Vacation Drawings and...burnout?

July 16, 2020 in The Art Department, Department of Work/Life Balance

I just got home from a 10 day, much needed family vacation. It’s been GO GO GO here for months, because my work didn’t slow down when Covid hit, it kind of ratcheted up a couple notches. Plus having all the kids home ALL DAY made things a bit harder. Deadlines don’t care.

Every summer we go stay with my wife’s grandma in a sleepy little town on Long Island. It’s not a flashy vacation, there’s no itinerary, no zip lines, no dolphin swimming, no nice restaurants, and no helicopter rides over volcanoes.

We watch sail boats go by as the tide rolls in and out. We try to outdo each other’s crazy dives off the dock. There’s lots of reading, and napping. Going to town to get ice cream is an event. We play memory, rummicube, and farkle. The most exciting thing on this trip was that a dogfish washed ashore and we debated whether it was a shark or not.

It’s juuust right.

For most of the vacation I didn’t even crack open my sketchbook. I did some reading, I did a bunch of staring out the window. At night I watched movies with my kids. One of my favorite things to do on vacation is write postcards from wherever I’m at and mail them to unsuspecting friends. I did a bunch of those.

I think I really needed this vacation, because I just felt burned out.

Drew this box bird thing up there on my flight home.

This was one of those “just let the pencil guide your way” kind of a drawing. There’s no backstory here, no reason for it other than I hadn’t drawn much for 10 days and I felt like I should probably get warmed up for re-entry.

I did two other drawings towards the end of our stay at Grandma’s:

Now that I’m home I’m feeling better, feeling creative, and anxious to get to work on stuff.

It made me realize I’ve been exhaling for way too long and needed to inhale big time before I passed out.

Here’s a family photo we took Sunday. I love this gang! Just wanted to show you the reason I work so hard; its to support these guys in everything they’re wanting to do.

-Jake

Question: I’m curious, what do you do for vacation and how do you avoid, combat burnout?

New Logo

January 28, 2020 in Department of Work/Life Balance, The desk of Jake Parker

With a new decade, new state I’m living in, and new projects I’m doing, I felt it was time for a new logo.⁣
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Retiring the serif JP logo. It served me well for the last 8 years being printed on my books, prints, business cards, bookmarks, etc. as well as all my social media avatars. ⁣
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Big thanks to @vanguarddesignco for working with me to update it for the new decade. And also a salute and thanks to @melanieburk who designed the original logo back in 2012.⁣
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Why even have a logo if you’re an artist?⁣
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A logo isn’t going to make or break you as an artist, it’s not your brand, and it’s not going to get you more followers. ⁣
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What it does is this: helps people remember you.⁣
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In a crowded online world, where attention is the most valuable commodity, you need a way to plant little flags in people’s minds. You do this by crafting a story about yourself. This story is made up of where you came from, who you are now, and where you’re going. Every time you share something you’ve created, something you’re interested in, or a hot take on something occupying people’s attention, you add to your story. When you sell a print, a book, or a sticker, it adds to your story. Both from the subject matter of your work, and the way it’s delivered to the person.⁣
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A personal logo is a visual hook that connects all these things together, and reminds people of your story whenever they see it.⁣
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Having a logo might not be for everyone, but I think it’s helped connect everything I’ve been doing this last decade together. Hopefully, when you see the (JP) you think positivity, cool art, and helpful advice. ⁣
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A logo is only as strong as the thing it reps. My hope is I can do right by this great design, and make it mean something as we all move forward into this next decade.⁣
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-Jake ⁣

Seville, Spain 2019

October 18, 2019 in The Art Department, Department of Work/Life Balance

Last month I got to go to Spain with my oldest kid, Tate. La Galleria Roja invited me out to teach a weekend workshop and I decided to take a few extra days and turn it onto a post-gradutation drawing trip with my son.

The workshop was a lot of fun, with great students, and David from the gallery was a wonderful host. But what I really enjoyed was the handful of days we had with no agenda, no schedule, just following our interests roaming the city drawing things we thought were cool, only stopping to eat when we were hungry.

I won’t get into all the details of the trip, but I wanted to share some drawings and photos of the trip here.

Thanks,

Jake

My new assistant

July 19, 2019 in Department of Work/Life Balance

One of the perks of working from home is you get to know your kids a lot better. While working the other morning, my daughter and I had a long discussion about saving up money, and ways that kids can earn money. She told me that I forget what it's like being a kid and how hard it is to earn money. Then she asked for a loan to get a mermaid tail and she'd pay me back when she got the cash. I told her I only loan out money for education and real estate. Then I offered to train her to scan my sketchbooks and paid her to do mine. Took her an hour, but she earned $7.

I Moved to Arizona!

June 18, 2019 in Department of Work/Life Balance

I’m starting to settle in, but I can’t believe I just moved my family down to Arizona.

We've been living in Utah for 9+ years, and I've grown to love the beehivet state with its amazing people, beautiful canyons, and hiking trails everywhere you go. If you haven't visited Utah, you have to make a trip out there some time before you die. It is that great. There's a lot of reasons for this move, and I won't really go into them here other than our family needed a change in climate.

I grew up in Arizona, but I haven't lived there since 2001. It's changed a little bit every time I've gone back to visit to the point that some parts are barely recognizable. I kind of feel like I moved to an entirely new state!

Are you from AZ? If so tell me one cool thing you love about it here. Is there a restaurant I should try? A trail I should hike? A gallery I should visit? I'd love to know more about the area.

About that image up there. I was thinking a lot about the vermillion cliffs in northern Arizona and took some time one day and just tried painting a landscape for fun. I wanted to try something a little different from what I normally do and just experiment with color, value and composition. I hope you like it.

Here’s my temporary studio set up in the apartment we are renting while we house hunt. I still need to get work done and this stripped down set up will do the trick.