GOT MYSELF ORIENTED

I had to go to orientation week at my art school. When I entered the room I had a flashback when I was a kid going for the first time to college, fourteen years ago. Do I need orientation at this point? The answer is yes, but not the way you would think. I knew already all they got to say because I came prepared. I read every e-mail and pamphlet they sent. Still, it is fair to say that when I got to the Cartooning departmental reunion I was very disoriented.  There I was entering a room full of talented kids with an attitude that says: “who cares”, as Hansel, who is so hot right now, or right back then (for all of you who did not catch this reference please go watch Zoolander). I was dressed with blue Jeans, brown casual shoes, brown belt, a Lacoste shirt and a Nike cap. The minute I walked in it was clear that I did not fit in at all. Everybody was in shorts, t-shirts and strange hats. Some of them had tattoos and wore earrings all over their body. Since all of them were freshman I am guessing everybody was around eighteen to nineteen years old. There were around forty people in the room with a fifty percent ratio between men and women. I remember watching a girl on her knees talking to a couple of guys who were seated on their respective chairs and wondered how could she do that? She must have been on that pose for around fifteen minutes. I am on my knees for a couple of minutes and my joints aches like there is no tomorrow.

After waiting for twenty minutes we went into a room where the Chairman of Cartooning was waiting for us to give us the proper welcome and orientation.  I could not believe this guy was the Chairman. He seemed like a really cool guy, and to my point of view, also young. Did I mention that he had tattoos all over his body? I am not against that, but it really shocked me considering how formal was the faculty at the Business School in University of Miami. He started his approach to us “kids” telling one guy that he should not ride a skateboard, then the smartass told him that he is very good at it and asked him if he has ever ridden a skateboard, to which he answered, and I quote: “I am not that stupid”, referring to the fact that if you fell off the skate you could break your hand. He was not worried about his head, which as I can tell it was pretty hollow, but the hand; and it totally made sense. I will have to start taking care of my right hand being into extreme sports and all (Sarcastic comment).

The Chairman, who by the way was very cool, did I say that already? I guess I am worried he could eventually read this blog J. Still, he taught us four important lessons:

1.     - To build our own bower. I know it is a strange thing to say but the lesson actually came after a story about the bowerbirds’ mating behavior in New Guinea. It seems the male birds use a bower (A large nest made of grass and bright objects) to attract their mates. In this metaphor he was telling us that we needed to build our own bower from experience and focus especially on the things we want to focus or want to get known for. In other words, he was telling us to get our own style but to work hard on it. I have no idea if this is an art term or just a term used by him because he liked the story, still, I think I understood clearly what he was preaching and this can be the first lesson I learned from the School of Visual Arts, fun huh?

2.     We were no longer in high school. That he was going to treat all of us like adults. For real! Great advice for the other thirty-nine kids. Maybe the advice to me should be: “try and look a little bit younger so you do not get alienated by your peers”.

3.     To make friend with a good graphic designer. It seems that good graphic designers get work first, and probably make more money than a cartoonist. This is NOT a very motivational way to start your cartooning career, but overall the advice is good and most of all, practical. He told us by his experience that he was hired from a good friend who happened to be his classmate in foundation drawing and a good graphic designer as well.  Not planning on working for a graphic designer, but then again, I did not plan to study cartooning at thirty-two years old.

4.     Finally, NO FLYING UNDER THE RADAR. I kind of liked not to get noticed in class, I don’t know, it is just in my nature, but after hearing this recommendation I thought to myself that I was going to change that the next time I had the chance. This happened in my next orientation meeting for international students, which by the way were ninety five percent Asian. It is just an observation, but it shocked me how many they were. Anyway, the orientation staff asked a question (they were also giving free t-shirts for a correct answer). I felt inclined to answer one question but when I answered “six” I totally forgot if the answer was six credits, six hours, or six weeks. People laughed at me, but got myself a free t-shirt so I don’t regret making an ass out of myself ;).

              
Basically I understood that although I was out of my element, I could still do it, and that got me motivated. Afterwards I met with the cool Chairman of Cartooning and he proved me he was actually really nice. He helped me in getting some sophomore classes in my schedule so I can finish my studies in four years (I was planning to get a Bachelor in three years) but to aim for a Masters degree in Fine Arts. This is a no brainer and I think I will focus on achieving this goal; after all, I will get my own “master title” for completing my ten thousand hours. I hope I will get them before the master’s degree, but who knows. Time will tell.

