Meeting Minutes

Details of our meeting of 1/30/2008

Dear Everyone,

thank you so much for coming to the meeting and celebrating MEIC forth year-
Next time we should all come in our swimming suits (it was about 300 degrees in the meeting room, and no one knew how to turn it off!).

4 years, 3 Fall Folio Feasts, 2 shows, mailing, sharing, networking...

It was so nice to meet new artists, see old friends, and thanks to Ian Weidner from PortCity Life for coming to check out some local art & artists.

We introduced ourselves, shared work in progress, enjoyed some new art & portfolios, and proposed some ideas for 2008.

Here are some:

- Have a show (we need a unifying theme and a place)

- publish our own "directory" of the Collective via Lulu.com, it would be a professional looking book and a great way to promote our work.

- create a set of greeting cards (birthday, get well, etc, etc) illustrated by us as a group and send them out as a kit to art directors.

- we had talked before about a day of "share your tricks" with other illustrators, as a big event somewhere.  Anna suggested to have one or two of us showing something at meetings.  It would be easy to do it, a breeze to organize, and it would add extra pizzaz to our meetings.
I could show how to silkscreen with Gocco printing, if anyone is interested.

-We should use our blog more, post shows, news, art, etc...  Email me to get deatils about username & password. To go to the blog, follow the link on our website.

Should we post illustrated (by us) Valentine cards this month?

I'll be happy to help with any of these projects.  If anyone has suggestions, extra energy, a venue, etc,  let us know.

PS: many of you have paid dues, but not sent images, links, etc for our website-  Do not forget!  It's one of the things we can do to help you get work & get seen.

Links to things we talked about:

copicmarker.com
illustrationfriday.com
lulu.com
zazzle.com
cafepress.com

A book I'd like to suggest if you're thinking of having your own business:  Craft, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco-  It's about crafts, but the suggestions are good for illustrators too...  It's about thinking as a business, not a hobby.

Next meeting will be on 2/27- more details to come.

Best wishes to all!

Details of our meeting of 11/29/06

Dear Friends,

thanks for coming to the meeting tonight- It was great to have answers to most of our tax-related questions (and fears). Thanks Anne Weber for coming to speak at our meeting, thanks for all your advice, knowledge, handouts and forms.
Next month, no meeting, due to the holidays. I assume that our next meeting will be on January 31st, the very last Wednesday of that month, unless the 24th is better.
Tonight we also discussed briefly the possibilities of taking advertising space on the Directory of Illustration and/or doing a mailing of our own. It would be nice to send a package of postcards to potential clients all together, I think it would look good and grab attention.
Anna and I came up with the idea to do a survey for art directors, to hear what works for them (e.i. "Do you use the ispot.com or Portfolios.com? Do you like getting postcards or rather have e-mail promotions? How often do you hire an illustrator? Etc, etc...). So, if you have any questions, send them in!
Also, contact me if you're intersted in advertising in the Directory of Illustration. The deadline is December 14th.
Hope you all have a great Holiday season- Best wishes to all and may 2007 be a year full of illustration assignments and exciting surprises.

Details of our meeting of 10/21/06 (aka Fall Folio Feast)

What a success! To see pictures and read about it, please visit our blog at www.mecollective.blogspot.com (October 24th entries)

Details of our meeting of 9/27/06

We had a very nice turnout, with old and new faces.
New members: welcome!
Most of the meeting was centered on Fall Folio Feast details. Lots of questions came up, hope most of them were answered, we looked at art, shared portfolios and work in progress.
Thanks in advance to all the people who volunteer to help on the 21st!

Some websites we mentioned:

www.fontifier.com (make your own handwriting into computer fonts)

Contests:
Society of Illustrators 49 Annual- Deadline extended to Ocotober 20th
www.societyillustrators.org

Fossil: they need designs for their tin boxes: Deadline, October 3rd
www.design.fossil.com/

Dany mentioned that the Starbucks downtown (the one in the Hay building, Congress and Free streets) is looking for art... drop off a disc with images to Lynn's attention to the barista.

Calling all cooks: Hannaford has a cooking contest (must include one of their "inspiration" products in the recipe), $1000 first prize. Oct 31st deadline.
www.hannaford.com

We will have an accountant for the arts answer questions about taxes on the November meeting: get your questions ready!

