Podcast: Talking With Daniel Fishel & James O'Brien

Although the You Can Do It, Put Your Back Into It exhibition ended last Friday, for this week's podcast we seek advice and encouragement from a couple of talented illustrators who have made it a point to stay creative, inspired and motivated.


In the first half of the show, we chat with New York City-based illustrator Daniel Fishel about determination, overcoming mighty odds, and finding a positive edge to the tough parts of being an illustrator. Daniel has been a huge advocate for up-and-coming illustrators through his very active online presence and his participation in various creative panels.

Daniel's work can be found here on his website and his tumblr.


For the second half of the show, we have a great conversation with Twin Cities-based James O'Brien about his 20+ year career as a professional illustrator, as well as his experience as both an instructor and mentor in his time teaching, advising and leading in collegiate-level education. Jim addresses some insightful strategies for overcoming fear, the benefits of a visual journal, and some incredibly thoughtful advice on how to keep going if you really want to be in a creative field.

To see more of James' work, visit his website and blog.

Download the MP3 or Subscribe via iTunes!

Talking With Daniel Fishel & James O'Brien
Length: 01:20:09
Synopsis: As the You Can Do It, Put Your Back Into It exhibition ends, we seek advice and encouragement from a couple of talented illustrators who have made it a point to stay creative, inspired and motivated. In the first half of the show, we chat with New York City-based illustrator Daniel Fishel about determination, overcoming mighty odds, and finding a positive edge to the tough parts of being an illustrator. Daniel has been a huge advocate for up-and-coming illustrators through his very active online presence and his participation in various creative panels. For the second half of the show, we have a great conversation with Twin Cities-based James O'Brien about his 20+ year career as a professional illustrator, as well as his experience as both an instructor and mentor in his time teaching, advising and leading in collegiate-level education. Jim addresses some insightful strategies for overcoming fear, the benefits of a visual journal, and some incredibly thoughtful advice on how to keep going if you really want to be in a creative field.

Light Grey in New York City

Wow! What an incredible weekend! Lindsay and Jenny just got back from New York City! We had the honor of meeting with a ton of Light Grey's past (and current!) participating artists, had the chance to teach a workshop at the Surtex and Stationary Show, we visited galleries, and did a little bit of shopping and exploring!

 
(Walking around Chelsea and admiring all of the skinny buildings)


We flew in on Sunday night where we moseyed around until 8pm where we hunkered down at the TKettle at St Marks Place for our New York City Meet-up. We invited artists from past shows to get together and meet in person, to share stories and meet face to face. It was amazing to see everyone in person, listen to the stories and spend some time chatting it up. It turned out to be a wonderful and welcoming night with fun stories and lots and lots of tarot card readings. We all know our fate now thanks to Jenny's three card readings with the Light Grey Tarot.


(Everyone at the T Kettle on St. Mark's Place)


(Jenny Reading Caroline Hadilaksono's cards)


The next morning Lindsay taught a day-long workshop at the Surtex and Stationary Show on licensing for artists, surface and product design, marketing, trend research, and portfolio development. It was a lively show filled with a ton of inspirational people, things to see and products to covet. There were so many beautiful and intricate fabrics, letterpress cards, and stationery. It was really inspiring and intense. It was amazing how great everything was, and how many talented people were there this year.

We had a great time meeting with some of Lindsay's past students -- some of which had traveled all the way to Minneapolis to show at Surtex!

Between the show and our evening events we spent time visiting Artists & Fleas (which was held at the fabulous Chelsea Market!) coveting all of the fantastic hand made goodies. If you're ever in New York, definitely consider stopping by the Chelsea Market. It's an awesome place to go to see some gorgeous food, wonderful artisan objects, and really fun architecture!

We always underestimate the amount of time we spend on our feet so it was really nice to sit down with some great people that night at Buddakan in Chelsea later that night. We had some great food in an amazing atmosphere.

(Rachel Wingard, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Daniel Fishel, Jared Tuttle, Henning Koczy, and Lindsay Nohl)


On the last day we met up Annie Stoll and Grace Fong and ate Breakfast in Soho at a really cute restaurant called Cafe Gitane. We drank cappuccinos, and talked about everything from conventions, to shared friends, to how amazing the avocado sandwiches were. Best breakfast ever.



We had already packed and checked out by the time we left for breakfast that morning so we were pretty nomadic for the rest of the day. One of our favorite stops was up to the Society of Illustrators where we got to see all sorts of amazing work by new illustrators! Congratulations to all of you guys that got in! We saw quite a few names we recognized (Way to go!) and a ton of great work by people we'd love to hear from some day!

Jared Tuttle, one of the Light Grey Art Lab interns and one of Lindsay's students at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, had a piece in the current show at the Society of Illustrators. It was great to visit and even cooler to see everything in person.


(Lindsay and Jared in front on the Society of Illustrators)



(Lindsay in the Mocca Exhibition)

New York City has some of the best shopping in the world. Before we headed back to Minneapolis we made a few stops to fun stores like Evolution and Pearl River Mart in Soho, and up to ABC Carpet and Home where we coveted all of the beautiful objects and ran on a wild goose-chase around all of it's magnificent floors. Someone had let it slip that Lady Gaga was walking around the fifth floor while we were there and we had hoped to stare at her (casually, of course) -- but, no luck. Instead, we headed out for a bite to eat and a short trip back to the hotel.



It was a really fantastic trip and we are so thankful for the time we spent wandering around, chatting and meeting up with everyone. It was a blast! Of course, there are a lot of great photos that we took from the meet-up and our get-togethers, so if you'd like to check them out, head to our Flickr page and you can see the rest!

Thanks, everyone for such an awesome time!

You can see all of the photos from New York here