Godspeed,

José Luis

THE END OF AN ERA

I have not been a student for quite some time. I got my Bachelor in Business Administration ten years ago at the University of Miami. Since then I have had many jobs and businesses. I’ve been a dairy farm manager for almost seven years and also I have owned a liquor store, an Italian restaurant, two Italian fast food chain restaurants and an alternative advertising company. So my main focus was entrepreneurship in general. Some of those businesses were good and some bad. None of them made me feel satisfied; not even the great ones. I decided to sell everything. Right now I have a Facebook application for a multiplayer card game and it seems is going to be a good business. Nonetheless, my true passion is drawing comics. So I had to close my kiosk (metaphorically speaking of course) and venture overseas to reach my “American dream” in the United States.

This did not come as easy as you might think. When you get older you gain four main things in life: 1) Experience, 2) Responsibilities, 3) Stuff, and 4) Weight.  My experience made me wiser so it helped me to realize what I was missing in life. The weight is inevitable but I think I managed in that particular area.  To start my journey I needed to get rid of most of my responsibilities concerning my job at the time, and leave behind a lot of stuff I had accumulated over the years. Most of it is trash by the way, but it is not in my character to throw it away. This process was extenuating and it took probably seven months since I decided to study fine arts. I sold my house, I moved my belongings to my father’s apartment and I am in the process of quitting my job (and the stability of a monthly paycheck) and selling the farm (because it is a family business I have the flexibility to do so while studying). Anyway, I had to tie loose ends. Not to forget the school admission and the United States government requirements. All had to be in order and finally I almost did it all. Still pending a few tasks but I am here now in New York to walk my path.

Family and true friends, on the other hand, decrease as you get older, while your affection for them increases. Its like you have an x amount of love to give and when you reduce the people you are willing to share that love with, they get more of it, although I highly recommend to make more friends :). Saying goodbye to all of them was the hardest part but I keep telling myself that this decision is not only for me, but serves as homage to them. They will be proud of me eventually.

My first goodbye was to my sister Mariella and my mother María Elena. They were the ones leaving first because my sister was going to study at the University of Miami (like his brother did!) and my mom went with her. This actually did not felt as goodbye because I did not realized at the time it was going to be the last time I saw them for a while. I miss them already. Later on I sold my house and left what had been my home for around six years.  Because of this I had to give away my dog “Pedro” to Dilia (who helped my parents in raising me). I really love that misbehaved dog that used to pee all over the house and got pissed off when we threw him out of the room.  I will miss him dearly. Saying goodbye to my nephews was the hardest thing of all. The younger one, Alejandro, did not understand that I was leaving for a long time because he is just two years old, but the older one, Oswaldo José, who is now five, knew very well the situation even before I mentioned it to him. The minute I hugged him to say goodbye neither of us wanted to let go. I would really like to tell you that I controlled myself so he could not sense the difficulty of letting him go, but I failed miserably. Both of us ended up crying and to accept that with no shame shows how much I love those kids. Finally, I had to say the last goodbyes at my father’s department to my closest friends: Gigi, Konanz, Andrea, Xavier, Gio, Daniel, etc. Xavico and Alberto were not there but I met with them two days before. Leaving my brother Oswaldo was really hard, mainly because I wanted to take him with me. We are very close and I hope I have been as much as supportive as he has been with me. I foresee my main achievements happening alongside him. We still have that pending goal to receive an Oscar together (We have not idea what is the nomination) and say a joke we have rehearsed way back since we were young. My father, whose name is also Oswaldo, took me to the airport and I hugged him very strong as farewell. Morole, my girlfriend, came along with me to New York. She is helping me a lot with this venture, and I know for a fact that saying goodbye to her will break up my heart. Sacrifices, I keep telling myself. As Steve Jobs once said: “If you follow your dreams it just gets better and better”.

I hope I did not bore you to death with my farewells, but you have to understand how difficult was for me to leave all behind. I know I will not regret it because we have to embrace life and live the way we feel like. We need to do what we love and if we have to make some sacrifices to get there, so be it. You cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs :(.

Godspeed,

José Luis

MASTERING A SKILL

The idea behind this blog is to prove the theory that to master a skill you need to spend 10,000 hours practicing it. First you need to know something about me. I am a 32 year old from Guayaquil, Ecuador (South America for the people who do not know where Ecuador is… and if you don’t I don’t blame you). I had an epiphany several months ago. I was doing rather well in my career, which at the time was Management. I got a degree in business administration majoring in International Finance and Marketing ten years ago from the University of Miami and I have been relatively successful in my career path. I come from a wealthy family, but to tell you the truth, the most important lesson I have learned is that too much money is corruptive and there is a high chance that it will bring out the worst of us human beings. I have been involved in several business, some were family businesses and others my own.

