here we go again

Next week the Directory of Illustration should begin shipping around the country. I took an ad out this year and am anxious to see the final product. It is always a crap shoot whether the investment pays off when one chooses to advertise in the big books of art. Sometimes it feels like you just get lost in a sea of lines, colors and patterns. Other times it feels like a necessary part of promotion and the dividends are that the ad pays for itself and then some. The test in the 'year of the crappy economy' will be whether it really is good to advertise when no one else is. Not that no one else is advertising, but I am fairly certain that the book isn't as thick as when the money flows freely. Maybe that counts in my favor. Maybe not. Maybe the people who get the book and buy art won't be buying this year. Only time will tell. Thank God for itemized deductions!

forums....

Ok, so I am digitally capable. Give me Photoshop, Illustrator, yes even Flash and I can handle it. I can make things, I can even talk you through a technical issue on the phone, without being near my computer! Yes, I have some skills. I started on Photoshop when it was version 3.0. And yes there really was a Photoshop 3.0! It was an exciting time in history, Photoshop got layers in 3.0. This post really isn't about my ability in Photoshop though. What I wanted to talk about is that I have been such the loner artist. Toiling away in my office/studio. Sketchpads by the dozens in the bookshelf always at the ready. I have a website obviously, am on Linkedin, do this blog, but alas I have never joined any professional forums. That all changed tonight. I am officially on an artist forum. I had never really thought about connecting with fellow illustrators that way. I don't know why I haven't thought of it. Makes perfect sense. I think as artists, especially those of us who have had the good fortune to work our trade full time, it is easy to become reclusive, save for the client contacts. It is easy to forget to talk to other artists. We get into our art, into our inspiration, our muses and our loves and don't think about connecting with other artists. I also think it is in our nature to be distrustful of other artists. We have to have such a healthy dose of ego, to put up with all the rejection, that we see other artists as threats. Even if that feeling is subconscious. We need to exert our dominance, to feel special and unique. It makes sense, we spend our lives trying to express our own voice, the last thing we want is to meet someone else who may be better than us, or God forbid more unique! Whether we want to admit it or not, we artists are insanely competitive. We have to be. Not that we can't be nice and supportive, but there is an inkling of competition always within most of us. I think it is our nature. 

I am putting aside my inflated sense of art self and publicly acknowledging that there are gazillions of other artists who are better than me, and do a better job of managing their careers. And to you I say 'Hell Yes' and hope that I can shut up and take notes and hopefully make some new friends that give me pause (and learn a thing or two).