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ICON5 (Part 2)
BY
Andrea Innocent
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ICON 5 – The Big Picture NYC July 2nd to 6th, 2008
(Part Two)
by Andrea Innocent
New to the page? Read Part 1 of Andrea's wonderful coverage of ICON5 before carrying on.
Saturday 5th
The last day of the conference saw me cured of jet lag but with a slight case of information overload. So I sat through a short film by Kirsten Johnson “The Real Art Directors of the New Yorker” and a talk by Gary Panter whilst sipping coffee and unable to take notes, due to my inability to multi-task so early in the morning.
At 11am I was lucid enough to grab my notebook and get some fundamentals down about ‘Right and Copyrights’ by Tad Crawford. There was a lot of talk about the Orphan works bill and I urge all illustrators to sign up for the newsletter here. There will be some major changes ahead for us all, not just US illustrators and artists, should this bill succeed. Tad recommended that you attach your name and the © logo to all your works as well as the year they were created. Being aware of your rights and contracts such as ‘work for hire’ is also extremely important. I can’t recommend doing your homework on this enough, more importantly make sure all of these issues are worked out far ahead of beginning a job. I left this talk with ‘Ask more questions!’ ringing in my head. There really are no dumb questions, after all, but there are dumb answers, like “Why do we need to pay to license this image? We paid you for the job didn’t we?”
We then headed off to our ‘Topical Lunch’ we chose to meet up with Andrew Foster (good choice) at a Mexican restaurant (not so good choice). Andrew works as a lecturer at St. Martins College in the UK and is an illustrator/artist of, in my opinion, awesome proportions. A recent commission was to decorate the windows of the Liberty building in the UK, a huge project that had him working for several days. He showed us a brilliant slideshow of work of people he was, and still is, inspired by as well as his own work through the years. I found his dedication to his art, his own style and choice to follow his own inspiration and create work that made him happy really inspiring.
Andrew Foster
The heavens opened up as we left the restaurant and we managed to swipe a cab along with Andrew himself, great for some private question time and Commonwealth bonding.
I was torn between sessions in the after noon; it was either ‘Gallery 101’ or ‘Making fire inspirational teaching’. I split with Beck and went to ‘Gallery 101’ to hear Jonathon Levine, Tara McPherson, Jordin Isip and Martha Rich. As an illustrator/artist who often shows in both artist run and commercial spaces, I thought this might be a good way to suss out the US art scene. Jordin’s projects I found to be quite similar to ones found in Melbourne, in that they were born from a small tight knit community of creatives wanting to exhibit but with little resources or the finances to do so as individuals alone. The works shown on the slideshow were all very inspiring and best described in style as ‘exquisite corpse’. It was also very interesting to hear Tara’s story, and whilst taking nothing away from her talent, there is a lot to be said for luck and timing when it comes to rises to artistic stardom. She did have some good advice on how to get noticed and self-promotion in general. Jonathon Levine of the ‘Jonathon Levine Gallery’, formerly ‘Tin Man Alley’ also spoke. He predominantly deals with artists working in the realms of pop-surrealism, although most of the works that criss-cross the boundaries of illustration and art and are truly of the moment are generally beyond any specific art movement branding. We had walked the streets of Chelsea, gallery hopping, some days before and I found the experience somewhat alienating and all too Basquiat for me, there appears to be little room for self effacement or humbleness and a real need to believe your own hype when it comes to the ‘underground’ gallery scene in New York. Something that attracts and repulses me to it at the same time.
For the final session that afternoon I headed to ‘What do children’s book illustrators want?’ with Leonard S. Marcus, I figured I had been asked so many times, “Why don’t you do a children’s book?” then at least I should find out what they want. There was plenty of good advice and a good run down of what’s needed as well as a slideshow of the ‘usual suspects’ with a couple of innovators thrown in for good measure but I must admit I was a tad conferenced out by late afternoon and so headed upstairs for a nap before the Closing Keynote and party that night.
The party was a boozy affair and beyond description really, suffice to say it ended in a long line of illustrators snaking their way around the dance floor hands on each other’s hips. Illustrators are like shy children and only seem to make friends with ease when the party is almost over and our parents are turning the house lights on.
In retrospect I am so glad I was able to get to ICON 5 this year, as an artist/illustrator it is so easy to lose direction as there are so many paths you can take in pursuit of a ‘career’, however most of them do not lead to a financially comfortable life that also leaves you artistically satisfied, getting that balance and choosing what you want over what you need is one of the most difficult choices you have to make. If there is one thing I did gain from ICON 5 it was this sense of direction and an ability to make some educated decisions on where I should go from here. I was disappointed by the arrogance or what seemed to be a lack of interest of only a very tiny proportion of the speakers but this was far outweighed by the brilliance and insight of the majority of the speakers who often left me grinning and nodding in agreement of shared experiences as well as in complete awe of their work, and their dedication and passion for illustration.
It was also so cool not to be the only one doodling when sitting in an audience.
Final thoughts/observations:
The table near the entrance of the conference that was for attendees to place their promotional material on (dubbed ‘The Giant promotional table of doom’ by fellow illustrator Joseph Irv ing Dube) resembled my emotions as the days went by; rather orderly and polite on day one, happy but less organized on day two, slightly manic by day three and downright mad and lacking all social graces by day four.
Quotes from my notebook: “Give the client what they never knew they wanted”, “Reinvent yourself”, “Nurture your business relationships”, “Ask for the right $$, stick up for yourself”, “All too often your sketchbook stays in your bag”.
For some reason whilst walking around Brooklyn I began singing to myself “Da da da da da da da da da, Sunny day, everything’s A’ok…”. Until you visit the US I don’t think you really know how much American pop culture has infiltrated the minds of people the world over.
Do not eat a hot dog at Coney Island.
Every city should have a Central Park.
Illustrators, even famous ones, are human too.
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ICON5
New York City
2 - 6 July 2008
Photos and text courtesy of Andrea Innocent
TAXI Design Network is honored to have been in New York City on 2-6 July 2008 to partake in this exciting event.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2003-2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
(Part Two)
by Andrea Innocent
New to the page? Read Part 1 of Andrea's wonderful coverage of ICON5 before carrying on.
Saturday 5th
The last day of the conference saw me cured of jet lag but with a slight case of information overload. So I sat through a short film by Kirsten Johnson “The Real Art Directors of the New Yorker” and a talk by Gary Panter whilst sipping coffee and unable to take notes, due to my inability to multi-task so early in the morning.
At 11am I was lucid enough to grab my notebook and get some fundamentals down about ‘Right and Copyrights’ by Tad Crawford. There was a lot of talk about the Orphan works bill and I urge all illustrators to sign up for the newsletter here. There will be some major changes ahead for us all, not just US illustrators and artists, should this bill succeed. Tad recommended that you attach your name and the © logo to all your works as well as the year they were created. Being aware of your rights and contracts such as ‘work for hire’ is also extremely important. I can’t recommend doing your homework on this enough, more importantly make sure all of these issues are worked out far ahead of beginning a job. I left this talk with ‘Ask more questions!’ ringing in my head. There really are no dumb questions, after all, but there are dumb answers, like “Why do we need to pay to license this image? We paid you for the job didn’t we?”
We then headed off to our ‘Topical Lunch’ we chose to meet up with Andrew Foster (good choice) at a Mexican restaurant (not so good choice). Andrew works as a lecturer at St. Martins College in the UK and is an illustrator/artist of, in my opinion, awesome proportions. A recent commission was to decorate the windows of the Liberty building in the UK, a huge project that had him working for several days. He showed us a brilliant slideshow of work of people he was, and still is, inspired by as well as his own work through the years. I found his dedication to his art, his own style and choice to follow his own inspiration and create work that made him happy really inspiring.
Andrew Foster
The heavens opened up as we left the restaurant and we managed to swipe a cab along with Andrew himself, great for some private question time and Commonwealth bonding.
I was torn between sessions in the after noon; it was either ‘Gallery 101’ or ‘Making fire inspirational teaching’. I split with Beck and went to ‘Gallery 101’ to hear Jonathon Levine, Tara McPherson, Jordin Isip and Martha Rich. As an illustrator/artist who often shows in both artist run and commercial spaces, I thought this might be a good way to suss out the US art scene. Jordin’s projects I found to be quite similar to ones found in Melbourne, in that they were born from a small tight knit community of creatives wanting to exhibit but with little resources or the finances to do so as individuals alone. The works shown on the slideshow were all very inspiring and best described in style as ‘exquisite corpse’. It was also very interesting to hear Tara’s story, and whilst taking nothing away from her talent, there is a lot to be said for luck and timing when it comes to rises to artistic stardom. She did have some good advice on how to get noticed and self-promotion in general. Jonathon Levine of the ‘Jonathon Levine Gallery’, formerly ‘Tin Man Alley’ also spoke. He predominantly deals with artists working in the realms of pop-surrealism, although most of the works that criss-cross the boundaries of illustration and art and are truly of the moment are generally beyond any specific art movement branding. We had walked the streets of Chelsea, gallery hopping, some days before and I found the experience somewhat alienating and all too Basquiat for me, there appears to be little room for self effacement or humbleness and a real need to believe your own hype when it comes to the ‘underground’ gallery scene in New York. Something that attracts and repulses me to it at the same time.
For the final session that afternoon I headed to ‘What do children’s book illustrators want?’ with Leonard S. Marcus, I figured I had been asked so many times, “Why don’t you do a children’s book?” then at least I should find out what they want. There was plenty of good advice and a good run down of what’s needed as well as a slideshow of the ‘usual suspects’ with a couple of innovators thrown in for good measure but I must admit I was a tad conferenced out by late afternoon and so headed upstairs for a nap before the Closing Keynote and party that night.
The party was a boozy affair and beyond description really, suffice to say it ended in a long line of illustrators snaking their way around the dance floor hands on each other’s hips. Illustrators are like shy children and only seem to make friends with ease when the party is almost over and our parents are turning the house lights on.
In retrospect I am so glad I was able to get to ICON 5 this year, as an artist/illustrator it is so easy to lose direction as there are so many paths you can take in pursuit of a ‘career’, however most of them do not lead to a financially comfortable life that also leaves you artistically satisfied, getting that balance and choosing what you want over what you need is one of the most difficult choices you have to make. If there is one thing I did gain from ICON 5 it was this sense of direction and an ability to make some educated decisions on where I should go from here. I was disappointed by the arrogance or what seemed to be a lack of interest of only a very tiny proportion of the speakers but this was far outweighed by the brilliance and insight of the majority of the speakers who often left me grinning and nodding in agreement of shared experiences as well as in complete awe of their work, and their dedication and passion for illustration.
It was also so cool not to be the only one doodling when sitting in an audience.
Final thoughts/observations:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICON5
New York City
2 - 6 July 2008
Photos and text courtesy of Andrea Innocent
 | A self-confessed nipponophile, themes in Andrea's work range from investigations into the cult of otaku to traditional Japanese folk tales and Japanese textiles and their meanings. Her inspirations can come from Japanese television and advertising, books, music, and her dreams. She currently resides in Melbourne with her PA 'Sienna' the cat. She like apples, EngRish, napping in strange places, wandering art shops fondling stationary and is a compulsive note taker and journal maker. Andrea says :Let:s keep making Happy Pictures! http://www.otoshimono.org |
TAXI Design Network is honored to have been in New York City on 2-6 July 2008 to partake in this exciting event.
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© 2003-2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.