What Do you do? A Poll

Helen Miles wrote:
"Victor Martinez" wrote in message

It's not just the miserable part though... As it stands now, if
Tom were to be hospitalized and unconscious, I would not have the
right to be by his side. If I were to die, all the assets that I own
that I have willed to Tom would be taxed at 50% (or something
ridiculous like that), whereas if he were my husband there would be
no tax. The list of unfairness goes on and on... ///

You and Tom should move to the UK. At least then you'd have the "Civil
partnership" bill. Not ideal, but marriage in everything but name.
Plus the furry crew could come on passports, and it means I'd get to
see you!

Helen M

While I would welcome Victor and Tom I think they may find our climate
rather cool after Texas. Also moving away because bad law, IMO, is not
he answer. The best thing to do is try to change things at home.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy & Bagheera)
A house is not a home, without a cat.

Lorraine wrote:
On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 23:15:56 GMT, O J wrote:

I'm retired from the phone company. snipped

I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks and this looks like a
good place to jump in. I currently work for a phone company, and
have 5 months and 5 days until I get my 30. Not that I plan on going
anywhere when I get the 30 (I hope), but it will be nice to have.
I'm a central office type, primarily switching. However, with all
the downsizing within the last few years, I've been thrown into
transport side also. I've actually enjoyed the change. I can only
tell of critters found in the power rooms and cable vaults. I've
managed to stay out of manholes.

I am currently owned by three lively kitties, Lucy, Indie and Ty.
They just took over the household last month after they all spent
time at a shelter. I have one that wants to kill the other two, but
other than that we're all doing well now. They can be seen at
http://www.raineforest.com/gallery/thecats

L.

Welcome to the group, Lorraine. :-)
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy & Bagheera)
A house is not a home, without a cat.

Karen Chuplis wrote:

So I'm curious, did you then go back to art school and met hubby there or
through some other "illustrator" convention? Did you take a lot of art or
are you one of those naturally talented folk that got the elements and
principles through instinct? Both you and hubby are very impressive!

Thank you very much!!

Yes, I did meet my DH at art school. Which was fortunate, as freelance
art is a very solitary profession and not much chance to meet other
like-minded people. It was a 4 year BA course with a work placement,
which I did at Kew Gardens, London; so I guess you could say I did a lot
of art, after finishing being a scientist :-)

I wouldn't say I am an instinctive artist really. I'm naturally a
scientist by nature - logical and methodical - not an artist (in the
true sense of the word). However, a scientific nature is ideal for this
kind of artwork, as it is 100% representative - that is, it must be
accurate or else it is worthless. Not like fine art which can come
straight out of your head (or whatever planet the artist may be on ;-)
I'm not at all creative, and have difficulty even working in a 'looser'
style as it just ends up looking rubbish!

I did have to be taught the techniques of creating the art - how to
observe and measure for drawing, how to make an accurate drawing from
life, and how to make a good conceptual drawing of something you can't
see (e.g. microscopic structures, or showing things juxtaposed in a
certain way, or processes of life that are best explained using
artworks, or using an artwork to show something more clearly than a
photo of the same thing could). Then how to work in watercolour, line
and stipple, halftone, acrylic etc. Almost immediately after leaving art
school, I got my first Apple Mac and translated the traditional methods
into digital art using Photoshop and Illustrator. I always still work
from a hand-drawn pencil rough to get a realistic look, though.

It is a unique area of work - there are only about 50-60 people in the
UK who do this, but of course quite a few more in the US, where there
are much better undergraduate programs available, and a thriving
professional body (AMI).

DH is much more talented than I am - he is a real artist, with much more
of an artist's temperament, and is a very reluctant adopter of digital
technology. In fact he hates it, and I am convinced the computer senses
he hates it and responds by deliberately being more unreliable than
normal. ;-) Fortunately I love it, so you can guess who gets the job of
tech support round here!

Deb.

--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

Marina wrote:

It does sound fun. One of my father's colleagues tried to talk me into
becoming a scientific illustrator way back when I was twenty-something
and didn't know what to become when I grew up (still don't know, but
that's another story).

What stopped you? Do you still do any artwork? Would love to see it if
you do!

Just think, you could have been an eminent palaeoartist, with your
family connections! :-)

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

Tanada wrote:

I just checked out your client list. I thought I'd seen some of your
art somewhere. Cumberland County uses Glencoe McGraw-Hill as their
preferred publisher. Your work is in both the middle and high school
text books.

Cool!! Those textbooks are US-specific, in fact state-specific, so they
aren't available here at all.

For the Middle School Science books I did a wide range of arts - lots of
plant life cycles and structures, also lots of cell biology, DNA etc, a
few animals and some human evolution. Have just finished 3 new ecology
arts for the Florida edition for next year. They are a really nice
client to work for - very friendly and helpful, and appreciative too,
which doesn't happen much here. In fact I really enjoy working for US
clients in general - they seem to put quality and content first, whereas
many of the UK publishers seem to think artwork is just something cheap
to fill up the space left in the text....

