Hello everyone!!
This is the time of year where we all get together with the ones we love and celebrate the year ahead and reflect on the years gone by. I truly hope that everyone is out celebrating with friends and family and being safe over this holiday season.
Upon my reflection this year I realize how blessed I’ve been. I’m always grateful for the things in my life. However I do like taking the time to mention some of the amazing things that have happened this past year.
I’d like to start by thanking my beautiful wife. That’s right. My wife. One of the many great things this year was that in September I got married. It was the perfect day. The only thing that could have made that better is if my father could have been there. I know he was there in spirit. My sister and brother-in-law moved into a new house. My mom retired. My wife Jessica started school in January to become the best nurse in the world. Most of all, my career has done the best it’s ever done so far.
I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been there along the way. First I’d like to thank myself. With out me the images I created wouldn’t exist. But I’d secondly like to thank my amazing agent/rep Sari Schorr at Levy Creative Management. If you don’t know her by now then you should get to know her. She has a smile that lights up a room. Hopefully that room is the office of many art directors and creative directors. She’s a hard worker and does so much for her artists. Without her I don’t think anyone would even know who I am.
Many, many thanks go out to all of the new clients that I worked with this year. Thank you for taking a chance on my work and me. I hope to work with you again in the New Year. Thanks definitely goes out to many of the art directors whom I worked with this past year who are repeat clients. Thanks again for trusting in me to solve your visual problems.
I was also fortunate this year to be able to attend my first ever ICON conference. For those of you who still don’t know what it’s all about it’s about time you Google that shit. I want to thank all of the fantastic people who I met there and who put the conference on. It was such an inspiring few days in Providence. I look forward to the next one that will be here soon enough.
I’d like to say a sincere thank you to Thomas James. He trusted in me to add me to his list of great people to be an associate editor of the great website Illustration Age. It’s such an honor to be a part of such a good thing. If it’s one thing I hope to do more of is exposing people to illustration and illustrators I love. Anything I can do to give back to my industry is something that I definitely hope to do more of in the coming year. It’s the least I could do.
After the ICON conference I was bestowed a second honor of being invited to join the Illustration Confidential team. Here is an amazing group of illustrators with many different styles, years of experience, and enough talent to sink a ship. They have all been incredibly supportive and a great group of people that I continue to get to know more and more each day. Thank you everyone.
These past few months I was delighted when asked to be a mentor for an illustration student from F.I.T. in NYC. I’m not entirely sure how much I helped out but if felt good to be able to give feedback and help out with any advice she asked of me. It’s the least I can do.
2013 is just around the corner. I look forward to an even busier year and contributing even harder to my field and my industry. I just read an inspiring interview with the late, great, Albert Dorne. I loved that some things haven’t changed in our industry in 60 years since that interview. I also don’t like that some things haven’t changed. One thing that remains the same is that if you remain professional in all that you do then you’ll see some form of success. At least that’s the way to make people come back to use your services.
I plan on doing exactly what my Grand father always says to me. “The harder you work the luckier you become!” I believe that with all of my heart. 2012 proved that with all of the great work I was blessed to do.
I believe 2013 will be even better.
Happy Holidays to every one and have a Happy New Year. Be safe and I’ll see you in 2013.
Love
Michael
MICHAEL BYERS 