There was a time, a time not too long ago, when, if you were a fly on the wall of my office, you'd see me animating banner ads day in and out. And if I wasn't actually animating them, I'd be in a meeting about them, or having beer with my co-workers brainstorming about them, or coming up with concepts for them. I used to enjoy many parts of this life and I'm grateful for my early days in Advertising. Not only do I count many post-university friends in the industry I worked, but I also had my fair share of mentors and insights. I might have even helped a few people along the way. With the positive, however, came some pretty weighted moments where I would feel decidedly unfulfilled, decidedly unhappy, decidedly scared. I don't romanticize this. I was scared. I would expect most people would include these feelings into the category of Necessary Evils, that is, working for a living. I grant this possibility. But I find it curious that ever since I started to take those anxieties seriously, my working life improved, in the sense that I enjoyed it more. And this is long before I left employed life. This started when I started to talk to my managers in the kind of candid professional tone that I'd been trying out since high school. It didn't work as well on teachers, for the most part. This is in part because they had too many things going on at once to ultimately care about an average and well-behaved student who seemed to be heading in a pretty good direction (me). Managers, however, who know the difficulty of creating a good team, have always appreciated it. Even if I wasn't the strongest member of said team. What am I getting at? Two things. 1. You're probably more valuable to your employer than you realise. 2. I built a new banner ad today. It's for Siteway Select. It's promoting my newest print available, of Marlon Brando in the Wild One.

Labels: Advertising, CareerTalk, Freelancing, Siteway, SitewaySelect

¶ 11:19 AM

Happy St. Patrick's Day weekend! You can buy prints of Irish singer/songwriter Tommy Makem on Siteway Select. ¶ I'll post again on Sunday night.

Labels: SitewaySelect

¶ 10:32 AM

I had an illustration in today's National Post (AL2) of Norah Jones. I've been illustrating for the Arts & Life section on a semi-regular basis since last May. I've been posting photographs of my illustrations that have appeared in the Post to my flickr account. You can check it out at thepost.siteway.com. ¶ I've decided to pull the plug on my CafePress store. I could probably articulate the reasons why but I think I'll just let time do the explaining. Right now the only place you can purchase Siteway related stuff is through my online store, Siteway Select. Oh, and my sister brand, Tonicville, has a store over at Prickie you can check out. ¶ We're hope hope going to NYC in late February. Now's the time to send me suggestions on where to eat, drink, and be merry. I've already set up one client meeting and I'm hoping to drop off my portfolio at the Esquire and Rolling Stone offices. ¶ And finally I want to say that the new Siteway site is coming along very well, thank you, and I'll be posting my launch date any day now. Stay tuned, illustration and vague-talk lovers, we've just finished the pre-dinner drinks. With any luck, we've got a full dinner ahead to look forward to. ¶ Cheers for the nod, Jason.

Labels: NationalPost, NYC, SitewaySelect, SitewayWorld, Vague

¶ 8:43 PM

Dear Terrence Malick (and the people you work with), The films you make are beautiful. I would very much like to illustrate something for you one day (in any capacity). Keep me in mind. / All the best / Antony ¶ My father kept me in mind the other day when he commissioned me to illustrate Irish singer Tommy Makem. I did a pretty good job on it, I think, and I'll be posting it to Siteway Select in the new year for all your St. Patrick's Day needs.

Labels: Open Letter, SitewaySelect

¶ 11:14 PM

Cynicism has always been my enemy. It has overcome me on many occasions in part because it's a strong and worthy opponent. In fact, there's even some good to cynicism, but on the whole it's something I try to avoid. My heart swelled last night as I watched the least cynical movie I've seen in a long time that also didn't make me cringe: Keeping up with the Steins is, in many ways, a bad title for a such a sweet-hearted film that doesn't bother much with the competition implied. It helps, for me, that Jeremy Piven stars, but he's not even the best part (although he does have some of the better lines). The everyboy hero, played perfectly by Daryl Sabara, is the best reason to see this movie. He brought me right back to 12 going on 13. I was expecting snot-nosed friends, back-stabbing, and other forms of "comedic" antics. There's none to be found and yet I still laughed out loud. Wow, who would have thought that honest writing translates well to the screen?

Labels: Cinema, SitewaySelect

¶ 12:54 PM

After years of imagining, months of planning, and thousands of hours executing, Siteway's first online art-print store is finally open for business. Introducing Siteway Select! Siteway Select allows you to select, design (by way of painting prints in colour), and purchase. All in one light-hearted and interactive space. For a limited time, shipping is free. Please report anything from problems to congratulations to select@siteway.com.

