Iconoclastic Elastic

I went to a really great talk last night put on by SILA, Society of Illustrators Los Angeles at Art Center College of Design. The event was very exciting for me for many reasons.

• I got a chance to hear 3 wonderful, talented Illustrators speak, Martha Rich, Jody Hewgill, and James Jean.
• Network with fabulous Illustrators and Illustration Students
• Foster Relationships with SILA members to begin a Student Group at CSUN
• Last but not least the Art Event staple, Brie and Fruit, yummy!!

The lecture was very insightful on the development of each persons style, approach, and problem solving skills. It reminded me of some key things to approaching my art. Keep the passion alive! Each person has very notable credits and achievements to their career but it was interesting to hear the stories, hard work, and struggle to get to the point they were at today.

So I had an idea. I need to really do some more soul searching. I plan to do a lot of that this coming spring on my travels but in the meantime as I wrap up my college career, I really want to visit the inner most things that make me do what I do. Over the summer I was really stressing that I need a style ASAP. While I'm still anxious I think paying attention to what makes me happy, makes my skin crawl, cry, laugh, etc will aid me and make my Illustrations better.

Martha Rich reminded me of this when she fondly spoke of her life changing experience with The Clayton Brothers Intro to Illustration class through Art Center Nights. They push students to tap deeper, pay attention to your inspirations in and outside of the art world, and "Paint with your Soul." The lessons were invaluable! But for people that really know me, I am very methodical and stubborn. I research, research, research until I adopt something new into my life. It works for me usually, but for art it has had a slight challenge. I need to let go more and just be.

So back to the idea I was talking about(I digress a lot LOL!!!), I'm going to start really paying attention to what inspires me, makes me tick, makes me energetic, sad, hungry, etc. Tap into my old hobbies and passions like:

• jewelry making
• making children laugh
• hanging light fixture craft
• story telling
• scrapbooking
• crafting
• fashion design & sewing
• making model classic cars
  

I'm going to start my:

• Road to Artdom Manual that I've have had planned for almost a year now (It's a pretty cool guide I made up)
• an Inspiration Notebook w/ cutouts, doodles, photos, postcards, etc
  
• Inspiration Wall in my room with quotes, visuals, my work, photos etc

So I took this post in a whole different direction than I expected! I'm writing a 3 page paper on the talk for my Senior Projects class, I might post it so others can get the juice and push I got.