Introducing...
I've been keeping this blog for two years, keeping it seriously since July, and I still feel like I don't know many of you and many of you don't know me. I'd love to create an opportunity to change that, so please introduce yourselves in the comments sections below, and if you have blogs, link em!
I'm Becca Hillburn. I'm from Luling, Louisiana, which is a very small town about 25 minutes outside of New Orleans. I've spent the majority of my recreational time in New Orleans, attended college at the University of New Orleans (getting a BA in Fine Arts and a minor in Earth and Environmental Sciences), and enjoying the music scene. I like dancing to swing and rockabilly, have seen GWAR live, and had beer spilled on me at an Andrew Bird show. My dad was an alcoholic, my brother had his bipolar episode in the 4th grade in the middle of the lunch room, I've lost boyfriends over my 'brother being crazy' (he isn't), my parents got divorced when I was 16, my dad quit drinking when I was 21 and didn't tell anyone he'd quit, he was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was 22, moved back in with my mom, and they got remarried. He died a week after my 23rd birthday, and I feel very blessed (yeah, I said it) to have gotten to chance to know my real father. Every time I smell cigerette smoke, I want to punch the smoker in the face and remind them of their mortality, but I've had people call me a liar about my own father's death, so I don't waste my breath. I haven't been the same since Dad died, and it gave me the courage to apply to the art school of my dreams. I moved to Savannah, GA a year ago to pursue my dream of becoming a comic artist (a dream I've had since I was about 13), and am a graduate student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Before moving to Georgia, I was not what one would consider a 'southern belle', but that's how I introduce myself on SEQAlab every week. I like playing dressup, wear heels every day, and can manage to wear a dress without spilling ink on myself. I hate getting my hands dirty (it ruins the paper), like using mechanical pencils, and was obsessed with anime well into my 20's. I would like to be able to pay my bills with the profits from comics and commissions, but business is slow and a lack of respect for artists in general doesn't improve my rent-paying-situation . My apartment is not self cleaning, my food is not self cooking, and my clothes are not self washing. I may claim my life revolves around comics, but I enjoy a lot of hobbies, including sewing, crafting, updating this blog, and volunteering. I tend to adopt younger aspiring comic artists, and may be too opinionated. I claim to hate autobio comics, but really I only hate hipster autobio comics that revolve around getting drunk and never delve into deeper issues. I love fairytales, but I dislike romance novels, and I think Asimov's robot books are his strongest work, and I stand by this. I prefer Bradbury's prose to nearly any other author save Flannery O'Connor. People swear that I bake the best banana bread, but it's my grandmother's secret recipe, and I'm not at liberty to share it. This blog gets a lot of behind the scenes help, and I'm eternally grateful to my amazing contributors, including my fantastic tech guy who is the genius behind my website. I attend a lot of conventions, hear a lot of rejection, and struggle at improving my art every day. For the record- art doesn't just grow on trees, and ability isn't something everyone (myself included) is born with. A little love goes a long way.
I live with one cat- a Russian Blue named after David Bowie. Bow is a jerkcat who walks all over my comics like it ain't no thang, and he is a stray that managed to worm his way into my life. He is not my furbaby. He is my cat. Bowie likes long walks by the pond behind my apartment, wears a spiked collar, and is pretty stupid, but I love him anyway. He also loves chasing after and fetching jingly balls. He is on the fence about other cats- if he can harass 'em, he likes 'em, but he is not into dogs. While I like most dogs, I can't stand small yippee dogs as a rule (my ex's short haired pom is an exception) and I wish pug-pure-breeding would stop. I hate cutesy phrases like 'rescue animal' and 'fur baby', though I have been known to make my cat wear a SCAD tee-shirt on occasion. I have a leopard gecko named Cleo who is mostly active at night and has a fat little tail.
