I was getting out of the Air Force and coming home to a boring small town after living all over the country. Trying to figure out what the hay I was doing with my life.
2008? Not doing much, just busy being bored in eight grade. Got my first heart break but, that year I was made the Soccer team captain, so not too bad.
Hey Chuck, I’m starting my dissertation and some of your books are included (you may now cry with gratitude). I promise not to bug you with questions in the upcoming months, though I hope you wouldn’t mind answering this one -- would you consider the remix version of ‘Invisible Monsters’ to be the “definitive text” and would that version help in providing more material in relation to unreliable narration?
The Fred edit got me too. My little angel, Snickers, died last month and my goodness. I cried so hard my face hurt. I spent 18 of 20 years with her. In 2008 Snickers and I started working for a fruity tech company. Nearly lost my mind at the end. Working at home for this tech giant was isolating and assisted in isolating me to the point of nearly breaking. After I recovered I reached out to other co-workers and found out many of them checked in to mental hospitals because they all had nervous break downs. Crazy times I tell you.
I have some fun photos to share with you from 2008, when I first met you. Remember the teddy bear autopsy of Clarion West? I was a part of the construction and I witnessed you cutting open that bleeding bear. I can email the pictures if you'd like. I can tell you the story behind it again, too.
Yikes. Probably one of the worst years for me: financially and personally.
But first "The Good:" A magazine commissioned me to create a series of paintings interpreting Director Bill Condon's screenplay "Gods & Monsters." After he'd won an Oscar for the screenplay, Mr. Condon tracked me down 8 years later to purchase the series of original paintings. Even better, he bought two sets of archival prints: one for himself, and one to send to Sir Ian McKellan. That was a career highlight of all highlights—one that may have cushioned me for what was to follow.
The Bad:Round that time, lucrative illustration gigs were—and still are—few and far between. Instead of taking "trash-for-cash" freelance illustration gigs, I worked "art-related" day jobs. In 2006 I'd landed a job as the lead digital retoucher for a design/photo studio that had the Tourneau watch account. My job was to Frankenstein dozens of high focus digital watch photos of each watch into one seamless über-watch. That meant hours chained to a computer zoomed-in at a billion percent crawling around every surface of a watch, and matching the colors; the look; the feel; and "visual weight" to the actual watch sitting on my desk. This wasn't like pushing a button or sliding some sliders and "viola,"out pops a perfect watch. Photoshop is an incredibly complex and powerful piece of software that takes a long time to master—if it's to be used correctly. In addition to dozens of drawing and painting tools, there are vector paths, clipping paths, color profiles, layers, masks, rgb to cmyk color conversions, color profiles, etc etc.Several proofs were made of each watch to ensure it would get past the top brass at Tourneau.
So when the economy crashed in 2008, Tourneau put the account with the studio for which I was working on hold. To save my job I pivoted to making cold sales calls via phone and email. I'd snail mail promotional materials to anyone willing to receive them. After a couple of days I would follow-up to make sure the prospect received the promotional items, and tried to position the studio "for when the economy turned around."
The Ugly: I was eventually laid off since no one was calling anyone for anything anywhere—and Tourneau had tightened its purse strings: the studio's only real money-maker. I had to close down the art-studio I was renting as well. The real cherry on top being my six-year marriage that had become contentious, and then a pus-filled mound that had come to a head.
I was laid off, divorced and lost my art-studio all within six months.
Death Star indeed!
If you're out there, thank you Mr. Bill Condon for supporting me and my work at a time when all seemed completely lost.
A huge thank you to my current partner, Mimi, for coming into my life.
RIP Fred ❤️
RIP Fred - you had some nice tapetum lucidum. 💛
When you were signing all those books by the pallet, did you ever get a finger blister? Did it ever pop?
And I think the cookbooks got dirty because people kept spilling their white sauce on the pages, making them sticky. Those cookbooks were well-loved.
*sends Randy Dong all the good vibes*
Much love to all the readers on both coasts!!!!! Kick butt, Randy!!
