FullBleed

Photo courtesy Sean McCormick

Russell Heimlich is a lefty. And an only child. And he knows a thing or two about computers.

“My parents really wanted me to be good at computers, so there has been a computer in our house for as long as I can remember. My first computer was a Commodore 64; my parents wrote DOS commands so I could play games,” he said. “As we upgraded computers I learned more and more about them. My dad worked for the government, and he once took me in so I could use Gopher, a pre-Internet computer network.”

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Wisconsin-native Jen Fose admits to being the black sheep of her large, mid-western family. Of her 25 cousins, she’s the only one who “stayed the somewhat uncertain course of a creative professional.”

Now, the 25-year-old is living in DC and working with the Creative Studio team at Ogilvy; not necessarily your black sheep of design leaders in the industry.

“My family members have all selected very practical career pathways and have become either accountants or engineers,” she said, acknowledging that she’s always received widespread support from her family for her creative pursuits. “I’ve proven that you can make a living doing something a bit less conventional.”

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Since graduating from McGill University in Montreal, Claire Manibog has been working as a philanthropic advisor — and she loves it.

“Basically, I help people like Bill Gates make smart choices when they donate their wealth to charity. I work with an incredible team of smart, young people and their energy, optimism, and brains keep me motivated every day.”

Though, Claire doesn’t seem to be short on motivation.

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Jessica Avison wishes she could tell her younger self to stop worrying. “Don’t be afraid to try new things. Things will come together, as long as you keep trying.”

So far, her life has been following that advice (although with *some* fretting, after all). For examples, she just started a new career in design, she’s about to be married (on Saturday), and she’s getting involved with DC creative groups (even if she doesn’t initially know anyone in them).
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Andrew Cohen abandoned a computer science degree program at George Mason University to pursue a graphic design degree, instead. It was a transition that happened naturally — from his playing “Oregon Trail” on an Apple II GS using disks that needed to be flipped halfway through the game to learning photography from his mom and sister to creating websites in Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

Now, the 24-year-old Old Town resident and suburban-Richmond native spends his time designing for the web; that is, when he’s not playing soccer, mountain biking, running, snowboarding, reading, hoarding music, drawing, photographing, catching up with his sister (who’s studying in Buenos Aires), or complementing his rewarding job at Brightline Interactive with freelance design — an endeavor he’s thought about doing full-time.

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When designer David DeSandro traded Harrisonburg for Arlington four years ago after earning a degree in communication studies, he didn’t know he was about to embark on what had become a continuing path of artistic exploration. From childhood to adolescence to college, he’d transitioned from drawing and sketching to songwriting and playing guitar to making music visualizations, the latter of which were “a terrific amalgamation of visual design and scripting.”

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Photo courtesy of Sean McCormick

Latiffa Kerbal’s parents immigrated to the United States from London, where she was born, in order to live “where the streets are paved with gold.”  At five, she was learning to roller skate on the sidewalks of Queens.  At eight, she was in elementary school in Old Town Alexandria.  At 10, she was a big sister.

Last year, at 27, this Arlington resident decided to go into business for herself.

“I had quit a great job after four years of going full-speed ahead being focused entirely on clients,” she said.  “I took some time just to get back to painting and drawing.  But it was absolutely horrendous living off my savings and watching them start to dwindle.  And, just as I decided it was time to go back to work, the unemployment figures came out, and I thought, ‘Oh, shit.’”

But Tifa (for short) prides herself on being resourceful — whether in finding inspiration for new pieces, searching the best prices on yarn for knitting, or securing her future success with clients.

“I started my job search just like anyone — by meticulously refining my portfolio and scanning or applying for jobs I found advertised in traditional classifieds online and elsewhere,” she said.  “But I couldn’t seem to find what I was looking for, whether on guru.com or mediabistro or jobfox.  It seemed like everyone wanted a web monkey, and I knew that wouldn’t go well for me.  After about a month of thinking everything might go to hell in a hand basket, I started looking for something more stable, which generally meant something less creative.”

Frustrated and worried, she shifted focus inward.

“I already had a network of people around me who needed my skills — in fact, as a freelance contractor, I realized I was more appealing to them given the economic situation.”

So, Tifa took on some work a former colleague offered her and, in no time, was completely booked.

“Going into business for myself at first was terrifying,” she said.  “But I could provide the creative support people needed — starting with their identity, for example, and then building that into a web site and then their marketing materials. It just continued to take off from there.”

Tifa said that she’s been lucky in that she hasn’t had to go looking for clients yet, but continues to get work through word of mouth.  She credits this pattern with being responsive and transparent — asking for a 50 percent deposit up-front, tracking to the hour even if it’s not an hourly gig, and being receptive.

