now and then

I've found myself looking back to my roots as an artist more and more in the past couple months. There was a long span of time, mostly in high school, when I would look back at my old sketchbooks and scoff at what I had done. "I'm so much better now" was generally the thought. Now, however, I can look at those same sketchbooks and think "I am where I am now because of this." The drawings of cats and horses from elementary school, cartoon versions of my friends in middle school, and (embarrassingly) a whole lot of anime things all informed my art today.

This drawing is Emma Trithart circa 5th grade. Check out those super fashionable hairdos! When I look at my work now, though, I can still see that hair is one of my favorite things to spend way too long on. I also still love drawing clothing.

I'm guessing I made this in 2004, right after I started attending the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Though my art used to have much more of a cartoonish and strangely elastic look to it (this lady must be Stretch Armstrong's sister), I can still see a lot of things that I've carried over to my style today. Thankfully I've dropped watercolor, as it is the most unforgiving medium in the history of the planet.

A lot of artists in their twenties (unless they're really lucky) go through a phase of feeling like they've lost their spark - especially ones a few years out of art school like myself. What if we all reach back to ourselves at 8 years old, when we didn't have to worry about student loans or whether or not we'd get into that gallery show? Perhaps that's the key to finding oneself again in any situation. I'm challenging YOU dear reader, whether you are a writer or a visual artist, remember what got you excited about your chosen medium so long ago.

And then submit the results to 5x5, of course.