An Artist Q&A

(This is not a comic post, this is a "ramble" post)

It's been so long since I've *written* a blog post, I am not sure how to appropriately begin...so I'll just start talking.
About a week and a half ago, I received correspondence from Patience Brewster...Patience is an amazingly imaginative, well known illustrator. I first discovered her work about 10 years ago, when I acquired a little day planner with some of her fantasy art as a design motif. Immediately, I fell in love with her work. It's fantasy art, but...there is something so distinctly original and hilarious about her pictures. Something extra special for a weirdo to appreciate.

In essence, Patience has asked me to participate in sharing some stuff about my artist self. This is fitting, as whatever I do tend to share is not so much about my artist self, just all my other selves. So, here are five questions that I have been given to ponder on and answer:

1) As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?
Well, does an obsession with Popeye count? I've always loved cartoons. In my early childhood I also recall a strong fondness for "In a Dark Dark Room" (I believe this particular version was a Scholastic publication, with very intense illustrations) and Stephen Gammell's wicked scary pictures in the Scary Stories books by Alvin Schwartz. Quentin Blake's work in the Roald Dahl books (ALL OF THEM!) Oh! And the art by Rien Poortvliet in the Gnomes book (written by Wil Huygen). Those are the ones that stand out most.

2) As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work?
Humor. Silliness. Play. Laughing is my favorite thing in all the world, I love doing it, I love other people doing it, I love hearing it, I love causing it. Perhaps I subconsciously try to portray some sort of personal diagram of self acceptance. Life is not all good and sparkly, it can be ugly and pain-filled at times, or it can be any gray area of dangerous/fun/boring/delightful, etc...but man, there's always ALWAYS something to laugh at.

3) What memorable responses have you had to your work?

This was the most difficult of the five questions for me. Every response is a memorable one, honestly, as I don't get tons and tons. I take every sale as a compliment! Actually, here's a list of things that I consider to be huge compliments and/or great big hugs (in no particular order):
Tattoos of my work
commission requests
Repeat sales/ repeat customers
Word of mouth

Of course, I have encountered a low to moderate amount of negative feedback. Honestly, I take most of it as an issue of taste. We all have different cone and rod set ups for our eyeballs, we all have assorted life experiences which sway us in certain ways, we are all doing our own different life-things-and-stuff. I don't take a lot of it personally. I don't take it personally if someone doesn't like waffles, or roses, or rose-flavored waffles. To each their own!

4) What is your dream project?
There are so many. To generalize a bit, I'd love to work REALLY big. Mural big. Billboard big. BIG! A coloring book (somewhat in the works). Illustrating a book, or a board game (does this make me sound obsolete?)

5) What artists, of any medium, do you admire?
Jim Henson and Dr. Seuss - they make me laugh
Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley - I love etchings and black and white line work. They are both bizarre and hilarious as well.
Bill Watterson. Gary Larson. Bill Amend.
Frances Hodgson Burnett. She wrote The Secret Garden. What I admire about her is her sheer love for writing- she was so poor at one time that she could not afford paper to write on, so she saved and used every old scrap- the backs of envelopes, inside of book covers, anything. That is perseverance. That is admirable.
Pretty much anyone that can play an instrument.

I want to take a moment to thank Patience Brewster for encouraging my participation in this Q&A. Imagine an artist that adores Christmas as much (or probably MORE) than I dislike Christmas...That is Patience! She has brought so many of her whimsical illustrations to life as Christmas ornaments, so please take a moment to check those out at this link, perhaps get a big head start on the holiday shopping:
https://www.patiencebrewster.com/ornaments
Of course, Patience has her own Artist Q&A blog post, at this link:
https://www.patiencebrewster.com/blog/qa/

I hope all of you who have stuck through this ramble have enjoyed reading! If you have any questions of your own that you'd like to ask me, I do welcome them! You may ask them here in the comments, or you can always send me an email at darklingem@gmail.com

xo!
Em
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