour over the Illustrator's Annual and drool over the award winners. We all aspired to that level. Then real life happened to most of us, and we took "regular jobs" or had families or still did illustration but not that kind (I myself started working as an in-house illustrator and designer for a company that did animated retail displays, like the big fancy department store Christmas windows). Very few of us, even the "stars" in school, went on to the big leagues and became SOI award winning illustrators.
I stopped collecting the annuals long ago, and actually sold or gave them all away when I moved from San Francisco a couple of years ago. They were dead weight. Funny how you change your perspective on things. There once was a time when I used to search the used book shops for old ones.
This week I'm working on another "fine art" piece similar to that last one (one of a series of The Four Seasons), then I have some childrens book work lined up. I just put another scarf up in my etsy shop, and have some other knitted pieces I want to take over to a local shop. I received my nice paper for prints from Red River Paper so have to figure those out too.
What I really feel like doing is making a nice home made lasagna.
The Society of Illustrators building on East 63rd is so cool. They have a permanent collection, then host events and the yearly show, shown in this video.
(I had no idea that Richard Solomon's building was lost when that crane fell a while back. No idea at all. Its tragic, and such a loss. Loss of life (not him), loss of artwork, loss of a piece of real estate and business 'home'.)
I remember back in school how we used to pour over the Illustrator's Annual and drool over the award winners. We all aspired to that level. Then real life happened to most of us, and we took "regular jobs" or had families or still did illustration but not that kind (I myself started working as an in-house illustrator and designer for a company that did animated retail displays, like the big fancy department store Christmas windows). Very few of us, even the "stars" in school, went on to the big leagues and became SOI award winning illustrators.
I stopped collecting the annuals long ago, and actually sold or gave them all away when I moved from San Francisco a couple of years ago. They were dead weight. Funny how you change your perspective on things. There once was a time when I used to search the used book shops for old ones.
This week I'm working on another "fine art" piece similar to that last one (one of a series of The Four Seasons), then I have some childrens book work lined up. I just put another scarf up in my etsy shop, and have some other knitted pieces I want to take over to a local shop. I received my nice paper for prints from Red River Paper so have to figure those out too.
What I really feel like doing is making a nice home made lasagna.
2 Comments on SOI opening in NY, last added: 11/17/2008
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Hmmm--but a few AA alumni DID become stars--Kazu, Robert H., Robert S. Chuck, Randy, Jody, etc. Nobody wanted more than I to be one of them, though I'm not sure I had the talent, and I certainly never had a complete enough understanding of what it took to make it happen. If we somehow had "made it", would we have been better off in the long run? In my case, I grudgingly admit it's doubtful. Of course I wouldn't have realized what I had missed; but I would have had to give up a lot of things I have instead--things which, now that I have them, I definitely would not have chosen to miss. And as it turns out, for many illustrators, traditional illustration has not fared too well in the long run as a business. Its decline must be even more disappointing to those who rose higher on it.
I was the same way Paula - I was going to be one of those names in the books we collected. I think we dumped our collection of SOI annuals when Tim went back to the full-time gig and we moved to Florida. I was just saying to him tonight that the upside of giving up on that dream is that I have the mental bandwidth back to actully enjoy my life a little - make some dinner, sew a little, dig in the garden. Art was my life - now life is my life and art is a pretty cool thing I get to do too.
miss chatting with you - hope you are well.K