successful vs sellout

So as I've mentioned before in some blogs that I've been doing more and more freelance work lately. I love it, it's so exciting! I feel like I'm really going to be able to be successful at this. The only thing is that my professors keep telling me to make sure I'm getting paid what I'm worth. However, their perspective and mine is so different. They obviously are very picky about the work that they take because they have been successful illustrators for many years. I'm glad they think our work as students is worth so much but I really don't put the same price tag on my art that my professors do. Take the amount I would accept and put a 1 in front of it, that's typically the difference of our perspectives. I figure if it's paying me more than my current job, then, hey cool. (If it's less than that then it's pretty ridiculous, come on, this is Provo) I'm getting valuable experience, published work and I'm getting paid for it. And it's not like they're paying me to scrub floors or something, they're paying me to draw stuff, which is my well known addiction anyways. What could be better? Last year I drew all the time for free. What am I talking about? My whole life I've drawn for free. In my eyes, anything is better than nothing.
However, as Michael Dudash pointed out (a visiting illustrator who came to BYU last week) when students and young artists consistently accept smaller paychecks than the industry standard then it hurts everyone because publishers start to expect to pay less and then everyone, young and old, gradually are forced to accept less money for their work. I guess the idea is that we're not just getting paid for what we complete, but the billions of hours of drawing and experience that it takes to be able to produce professional art. My professors are my professors because they know more about the illustration world than I do so I should probably listen to them. I've tried asking for more money and it gets me a little progress, but not a whole lot. Should I just hold out for the better jobs and more money or be grateful for what I'm getting?
I'm curious about other people's opinions, at what point are you a sell out hurting the industry, and when are you just a student getting a foot in the door by having some published work under your belt because you draw really fast to make it worth your time? (obviously I would prefer to be the later but I know I have to choose some type of ground where I reject work)

And by the way, the reason Michael Dudash was talking about this subject was because when I walked into the middle of a class to sit and observe my professor pointed me out and asked about the bargain freelance work I had been doing and what his opinion was about it.

BYU perks

There are a lot of great things about BYU. And of course some not so great things, but isn't that always the case? One of the things about BYU that I especially appreciate is the (usual) efficiency of the Lost and Found. I have had a couple of items never show up there, a favorite scarf and a homemade hat I really liked, but that nothing compared to the many, many, many, *pause* many items that I have gotten back. Quite often I'm in there every week or 2 to pick up stuff I brainlessly left somewhere on campus. The other day I left a project at the library but I was already on my way home when I realized I left it. Instead of going back for it I just thought, I'll just pick it up at the Lost and Found tomorrow. Very irresponsible and naive of me to always expect things to turn up there, but what can I say, it works. So the next day I picked up my project worth about $200 (it was some partly finished freelance work). When I had to write down on the lost and found paper how much the item was worth I realized maybe it would have even been worth going back to the library to pick it up. but oh well, it all worked out anyways. yeah byu!

teeth are overrated

If I can convince myself to believe that I will sure save a lot of money. I went to the dentist last week and I have 3 cavities. note- not in the place where my teeth are sore, of course not, those teeth are perfectly fine, it's some other random ones. I think he's making it up. Come to think of it, I don't know why I went to that dentist anyways. My friend used to work there and thinks the dentist is nice so I thought, hey why not, he can look at my teeth. However, now reflecting on the 3 made up cavities he told me about that will cost over $200 to fix I remember that I almost got a job working for him, because of a recommendation from my friend. You might be thinking, oh a dentist job, you would answer phones or decorate the walls or something knowing my qualifications. nope, this guy was going to hire me to be a Spanish translator. Apparently I was a pretty good Spanish 102 student. It didn't work out but the funny part was that it didn't have to do with the fact that I didn't even know the word for teeth in Spanish. So I claim the cavities are a figment of his imagination.

Record Low

I realized I have reached a record low number of clothes in my closet right now. Yeah, there's a lot in a laundry hamper to be washed tomorrow, but I am pretty amazed with the pile I have on a chair and a dresser and, well, my floor too. It seemed like I would only wear outfits for 3 hours at a time this week, I just kept changing my clothes. And it seemed like I kept wearing the same thing over and over again, because I only wore them for a few hours I thought that was okay. I think it had more to do with the fact that my closet has gradually just been declining to only the clothes I wear for Halloween. (I bet you will all be interested to see what I'm wearing tomorrow)
My roommate's cute little niece who is 4 or 5 was over visiting today and she came into my bedroom and asked me why my clothes were all over the floor. The way she asked it was like she expected me to have a really good reason, like I had been robbed, or I had a picking-up-clothes-disease. I just mumbled something about being busy. But who knows, maybe I do have some sort of disorder. I'm sure they'll find a cure for it someday.
That reminds me, I was reading this interesting anatomy book the other day and it talked about the brain and how they figured out which part of the brain does what. The front of your brain has to do with your personality. The book mentioned how there was this guy who was shot in the front of the head and lived and then his personality changed to being really mean. So don't you think this would work just as well in reserve? It sounds so easy to cure mean people. I'm sure we don't have to shoot them in the head, but I bet someone could come up with a simple procedure that just made people more pleasant to be around. I think I'll so some research on that. Lots of people have art for a hobby, but since that's my career I need something like science to be my hobby.

