A Change of Direction

Anyone belonging to my yahoo group will know I don't sell my work very often. Over the last two years I've been hoarding my work for my show string. I had a few goals in mind I wanted to accomplish and selling any of my work ran contrary to that. Primarily, I wanted to show at NAN and Breyerfest to see where I stood nationally. I'm proud to say I exceed my expectations and my success has encouraged me to continue to work and to further push myself to improve.

We are very proud of you.

My father sent me the above as a text message last Saturday following a show. One of my parents will usually ask how well I did following a show when they remember I've attended one. They don't understand the details (I typically have to reexplain what a NAN card means) so I tend to keep it to "I won a championship/overall championship/overall reserve/etc." or "I got my ass kicked."

This weekend I got my ass kicked.

Considering the immense quality of the competition in Region 1 and particularly at the show this weekend, there's no shame in a loss. But the text I got from my father wasn't in response to the show at all. They were proud because I sold a horse.

In the past, my model work has been a source for superfluous amounts of anxiety for my family. They aren't horse people, and they consider the models seriously weird. In order to keep the peace, I've periodically gone into hiatus or had to hide my work. My family's change of heart is very good news.

This is the first time in my life that models have been my soul source of income. A month ago, my contract position ended. As you know, the economy isn't great. Hiring is moving at a snail's pace and most companies consider graphic designer (my day job) disposable. Actually, it's worse than that as I've primarily worked as a graphic illustrator: the most disposable of the disposable.

To make a long story short, models may be my primary income for a while. Expect to see new work pop up for sale on a regular basis. I have a few medallion-type projects planned for the spring which should be previewed here soon.