It was a last-minute decision to purchase my $25 ticket. Going to the MoCCA festival was different than my usual Saturday routine. I was used to doing my regular chores on my leisure weekends. Of course, sketching and painting were a part of my itinerary. Does every Saturday have to be the same? My sister Aaliyah decided to tag along with me. Maybe she would gain the art inspiration for her own creativity. The event was at Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. Since we live in Central Brooklyn, we took a bus and two trains there. Most people would think that's too much MTA transportation to do on a Saturday morning. But I didn't mind the fresh morning air.
It was my first time going to MoCCa Festival and Society Illustrators kept advertising that this was going to be a huge event for comic illustrators. I was hesitant because I wasn't a comic illustrator, but I loved illustration. I kept an open mind and told myself that I would get art inspiration regardless. Of course, I could just see the highlights online, but I wanted to see the event in-person. Greeting the artist and touching the work was amazing!
Neither I nor my sister were disappointed. The place was crowded! There were mainly Caucasians and Asians folks there, but we didn't care being different. A camera guy took a picture of us at the event. He complimented us on our attires...lol! We circled the booths for about an hour. We checked out graduate programs from SVA, Penguin Random House, PM press and more.
At 1:30pm we went to a panel discussion called "Made in New York." It featured Curator Bill Kartalopoulos and independent comics, Josh Bayer, E.A. Bethea, Juliette Collet, Austin English, Angela Fanche and John Vasquez Mejias. There was no seat available for us because the place was packed. We stayed any way and got to learn some insights about how the artists became successful.
Josh has a new autography book called Unended coming out this year.
E.A has a book called Francis Bois. she has sketches of pain.
Juliette is known for her book BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!
Austin runs a publication called Domino Books and it is a distribution place for other indie pubs)
Angela is known for diary comics on her Instagram page, she had struggle with substance abuse and decided not to draw those things.
John is a Bronx art teacher. His first comic talked about his life as an art teacher. He is known for his woodcut styled comics.
I learned from them that their artwork was successful because they shared stories of their hardships. I think many people in the room were in awe of their personal triumphs. For now, I am going to try to be more vulnerable with my work and share more stories about my life. I'm really happy that the MoCCA Festival was my art inspiration.
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