Rick the girl

This blog is about my friend Rick because the only thing she could come up with for me to blog about was a teacher crush. like I know anyone that has a crush on their teacher. let's be real here.
So Rick (real name will remain secret) and her husband are pretty funny. They plan on moving to North Carolina soon. Charlottesomething. I guess they have a lot of publishing houses there so I might tag along. What I'm really hoping is that somehow Rick's insane work ethic will rub off on me. She takes a million (okay, that's an exaggeration, only half a million) credits and has the tendency to not care about eating or sleeping, she just paints. I on the other hand have a tendency to eat (lots), sleep, well, not as much as I should (but more than Rick), and goof off by reading science books and playing foosball. I don't know how to develop good work habits. I hear they have professional foosball players. I don't think it's too late to change my major. And that Tuesday afternoon assertiveness class isn't helping me. (well maybe it's because I haven't gone yet)

what do you want?

So a few weeks ago I saw this flyer posted at the library that had all these questions and I kept thinking "yes" to all the questions and at the bottom it said if I said yes to any of those questions then I should go to the Assertiveness Class. It sounded like a good idea so I planned on going for awhile. I figured it will help me have more effective discipline with the missionaries, be firmer with what I want from art directors, etc. However, today my friends said let's go hang out and I said, sure! And therefore I didn't make it to the assertiveness meeting. Maybe I am doomed to be weak sauce my whole life.

uh....uh....

I really don't know what to write a blog about. I just got a cell phone, I could explain how great that is and I'm sure my friends are so happy for me. Or how confused I get every time anyone's cell phone goes off because I can't remember what mine sounds like, I just think, oh yeah, I have a cell phone, it's ringing! But I guess other people have cell phones too. I could write about how fun it was to hear the music at the library last week. It's been years since I've done that. The music was alright. Kind of obnoxiously loud. I was trying to scan something, it was like they wanted me to leave or something. I could write about my classes, my job. How cool my teachers are about me being a slacker when they know I did some freelance work. I might change my job for one that pays less, but gives me better experience. It would be sad, but good. I could write about complicated relationships and trying to be normal friends with people you dated. I could write about how I realized today how grateful I am for bicycles otherwise I might be wearing some corset or something right now. very grateful. I thought if I rambled long enough I would come up with something interesting....maybe next time. But I didn't want to completely get out of the habit. I think blogs are great. And I would also like to add that I am really looking forward to AVP2.

Ape

Does anyone know my friend April? She is great. Now that we are enjoying Marissa ending her hiatus it made me wonder why Ape doesn't have a blog. Or, perhaps she is one of those people who make comments sometimes but I have no idea who they are and I figure they are either Bryant's friends or someone he met on the street who told him they had a blog. But I don't think so. So my proposition is that April starts a blog even if she just tells us what she eats for breakfast every now and then, I just think it would be nice to hear about her and her thoughts too. Either about her breakfast, or other things as well.

by the way, if anyone wants to check out a really cool blog that is linked to many others, I recommend checking out: http://www.kactiguy.blogspot.com/

productive waste of time

I have a hard time wanting to go to my spanish conversation class. We just sit around and talk so I keep thinking how much I need to do other things. Of course, I decided I would just bring my homework and draw during class. What Spanish class haven't I drawn in anyways? (some teachers give me better reactions to that than others. some of them think I'm just not paying attention. They just don't realize I wouldn't be paying attention whether or not I was drawing) I got SO much done during class, both this week and last week. I wish we had class everyday so I could sit there and draw and get my homework done for other classes. When I'm not in class it's too easy to be distracted, I do things like sit here and write blogs and I never get anything done. Or talk to my roommates, or visit the chinese boys, or que-ever (that was for Erin). Maybe I should just start finding random classes to go to so I'll actually do my homework. I should go to accounting classes. I need to find a good accountant really soon. Too bad John moved to CA.

more failure please

I know I'll be famous someday because I keep failing at things. It seems like anyone who is famous has great stories about how they failed so much at first, they were broke, or starving, couldn't walk, etc. Then somehow they became the best at what they do, were really famous and we all admire them. I didn't get into the illustration program the first 2 times I applied. I had one professor tell me my style was getting me no where and I should try cubism. I don't know if that list is long enough though. I could include my freshman GPA, many dating experiences, my attempts at being an opera singer, etc. etc. but I don't know if that stuff relates to my failures as an artist. I think I need to find some more ways to fail really big in art and recieve major rejection so I can hurry up and become famous.

sorry, this might be boring

First of all, I would like to encourage everyone to try audible.com. It's amazing. I just go running or draw or eat lunch or clean my room (you know, on the rare occasion when that happens) and I get smarter at the same time. It's amazing. I get so anxious to go on long runs because it gives me time to "read" so much. When I went running yesterday I listened to all the latest information in the science world, like stuff about diseases, the Korean research and bio ethics. I'm finishing up Bill Bryson's A History of Nearly Everything, which is very interesting and then I'll be starting Mere Christianity, which I've been trying to read forever but haven't yet.