I was getting out of the Air Force and coming home to a boring small town after living all over the country. Trying to figure out what the hay I was doing with my life.
Love those cat lasers! lol
Story Night in NYC was a hit. Thanks again to Randy! The space was perfect and we heard some great stories. Looking forward to the next one.
Story night was great. Excellent job setting it up Randy. Thanks! Eric (guy in back with N95 when not chatting during breaks).
I see what you did there! Story told. I’m sucked in—-then pet dies! I fell for it again. 😉
2008? Not doing much, just busy being bored in eight grade. Got my first heart break but, that year I was made the Soccer team captain, so not too bad.
Hey Chuck, I’m starting my dissertation and some of your books are included (you may now cry with gratitude). I promise not to bug you with questions in the upcoming months, though I hope you wouldn’t mind answering this one -- would you consider the remix version of ‘Invisible Monsters’ to be the “definitive text” and would that version help in providing more material in relation to unreliable narration?
Sounds like a good setting for a murder mystery
The Fred edit got me too. My little angel, Snickers, died last month and my goodness. I cried so hard my face hurt. I spent 18 of 20 years with her. In 2008 Snickers and I started working for a fruity tech company. Nearly lost my mind at the end. Working at home for this tech giant was isolating and assisted in isolating me to the point of nearly breaking. After I recovered I reached out to other co-workers and found out many of them checked in to mental hospitals because they all had nervous break downs. Crazy times I tell you.
What an amazing sounding place!
I have some fun photos to share with you from 2008, when I first met you. Remember the teddy bear autopsy of Clarion West? I was a part of the construction and I witnessed you cutting open that bleeding bear. I can email the pictures if you'd like. I can tell you the story behind it again, too.
2008?
Yikes. Probably one of the worst years for me: financially and personally.
But first "The Good:" A magazine commissioned me to create a series of paintings interpreting Director Bill Condon's screenplay "Gods & Monsters." After he'd won an Oscar for the screenplay, Mr. Condon tracked me down 8 years later to purchase the series of original paintings. Even better, he bought two sets of archival prints: one for himself, and one to send to Sir Ian McKellan. That was a career highlight of all highlights—one that may have cushioned me for what was to follow.
The Bad:Round that time, lucrative illustration gigs were—and still are—few and far between. Instead of taking "trash-for-cash" freelance illustration gigs, I worked "art-related" day jobs. In 2006 I'd landed a job as the lead digital retoucher for a design/photo studio that had the Tourneau watch account. My job was to Frankenstein dozens of high focus digital watch photos of each watch into one seamless über-watch. That meant hours chained to a computer zoomed-in at a billion percent crawling around every surface of a watch, and matching the colors; the look; the feel; and "visual weight" to the actual watch sitting on my desk. This wasn't like pushing a button or sliding some sliders and "viola,"out pops a perfect watch. Photoshop is an incredibly complex and powerful piece of software that takes a long time to master—if it's to be used correctly. In addition to dozens of drawing and painting tools, there are vector paths, clipping paths, color profiles, layers, masks, rgb to cmyk color conversions, color profiles, etc etc.Several proofs were made of each watch to ensure it would get past the top brass at Tourneau.
So when the economy crashed in 2008, Tourneau put the account with the studio for which I was working on hold. To save my job I pivoted to making cold sales calls via phone and email. I'd snail mail promotional materials to anyone willing to receive them. After a couple of days I would follow-up to make sure the prospect received the promotional items, and tried to position the studio "for when the economy turned around."
The Ugly: I was eventually laid off since no one was calling anyone for anything anywhere—and Tourneau had tightened its purse strings: the studio's only real money-maker. I had to close down the art-studio I was renting as well. The real cherry on top being my six-year marriage that had become contentious, and then a pus-filled mound that had come to a head.
I was laid off, divorced and lost my art-studio all within six months.
Death Star indeed!
If you're out there, thank you Mr. Bill Condon for supporting me and my work at a time when all seemed completely lost.
A huge thank you to my current partner, Mimi, for coming into my life.