We were fortunate to meet a gent named Heath Row at Google with great taste in books, comics, and zines (and the cred to match!). With his help and through the Authors@Google program, we arranged for Travis Millard to give a talk yesterday about his work and the book we published, Hey Fudge, at Google’s offices.
Travis Millard, Mark Dischler (Narrow Books), and myself.
Travis talked for about 40 minutes about his art and how he’s found an audience for it: the why and how of the galleries and companies that have sought him out. (Travis told me he gets emails from young artists and art students all the time asking how he’s “made it”, and it’s a task every time to explain that his career has been more about sitting at the drawing board than a by-the-numbers “this is how you become a professional artist” plan.)
So the talk Travis ended up delivering was sort of a letter to the kids who email him. He talked about his early days drawing as a kid, his blessedly failed efforts to get and keep a job as a designer, the dumb or ballsy moves (depending on your attitude) he took when first asked to do things he’d never done before (album art, animation, magazine illustration), and the odd sorts of anchors that ended up being more important than he could’ve guessed, like bar bathroom art installations he did at the Max Fish bar in New York and the Little Joy bar in LA.
It was a funny and informative talk, and with luck, Google will put the entire thing up for viewing on the web soon. For me, it was nifty to see a Google office, and Mark and I got to meet Travis’ art buddy, Kiel Johnson, whose work I’d seen before and dug. (We also got to check out Kiel’s feature spread in the new issue of Hi Fructose magazine.)
Mark, Mel Kadel, and Kiel Johnson checking out Hi Fructose before the talk.
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In truth, at first i did understand it. But after re-reading I think i comprehend