Like everyone who's pursuing a crazy dream, I realize there is some amount of risk involved, but the majority of risk involves being bored to death. My days are usually spent drawing or inking, and what little free time I have is frittered away by an addiction to the internet. Occasionally I read lifestyle blogs written by girls my age and sigh, it'd be nice to go out for the occasional drink at some local pub or to handcraft the bunting at my wedding, but I'm forgoing the pleasures of my twenties for a future in comics, and I feel like the tradeoff is worth it. This blog will never be a lifestyle blog- the life I and most comic artists live is pretty solitary and staid, we are amused by the infinite pleasures of Netflicks and socialize via tumblr and Twitter, and there is little glamorous about this. I am not polyamorous, I've never talked a guy into posing nude for me in an attempt at seduction, and the fact that a guy is an artist doesn't impress me romantically. I don't belong in galleries, I don't smoke, and I can't bs about my own work to save my life. I am pretty wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) and I don't pretend to be otherwise. I don't find myself to be photogenic, I don't like pictures of me floating about the internet, and I keep my hair short to keep it out of my comics.
So now you know the nit picky about me, why don't you tell me the nit picky about you?
I'm Becca Hillburn. I'm from Luling, Louisiana, which is a very small town about 25 minutes outside of New Orleans. I've spent the majority of my recreational time in New Orleans, attended college at the University of New Orleans (getting a BA in Fine Arts and a minor in Earth and Environmental Sciences), and enjoying the music scene. I like dancing to swing and rockabilly, have seen GWAR live, and had beer spilled on me at an Andrew Bird show. My dad was an alcoholic, my brother had his bipolar episode in the 4th grade in the middle of the lunch room, I've lost boyfriends over my 'brother being crazy' (he isn't), my parents got divorced when I was 16, my dad quit drinking when I was 21 and didn't tell anyone he'd quit, he was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was 22, moved back in with my mom, and they got remarried. He died a week after my 23rd birthday, and I feel very blessed (yeah, I said it) to have gotten to chance to know my real father. Every time I smell cigerette smoke, I want to punch the smoker in the face and remind them of their mortality, but I've had people call me a liar about my own father's death, so I don't waste my breath. I haven't been the same since Dad died, and it gave me the courage to apply to the art school of my dreams. I moved to Savannah, GA a year ago to pursue my dream of becoming a comic artist (a dream I've had since I was about 13), and am a graduate student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Before moving to Georgia, I was not what one would consider a 'southern belle', but that's how I introduce myself on SEQAlab every week. I like playing dressup, wear heels every day, and can manage to wear a dress without spilling ink on myself. I hate getting my hands dirty (it ruins the paper), like using mechanical pencils, and was obsessed with anime well into my 20's. I would like to be able to pay my bills with the profits from comics and commissions, but business is slow and a lack of respect for artists in general doesn't improve my rent-paying-situation . My apartment is not self cleaning, my food is not self cooking, and my clothes are not self washing. I may claim my life revolves around comics, but I enjoy a lot of hobbies, including sewing, crafting, updating this blog, and volunteering. I tend to adopt younger aspiring comic artists, and may be too opinionated. I claim to hate autobio comics, but really I only hate hipster autobio comics that revolve around getting drunk and never delve into deeper issues. I love fairytales, but I dislike romance novels, and I think Asimov's robot books are his strongest work, and I stand by this. I prefer Bradbury's prose to nearly any other author save Flannery O'Connor. People swear that I bake the best banana bread, but it's my grandmother's secret recipe, and I'm not at liberty to share it. This blog gets a lot of behind the scenes help, and I'm eternally grateful to my amazing contributors, including my fantastic tech guy who is the genius behind my website. I attend a lot of conventions, hear a lot of rejection, and struggle at improving my art every day. For the record- art doesn't just grow on trees, and ability isn't something everyone (myself included) is born with. A little love goes a long way.