 

Details of our meeting of 8/30/06

Wow, what a nice turnout! We had 18 wonderful illustrators last night.  So nice to see everyone again and meet new artists.

First of all, thank you Suzanna for bringing your daughter, a comic/graphic novel specialist, Publishers Weekly editor.  It was so nice to be able to ask questions- Thank you Heidi!

Please check out publishersweekly.com and sign up for the PW comics e-letter to read more.

Welcome new and re-newed members:

  • Judy Labrasca
  • Margaret Ryan
  • Piper Castles

Please check out the members' page on our website (www.maineillustratorscollective.org/memebers.htm).  We need a small bio, and/or a link and a thumbnail (150 x 150 pixels, 72 dpi) of your art to add it to our website.  You can email them to me or to Mike Gorman, our webmaster at mg@mikegorman.com-  It would be great to have everyone online in time for the Folio Feast.  Please call me if you have any questions.

Gabe, Christina, Suzanna, Dany and Anna, thank you for your dues and registrations for the FFF.

Lots of great artwork was shared: new books, posters, calendars, portfolios, work in progress.
We talked shop a little bit and generally caught up with new details of the Fall Folio Feast and life as an illustrator in general...

Some websites we mentioned:

News/Events:

Anne Sibley O'Brien has a Korean Hero Graphic Novel & Martial Arts Event on 10/1 at the Aikido of Maine, 226 Anderson Street, Portland 2pm-5pm www.koreanrobinhood.com

Gabe McPhail has a couple of great videos to lend, one about Rockwell Kent and one about David McPhail (great children book artist see http://www.davidmcphail.com/).  Contact her at art@workshop31.com

MECA art Auction: deadline, September 15- visit www.meca.edu to find out more

Contest:

Cherry Blossom Festival Poster contest, Sept.15

I've found the Art Directors Club of Maine, and I will invite all the art directors from their list.  It looks like another 100 invitation will be sent out by tomorrow.

Umbrellas were distributed to who wanted to partecipate in the crazy umbrella project.  If you need an umbrella, contact me.  Steve (Russell), I'm sending your umbrella today via mail!

Our next meeting will be on September 27, Wednesday -Probably same time, same place.  I'll keep you posted.

Details of our picnic meeting of 7/22/06

Into every picnic, a little rain must fall. Well folks, a little (okay a lot) of rain fell but we still had a wonderful Peaks Island adventure. A huge thank you to our hosts, Marty Braun and Jamie Hogan!

Leticia, Roy and her children, my family, and Patsea and Kate rode the 11:15 boat to Peaks, and ate a wonderful luncheon. We shared work and discussed promotion, process, and payment. Hmmm... the three P's?

  • We are plotting to bring back the optional assignment to life... Fall Reading?
  • FFF card on the way

Details of our meeting of 6/28/06

  • Logo work almost done: check blog for details (mecollective.blosgpot.com)
  • I'm happy to announce that our next meeting will be a potluck/picnic in Peaks Island, on the 22nd, with the 23rd as a raindate. Bring something to share. Bring children, family, and sketchbooks.
  • We all try to get to the same ferry (the 11:15 am, I think), so we are easy to sheperd to the beach- Plus, we can get a commuter's booklet, and that's cheaper.
  • This last meeting we discussed yet more details of the upcoming Folio Feast, and try to figure out ways to make it work better this time around. We (Anna and I) will write a press release in the near future and start advertising- Please send suggestions of where to post the press release.
  • Also, this time I think we can offer hotel stay to only 3 art directors, not 5, unless we all collectively become rich or famous, or both.
  • Speaking of fundraising, I've secured the name ME Collective on etsy.com- There's nothing there right now, but it looked like a simple way to post work up, for those of us who feel like they would like to donate something to MEIC to sell- The profits would be split 50/50 with the artist, gallery style.
  • Also, we could have a "Fall Folio Feast" cafepress store for free too.
  • No work was shared this time-
  • I will buy umbrellas (cheap ones that will become priceless once we work on them) and bring them to the picnic.
  • Anyone interested in trying Gocco silkscreen printing? We could have a Gocco night soon-
  • Interactive designers: there's a call for entries in How magazine (howdesign.com deadline July17)

