Polling the Artist Q7

So I didn't get a Polling the artists question up last month.... I'm sorry. But this month is great! I came up with a pretty good question, and got some great responses. Here's the question:

Year in review: What was the artistic highlight for you this year?

Here are the responses, starting with a short and sweet response by Olenka!... oh wait, one more thing. If you want to know more about these people, see what great art they've produced, or what great music they've made, just click on their names, you might find something you like.

Alexandra Olenka Krakus: Musician

finally released "official" band-albums. (Which are all great, and can be purchased somewhere around here. Ed)

Barzin: Musician

Banjo.
I recently picked up the banjo, and I can't seem to put it down. And as i've begun writing songs on it, i've noticed that it's allowing me to do things that I normally wouldn't have done on a guitar.
So, I would say the banjo has been my artistic highlight.

Jessica Rae Gordon: Illustrator, Artist

My highlight was early this year when I sent out my first promotional to over 200 magazines and getting an almost instant positive response from my illustration work. The excitement of getting my first magazine commissions felt amazing!

My next promotional is planned out and I hope to mail it out come January.

Kaya Fraser: Musician

I had many highlights this past year, but I think my favourite moment was playing at the lovely Yellow Door in Montreal to a completely packed room, including family and dear friends; it was such a warm, attentive audience in such an intimate venue, and I actually ran out of CDs to sell that night. Good times.

In terms of works of art I appreciated... I think my two favourite albums of 2008 were Radiohead's In Rainbows and Aimee Mann's Smilers. I listened the heck out of both of them.

Valery Gore: Musician

The artistic highlight of my year was putting together my new album Avalanche To Wandering Bear! It's basically ALLLLLL I did this year and I feel really good about it! And now I just want to make another record! But I need to write some more songs first... (ATWB is a fantastic album, which you can purchase somewhere around this website. Ed)

Cody Walker: Illustrator

The artistic highlight of my year was beginning to write tutorials for vectortuts.com. I have since become a monthly writer for the site and it's a really cool to get back to the work I did as a tutor in college. It's really nice to see the response from all the people around the world. Some of the best response comes from people who don't have access to art school or technical colleges and they are so grateful for the chance to learn new artistic skills.

Ohh and the best artistic moment of my year was sitting down and chatting with Jay Shuster. Jay is one of the lead concept artist at Pixar. He dropped in one day when I was working at Autodesk and chatted and did some sketches for a small group of us. It completely blew my mind when he went through his process designing WALL E. Hes been one of my favorite concept artist for years and He's probably best known for all the work he did on the new star wars movies and WALL E. After watching Jay I think I went through 2 brand new sketchbooks in a week trying to draw in the industrial design marker rendering style he's mastered.

Nick Zubeck: Musician

For me the highlight was completing my new record. The process was a great experience as it was the first time I had the opportunity to record outside of my basic home studio, and to have a lot of input and expertise from experienced folks. Allowing others to breath life into the tunes and giving up a fair amount of creative control really took things in directions I couldn't have constructed on my own. The culmination of the project at the CD release show brought it all home with a packed house full of friends and family. I'm very thankful. (The CD Release party was one of my highlights as a viewer, see if you can find his new CD on this website)

Also, seeing The Dirty Projectors live at Sneaky Dee's blew my mind.

Darryl Graham: Illustrator

My highlight was seeing my work for Red Bull come alive at The Big Bang concert event. Super-duper cool stuff. It was a three concert event across canada and I was lucky enough to do the graphics for the promotion and environment.

Actually, I retract my answer... the coolest thing for me was doing a pin up for the "Tales of the TMNT" comic book. Hired by the comic book artist themselves. Pretty trippy I'll be in THE teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.

Lesley Denford: Interior Designer, Blogger, "Real Artist"!

One of the happiest artistic moments for me this year was selling an original collage piece on my Etsy shop (http://lesleydenford.etsy.com). I know, "real" artists sell their work all the time, but for someone who had only managed to give pieces away and obtain a few commissions from friends and family, the fact that a stranger liked my art enough to purchase it was a pretty freakin' proud moment. This one tiny little sale is super special for me because it marks the transition for me from "wannabe" artist to "real" artist.

Shawn Clarke: Musician, Blogger

Well, I guess starting this blog was pretty fun. And I hope to keep it up (if people keep reading it). I've also laid the ground work for a new album that I'm pretty excited about (to be released sometime in the new year).

Performances: Evening Hymns at Tranzac, LOLA fest with Olenka and the Autumn Lovers, numerous Holy Fuck shows, Kensington Prairie, Sandro Perri (twice in one weekend!), Nick Zubeck CD release party, opening for (and subsequently seeing) Barzin, White album tribute in London!... etc, etc, etc....