sneak peek

Last night we went to dinner with Penelope, our gallery director Neysa, and Debra and Ivan from Art and Design. It was great to get everyone together since Penelope is only here for a few days and is teaching the bulk of the time- this was really everyone's only opportunity to meet while she's here.

It was a great night with wonderful conversation. After dinner I took Penelope and Ivan Brunetti (who is also a great comic artist) along with my husband Davey to see the work that's arrived so far for the show. Penelope won't be able to make it back to Chicago for the exhibit, so this was her only opportunity to see the work that will be shown along with hers.

It was so great for me to look at everything with her, Ivan and Davey. I had privately geeked out on everything since its arrival, but had not as yet had that chance to have other illustration-appreciating peoples to look at it with and discuss it with.

Everyone was awestruck by the talent, ability and techniques that the artists use. There are some surprises in seeing the work in person too. From having seen the artwork in print, you gather your own assumptions about scale, media, texture, etc. Having the physical pieces in front of us, there are times where everything you thought about the piece from seeing it printed wasn't accurate. There were some that we thought would be a lot bigger or smaller, some that we had thought were digital (that aren't), surface surprises, etc. I loved having conversations with everyone last night about the work, particularly getting Penelope's perspective because she's such a great artist herself.

Davey is in the music business and at the end of the night articulated something that i had been really impressed with as well. He said that it was so good to be around artists who can look at and appreciate another person's work the way that everyone did last night. Penelope is massively successful, and showed no signs at all of ego or anything but pure love of art and appreciation for everyone's skills. It is really refreshing to see someone that doesn't get threatened or competitive but can look at really beautiful work and appreciate it as such. I guess that's a sign of being really good at what you do, and of being in it for the right reasons. I'm so glad that she made the trip here.