Details of our meeting of 5/31/06

  • Anna and Marcy suggested that we should have a logo for our FFF (aka Fall Folio Feast)- It's a great idea, it will give the event an identity, and we can use it on all our materials related to it.
  • We will have a design-the-logo contest and Anna will soon send you details. In order to post our entries, and vote on it, I started a MEIC blog, that we can all access. (www.mecollective.blogspot.com). Pleaser contact me for details.
  • I would like to have a "Fall Folio Feast 2006" web page, so that perspective partecipants and AD can go peek and get excited about it- Maybe even register online.
  • We are still looking for a Key speaker, we'll keep you posted
  • We are hoping to send a FFF mailing to both art directors and illustrators in August
  • Last year the rain was so unbelievably bad that I was joking that we should promise umbrellas to the Art Directors that will partecipate. Everyone liked the idea, so now I will find cheap black umbrellas that we can paint on with acrylics and make it a fun give away for the AD- They will walk away with a one-of-a-kind, silly umbrella. It would be fun to hang, and fun to photograph.
  • Partecipation on the umbrella project is volontary- Contact me if you'd like to do one.
  • I still would like to have an ongoing small print auction to benefit MEIC.
  • We would share profits 50-50 with the illustrator, and I assume MEIC can eat the cost of printing a small edition (50 pieces?). I can set it up and have a web bank connection (like amazone honor system or paypal- This is volontary too. Contact me if you'd like to submit art.
  • Should we have a picnic in Peaks' Island in July, just for fun? Any suggestions as of dates or times?
  • We, as usual, commented on work in progress
  • No major contests this time, but if you have erotica in your repertoire, there's the Dirty Show in Detroit, deadline June 30, http://www.dirtydetroit.com/

Details of our meeting of 4/26/06

  • As usual we critiqued work in progress and finished work.
  • We looked at the portfolios of Fulton Beal, Steve Russell and Dany - Welcome to MEIC! We hope to see you again at our meetings.
  • Discussed a few details of the 2006 Fall Folio Feast, as catering possibilities, fundraising, how to have local art directors participate to the event...
  • I will contact the Chamber of Commerce and see if they have any suggestions or deals to offer
  • Fulton suggested the idea of maybe having a MEIC booth at some of the art street festivals this summer, selling paper products or such (Fulton, let us know if you find out more info)
  • Suzanna brought a cool british magazine full of Photoshop and Illustrator tricks, called ImageFX
    the website is www.darkrising.co.uk
  • For all those going to the SCBWI event this weekend, have a good and successfull trip!
  • a few of us ended up at SPACE for the "Do the arts mean business?" talk, it was very interesting, especially if you are an artist that has a business or has a studio. I will post the links to the the city's art business resources at a later date.
  • There's a competition for public art (art for 3 stations on the I-95 turnpike). If you're curious to know more, let me know and I'll send you details. Deadline for sketches and proposal is June 15.

more websites we talked about:

Details of our meeting of 3/29/06

  • Discussed details of the ART MINGLING (sponsored by the Portland Phoenix, March 30th, 2006- The Asylum 6-9pm)
  • Reviewed work in progress
  • Talk about tecniques (lots about gouache)
  • Met new members, as Helen Stevens- Thanks for coming!
  • talked a little about the preparations of the Fall Folio Feast
  • Shared creative details of past month
  • Important: Now MEIC is registered as an official Maine Artist Organization at the Maine Arts Commission website (www.mainearts.com)
  • Every artist/illustrator can now register! Please do.

Details of our meeting of 3/1/06 (this is the February meeting):

  • small gathering this time, 6 of us.
  • normal weather for once, cold, but nice.
  • New member, Suzanna Lasker (welcome and great work!)
  • Ellen, so nice to meet you, we hope to see you again. Anyone know any Medical Illustrators? Please let us know, we'd like to know more.
  • we shared work in progress and news about competitions and upcoming events.
  • Discussed the ups and downs of keeping our creative juices going when things are slow (we mentioned www.illustrationfriday.com, for those of us who need deadlines.)
  • Again, we talked a bit about the Orphan Works Copyright Legislation (I cannot enphatize enough how important it is that everyone write to their Senators, Representatives, etc about this! If the law passes, our profession will never be the same). FMI go to www.gag.org they have letters, links and all you may need. The fax numbers of Senator Olympia Snowe is 874-7631, and Susan Collins is 828-0380, for us in Maine.
  • Contest info: you have until tomorrow to enter American Illustration (ai-ap.com), until March 13 for Communication Arts (www.commarts.com/competition) and March 20 for the How self-promotion (www.howdesign.com).
  • Also, for Children artists/writers check out www.smartwriterspro.com (brought you by Anna, thanks!). The deadline is March 15.
  • The preparation for the next Fall Folio Feast is moving slowy, but moving. We are still waiting to hear from Space and possible guests. Anna is working on getting fun door prizes.
  • ART MINGLE: it looks like the show will be on March 23rd at the Asylum, in Portland. Reminder: this is open to ALL illustrators, members or not, so please let me know asap. I will have more details tonight.
  • Next meeting will be in Brunswick, March 29.

