Finally Made It!

When I was three I went to preschool at the Child Development Lab. I continued to go there until I was five where I attended kindergarten in the back room. The cool thing about the Child Development Lab is that it is located on Arizona State University’s campus. The other cool thing about it is that my mom has been working there for almost thirty years! She wasn’t my teacher of course but it was fun to be in close proximity to her at that age. After kindergarten my brother and I went off to elementary school but continued to come back to campus to attend summer camp at the Student Recreation Center or SRC. We played games, participated in sports, swam at the university pools and went on awesome field trips. I went to that summer camp until the summer following sixth grade. I knew the trails of ASU’s campus and saw its landmarks on a regular basis. During junior high I often would go back to the Child Development Lab to visit my mom at work. Some summers I would even spend days there helping her with the kids. High school came and went and I always intended on going to college at ASU. My major of choice changed a few times but finally I landed on fine arts. When the time came, I applied to ASU, got accepted and began working at the Child Development Lab along side my mom as well as working towards my BFA in Drawing. Being a freshman I felt somewhat at home. Yes, the large number of students and staff members at ASU were quite overwhelming at first but I adapted easier than I thought I would. I worked hard, studied, did my homework, and reminisced about my memories from the Child Development Lab when I was a kid. I was now working in the same room that I used to take naps in. (I have enjoyed every moment of it I have to say) Today, many years later, I took my last final of my college career. I am officially done with my undergrad studies at Arizona State. I feel like I have come full circle. ASU has been a part of my life since I was three and now to be graduating from there seems surreal. To break away from my ASU bubble even more, I now journey to find another job since I can no longer work at the CDL. You have to be enrolled at ASU to work there, unfortunately. The past four years of my life I have grown as an artist, a person, and have made great friends. I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. Thank you ASU for all the opportunities you have provided! I leave the bubble and enter the real world…

The Big Plan!

I have been asked to write a business plan for one of my classes (which is the best class ever I might add) as a final project. I have never been one for the business side of things so it has been challenging for me to wrap my head around. All the planning, and research and lists to make with budgets to create is a lot for my mind to handle. However, the assignment has forced me to sit down and make some concrete decisions about what I want to achieve in my career path as a creative. The arts is a hard market to crack into especially for someone like me who has no professional experience. Even if you have the experience and connections it can still be tricky! I have to stand out and be different and that is easier said than done sometimes. I want the same for my business plan as well. Why should someone use my services over another artist? What can I bring to the table that no one else in the market is doing? What have other people in the same field done to be successful? These are the kinds of questions I ask myself through this process. It is quite scary knowing that in a week and a half I will be done with all my undergrad classes and preparing to graduate. That is why I appreciate the opportunity to come up with my next career steps, research my options, and make an effort to plan out a potential business for myself. This is the real deal, the big plan! I better make it count! Look out world…Hannah Mesquita is going to take the children’s book market by storm. That is the plan at least 🙂

Nanny 911

My biggest challenge as of late has been finding a new job! The preschool that I currently work at has been my home for over three years and sadly when I graduate I will no longer be able to work there. With graduation upon me, I not only have to think about the real world and a “career type job” but a regular job to pay the bills as well. My plan is to find another child care job (since I love working with kids so much and want to illustrate kids books) with the potential to be employed there for a couple years while I build my portfolio/resume, get an internship/volunteer in the arts, and work on finishing my current kid’s book projects. Specifically I want to become a nanny. I am used to being in a classroom full of young children and while that is enjoyable, I am hoping to find a job that has more flexible hours and only focuses on one to three kids. This will hopefully insure that I can still have the time and motivation to make my art dreams come true. Sounds great, right? The only problem is, I have applied to about twenty different nanny positions and have only heard a response from two respectfully declining my services. I suppose I shouldn’t get too discouraged and can always broaden my scope of potential employment options but I am not ready to let go of the idea of being AZ’s most awesome nanny. Fingers crossed and ready to find the right family, I continue my search and hope for the best. Nanny 911, need a new gal on your team? 🙂

Baking Spree!

Lately I have been tapping into my baking senses during my spare time! I love to make cakes especially and decorate them Cake Boss style when I can. But I can never pass up on a good chocolate chip cookie recipe for they are my favorite! I noticed that GG Sweets has just the recipe for me and I plan to try it as soon as I can. These very vanilla chocolate chip cookies look devine. Find the recipe here http://ggsweets.wordpress.com/ if you wish to try them yourself!

Liscensing Expo

I would really love to go to this trade show some day! http://www.licensingexpo.com/

Can I Play Too?