Labels: SitewaySelect

¶ 11:59 PM

Early this morning a group of about twenty folks received an e-mail from yours truly letting them in on the preview site of Siteway Select. For those of you who are curious: Siteway Select is an online store I'm developing that lets people select, design, and purchase real-life art prints that we ship in the post. As of June 18th, 2006, users will be able to browse a select choice of my illustrations, paint them according to their taste, choose between a variety of sizes and formats, and ultimately purchase them. Each print ships unframed but included in every purchase is a PDF framing guide for helpful guidance in the framing process. This is definitely the biggest online undertaking I've been involved in so wish me luck! ¶ Ladies and germs, Mr. Larry David! Here's to June!

Labels: FeaturedIllustration, SitewaySelect

¶ 10:39 AM

Had a sweet birthday surrounded by loved ones—thank you for everything. Got some great gifts, too. For the record: though I'm not a voracious reader I absolutely adore books and reading. I've been on cloud nine for a week. ¶ We go live with the Siteway Select Preview site on Monday. This is your last chance to sign up as a tester. I'm not taking any more testers as of tomorrow morning. The testing site is password protected so if you don't wish to see things unfinished you can wait until June 18, 2006 when we launch the public site. For all you testers out there, expect an e-mail late Sunday evening with instructions. ¶ And one day we will die / And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea / But for now we are young / Let us lay in the sun / And count every beautiful thing we can see / Love to be / In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me. ¶ Speaking of birthdays, a certain father of Darius celebrates today! Cheers!

Labels: Gratitude, Lyric, SitewaySelect

¶ 12:34 PM

A few bits of news. I've cancelled the Clint Eastwood Siteway Lit raffle but it is still for sale as are all my Siteway Lit boxes excluding Woody Allen. ¶ An illustration I completed last September is in today's National Post, Arts & Life section. It's Dylan as a young man to celebrate his 65th birthday today. ¶ The preview release of Siteway Select is still slated to launch on May 31, 2006 with the live site going up in mid-June. ¶ And last, but not least, I've launched my latest portfolio site over at Folioplanet for Art Directors arrrrrrrrOUND the world to see my work: Folioplanet portfolio. Folioplanet got me connected with a Washington, D.C. client for a portrait of mayor Anthony Williams.

Labels: Freelancing, NationalPost, SitewayLit, SitewaySelect

¶ 8:52 AM

Receiving my eyeglasses today has given me, in tangible form, another dimension to what has been a month of exciting reckoning. On the first day of this month I gave up smoking cigarettes (sidebar: ever find it strange to read about cigarettes on a blog? I know I find it strange in part because it's so difficult to picture something so 1970s as smoke in the clean world of CSS beauty.) as part of what the marketers are calling Driven To Quit. It's a month-long contest encouraging folks who smoke to pack it in for at least a month. Successful cessation gives you an entry in a draw where prizes include a Honda Civic Hybrid and a bunch of huge flat televisions. So that was the impetus, and I'm happy to report that as of this writing I'm well on my way to succeeding. I go almost six years and 500 some-odd posts before I write about smoking and here I am with the second post in just a few weeks. ¶ So the weekend away in London, Ontario, provided me ample daydreaming time where I was able to picture my life there, starting in the fall. This sort of imaginary picturing is vital to my life. Pauline's going back to upgrade her BA from UWO and I'm there to continue building the Siteway business (including, but not limited to Siteway Select), designing as always, and generally enjoying my newlywed status. Part of my plan is to buy a workstation-replacement notebook and a smaller Wacom tablet to start the transition from home office to mobile office. Suggestions here are not only welcomed but encouraged. ¶ In other words: I'm slowly but surely making decisions about lifestyle and career that I've been putting on the backburner since I moved to Toronto. It nevers comes all at once, but this month has been an inspiring one because the work preceding it is actually bearing fruit. ¶ Off to Halifax in the morning. The blunt truth is that I haven't been looking forward to going home this much since the summer after first-year at Western. The reality is that my home is here now, but because I'm uprooting here and there for the next 24 months or so, and because I've never been able to show Halifax off to Pauline in the warmer months, I'm keen as a kitten. When I get back I've got a nice surprise for anyone who has ever taken an interest in Siteway and what I do online. ¶ P.S. The glasses are awesome. I can see. ¶ P.P.S. I don't think many of you know that I have a Flickr account. Check out some of my pictures.

Labels: Flickr, Londontown, Musings, SitewaySelect, SitewayWorld

¶ 2:02 PM