"Or...why I decided to leave the graphic design industry"
When I was very, very young I loved to draw. I would draw pictures of battles between soldiers and spacemen, pictures of airplanes and ships at sea, drawings of people that I knew, coal miners that played cards with my dad, copies of pictures from National Geographic, animals on the farm and in the field, and sometimes landscapes. This all began when I was around 6 or 7. My grandparents had a hotel with some regular boarders. Some would make fun of my constantly drawing, others encouraged me. My own family didn't hold too much with art. They felt it was a waste of time.
But, all-in-all, I just loved to draw. And eventually I took to painting too. The one thing that I loved best with this creative process is that I got to express myself. My feelings about the character in faces, the beauty and grace of animals, the wonder of the texture and colors in landscape. When I was a teenager I knew some fellow students that were better than me, Richard Krukowski, Patrick Murphy, and probably others. But I still got to create what moved me, no matter how good or bad the work may have been.When I was in the military I often used my skills to create art for my friends, for my duty station, for the people that I met in foreign lands. I even used my artistic skills to woo my to-be wife Jewel when I was in Vietnam in the late 60's. As I did more, I improved my skills to the point that I felt I could make a career from my art and live happily ever after. At the encouragement of my wife I left the military after over 11 years to go to art school and change the course of my life. Well, while I was still in art school I was offered a job as art director for a Northeast Pennsylvania ad agency. With a family of 4 to look after I took the job right after graduation. It didn't take long to realize that graphic art was considerably different than fine art. First off you had to please a client, not yourself. To do that you often had to compromise your personal aesthetic tastes and quite often you were required by the customer to cram a bunch of stuff into a small space. It became more a matter of fitting things in than quality design. But, by that time I became dependant on the income from graphic design and had to often give up my personal design sense.
Move forward over 30 years. I've worked as an art director 3 times, an ad manager 1 time, and a small business owner 3 times, all in the graphics industry. Once in a while I was able to actually affect the outcome of the design beyond a customers input. Some customers even actually encouraged me to go-ahead and design something my way. That got me several design awards over the years. But it still didn't satisfy the desire to express my own creativity as much as drawing and painting from my heart.
Last year I made the leap, from graphic designer to fine art artist. I've had several shows since last October, some successful financially, some not so. BUT, all of the shows got accolades from the guests, even my fellow artists. Much more rewarding than the Graphics Industry.
I still get requests from people who know that I am adept at graphic design, especially on the computer. I find that the time I spend on the computer designing graphic pieces is far too time consuming for the meager rewards that are gleaned. When I draw and paint from my heart, no matter what I might make financially, the real reward is the pleasure I get from doing the art piece. Working on graphic designs take time away from my paintings and working in my favorite medium, egg tempera takes a great deal of time to produce the delicate details and glowing colors that only come through multiple layers of glazing. Therefore I only take on graphic design jobs that help friends in the industry or that are needed for charity.
Just one more note on this subject. For most of my adult life, wherever I worked, on Christmas I would give a piece of my personal art to a fellow employee, even in the military I did this. I loved to see the smiles on the faces of my fellow workers, and friends. About 18 years ago, a fellow worker had a baby a few months before the holiday season. I secretly did a pastel drawing of her little baby boy and when we were exchanging gifts at Christmas, I gave it to her. She cried, and cried. For hours she would take the piece around the workplace and show everyone, and cry from joy. Well, sometimes I get thousands of dollars for a painting. Not matter what I may get financially, nothing could be more rewarding than the reaction of a fellow human being when they are happy with the gift of my personal creativity.
More than a match for working on graphic design projects.
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