I live with one cat- a Russian Blue named after David Bowie. Bow is a jerkcat who walks all over my comics like it ain't no thang, and he is a stray that managed to worm his way into my life. He is not my furbaby. He is my cat. Bowie likes long walks by the pond behind my apartment, wears a spiked collar, and is pretty stupid, but I love him anyway. He also loves chasing after and fetching jingly balls. He is on the fence about other cats- if he can harass 'em, he likes 'em, but he is not into dogs. While I like most dogs, I can't stand small yippee dogs as a rule (my ex's short haired pom is an exception) and I wish pug-pure-breeding would stop. I hate cutesy phrases like 'rescue animal' and 'fur baby', though I have been known to make my cat wear a SCAD tee-shirt on occasion. I have a leopard gecko named Cleo who is mostly active at night and has a fat little tail.
Like everyone who's pursuing a crazy dream, I realize there is some amount of risk involved, but the majority of risk involves being bored to death. My days are usually spent drawing or inking, and what little free time I have is frittered away by an addiction to the internet. Occasionally I read lifestyle blogs written by girls my age and sigh, it'd be nice to go out for the occasional drink at some local pub or to handcraft the bunting at my wedding, but I'm forgoing the pleasures of my twenties for a future in comics, and I feel like the tradeoff is worth it. This blog will never be a lifestyle blog- the life I and most comic artists live is pretty solitary and staid, we are amused by the infinite pleasures of Netflicks and socialize via tumblr and Twitter, and there is little glamorous about this. I am not polyamorous, I've never talked a guy into posing nude for me in an attempt at seduction, and the fact that a guy is an artist doesn't impress me romantically. I don't belong in galleries, I don't smoke, and I can't bs about my own work to save my life. I am pretty wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) and I don't pretend to be otherwise. I don't find myself to be photogenic, I don't like pictures of me floating about the internet, and I keep my hair short to keep it out of my comics.
So now you know the nit picky about me, why don't you tell me the nit picky about you?
Hi Becca!
ReplyDeleteI generally don't publicly post information in places that I can't easily remove it from later :)
My life I'd say is currently on chapter 4. Chapter 1 was everything up to the end of High school, which could be rehashed as "Everyone knows who I am, but I hung out with almost nobody." Chapter 2 would be "Trying to make friends in a new city (and befriending crazy people :P )" which ends with morbid details I won't describe, let's just say that I'm much much less trusting of people now. Chapter 3 "Let's do that again but no crazy people this time." That ended last summer with both roommates mutually agreeing to leave. Between Chapters 2 and 3, one ex-roommate owes me several hundred dollars, one ex-landlord owes me over a thousand dollars, and one cousin owes me several hundred dollars. I've also worked at 3 call centers who've left the country over that time period.
So now I'm at Chapter 4, "I'm living on my own and I'm just find with it thank you very much." I tend not to give out dating/stalking details to anyone, which is why my blog has been locked down for years.
I became involved with Keenspot at the tail end of Chapter 3, having been involved with it's free site comicgenesis/keenspace since early on. Unfortunately I tend to have a pattern of bad timing, this was also right after the 2008 financial market crash, so now nobody was hiring either.
So for the last 3 years anyone who doesn't know what I do "on the internet" would assume I was unemployed, which led to some interesting explaining when trying to downsize the place I was renting. I now have two answers, depending on who I talk to. Self employed - Internet Services, and if they don't know what that is. "I trade stocks" and omit the fact that I'm fairly bad at it. If I was good at it I wouldn't be downsizing now would I? :D
My parents are more aware of the fact that I own stocks than anything else I do. My sister is aware of both, as she reads several comics too. But she doesn't follow this name. This is merely a name to put some space between my family (who are too nosy,) friends, and business.
I'm always afraid that I share too much. I don't mind saying that I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, because that that's as specific as Seattle (and Vancouver doubles for many metro cities in the US in Hollywood films.) The only culture shock thing to happen to me when visiting anywhere is the race diversity. I grew up (chapter 1) in an area that was basically third generation Russians and Italians, but when I moved to Vancouver it was suddenly first and second generation Asians... and suddenly I was no longer the shortest person everywhere I went.
