Straight from the Book

This week something monumental happened. While waiting for the sink in the bathroom at job-job I identified my two greatest pet peeves. Today at She Sure is Sketchy I share the first. 

#1 - I hate when someone doesn't know I am being funny. Seriously. I loathe this. I despise when my joke goes over some body's head and they catch a wisp of it. I feel icky when they make a lower/more obvious version of it for the masses. (This is in no way attached to my hilarity process with most of my friends, where we spitball off each other's funnies TMNT style)

Coming to this revelation reminded me of an experience I had on opposite day six months ago. During a Women in Animation panel at my Alma Mater I got a full room of seemingly shy people ear/side splitting and busting guts during a panel discussion. Someone asked me where I get my best ideas. I blinked twice and then, in earnest, said, 'from my sketchbook'.

*ROOM EXPLODES INTO LAUGHTER*

Seriously though guys. Seriously?

Sketchbook Retirement - #12

Who: Moleskine
What: Cardboard Cover, Rounded Corners, Inner Pocket, Ribbon Bookmark
When: September 3, 2006
Where: The Field Museum / 1400 S Lake Shore Drive /Chicago / IL 60605

Why: I wanted something portable for the rest of my trip in Chicago. I liked that it would fit in my pocket, carry my ID and some cash and that it was black.
Incidentals: At that time I wanted EVERYTHING to be black. If this photo had been taken that day at the museum, my nails would have been black to match. This is my first Moleskine. A hallowed event for sure.

Underlying Unintentional Sketchbook Theme: Inklings of ideas. Half baked thoughts. Baby Mermaid Development, Poetry. Appointments and People.

.....................................................................................

Dearest #12,
I remember that freezing September day when I first saw you sitting in a Natural History gift shop. I marveled at your compact size. I asked the sales boy all about you and he said that real artists loved you more than all the others. I knew that was what I would like to be best of all and so I picked you up and plunked down what then seemed like a monumental amount of cash for your 3x5" dimensions.


My travel companions were all jonesing for a smoke. I christened your pages in a freezing park while they filled their lungs with their cherished tobacco and I filled mine with what felt like shards of glass in that icy Chicago air. There were pigeons and babies and this is what I drew on your pages the first time my pen ever met your acquaintance.

Because you are mine body and soul, your pages are often fish laden, although you can see that these fish happened before I really hit my cold blooded stride. I guess I wasn't a "real" artist quite yet. Your fish are kind of awkward, albeit charming.


I was leafing through your pages and I found a portrait of my new, now old friend, Rachel. This must have been before I flat out refused to draw people I know for their base entertainment. So it was before I had airs, or at least 'the airs of a real artist.


Since this was before the days of a full time artist life, there are gems like this from public parks, without coffee, because back then coffee was too expensive.


This conversation reads
I see a scooter!
-- I see a sign!
I see a tree!
-- I see a million trees!
I see your butt! AUGHHHHHHHH!!
--AUGHHHHHHHH!!
Genius.

Of all your pages, perhaps this is my favorite. It reads: "How bad (not badly - apparently I wasn't so concerned with grammar on these particular tombs) do you want to do it and how bad do you want to do it in New York?"


I am reminded of how close I was to leaving my beloved Brooklyn, broke as a street urchin and working my charcoal scuffed fingers to the bone. I am impressed by you, #12. You remind me how much things have changed and how much they have not.

I am still fully invested in Burlesque bars, even if they're now en vogue and can be visited in every part of New York and I no longer have to travel to any seedy underbelly of society.


Your pages hint at coming brilliance. The development of a line of Baby Mermaids is begun with real promise here. So I owe you a lot. Who knew how far that would stretch?



How could I know that this unrestrained madness in your first few pages



Would later translate to this in the swan song of your last few pages?


And in years from then to this:

Yes, in my career as a real artist, your pages have mattered. I can see what that boy in the shop meant.

Thank you for your contribution to my lovely "real" artist life.
Yours,
Amber

P.S. With my coming show I am transitioning a large amount of sketch pages and random bits of paper. Somehow #12 was unearthed in the tumult and I was reminded of our relationship and it's bittersweet nature, teaming between innocent ideals and bitter artistic frustration. 20/20 hindsight has been good to us here. I felt that #12 deserved a proper retirement, She Sure is Sketchy style.

As always, thanks to Valerie Best's brilliant T-Shirt Project for giving me the inspiration to begin this tradition here too.
Listening to right this second: Happiness is a Warm Gun by the Beatles

Smile!

Get the Horns Ready... Man The Drumline....

Tah Tah Da Dah!!!

It's hot - It's cute - It's Sassy...Sexy...Sweet...

It's an Amberbop Shop!!!

That's right lovelies! After years of buying handmade I decided it was time to jump on board and get my own shop. You can pick up my art and use it as it's intended.

Get it up on your walls!

Ok, run don't walk!

PS. In other exciting news: I had the best hair day of the year today :) I had three strangers ask me about it, one even asked where I "had it done."

Surtex Count Down!!

I'll be at Surtex in Less than two weeks, much less than two weeks. Ok, let's be honest. I'm kind of freaking out. Ok, I'm really freaking out. My problem is that when I truly freak out I give myself a migraine forcing me to take a full ten hour time-out. Thus, I have to monitor my freak out levels so as to stay functioning. SO EXASPERATING!

I'm wandering into the slightly unknown when it comes to Surtex. Luckily I have a ton of experience with large shows and I'll be drawing on that. My mom has been defying child labor laws since 1987 when she used to dress me and my younger sister up in matching dresses and take us to gigantic craft fairs huge conference centers. We would work ten hour days as her "special sales girls." A lot has changed since the days when I used to work in exchange for pretty stickers and crayola crayons . . . I now work to buy Winsor & Newton inks... I'm ever so thankful for the sales experience. You should check her stuff out over at
Betty Tags.
She pretty much rocks.

I also have a unique situation at my job. I animate for a company that is smart enough to send their artists away on business trips to conferences now and again. That way we can talk with the people buying product and see how things are being received. These are done in pure convention style very similar to Surtex. I'm sure my experience with the shows that I go to for work in Chicago and Florida will be slightly different than my upcoming show in Manhattan. I'm afraid there won't be Hilton Hotel rooms, 600 thread count sheets and five course meals in the cards. . . sigh. . .

I have tons to do to get ready so my posting here at 'She Sure is Sketchy' may be sporadic. I've discovered that if I take a cold shower at one in the morning I can keep drawing for another hour or two :) I was supposed to get a new website up in time for the event. I'm on an illustration roll and I don't really want to stop to program stuff in html. It's a tough call. I'm still swamped creating intellectual property and filing art for copyright.

Okay, since I despise posting stuff that's just text, here's another peek at my Baby Mermaids. They're scheduled to make their official debut in ten days. . . but who's counting?
Ps. Come say 'Hi' at Surtex 2008!!! I'm in booth 2518 in Hall 1E. Come pick up a temporary tattoo and a smile :)

Communication

Mermaid Post-Its - because Mermaids are awesome

Baby Mermaids!!!!

I'm really excited about these babies. These are really early on in the creative process but I really can't wait to keep developing these. They'll be headlining on my new greeting card series. Yay!