Sheets of ice on the roads, on the sidewalks making us all shuffle and skitter to get around this morning. The pool was happily not crowded so I could continue to solve the world's problems during my regular back and forth. I love the striped line and the two crosses at either end of the pool acting as the comma, the comma, the semi-colon, the open quote and then finally, the close quote..of the thinking and journey through the water. It was very cathartic and filled with intellectual lists of things to do, things to send out, things to complete.
Was thinking about the ideas of "passing on", "passing","slipping the bounds" and the images that surround those ideas. Also thinking about the snake biting it's tail as seen in the wonderful Suzanna Jayne marker and the opportunities with that (the symbol of continuous life, life everlasting--a symbol of a continum). I love the way snakes look--their graphic quality, the texture they have and the way they can fill a page...creating a dynamic layout. Entwining, overlapping...calligraphic.
While musing on snakes, ropes (the bounds) and doorways (all in the Memento Mori context) I started thinking about decoration or decorative illustration versus editorial and my preconceived bias that one is "better" than the other. One is truly Illustration (with the capital I) and the other is "paying work". I am feeling a bit like the work that I am doing is more in the camp of decoration versus "real" illustration--and frankly, I am getting through this without worrying about the real-ness. My new thinking about illustration is that the world of editorial work has shifted out...much like typesetting in the eighties...and there are new opportunities out there beyond editorial. Editorial is just one slice of the illustration pie. There are a bunch of newbie illustrators being graduated annually from schools across the country--and there seems to be all sorts of work out there. Plus, if you look at it through my lens, three years ago I would not have been considered nor had the confidence to say that yes, I can do this project, yes I can create an image and yes, I can hold my head up and not feel like I am pulling some rabbit out of a hat. And someone (meaning my new clients) think I can illustrate too. It is going into publications, on products, within environments (just found out that a mix of animals are going to be part of a new lobby design at Cornell's Baker Institute--need to do a llama to complete the mix). It's paying. I can say that I have made the money for my time at Hartford (or will by that time) with illustration. So, a new income stream has opened up for me as well. And recognition? This is the stuff that is getting me noticed too.
So, real or not-- I guess it's working. And it's been a significant shift in the last year. Such that it is occupying a real spot on my work roster. And, the more illustration I do, the better I get...and the wheel starts spinning...right now, its spinning pretty quickly.