I tend to follow webcomics, anime, manga, and the occasional book or tv show, but I primarily prefer a character driven story with a fixed beginning and end and isn't dumbed down.
So that's me without writing an novel. I try to make money online (preferably by website jobs that involve comics) but sometimes I go seek out PTJ's just for something else to do. My social life is lacking. But that's more trust issues than any desire to. I don't have any pets because of allergies and Vancouver is difficult to find places to rent if you have anything bigger than a cat.
|gets out of seat and walks to the front of the class|
ReplyDeleteUh, hi, I'm Gavin Veasey. I'm that guy from Twitter.
I'm from all over the place. I was born in Kentucky, but moved all over the northeast because my father was in the military. He got out when I was 10 and I lived some nine years of my life in Alabama. I later moved to Utah and then to Pennsylvania where I currently live on an old farm.
My parents married young and had me a year after their first anniversary. I have three younger brothers, Lewis, Roland, and Kimble. I am very close with them and we've always been known as "the Veasey boys" when we are together.
My brothers and I were highly imaginative as kids. We used to have nations carved out of the back yard and go to war. I used to draw maps of our kingdoms on notebook paper. We used to have stuffed animal wars, we'd got at it in the living room, having a giant teddy bear punch out little bennie babies. We would go swimming and pretend to be astronauts in space. Later we got a trampoline which let us live out the fantasy of playing real life Super Smash Brothers. I used to write and tell my brothers little tails of us being Pokémon trainers and super heros (my favorite cartoons as a child) which later progressed to me drawing little comics and dreaming of animating them into cartoons. I later gave it up though because I couldn't get any better. I picked up photography instead.
My brothers and I started getting into anime only two years ago. Before that, the only anime we were exposed to was Pokémon and dubbing over YuGiOh episodes (Dubbing: Turning the volume down on a TV show and creating fake dialogue, like how Yugi always had constipation issues). My brothers and I loved how Japanese animation talked about heavy subjects, but we always found something we didn't like about a lot of shows. It was probably girly looking men and the possibility of someone sexually harassing a women at any moment. My brother Roland and I decided we would get into animation and tell our own stories someday.
I'm a pretty mellow person and people often think I'm upset because my default face is a frown. I have a hard time being laid back when I'm around other people. My best friend once told me that I was too strict with myself. I never take risks. I hate shaving, which is why I have a beard most of the time. I feel like I start wasting time after showering and brushing my teeth. I love both the countryside and the city, but I hate suburbs for some reason. I would be happy living inside a city and commuting to the countryside to work. I've been known to go nuts sometimes and start categorizing everything. I spent a few days just categorizing every nation on earth within different geographical regions. I'm into politics and have found myself within the libertarian flavor of things. I enjoy talking about politics, which is a bane to some people. Women who are naturally flirty with other people really make me feel uncomfortable. I have a hard time seeing people who display affection anyways. I blame the southern baptist church I was raised in. "IF YOU EVEN TOUCH A WOMEN YOU WILL BURST INTO FLAMES." Thanks a lot, guys, now I'm afraid of women.
Most of my books are non-fiction, revolving around economics, theology, and politics. I read a lot of web comics and have an addiction to the Yotsuba&! manga, which is the only manga I've found to really like. I watch a lot of slice-of-life stuff on TV, along with science fiction, super hero cartoons, and shows like Law and Order. Recently my brothers and I have been watching crappy shows on TV just to rifft them.
I should probably stop writing now and just write my own "ME" blog on my own site. Haha~
This blog post has been really great to read. I had no idea you were such a deep person!
I enjoy your blog a lot and you're a huge source of inspiration for my brothers and I. You are known by your Twitter handle in my house! Natto!
Hi Becca!
ReplyDeleteI'm Erin. I'm 25 and currently live in Indiana.
