where no intern has gone before

[this post was actually written close to the beginning of my internship. ironic that i'm nearing the end now....]

so. brett helquist is such a cool dude.

if you don't know what he's done, check out his website. he is most well-known for illustrating lemony snicket's 'the series of unfortunate events' books (which, he said, took him 8 years and is one of his favorite projects so far).

he's really down to earth, and easy to talk to. the first day, i was a bit nervous, not sure what to expect that first day as i arrived at his apartment. i got to the building, walked up the 3 flights of stairs, and rang the bell to his studio door. he answered, and we walked up two more flights of stairs to his studio. as i walked into the studio, the first sight surprised me. i didn't see paintbrushes and palates; i saw a slew of guitars and a music stand, all lined up. oh, it's a beautiful sight. brett loves music, and i do too. i knew right then we'd get along just fine.

more about that later.

it's so great, because he's let me do a lot of actual art-stuff (rather than typical intern-stuff). my first jobs consisted of: ripping paper, tracing his sketches onto said ripped paper, stretching that paper after he detailed the sketch and stapling it to frame.

apparently i did that all too fast, as he said he couldn't keep up with me. :) (*note: it isn't difficult to get ahead-- i'm not doing the hard part. he's the one actually creating the darn things.) BUT this is the cool part: he's up against a deadline and said that he's going to try something that he hasn't before: he said he'd let me do the underpaintings. (!) he helped me get set up with the paints and such, and i basically did a paint-by-numbers. he said, "congratulations, you've gone where no intern has gone before. i never let my interns get this far into my work." (!!) i was incredibly happy. not that i'm amazing or anything (and no, i'm not playing victim to false modesty. i'm a decent artist with skill but have more to go than i've come, and it's okay--i'm working at it)-- it's just that i was able to do this and he was already thinking of hiring someone to do his underpaintings, and as he said, "this is as good a time as any to try it out".

so. it's pretty much awesome. he said that i can look through any of his wide collection of art books (it's a great collection at that) or even play his guitars if i have down-time. he invited me to look over his shoulder and ask questions, because i'm here to learn. i thought that was cool.

he's also good about making me feel comfortable about doing the tasks. for example, last time he said "don't worry about it [doing the underpaintings] because if i were worried about it, i wouldn't let you do it."

brett is one of the nicest people i know, but also very honest. i really appreciate both those aspects and i'm really so happy i have this internship! i know i'll learn so much.