Illustration Friday: “sea”

The Illustration Friday word of the week is “sea.”

“Untitled”   (gouache)

A textile design from my archives, circa 1990.  Picture this: me trudging with very large and unwieldy pre-digital age portfolio…down sky-scrapered New York streets and up endless flights of stairs during my brief stint as a designer. The things we do for art.

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Illustration Friday: pattern

c. Susan Sorrell Hill

The Illustration Friday word of the week is pattern.

I really  like making patterns. Drawing the elements, arranging and interweaving them just so using tracing paper, and making it all fit and flow perfectly is my idea of a good time. I may have mentioned that I was a textile designer in a previous life? Two years of training and a year of freelancing through a studio in San Francisco. Making seasonal designs using specific colors and subjects was challenging and fun, but as it turned out, not the ultimate cup of tea for me. For one thing, there was the “working on spec.” For those of you unfamiliar, what that means is making a whole lot of work to a deadline and with specific requirements, but without pay up front and only paid if and when the design(s) sold, which was always quite ahead in the future. I suppose that could all work once one got well beyond the beginner stage and the ball was rolling, but suffice to say, it was a little rough as a start-up.

Ultimately, though, what led me away from a career in Surface Design (any art designed for a surface: textiles, rugs, paper goods, clothing, etc.) was the lack of meaning. Now, I like a pretty, well-designed thing as much as the next tastefully-inclined person, but I was seriously missing Story, and Decorative Art just didn’t fill that void for me.

In the twenty-some years since that venture, I have come to understand that Narrative Art is where my heart lies most comfortably and happily: art that tells a story, implies a message or something of that sort. My love of pattern is still very much alive and well, though, and I include it wherever I can. You may have noticed the patterns on characters’ clothing, on the rugs, borders and the interior walls of my art? The best of both worlds!

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply–cover art, circa 1985         (pen & ink)

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Illustration Friday: paisley

c. Susan Sorrell Hill

The Illustration Friday word of the week is paisley.

In 1968, when I was fifteen, my very-mobile family moved from Maryland to a different planet.

Sporting the new, short and ‘very 50’s’ haircut that my Dad said all the Southern California girls were wearing, I found it very hard to fit in. Golden, long-tressed goddesses and equally golden surfer boys were everywhere, and although I had experienced the New Kid syndrome thirteen times in twelve years, this was a high-level challenge. Add sexuality to the mix. My path of least resistance was to become a ‘brain’… avoiding altogether the paisleys, granny glasses, drugs and surfing. I was sure that I had already learned that painful lesson of ‘trying to be something that I was not’ during a recent, horrendous junior high cheerleader tryouts experience. (Don’t ask.)

Many years later, the lesson of trying to fit in came around once again, and this time it was not family-induced. I had been painting on silk for a year, making lovely and colorful patterns when I came across a textile design school in Berkeley. “Voila,” I thought… “a way to make a living and do what I loved too!” Two years of training and a year of freelancing later, I woke up one morning and realized I had once again sold my Soul. The work I was trying to crank out held no meaning for me, and my heart was not in it at all. Clearly, I was not suited to being a textile designer, even though I was technically quite good at it.

With phrases like “Build it and they will come,” and “Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow,” echoing in my head, I embarked on an artistic journey of making images that were beautiful and personally meaningful. It was exhilarating… I was prolific… people admired the work… and mostly, it did not sell. I took part-time jobs to make ends meet. Continuing in this vein, I have accumulated strong work which seems to not quite ‘fit’ anywhere. With lots of water under that Not Fitting bridge, you can imagine that this conundrum might be a bit painful…

These days, I take it as a spiritual challenge… to make the work that calls me, and trust that there is a Purpose for it. That it will touch at least one other person in a meaningful way, and that my daily needs will be met too. I suppose it is that manna from heaven approach to Life. I would be far more comfortable in a groove which comes with a stable bank account, but having looked back and been turned to the proverbial pillar of salt more than a few times, I see that doing what I love must come first…

When Success finds me now, it will be a fit for the real me.

Dear Success… My studio door is open, the tea kettle is on, and I am ready for you…! Love, Susan

“Paisley Textile Design” (gouache)

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