Turning The Page
Navigating career changes & finding my agent
Hello again friends!
I hope Summer is treating you well. We’ve had lots and lots of “life happening” these days, hence the no June newsletter - but I’m back today with some juicy nuggs of news and updates.
I’ve been tied up in all sorts of creative projects for the last few months and it feels like many of them are beginning to bear fruit. Perhaps the biggest piece of news I have is that I’m now represented by Kyle at Wendy Lynn & Co. for illustration work!!! (One exclamation mark doesn’t quite carry the weight of my excitement)
This has been a couple of months in the making and part of the reason why i’ve been a little quieter online. Kyle has been incredibly supportive of my work and has been helping me to develop my portfolio; I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of his agency.
I’ll talk more in depth about the work I made with Kyle in my next newsletter but you can see them on Wendy Lynn & Co’s website now. I’ll share the new work (plus some BTS rough work) on my instagram profile over the coming weeks. I learned a lot about myself as an artist through conversations with Kyle about these pieces. What surprised me most was how introspective the work became, and how invested I felt in expressing myself through the images and the process of crafting my artist statement.
More on that in August.
On a sillier note, Wendy Lynn’s mascot is a goose so here are some geese I drew for the announcement on their socials (Typically, I chose the one with the most unsettling expression as the final).
Last week I finished up at my Animation job; a studio i’d worked at for 3 years give or take (minus the maternity leave). Within this span of work I’ve bought a flat, gotten my first pet, had a child, sold a flat and moved country so it feels like a real bookend to a turbulent few years to now be moving into a new chapter of my career.
I’ve known for a long time that my end goal is to be a fully freelance artist and work from my own studio. I hadn’t planned to take that leap until we were settled here for longer but the universe - or the turbulent animation industry - seemed to have other plans for me.
So, I am now available for freelance work… !
For animation work, you can contact me directly at melmaloneart@gmail.com (portfolio available on request) and for illustration work, you can contact my agent at kyle@wendylynn.com
Recently I’ve been finding that my most enjoyable spells of drawing are when I’m sitting with Moya and we’re scribbling or collaging together. The stakes are so very low when she could jump in with her crayon at any moment. It’s fascinating to see her graduate from drawing scribbles to lines to real shapes, stooped over the table with laser-like precision trying to craft the perfect teeny tiny circle.
Here are some flowers from the garden that I drew while she scribbled beside me, and a collab - she cannot yet use scissors.
This week, while facing into my new unemployment, I decided to make some drawings for Childhood Week using the same character for each one. I loved the process of combining the rough inky drawing with collage and pastels. This is the direct influence of doing collage with Moya!
Outside of drawing, work and family life I’ve been, as my friend Judith recently called it, in my “going for a drive era”. I would love to start taking my sketchbook out with me but I worry that Moya is too little (at 23 months) for me to have such a big distraction - creative mammys if you have any tips for juggling both let me know!
Things I’ve been enjoying:
Can You Imagine?: The Art and Life of Yoko Ono by Lisa Tolin (illustrated by the masterful Yas Imamura)
All Fours by Miranda July
Artist Thinking About AI by Maciek Lazowski - I bought it on a tshirt of course.
A Girls rewatch (the TV show from 2012)
Kindred of Ireland - My favourite irish clothing brand. Saving my little heart out to own one of Amy Anderson’s dresses.
Thanks so much for tuning in this month - If there’s anything above that you’d like me to go into more detail on in the next post please do let me know.
Slán,
Melissa
