I was one of 6 artists chosen from the St. Louis area, by the Regional Arts Commissions of St. Louis (RAC), to participate in this pilot program which helps partner artists with the local start-up and entrepreneur community at the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) and the Cortex Innovation Community (CIC). Each artist selected has plans to start or grow an art-related business in the St. Louis area. This has given me the chance to meet with people that can help me better understand the business side of doing art.
For the past nine years, I’ve had a business doing animation and illustrations for clients in the entertainment industry however, that has always been working on other people’s projects. The RAC program gave me the opportunity to finally work on something all my own. My project has been the development of a new kind of animated series designed specifically for online viewing. I can’t get into too many specifics as this stage, but working on it has been a very exciting and rewarding experience.
At the ARTrepreneurs event my team and I debuted the animatic and concept art for the animated series. The event was extremely well attended, the room was packed! It was wonderful getting feedback from a live audience on the animatic, and a great way to celebrate everything I and my fellow artists have accomplished while working at the CET.
A big thanks goes out to Liz Pund - Program Manager at RAC, Christy Maxfield and Rikki Henry - Project Coordinators at the CET, and David Alexander - Cohort Leader for facilitating this wonderful opportunity. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my fellow Artists in the cohort:
- Bianca Fitzpatrick, Singer/Songwriter and Fashion Enthusiast
- Gina Grafos, Visual Artist
- Tim Hykes, User Experience Designer
- Lindsay Obermeyer, Artist and Creative Entrepreneur
- Kevin Street, Dancer and Musician
It's been so inspiring to work with such amazingly talented people. I'm so glad to have been a part of this. Okay... now it's time to get back to work on the animation!