Recently, I was thinking about my almost 20 year career as a graphic artist at this one company. Technically, the company changed hands several times over the years but the newspapers we worked on and the core of us in this one department I worked in didn't change too much other than a slow loss of employees from about 40 in 1990 to about 8 by the end. I was trying to think which was my favorite time there and I came to the conclusion that it was the mid to late 1990s.
What is interesting to me was, while cleaning last month, I found two old sketchbooks from that era. It was a time when I was taking classes at San Jose State and working. One of my instructors during those times was famous illustrator Barron Storey. His sketchbooks also doubled as journals and we were encouraged to do the same. So, while thinking back at what was a happier time, I was surprised to see so many pages in these sketchbooks of me frustrated with work or other life situations.
I suppose we do romantize the past but I have to think this era really wasn't that bad. Part of me might have just been the angry youth or perhaps a distaste for corporate life (not that any of us ever had to wear a tie) that had diminished in the next decade when I became a supervisor and briefly a manager and saw the other side of things.
But, regardless, there were some interesting things in these sketchbooks which I'll share here over the next few posts. I was experimenting with my art. Most of it was pen and ink but some collage and playing with a copy machine for effects too. It is a looser style than what I do now but some fun and daring stuff. So stay tuned.
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