“It’s really fun to be in business for myself.  I can say ‘no’ to something.  I can pick and choose what I want to do.  That’s like every creative person’s dream, I think.”

Beyond the fulfillment she gets from being able to pay her bills with her artistic expertise, Tifa values the true creative aspect she’s experiencing as a result of being her own advocate.

“I take the risks and the uncertainties just to guarantee that I can keep doing what I love doing.  I feel a lot more appreciated; sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re in an agency because there is someone else who is doing the talking at meetings. It can be easy to think that you’re not as valued.”

One drawback to this new path, however, is working from her home.

“Occasionally, I miss the collaborative atmosphere you get at an agency, where you can just bounce ideas off people and refine your own work with others’ help,” she said. “I find myself more fully invested in following industry leaders. I’m a total Martha Stewart fan now.  I mean, she’s actually on Twitter, and I actually follow her.”

Like Martha Stewart, Tifa knows her way around craft rooms and kitchens. She spends her free time cooking, knitting, sewing, or doing embroidery — skills that came in handy over the holidays.

“I did a whole handmade Christmas with a lot sewing, embroidery, and knitting.  At one point, I was cranking out a hat a day.  It got ridiculous,” she said, adding that creating her gifts made them more meaningful and less expensive.  She keeps her skills fresh with online tutorials at sites like craftstylish.com and threadbanger.com, both of which have user-generated content showing off everything from seasonal buttons to recycled crafts.

Although Tifa taught herself many of the artistic skills she employs each day professionally and personally, she doesn’t forget the formal education she received from the “incredible” teachers at Corcoran, where she earned a degree in graphic design.

“My program was more specialized — we were all there because we loved graphic design, the teachers included.  I was around the most amazingly artistic people I know.”

That experience almost didn’t happen — Tifa, while a senior at T.C. Williams, had just been kicked out of government for getting into a “heated debate” with her teacher.  So, she picked up a third art class in its place.

“By the time I graduated, I had this awesome portfolio of pottery, watercolors, and still life.  It was way more than I was expecting to have. When my aunt saw it, she said, ‘We’re taking this to Corcoran.’  She took me there, and I wasn’t really expecting anything. But we showed them and they basically interviewed me on the spot.  I left with an application, sent it in a day later, and the next week I got an acceptance letter.  I still have that portfolio.  It has a bunch of weird linoleum prints that are from when I was way punk rock.”

So, is punk rock the basis of Tifa’s artistic expression?

“Well, my inspiration hasn’t changed that much, but it’s certainly more refined. I took that dirty teenage punk rock or classic goth and made it more grown up and prettier.  I’m still in love with Tobias Wong and his amazing pieces of art furniture, like a rubber chandelier. And I have a giant James Jean tattoo of a poster of his from a comic convention; it was so beautiful that I got it for myself for my birthday two years ago.”

That rebelliousness manifests itself in Tifa’s work, which isn’t restricted to one media or tool.  She talks about her collection of paper samples and prints and her dreams of someday being able to make a “really great, hand-painted shift dress.”

“There are so many possibilities ahead,” she said.  “I’m just excited.”

Photo courtesy of Sean McCormick

Las Vegas native Shawn Huddleston admits he wasn’t influenced artistically by his Western U.S. roots until later in life.  No surprise – he was only seven when he moved to Reston.  But, he already knew he was going to be an artist.

Since then, this 34-year-old father of two has been creating across varied media, from painting with acrylics in a basement to conducting midnight graffiti runs in New York City to designing brochures and web sites at a desk.

Shawn made time to chat with me about his journey so far.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Baseball player.

Baseball?  I thought you played lacrosse?

I coach South Lakes JV lacrosse in the spring, and then I play during the other three seasons at The Box in Chantilly.

Are you good?

Yeah, I’m all right.  I’m the oldest guy on the team.

What’s that got to do with anything?

Right, if anything I should be the best!  I’ve been around the longest.

So assuming baseball is out, what do you dream of being?

I’d like to be a freelance designer who gets to pick what kinds of jobs he wants to do.

What kind of jobs do you want to do?

I like corporate branding and logo work. I really like doing perspective drawings and concept art. I absolutely love to do graphic and web design stuff.  I consider them equal with my painting. And I love painting.

Have you ever shown your paintings?

A while ago, I started showing at Art Wino when it was in Old Town Alexandria. Being able to put up five new pieces every month made me create like crazy.   Aside from a couple small open shows here and there, it was the first time a gallery was interested in me and asked me to create stuff for their walls.  I felt like a rock star.  I met people and handed out business cards.  I was addicted to that.  It was a rush.

Has anyone ever bought your ideas?

