Posts tagged art

When I feel frustrated by two illustration projects at the same time:

(I promise to post something real…soonish.)

Yesterday, I added a bunch of artwork to my shop. Drawings, sketch cards and a couple of fine art prints. Most of them are centered around classic films, so check out the selection if you’re a fan. 

So, I’m reading Joseph Campbell again. Whenever I’m feeling lost/screwed/stuck, I go back to Campbell. That, or Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, but it’s Campbell this time. I’ve never met the man, but I feel that he’s the closest thing I have to a spiritual mentor. 

This go around, it’s Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion. It’s probably one of the more personable books of his that I’ve read, more a collection of sayings and short lectures than actual, dense essays. In an early part of the book, he’s talking about his experiences during the Great Depression, in his late 20’s and broke and out of work like most people, and traveling out West, to Hawaii and California. Just wandering, but in those wanderings meeting the likes of John Steinbeck, and finding something in the way of a life path and philosophy. This is sort of revelatory for me, explosive.

I think part of the reason for this is that I never really ‘wandered’ after college. I lived in two cities in my 20’s, Omaha and Minneapolis, and towards the end made a big leap to Philadelphia. During this time, I seemed caught up in holding a job and having some sort of health insurance and staying put (concerns that my parents seemed particularly insistent about), or furthering my education (a concern of many of my college professors). But I never just jumped in my car, and drove off into the sunset, and made things up as I went along. An overly Romantic notion, most likely, but I still feel like I missed an opportunity.

However, though I wasn’t much of a physical wanderer, I seem to be in the midst of some kind of creative wandering. Since college, where I decided for some reason to pursue Art, I’ve drifted from printmaking to illustration to comics, and now seem to be bouncing in between these. And the subjects have been no different, ranging from fairy tales to youthful romance to supernatural mysticism to space aliens, and now to medieval fantasy worlds. It’s a frustrating and strange place to be, and yet I can’t help but just go along with the current. 

I will say this, I can no longer put a ‘To be continued…’ or a ‘Coming up next in…’ after a story I make. I hoped to have the discipline for this, I wanted to have the discipline for this, but I don’t think I do right now. It’s not a good thing for a wanderer, and it’s especially hard on the reader. But, I hope a small part of them is willing to skip along.

Or, a more focused, leaner approach to my portfolio. See it all at the link:

Mike Sgier - Illustration, Comics & Art