Discussion Topic Week 2:

Imagine life in 10 years. Artistically, what do you imagine for yourself?

Imagining my artistic life in 10 years is a strange thing because I never know where my interests will lie. For the longest time I've wanted to do book covers like Donato Giancola, Tom Kidd (Genmo) or Gary Gianni. N.C. Wyeth has always been an influence on me for narrative illustration so if you know these artists you can see the lineage from Wyeth. Ideally, I would be able to live out the dream of making a living as an illustrator/artist doing narrative illustration like this. I also imagine myself doing commission work, too in the same vein as narrative illustration. I'm not sure if I will ever get to do this but I can see myself living doing this in 10 years.

A colleague of mine a couple years back began encouraging me to create my own graphic novels. I've always been a huge comic book fan but ever since doing my undergraduate degree I became fascinated with graphic novels....especially the painterly ones. Sequential storytelling is a direct link to narrative illustration so I imagine myself doing this, too.

Spiritually speaking (this is where it gets deep so read on if you dare), a few years ago I began doing performance art/illustration for my church during the worship services. As many of us are visual learners, it helped drive home the core teaching of the sermon dictated by the lead pastor and the dividends being involved artistically continues to this day. I imagine myself continuing to serve with my artistic gifts in 10 years.

I see myself still teaching college life drawing classes, too.