Back to my epiphany, I woke up one day, as always feeling that something was wrong. This was not the life I was supposed to be having. Working nine to five in a job that did not complete my expectations was very tiresome. After all, we spend the most part of our day working, so it is a good idea to focus those hours in something you love. I have always loved drawing and writing, and I have been enamored with the comics media since I was a child, but that career path, at least in my country, was out of the question. Even worse since I had the “responsibility” of taking care of my family businesses. I had been waking up feeling that way a lot, and later on was more and more common. To tell the story short I just realized that I had to start on a journey, a different path. Just by making the decision, which let me tell you was NOT easy, I was halfway from my goal. Thanks to my girlfriend I came about applying for art school at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and I have spent a whole year organizing my life in order to become a student again. I have heard everything since I made the decision. People think I am crazy (I must be, in a positive way), friends also think that I went nuts but they support me, my family are behind my journey one hundred percent. I think people around my age are able to comprehend that the road to success and happiness is in doing what you love, but there are also people who have deluded themselves in thinking they HAVE to live the way life has molded them into. I know this because I was one of them for almost fourteen years.

I want to document that even though change is NOT easy, it IS possible and that it will give me more happiness and purpose to my life. My goal is to draw comics and I want to show you all the process, the hours spent in order to achieve the ten thousand hours (just drawing and painting), my work, and in overall the evolution of myself.

So in writing this blog I will achieve the following goals:

1. Writing. - I have always loved to write, but I must warn you, my primary language is Spanish so I hope my horrible grammar and vocabulary do not scare you away. I want to be a professional writer also (mainly for comic book scripting) and I need to practice my English in order to do so. I hope that the more I write the more I will be able to achieve this.

2. Drawing. – Even though I will be studying and learning a lot, the most I will be doing is drawing. I will be studying for a Bachelor in Fine Arts majoring in Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts. My plan is to count the hours I spend painting and drawing in order to get the ten thousand hours that will guarantee that I have mastered this particular skill. Can it be done? Will it be enough? Is it overkill? Will I be prepared or comfortable with my career before reaching those ten thousand hours? Those and many others are the questions I want to be able to answer, not just for you, but also for me. I think I will learn more about myself in the road and I have you for feedback on my choices and my works.

3. Motivation. – The decision I made came quite hard for me. I spent fourteen years since graduating from High School with the idea that I would have been better off studying comics rather that managing a dairy farm in Ecuador, but I was too afraid to admit that to myself. I think it is never too late and I want to prove that point. I want to inspire other people who may be feeling the same way to take life into his own hands. To be able to control their destiny. I hope that by sharing my feeling will be enough to let people know that although is risky, a different journey CAN be achieved.

4. Entertainment. – Well, I am sure I will make a lot of mistakes, so who better to laugh at them than my faithful readers. And who knows, maybe I will make a name for myself and I will thank you all in the future when I am receiving my Eisner (Comic award). I know I know, it is very ambitious, but to be able to follow your dream, and not dream high is just a waste of time and effort.

5. Attainable goal. – I am a runner, and the first lesson I learned in training for a marathon was to have an attainable goal. For instance, you could not have a goal of running faster, you should pursue a goal of getting to the finish line within three hours and forty five minutes (Actually, my personal record is three hours and thirty minutes but as you can see I don’t like to brag ;)). So this attainable goal of achieving ten thousand hours will give me a clear road to follow which I hope to share with you. Ten thousand hours is a long time so I will be focusing on mini goals like these:

· Level 1: Novice (2,000 hours)

· Level 2: Apprentice (4,000 hours)

· Level 3: Journeyman (6,000 hours)

· Level 4: Adept (8,000 hours)

· Level 5: Master (10,000 hours)

Achieving these goals one at a time is more realistic and I will treat myself for getting to another level. It will be like playing a game, only harder.

At the end my main goal is to write and to draw, and in the meantime hoping to motivate some of you or maybe even entertain you. Life is too short and time passes rather fast nowadays so I will lay back, breath, and follow my path, one hour at a time. There will be no wasting time and if it is I will be sure to let you know. The journey is just beginning on September 7, 2010.

Godspeed,

José Luis