(please let me know if I forgot anything).

Best wishes to all for a creative week,
Leticia Plate

Details of meeting of January 25, 2006

A special welcome to Mike Gorman's class- Nice to meet you all, and nice to see everyone again.
Anna, thank you SO much for bringing cake and marking our 1st year anniversary (!).
On this meeting we:

  • shared work in progress
  • talked a little bit about this year's Fall Folio Feast (the date will be October 14, probably at SPACE)
  • shared portfolios and images
  • Updated on the various competition deadlines.
  • Should we have a small show with our Folio Feast? Maybe a collection of grocery lists, or doodles, or art on napkins... suggestions?
  • Anna brought the SCBWI magazine, which features a new article by Anne Sibley O'Brien that mentions MEIC (thank you Anne, again!)
  • Joyce brought two interesting books about design and composition: Picture This, by Molly Bang and Words about pictures (a more technical approach, but can't remember the author's name now...)

Again, competitions' deadlines are:

How-self promotion: March 20 (www.howdesign.com)
Print Magazine-March 1st (www.printmag.com)
American Illustration- February 17 (www.ai-ap.com)
Society of Illustrators- February 17 (this is open only to students-see below for web address)

Links to other things we talked about:
www.illustrationfriday.com
www.space538.org
www.scbwi.org
www.societyillustrators.org

It looks like our next meeting will be in Portland on March 1st, since February 22nd falls during the Spring vacation and lots of us will be away. The next meeting, March 29, will probably take place up north somewhere, we'll keep you posted.

Due to Holidays- No meeting in December! Happy New Year!

Details from our meeting 11/30/05:

Very nice turnout- We meet Jeff Pert, David Jacobson and Ada. Great work, so nice to meet people from all the various fields of this crazy business. We hope to see you again!

Let's see: we did share portfolios and work in progress, and talked a very little bit about future plans, as the workshops and maybe entering the How self-promotion competition as a group.

Competitions: there's a worldwide competition to do an illustrated version of the Life of Pi. To get more info, enter "Life of Pi illustration contest" in Google and you'll find many links.
The deadline is January 16, art can be e-mailed to the Times (in England) at pi@times.co.uk
One illustration is all they need to start. The winner gets 500 british pounds and 2% royalty of a very successful book.

New deadlines and guidelines are online for Great Arrow greeting cards (www.greatarrow.com)
They do very beautiful 4-5 color silkscreened cards.

I've discovered that there's a whole website dedicated to grocery lists (thinking of Joyce's stunning grocery list...)- www.grocerylists.org
Should we do a show about lists in general?

Also, I've found an interesting website dedicated to illustrators, cartoonist, and other graphic artists:
www.drawn.ca, they have interesting links, ideas, etc.

No meeting in December!
We we all be too busy with holidays, school vacations, etc, etc.
Next meeting will be January 25, place to be announced.

Details of our meeting of 10/26/05:

  • reviewed the results of the surveys (both from illustrators and art directors) from the Fall Folio Feast. Anna, thank you SO much for compiling all that info into such a nice format!
    It looks like it was a successfull party, or Feast.
  • patted ourselves on the back for the FFF and discussed what we can do better or different next time.
  • I will send everyone a copy of the list of local art directors that we invited, as a pdf or e-mail attachment, asap- Keep in mind that all the art directors in the list have already received your samples from the FFF (for future mailings)
  • shared work in progress, of course, and news and questions. Info about competitions and contests.
  • discussed possible ideas for the workshops we plan to have sometimes next year, we'll post ideas soon. Anyone with suggestions or requests, please let us know
  • Marty suggested making some of the workshops/lectures as part of future meetings
  • Next meeting will be in Brunswick, Nov. 30th
  • I will try to revive our Yahoo group, as a way of posting notes, etc, so be warned, most of you will receive an "official" invitation to the MaineIllustratorsCollective yahoo group

Thank you again, for making this group so lively!