Some of the UK publishers I work for also publish in the US - the main
one being Dorling Kindersley. 'Complete Home Medical Guide', 'Human
Body', 'Visual Dictionary' series, several baby care, fitness and
pregnancy books, 'Plant' and 'Human' are all titles I've worked on over
the last few years with them.

Pam S. thrilled to finally know the artist of so many beautiful
illustrations.

Thank you! :-)) It's also very nice to know someone who sees them in
real life!

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

Gennie wrote:

Oh! How cool, Debbie and Philip!!

If I had more of a head for the "science" (esp. chemistry) I would
have loved to have gone into the natural sciences field and related
illustration. (Toward that end I did manage some informal botanical
illustration classes.)

Glad that you did follow your heart to some extent! Many people do go
into the career from a purely artistic background, though it does help a
lot to understand what you are drawing, and also to be able to research
the subjects effectively, so biology is a big plus if you have it.

Actually, I would say to anyone who is considering it as a career - if
you really enjoy it, keep it as a hobby. Like anything, if you are
forced to do it 24/7 and almost always to other people's specifications,
budgets and deadlines, it does lose quite a bit of its appeal!

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

Tanada wrote:

Your art is beautiful. Have you ever worked for US text book companies?
North Carolina uses McGraw-Hill, but I've also seen Harper-Collins
text books out there.

Thank you, Pam. Yes - I have done a lot of work for Glencoe McGraw-Hill
in the last 3-4 years, and last year also for McDougal Littell.
Strangely enough it was for almost identical projects - Middle School
Life Science! Which made life interesting trying to produce identical
yet totally different artworks on the same subject for differnt clients.

If you use any educational posters in your school environment, I have
also just done one for Feenixx, Inc. on the Animal Kingdom:
http://www.feenixx.com/LOE-1/Animal_Kingdom_poster.htm
Hopefully coming to a school near you soon :-)

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

Mathew Kagis wrote:

OK, I'll bite-- what is *in* a RL version PanGalactic Gargleblaster?

'The effect of drinking a Pangalactic Gargleblaster is like having your
brains smashed out with a slice of lemon, wrapped 'round a large gold
brick" - Douglas Adams

OK, our recipie is: El Jimador tequila, Absinthe & Goldshlager (gotta
represent the gold brick somehow) Shaken on Ice, served in a Martini glass
& garnished (of course) with a slice of lemon. Limit, 2 per customer...;-)

*whoo-ee*!
(What is Goldshlager?)

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

in article , Debbie Wilson at
wrote on 1/16/05 8:53AM:

Karen Chuplis wrote:

So I'm curious, did you then go back to art school and met hubby there or
through some other "illustrator" convention? Did you take a lot of art or
are you one of those naturally talented folk that got the elements and
principles through instinct? Both you and hubby are very impressive!

Thank you very much!!

Yes, I did meet my DH at art school. Which was fortunate, as freelance
art is a very solitary profession and not much chance to meet other
like-minded people. It was a 4 year BA course with a work placement,
which I did at Kew Gardens, London; so I guess you could say I did a lot
of art, after finishing being a scientist :-)

I wouldn't say I am an instinctive artist really. I'm naturally a
scientist by nature - logical and methodical - not an artist (in the
true sense of the word). However, a scientific nature is ideal for this
kind of artwork, as it is 100% representative - that is, it must be
accurate or else it is worthless. Not like fine art which can come
straight out of your head (or whatever planet the artist may be on ;-)
I'm not at all creative, and have difficulty even working in a 'looser'
style as it just ends up looking rubbish!

Well, I somewhat disagree that you are not a "real" artist. Being artistic
is not just about being wildly imaginative and experimental (although, I
must admit, normally with my students, I have to push them away from more
realistic art to get them looking at more abstracted work to see it's true
measure). For instance, your natural history montage of Arctic flora and
fauna displays a real artistic eye for composition and balance. In fact, it
reminds me of the Native American school of art before Oscar Howe.

At any rate, don't belittle that you are artistic. Anything that funnels
through your brain and comes out of your core is artistic. Remember the
original definition of art (originating from "ars") is skill. You simply are
not an artist that imbues any kind of metaphysical or philosophical messages
in your work. There is a place for all things. The fact is, if it weren't
for the thyillustrator's ability to spatially change how that frog sits to
get the best advantage for demonstration purposes, some poor photographer
would have to be taking four million angles of shots to get the one that
best gets some author's point across

Tanada wrote:

Ok, I'm curious. What does everyone in here do for tuna money? I
know we have some, ok a lot, of computer geeks, educators (or what
passes for one) and so forth. You don't have to be any more specific
than you want, but I confess to being extremely curious. If you're
currently out of work, you don't have to say so, just list your career
field.

I am a Substitute Teacher for Cumberland Co. North Carolina, married
to a Blackhawk mechanic/inspector who is medically retired from the US
army.

Pam S.

I am an administrative assistant to the Director of Gynecologic
Oncology, Vice Chairman of Clinical Affairs in the Department of
Gynecology and Obstetrics and Assistant Dean of Clinical Affairs in the
School of Medicine.

DH is a service advisor for an Allison transmission factory authorized
service center. He's an expert on the transmissions that allow Dan M to
hold Harri Roadcat while they're driving through town.

Julie