Career reflection at 36,000 feet!

It’s free-write time. I’m somewhere over Utah at 36,000 feet, traveling to Los Angeles. I do this a lot, but this trip, I’m accompanied by @vermillionfox and @guthrie. That has me in a better mood that usual. I’ve undoubted reached the curmudgeon stage of my career. I still love shooting, but I don’t like planes, I don’t like airports, I don’t like being away from home. We’re attempting to make this a work-cation. I have around 10 shoots in 11 days, in two cities, but I did my best to stack them together. Somehow, I managed to pull off three days in a row with no commitments [...other than a brief stop to Gentleman’s Ave podcast tonight to talk about @wcpublishing’s Dark Pinup].

What can I say? I feel like my career took off ten years too late. If I was single, didn’t have a son and didn’t feel the countless hours in small, upright seats as much as I do, I’d be in heaven. In fact, this is the dream job of most artists I know looking to break in. Everyone wants to get paid to travel and create art, right? I may sound a little jaded, but if you came with me for the last 5 years, you may agree. I’m proud of my career and the body of work that represents it, but it’s come at a high personal cost. It’s not as romantic as it sounds [...or looks on social media]. Enough complaining, though. I’m with my family and we have a lot to look forward to on this trip.

I just spent the last hour drawing a funny novelty for my friend, @thomaskuntzart. That’s one of the things I love so very much about him. He has a persisting, youthful love for the juvenile and immature. I remember last year he told me stories about how he and his friends would draw exquisite corpse fold outs on paper, each of them taking a section and coming up with hideous monsters in their respective third of the paper. The thing is, the kind of artists @thomaskuntzart associates with are legends like Bernie Wrightson. I saw a similar fold out on Instagram a few weeks ago and made a mental note to come up with something for him. A 3 1/2 hour flight is the perfect time to do just that [...even though the women next to me seemed thoroughly disgusted].

While I sketched this, it occurred to that I have haven’t drawn on paper in years. I was trying to remember the last time I’d done traditional illustration. It was during the years I barely eked out a living designing t-shirts for MMA and international death match wrestling companies, CZW, wXw and FREEDOM’s in Japan. This whole subculture is where I met my best friends, @mtbmondo [...legendary in the indie wrestling scene, better known as “Sick” Nick Mondo]. I illustrated, designed and printed @mtbmondo’s first shirt. It sold so well that I was approached by other wrestlers and eventually, entire promotions. Thus began a long, stressful work-horse era of my freelance career.

In 2011, I recall flying to Germany. A 6 hour flight, coming up with multiple iterations of the former WWE and ECW wrestler, Raven. I was a diehard ECW mark [...industry term to describe a fan of the business]. Raven actually hired me to design his new t-shirt. On almost no sleep, I sketched face after face, inked and designed this over the top depiction of Raven sitting on a throne of bones. For anyone that is familiar with Raven, you’ll most likely remember he often wrestled wearing Neil Gaiman’s Sandman shirt [...@cryplectibles, I feel that you'll know all about this]. He was a huge comic book enthusiasts, which was incredible for me. What a high point in a budding career! Getting paid to create something for one of your pro wrestling hero’s and being told “Make it look like a comic book. Something like Spawn!”

I finished the artwork in Germany, crashing on a friend’s floor. I did color separations and emailed them to the printer back in Philly, then took a 4 four train to Paris for one of the most memorable shoots of my career. I’ve actually written about it, so check you “Capturing the perfect photo in a Paris hotel!” if you want that story. All in all, I’ve been reflecting on the path that’s lead me to this very trip. In many ways, it doesn’t seem like it was even this life. That’s seems like an unsettling thought, but I take comfort in it. I grew up in Scranton, PA. Nothing happens and most never leave. Really, when I die, I just want to feel like I took the best opportunities when they presented themselves.

Thanks for reading and helping me burn another hour off this flight. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. An enormous benefit in Steemit for me personally is having the chance to write and reflect on my life. Times that seem so far away they’re almost out of sight. It’s therapeutic to dedicate time to remembering those moments [...or marathons]. I post often. For more photography, art, illustration and the stories behind the work, follow me here @kommienezuspadt.