ICON, Portland

ICON Illustration Conference occurs every two years and is full of great talent. This year ICON was held at the Portland Art Museum.

I spent most my high school and college years pouring over Giant Robot magazines. Giant Robot started out as an Asian American pop art/music/culture zine, and eventually became a group of gallery shops. At one point there was even a GReats restaurant!

I was trained very traditionally as a kid, copying classic paintings in watercolor and oil paint. But when I started reading Giant Robot, everything changed. I’d never been so obsessed with anything before. Young artists like Kozyndan, Souther Salazar, James Jean, Seonna Hong were all making a living drawing the coolest paintings I’d ever seen. I started driving down for gallery openings once I learned how to drive! (I was probably a terrible teenage driver, sorry Sawtelle Blvd) 

Giant Robot magazine is no longer in print, although some of the galleries and shops are still around. While I didn’t end up going into gallery art, many of the Giant Robot artists have since crossed over into illustration and other forms of commercial art. To go to a conference now and realize that hundreds of people in the same room know who James Jean and Yoshitomo Nara are is surreal. And to hear Souther Salazar speak about his little creatures to an admiring, packed audience is even more amazing. I think it’s a good sign that I’m in the right place =)