Tuesday, June 10, 2008

My journey through the arts.

I've expressed myself through a lot of different art forms over the years.

It all started with cartoons. I loved them. I loved to draw them. Growing up, all people would notice about me is that I was always drawing. Even while sitting in church, my mom reminded me that I used to draw the entire United States, and not be satisfied until I filled in every state. (Yeah, I like maps too). If you were to track down a childhood friend of mine and ask what they think I'm doing for a living, they'd probably assume something with cartoons.

I originally wanted to draw comic strips for the newspaper. I mimicked all my favorites from Garfield to Calvin & Hobbes. But the thought of having to come up with a new joke for every day scared me. So I kept my options open.

In high school I was still drawing, but was also incorporating a comic book style. I also started doing airbrush illustrations (because me and a paint brush just don't get along), and got into graphic design as well. Another thing that influenced me was when I first used Painter on my high school's Macintosh Quadra 610. Haha, I can't believe I still remember that.

I still did cartoons a lot. And because of a trip to Disney World, I saw the process of animation first hand... I was hooked.

When choosing a college, I decided to pursue animation. Not only did it allow me to draw, but I found myself fascinated with the physics of life, how and why things move, and how to have a great time exaggerating them.

After one degree and finding out that the animation (or at least traditional or 2D animation) was a fading business and impossible to get a job in, I was forced to re-analyze my art.

I went back to college for a second degree in Motion Graphics... which is kind of a mix of graphic design and animation. I interned for a company while still in school and was fortunate enough to get hired there after graduation. And am still working there 5 years later. Only after being employed there for a couple years did I start dabbling with portrait photography on the side. And that catches you up to what I'm currently doing.

Wow, that took a little longer that I expected to explain. Sorry.

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