Deadlines, Napping, and Breathing

Back when I had illustration deadlines that required a same-day sketch and subsequent finished art by 4PM for the Boston Globe, or NYT, I would first nap on 4 flat straight-backed wooden orange chairs lined up to form a bench. I'd sleep for 20 minutes on my back, and it always helped me solve the puzzle of the day and come up with my sketch. I'd get my approval from the art director and execute the finished art just in time to bicycle it down to the bus station where the taxi from the Globe waited to pick it up. I did this every week when I was fresh out of art school. Those were the days before faxes and then computers. I loved it all and miss it terribly. I developed a huge crush on the art director who continually believed in me week after week. But I think that was to be expected, like a pregnant woman falling for her pediatrician. I was thrilled and petrified every time I got hired, and never quite mastered the art of breathing while talking to the art director on the phone.