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I remember vaguely moving to Minnesota, land of adventure and opportunity, and a great place to be a little kid. I felt totally safe, and loved and able to run free and play in the Mississippi River. I remember loving MN, but that is once again dulled by age. I know that the insurmountable distances I remember are probably little more than a half-mile and I know that the huge buildings were perhaps 3 stories. I get to go back in the summer to see where I grew up; I'm looking forward to it. Some of the most influential events of my life
happened in MN:
And finally, My dad getting a job as the Minister at the National Swedenborgian church in Washington DC. That meant a move. To Rockville, in the suburbs of D.C. This happened
right as people my age were going through puberty. I found that art was
my ticket to survival. While other kids were being beaten for geeky/nerdy
behavior, a well-timed rendering of "Voltron, defender of the universe"
would stave off a would-be attacker. They would stop to see what I was
drawing, and ask for a picture of their own instead of beating me.
The School
of Visual Arts in N.Y.C. won the lottery as the school that gave me
the biggest scholarship to attend. So off I went to the big city! Eating
Sleeping and Drinking Art. That first year was amazing, so was the second.
In September of that third year, I lost my father to cancer. Around that
same time, I realized that I liked painting too much to do it for a living.
Illustration was subject to far to many whims of the clientÖ so I turned
to sculpture a far more planned and rational medium. I enjoyed the intellectual
challenge of moving sculpture, and the reality of the careful planning
that was necessary to make even the simplest sculpture a reality. The stages
of sketching were meaningful, and once approved, it was easy to say to
the teacher/client "This is what you asked for. See here is the sketch
you approved. This is it. Changes are extra."
Graduation sent me on the warpath, looking for
work. I was hoping for a job at an exhibit company. Something that would
really but my 3-D design skills to the test. I went from model shop to
model shop, and to the few exhibit places I could find. No one was hiringÖ
It was a mild recession. Fortunately one of my teachers, Ellen Rixford,
needed some help on a project, so I made it a point to canvas other teachers,
and wouldn't you know it. My Toy and Game design professor needed help.
Well one of my employers taught in the FIT
toy design program, she coerced me into applying, I was promptly accepted,
and rejoined the sub-human status of being a student. I don't regret that.
I got to fill in several gaps in my education. S.V.A. is a fantastic school.
It teaches art. It did a lot to free me and build a strong philosophical
basis for being an artist. It helped me look at things a little differently,
and it also gave me the chance to explore options I might not otherwise
have looked at.
The position was part of the development team at Pragmatic Designs Inc., an electronics oriented toy design firm. In many ways PDI was responsible for the voice chip revolution in toys. With partners, they had helped make all sorts of nationally recognized toys. The next step as they saw it was to move into the realm of complete toy invention. So they hired me. I was the sort of jack of all trades they were looking for. Ideas, drawings, models, as part of the design team we were delving into dolls, and games, and other things that I am not allowed to talk about. Meanwhile, they had hired another product designer, who was there to work on a secondary project: The Digi-Frame. For the next 6 months we still did toys, I helped
with the company logo, and some of the graphics work of the new company.
Gradually they stopped taking in toy work, and put me on making the manuals
for these new products.
-September 2001 For the next 6 months we still did toys, I helped with the company logo, and some of the graphics work of the new company. Gradually they stopped taking in toy work, and put me on making the manuals for these new products. One day, spring 2000, we were all called into the conference room. It was announcement time: "We have legally changed the name of this company to Digi-Frame Inc. We are now in the electronics manufacturing business." That was the end of toys at Pragmatic Designs, at least for the foreseeable future. It didn't take long after that announcement that I was on the hunt for a new job. Even this website was a part of the plan. In a few months, at the begining of the economy's slowdown last november I got a new job. I was a designer of toys again! Hired by Toy Biz, a division of marvel comics. For their "Advanced Concepts Division" It was a grand experiance, except that the work suddenly dried up, my second day there. A week later, I was called into a meeting: Due to a financial turnaround last Christmas, the entire division was layed off. That included everyone involved in the hiring desision. And suddenly I found myself out of work. So it looked like back to freelance for me. I knew that Digi-Frame still needed graphics work, and I knew how to do it. I called to ask if they could use me on occasion, and within an hour, they hired me back. I think that it's hard to get a better reference. They knew I wasn't happy there, with the work, but for the next few months I helped keep Digi-Frame on course, and I even got to design the 2001 catalogue. However it wasn't long before I got an offer to design licenced bags for Romar, a children's accessory company, and even if it wasn't toys, it was for children. It was fun. It was an oppritunity to move back into New York City. The other advantage of the new job is that I had the money to really enjoy this great city! Seeing the museams! enjoying the parks! Going dancing! This really is a fantastic town! I also took up rock climbing, Sadly all in gyms, but I am working on finding some real rocks. Working for Romar was fun for a while, I was learning
about how bags were made. But in the end it was only fullfilling to a part
of who I am. I had to spread my wings again. So I am once again back to
free-lancing, there is a way that this feels a lot more natural to me.
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