I went to college for communication (I wanted to do graphic design, didn't work out for a number of reasons) and graduated in 2007. I hated college because I was a commuter and lived with my parents and didn't get to go to the school/do the degree I wanted.
After college I moved to Germany and worked at a hotel for two years. I traveled all over Europe, and also got to Egypt and Turkey. I met my boyfriend, Anthony in Germany. He's from San Diego.
I moved back to the US at the end of 2009 and convinced Anthony to move to Indiana (where my family is). We live in a tiny apartment in Indianapolis.
I draw silly comics on my "art" blog, http://eef-ink.com I started drawing them in 2006 but only recently started a website just for them. I'm definitely not an artist, but drawing helps me relax but also gets my brain working.
I also started a personal blog to document my life and my attempts to survive as a freelancer. You can visit that blog at http://eef-etc.com
I've found that with my degree I can't get much better than a secretary-like job. Which is really frustrating since I didn't go to college for 4 years and maintain a 3.85 GPA to do the same crap that I did in high school. I do a lot of web stuff (I've made webpages since I was 13), but since I don't have formal training most companies don't want to hire me to do those jobs. Right now I'm working on a portfolio and networking so that I can make real money doing freelance.
As far as having a social life, I don't anymore. I miss the days in Germany where my girlfriends and I would go out multiple times a week, or stay in and chat over a bottle of wine. I miss traveling. I'm lucky if I see any of my friends in a month now. Most of my friends that live in Indiana have families and getting together is more difficult. I'm also broke all the time, so spending $20 on dinner isn't really an option for me.
I have a great family, which is why I live in Indiana and not somewhere cool. My parents are fun and I have 3 brothers who can be pretty entertaining. I have the best boyfriend ever. Anthony supports me in my entrepreneurial endeavors and covers most of the bills. He's also a sweety and makes me laugh so much!
I guess that's about it!
Hey there, Becca. I'm Darc. I'm a married 33 year-old living in Plymouth, MA. Ah yes, Plymouth, home of the world's biggest pet rock. *laughs*
ReplyDeleteI have a graduate degree in library and information science from the University of Iowa. Yet, I stay at home and make a webcomic, which brings in enough to support itself and cut me a small paycheck. Unfortunately, library jobs are hard to come by out here due to the economy taking a toll on libraries and one of the largest library colleges in the country just forty minutes up the road.
I don't have a degree in art, so I decided I'd take a correspondence course. Great idea, except I'm now rushing around searching for information that the course didn't include, like basic anatomy. I'll figure it out one day. Maybe.
Family-wise, I'm the oldest out of two girls and the second oldest out of a boatload of cousins. My folks were both in the Navy, which is where they met. Mom left soon after I was born and Dad stayed in til I was thirteen. I'm from Virginia originally but moved out to Iowa in my teens. Because of this, I have a fondness for cows and the countryside. I also have what I consider a healthy dislike of most large cities. Especially Boston. I hate going into Boston. The Dick Blick is right across the street from Fenway Park. And let me tell you, you do NOT want to go anywhere near Fenway when the Red Sox are playing. I made that mistake once. It took twenty minutes to drive a block and a half. Never, never again.
My husband's a computer programmer who is, apparently, a jinx when it comes to sporting events. If the home team is playing a game and he manages to catch a bit of it, they lose. I swear, it happens.
We have a weird Pembroke corgi that my sister-in-law gave us as a Christmas present three years ago. I have no idea why. She's a good dog, but she only has three speeds... insane, pet me now, and comatose. Our cat, meanwhile, is a twenty-five pound bundle of muscle named... Tiny. He understands more words than the dog does and can make your legs go numb if he sits in your lap.
And, that's pretty much me. I tend to keep quiet, maintain my comic and blog, and try to figure out just how to do this whole art thing. It stops me from trying to hijack the Mayflower II and sailing it around the Harbor. :D
Cute dress. Where from?
ReplyDeleteUnique Vintage.
Delete