Never heard it coming....
So, something unusual that happened to me Sunday afternoon.....
Three or four weeks ago, we here at Candle Light Press were featured in a really nice article on the front page of the "Iowa" section of the Sunday Gazette (an eastern Iowa regional paper out of Cedar Rapids). We had many nice compliments from people around us, as well as a sort of spike in our web traffic and sales, too. But by this last weekend, I was (still am) buried way past my eyeballs in work on the new volume of The Fairer Sex, and had put the newspaper article out of mind.
Sunday afternoon, as I was scanning pages on the computer, the doorbell rang. My partner David answered it, and I turned my attention back to what I was doing. Then David came back into the drawing studio and said, "Um, there's someone here to see you.."
Stepping out into the front room, I saw a strange man ("strange" meaning he was a stranger to me...he looked perfectly normal and harmless). As I walked toward him, he held out his hand silently to shake mine, and then I noticed he was clutching a little notebook. He began to scribble on it.
"I am looking for Jeremy Smith, artist..." he had written.
I pointed at myself and nodded. