Blazing a New Trail
Where Do I Go From Here?
It was my goal that by the end of 2022, I would push myself and take bigger risks for my career. It’s now the middle of 2023, and it’s been almost a year of querying agents. I am proud that I accomplished my goal. I am also grateful for the very kind and thoughtful rejection letters I received from some agents, but I’ll be honest that after each rejection I asked, “Now what?.” And the more I received, the more my brain began to play “What could you make that would appeal to agents and/or publishers?” which is the very worst game.
Fortunately I had the wonderful well-filling distraction of a long-planned family road trip for the first month of summer. It was three weeks of exploring mountains, forests, and deserts with four people and one cat living in a 23 foot camper. I was away from social media and all of the noise that came with it, and I felt like I had my balance again.
Then we came home to a minor plumbing disaster, SAT prep day camp, and my last rejection. It was a hard few weeks, and I once again questioned if what I was doing was right for me. I mean, my life was challenging enough on a daily basis. Did I need to pursue a career where the chances of success were so small? I felt disoriented, and I desperately looked for a sign pointing me to where I needed to go.
Instead, as I looked around I realized that I was not the only one being shaken up this summer. It felt like children’s publishing, social media, and everything was shifting in unpredictable ways, and something inside of me pushed me to find a new way of doing things.
I’m not quite sure what that means yet. I know I’m not going to spend my energy building up the platforms of others to line their pockets at the expense of my art. Don’t get me wrong, I want to stay connected to my community, but I’m not twisting myself inside out to do so.
Right now I’m revisting old art supplies, and finding creativity in new avenues. I am learning, and playing, and making a mess. I am forgetting about everything except the doing, and it feels fantastic.
I wish all of you the same.
Daily Dapples; little spots of joy:
Rick Rubin’s book, “The Creative Act.” If you couldn’t tell by my post, he’s got some real gems regarding creativity. The book has a hippy-dippy vibe, but he has decades of experience in the music industry, and seeing how fiercely he regards protecting and nurturing creativity is inspiring.
UPPERCASE’s Inspiration Encyclopedias. I indulged in acquiring inspiration I could hold in my hand a few weeks back, and I am so happy I did. The volumes I have are bursting with inspiration and joy for creating in all forms and fashion and I get so happy every time I flip through them.
My local library having an awesome catalogue, which means I was able to check out Print-Pattern-Sew by Jen Hewett. I am getting to make art with new techniques and I don’t even care if the results aren’t pretty!
Happy Creating, y’all!
So much work goes on inside that is the real work. It is too precious to make process posts out of. I, too- find so much about (and so many people) hard to handle in children’s publishing these days. I am joining the National Cartoonist Society. I am gonna spend the rest of my days... laughing at and making art that makes me laugh. In 2009, my first agent insisted that I remove the word cartoon from everything- he said don’t even speak it. I’ve supported, cheered on taught, re-drawn work for and consoled more fellow illustrators in the last 16/18 years than I can count. You know. I know all you’ve done. It’s wonderful to find the ability to put one’s own artistic needs and creativity ahead of all of the cacophony of online promotion. We can go quiet and just make what we want.
It's always a healthy choice to take stock of your energy and do what feels sustainable and fulfilling to you!! I agree that all of publishing (all of the WORLD?) seems in flux / fatigued. I think it's why we're seeing record strikes & wage disputes as well. ...and also billionaires ruining social media just for fun. Love that you are grounding yourself in creative practice (Jen Hewett is so great!) and travel and adventure and SO glad you had a great trip! Love you, D!