I'm going to try and blog more often about things that I read for 3 main purposes:

1. try and get myself to retain more of what I read
2. enlighten others with interesting (or semi-interesting to not-so-interesting) knowledge
3. I bet there's some other reason I haven't figured out yet and 2 is just too small to make a list

So today I listened to more of Bill Bryson's a history of nearly everything, about what the world was like 400 million years ago and all these different time periods I've never heard of. 99.9% of all species that have existed on earth are now extinct. Scientist think there has been anywhere from 30 million different species to 4,000 million. The bones in the museums are mostly all just plaster casts, even in NY and London. Species learned how to fly to avoid getting eaten. There have been 5 major time periods of extinction. There were once guinea pigs the size of rhinos and rhinos the size of two story houses.

choose your poison

One of my friends mentioned to me how dumb it is that people run up and down 9th East because you're just breathing in all that pollution as cars drive by. I never thought of that before, I always thought 9th East was just convenient. So I tried running through neighborhoods instead, I didn't get too lost, but suddenly I was breathing in all this smoke, like someone's house was on fire. That happened to me twice. I decided anywhere you run you're going to breathe in something gross.

bueno, asi es la vida

Ethics

One of the most interesting principles to me in economics is how you can pay someone for something and it then diminishes in value. When I was listening to a discussion on the ethics for women selling their eggs they were discussing this concept. It comes up with a lot of medical type of donations, like donating blood. I have decided that is why I don't allow my friends to pay for haircuts. They value is just too high to give it a price, recieving money would just diminish it's value.

Toxic Plasmosis

To those of you who have cats, especially ones that use jackets for litter boxes (not to point fingers at anyone...Eve!) I wanted to make sure you're aware of the possible dangers of Toxic Plasmosis that I just learned about the other day thanks to Science Friday. This is especially important if you also have a pet sea otter that you care about. Please everyone, be cautious.

President Becca

I would just like everyone to know that President Becca is my new official title since I have creamed everyone in foosball and therefore was offered the position. I was happy to accept. With my new power I plan to cure world hunger, bring peace to all nations, and find the perfect eternal companion for everyone. For everyone that would like to join the foosball club I will let you know more information at a later date. And I would just like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement that enabled me to become the foosball champion I am today.

arranged marriages

Dating. it's such a headeache, blah blah blah. I like all these boys that will never ask me out blah blah blah If they do ask me out either I'll find out really odd things about them or vice versa blahblahblahlblalhblahblahblahblabhalhb I think I understand more why they had arranged marriages. People just gave up finding someone on their own and told someone, just find someone for me. Fortunately, I'm not at that point yet. blah blah

fate of the world

Some of you might not be aware of this but I just found out the fate of the world rests in my hands. I am working on some illustrations that go along with some Book of Mormon stories. I was informed that I could influence kids and the perception they have of these Book of Mormon characters their entire lives. From talking with one of my friends about this I realized the impact this could have on the entire world. If I don't draw these illustrations correctly these kids may never gain a testimony of the gospel and therefore drop out of church, drop out of school, do drugs and make movies like Flightplan.

the odd ones

I wonder if you took all those really odd roommates and put them in the same apartment if they could figure out why they were put together. Some of you might be thinking I'm talking about my current roommates because you think only odd people live in foreign language housing, but actually my oddest roommates were at other apartments.

Earnst: the new look

Remember that guy Earnst? 80's? Did I spell his name right? The guy who goes to jail on one of his movies and he's pretty goofy and he has a closet full of all the same outfit. I think that's a great idea. yeah, I guess I like to have variety and occassionally even be creative with what I wear, but overall I'm not sure if it's more of a hassle than it's worth. I don't like having to think about what to wear or what clothes to buy so I can look semi-okay, or whatever category my clothes actually fit into, I'm not really sure. I think I almost had the Earnst closet going for me my freshman year. I had tons of clothes that looked almost exactly the same, I could pretty much wear the same outfit everyday if I wanted to. For now, I think I'll stick with the variety plan, because that's what is in my closet and I'm not ready to break my habit of conforming to society which seems to think it's a good idea to always being wearing different outfits. I think on average I wear 4-6 outfits a day. a different outfit for every activity. maybe that's why I'm tired of deciding what to wear.

money money money

somehow I'm going to become a fanatical budgeter. I have to keep track of every penny I spend and what I spend it on and how many miles I drive. Insane eh? As an artist I can deduct tons of things from taxes, which I will have a lot of because with freelance work they don't automatically make you pay it. I haven't figured out if I think that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I don't have any control over that at this point in my life so I'm not going to worry about it. I think I'll start by simply saving receipts, and either write everything down somewhere or use a program. My mom said she really likes budgeting. I didn't know that was possible. I just like having way more money than I need so I can buy stuff without thinking about it or worrying about deductions. I wonder if there are terms for different budgeting styles. I bet there are classes for this stuff. anyone have any tips? successful experiences from budgeting? ideas for a good place to go running?