PS- Please check our new "Fall Folio Feast" page on the web (click on the one on the left column), just posted by our webmaster, Mike Gorman. New members, please send info for the "members" page directly to him, at mg@mikegorman.com

 

Details of our meetings July to September, 2005:

Most of the time in the meetings of July, August, and September were used organizing all the details of the Fall Folio Feast- As usual, there was critiquing work in progress and sharing work.

Details from our meeting on 6/29/05:

  • decided that the invitation for the FFF will be a collective (art from as many members as we can)
  • reviewed work in progress
  • talked about projects we are personally working on
  • Scott Nash agreed to be our guest speaker!
  • we will start advertising the FFF to both art directors and illustrators
  • we can start collecting fees and dues
  • Anna will write a press relase
  • we need to have a FFF web page (thanks ina advance!)
  • Gabe sent us a list of recipes/menu for the FFF event

Details from our meeting on 5/25/05:

  • Cover art submissions for the Fall Folio Feast are due to Leticia by June 15th, please email low-res images at Leticia@leticiaplate.com. We will post the submissions on the website and tell Leticia which is our favorite for the invitation. It is that we will use some art for spots. The cover is a 5.5 x 8.5 size, vertical format.
  • Gabe is our food person for the event. She has catering background. She will determine the menu, amounts, ingredients, and assign to MEIC members. Tell her if you have a preference from the menu once she posts it.
  • Anna is applying to SCBWI for a grant to help pay for lodging for Art Directors. The first five art directors who sign up from out of Portland area will get lodging.
  • We have decided on a $25/ year dues. Dues is on a sliding scale. We will remit payment to Marcy, our treasurer when Leticia opens the bank account. If you want to be in the Fall Folio Fest also send along $50, $35 for students. We are in the process of becoming a non-for-profit corporation, and we should finalize paperwork soon.
  • Marcy will do design and production of the invitation. If you have art director addresses to add please send them to Marcy at mdeckerdesigns@adelphia.net by June 22nd so she can run labels for our June meeting.
  • June 29th is the next meeting and we hope it will be a work session to get the mailers ready to take to the post office the next day. Place to be announced.
  • Welcome to Lesia Sochor a fine artist and illustrator who specializes in realistic oils and watercolors. Congrats on the new book, The Cat of Strawberry Hill, coming out with Downeast this fall.

Thanks to everyone who shared work.

Details from our meeting on 4/27/05:

  • Review of assignments
  • Critique of work in progress
  • Portfolio \viewing: more discussion about our portfolio show/event. We will research spaces available for the event, work on mailing list, invitations.
  • New assignment: create Something Sequential

Details from our meeting on 3/30/05:

  • Review of assignment
  • Critique of work in progress
  • Brainstorming on the portfolio show/review/event... lots of good and fun ideas came up. We decided on a tentative date of October 7th and 8th so to be able to be part of First Friday on Friday night and then have a portfolio review on Saturday. Played with the idea of involving a culinary school in the event and designing promo cards that include recipes.
  • New assignment: Create something about "TIME" (illustration, clock, object...)

Details from our meeting on 2/23/05:

  • Nice turnout: we were 13, lots of new faces (welcome!)
  • Presentation/introduction of our work, portfolios and samples review
  • Critique of work in progress, general discussion of projects, visits
  • Suggestion that maybe we could take field trips
  • New assignment: hybrids

Details from our meeting on 1/26/05:

  • General introduction: we would like the group to be a forum to exchange ideas and critiques, a place to discuss illustration issues, such as copyright, contracts, pricing, etc...
  • Part of our meeting will be dedicated to an Open Critique Time (and have feedback on work in progress)
  • We'd like to be a creative outlet, create collections of the collective's work as books, calendars...
  • We are considering becoming a Graphic Artist Guild Chapter
  • We will explore the idea of becoming a not-for-profit group
  • We will create a group e-mail system, to be able to address questions to the whole collective
  • Would love to invite guest and have exhibits
  • Our logo will be a rotating logo, to be changed monthly (square format) and showcase a different artist each month
  • We are planning to create a Portfolio Event this summer, and invite art directors to see our work

All work on this site is © Copyright 2006 by the respective artists,
and may not be reproduced in any way without expressed permission.
Please contact the webmaster if you have issues with this website.