For a long time, I didn’t sell anything.  Any artist’s journey is just a natural evolution. You might only do one thing and do it well and be profitable.  And maybe I’m still trying to find that.  I make art for myself first and foremost.  That’s not to say I haven’t made more of the artistic style people have bought from me, but I’m not trying to become a one-trick pony.

Are you attached to the work you sell?

I don’t feel remorse or sadness when I sell a piece.  When I spray the varnish and nail the strip frame on it, I’m done with it.  I loved it when I was working with it, getting attached to the way it feels when I was creating it.  But I get tired of my own stuff pretty quickly, so to see something sitting around my basement is tragic.

Do you like what you’ve created?

There are some pieces I finish and fall in love with, and that goes back to how I used to draw – I would just keep going with it until it was perfect.  There are a few paintings that are exactly like that.  It feels cool.  But I can’t fixate.  I’m always trying to explore new stuff for me.

So, what other “stuff” do you explore?

I draw a lot – love it — but don’t show those because I don’t see them through enough to where I think they’re presentable.

But you’ve never presented them to anybody to know that.

Yeah, I guess that’s true.   I usually sketch out the idea for a painting just to get the basics first.  So I have thought about showing that idea sketch alongside the final painting to demonstrate where in my process I edited and expanded upon the initial vision.

Do you draw using pen or pencil?

I’m a sucker for a 2H pencil, a regular Bic, and a flair.  Big flairs are silly.  They have good coverage, don’t bleed, and are nice and smooth.  It’s pretty much heaven on Earth.  You can try to find a better pen, but you’re not going to.  I love them.  If I was stuck on an island, I’d want a flair and paper.  And maybe a boat.

Do you have a flair and paper wherever you work?

I work in the darkest deepest corner of the house.  It’s the laundry room. Laundry and painting can’t coexist, so I paint late at night in the closet when my wife and kids are asleep. But it’s my closet. I am lucky enough to have a table.

What do you create on that table?

Graffiti-inspired work, mostly. I did graffiti for a long time.

Whoa, did you ever get busted?

No, but I have come close and had to change my tag name.

Where – and how – did you do graffiti?

Around here, up to Philly, Baltimore, and New York a couple times. I was never, by any means, a big name in the game. My single mother instilled good morals in me, so I felt guilty half the time — the other half was rebelliousness. I never really established myself in the community, but a couple big names took me out once and showed me the ropes. Just like any art community, there were politics involved with the graffiti artists, who are actually called “writers.”  And there were a lot of juvenile antics – like some rival writer paints over your stuff, and then it’s on.

So, I imagine love and life pulled you away?

You slow down when you settle down, as they say.  I just don’t have the same amount of time as I used to, and I’m a lot more strategic and planned now with my thumbnails and sketches.  I plan a lot now, and I used to shoot from the hip a lot more.  But I think my art has benefited from that planning.

How does that planning differ between painting and graphic or web design?

Graphic design is not tangible, but the process is like painting. It starts with an idea in my mind’s eye.  The biggest difference with computers is that “control z” is a quicker and easier fix.  I even got into digital painting for a long time – and matte painting, like Photoshop movie making — because it’s cheaper and, of course, computers are A LOT cleaner.

Did you find it frustrating to learn new tools beyond the tangible?

It’s not frustrating if you love what you’re doing, but it’s all trial and error.  It’s time consuming, but when it’s new to you, you have a love affair with it.  You think, ‘Damn, I have to learn this because I can create with this.’  To learn how to use a paint brush and the quirks of the materials isn’t unlike that of a computer. Same principle of trial and error, different application.

Was it trial and error when you designed your tattoos?

Yeah, but I got these so long ago.  I was 16 and 17. I had no idea what I was doing.  I had the worst fake ID ever.  I also went to a strip club with it.  I have no idea how that ever worked.

So being a tattoo artist or fake ID designer never crossed your mind?

No way!  I’ve thought about lots of different artistic paths.  I wanted to be a video game art designer for the longest time, but then my daughter Laela was born and I realized how unstable the industry was.  Because I’ve got a young family, it wouldn’t be fair.

Are you inspired by your kids?

Sure.  I also draw inspiration off myself.  I paint misery.  I paint elation.  I draw those feelings.  Do my wife and kids add to those feelings?  Absolutely.  But my son saying “poopy” to some lady doesn’t inspire me.  Although…

How has your own artistic outlook changed over the years?

I always consider myself a rookie in anything I do.  I try not to get too opinionated on anything. I always wanted to be an artist.  I always wanted to draw.  They say that everybody draws when they’re young, it’s just that certain kids quit.  I never stopped.  I drew for everybody … all through high school and into college as a fine arts major, then self educating myself after that. I’m influenced by everything.  Maybe it’s a cliché answer, but anything can spark an idea.