I read books everyday. Most of the time I am reading children’s books to my kiddos at work. Today I read Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems at least three times. Can I Play Too follows Gerald, an elephant with glasses, and Piggie, a little pink pig, as they attempt to play catch with a worm. You can see the dilemma since worms do not have arms. Simple and funny, this book like others in the series are entertaining for child and adult alike. Mo Willems’ Gerald and Piggie books as very popular among my childcare center and I read them often. I hope that one day I can be as successful as Mo Willems in my children’s book adventures!

Being Brave

I have always been the type of person to lay low and not draw too much attention to myself. I am trying to change that and become a brave person who takes risks, puts themself out there and isnt afraid to make mistakes or get rejected. I need to be bold especially now that I am going to get thrown into the “recent college graduate” circle of young people who will be competing for the same jobs as me. I need to be differnt and go above and beyond the call of duty. That is my goal! I am going to try to and call upon the inspiration I felt a couple years ago when I responded to a call for artists regarding illustrations for a children’s book. As soon as I saw the message in my inbox I jumped at the opportunity to try my hand at doing my ideal kind of work. I didnt think twice (something I tend to do nowadays) I just started drawing up ideas for the main character Bucky the bear. I responded to the call and to my surprise I was in correspondance with the author for a few weeks discussing ideas and aesthetics. It came down to me and one other artist but, unfortunately for me, the author gravitated more to the other artist’s style. I was disappointed but I was proud of myself that I tried and didn’t just sit back and let the opportunity pass me by. For me, that was a very brave moment and I plan to do even more to become a brave/bold person. It may not sound like an incredible tale of putting oneself out there to some but it was a step in the right direction for myself. I still think my version of Bucky the bear and his friends are very cute! Maybe one day I will use them in a story of my own.

Spring Break!

It is a strange feeling knowing that this will be my last spring break. Of course in the future I am sure I will take vacations or time off work but not in the same way it applies now. One week off from school and, since I work on campus, one week off work is something that I always feel lucky to have during this time of year. After I graduate, I doubt I will get other opportunities of time such as school allowed vacations. There are many things I plan to do this next week. For the first half I plan to add more character to my condo and decorate the upstairs more. The common areas are all set up with furniture and decorations but the bedrooms are quite plain still. It should be fun to look at more furniture, maybe paint/draw some pieces to put on the walls, and finally fix part of the blinds that my dog decided to destroy. For the second half I am going to Tucson to visit my boyfriend’s family. Even though it is not far, it is still far enough to get a change in scenery and to feel like I am going on vacation. I am excited to visit and hope to do some fun outdoors activities! All in all it should be a nice break to recharge my batteries before the last push to graduation.

Draw Something

Yesterday I conducted a guerrilla marketing project for school to promote myself and my blog. I have to say it was so much fun and in my eyes quite successful. I set up an easel with a large drawing pad of paper near the student union on ASU’s campus and encouraged people to come and play a pictionary type game with me. There was incentive to come play of course in the from of prizes. When someone would participate they would first pick a small piece of paper from a box saying whether the subject on the pictionary card would be easy, medium, or hard to draw. Then depending on what they chose, I would pick a card, draw that object, and they would have one minute to guess what it was. Simple enough. Being kind as I am, I let the participant pick a prize from the “toybox” (cough cough blog title cough) whether they guessed correctly or not. The prizes for an “easy” drawing were small like candy, whistles, rings etc but the prizes for “medium” or “hard” drawings were larger ranging from bubbles and small stuffed animals to squirt guns and silly putty. I chose prizes that would mimick what would be in a child’s toybox due to the nature of my blog and its title. I was surprised that many people decided to come play the game. I was anticipating much rejection like, “I can’t I am on my way to class” which I did hear but overall I got about 30 participants within an hour and a half. Sounds small but to me it worked out perfectly (too many more people and I would have ran out of prizes). Then to insure that they remembered my blog address, I let them keep the pictionary card that had my name and blog address written on the back.

I enjoyed every bit of this project and think that I would like to try it again. The best part was my team of friends helping me. They were there to help bring people in, to time me as I drew, and to take pictures of the whole event. Not to mention they were there to ensure laughs and a good time! I am proud of myself for stepping outside my comfort zone and engaging with strangers in a fun way that I have never done before. Artist’s Toybox is taking the next step and going…PUBLIC 🙂

Inspired

Lately I have been inspired artistically by my dog Macie. She is a German Shepherd whom I rescued about a year ago. I am probably biased, but I think she is the most adorable dog ever (of course)! She is full of energy, character, and spunk. I can’t help but think that she would be a fun children’s book character. She has many bouts of adventure and mischief when she is home alone during the day and I often record some of her behavior in the hopes of at some point turning it into a story. Many children’s books in the market revolve around animals like Clifford for example. I have to say none of the books I have seen, however, have characters quite like Macie. I think it would be a great project, even just for portfolio reasons, to adapt my silly pooch and her life into a one of a kind kids book series.