Home in Atlanta

After the flood, I'm guessing that the mysterious higher powers have taken pity on me and granted me some good fortune the past few weeks. Mainly, I got a job. Several jobs. Sealing my deal to stay in Atlanta, at least for the forseeable future.

I'm working at Brown Bag Marketing as an in-house illustrator. I've been promised full-time status when I graduate from school (yes, still at Portfolio Center, but taking less classes to accomadate for the 30+ hours a week that I work at Brown Bag), and am working mainly with a client that produces casino games. I am drawing lots of shiny gaudy stuff all day long, and I like it a whole lot. The schedule is fairly aggressive, so I'm always busy, but it feels nice to know that once I graduate, I have a sense of security in how I'm going to support myself / pay off my student loans.

However, during the time after the flood and before I was brought into Brown Bag, I had accepted to work on no fewer that four freelance jobs. A greeting card for a financial group, a header/logo for a financial group, a new holiday children's book for Jackson Fish Market, and illustrations for the Georgia Recycling Coalition, a department of the Atlanta government. So, needless to say, I've been in the business of being very busy.

Also! My children's book is finally on the web. Take a look for yourself at "The Frog Princess" on A Story Before Bed. There are many other esteemed colleagues of mine (haha, guys) who have stories published on there as well. Please let your friends with children in their lives know about this awesome web app. I hope it catches on, because the idea is great. My next book for them comes out before the holidays, so I'll keep you guys up to date with that as well.

I'm going to be looking at an apartment this weekend that's in the neighborhood that I love, and I don't want to jinx it by talking about it, but...it's so cute. I'm looking forward to moving on.

A new quarter, the last quarter.

Wrapped up the boutique job on Monday--glad to have that over with and also glad that it survived the flooding of my apartment. All that spray fixative really paid off, in the end.

Life is starting to look up these days, in spite of the less fun parts of my real-life. I've talked with fellow illustrators in the area and I know that we all have gotten about 3 to 4 phone calls this week about jobs and projects. This was also the last first week of school for me, and it looks like it's going to be a busy one.

I'm done with Portfolio Center in December. I kind of can't believe it. It's been such a part of my life for the past 2 years. In spite of all the headaches (and, lately, heartaches), it really did change who I am, what kind of artist I am, and what I want to be and do. For that, I guess, I'm pretty thankful. I had some dark moments right before the move to Atlanta. I'm still not 100% sure if this is the city I want to be in forever, but I need to give it a fair chance. As in, actually experience life in this city, instead of staying cooped up in the apartment all day long doing work.

Some new developments are taking place, re: those jobs I was talking about. More about those soon.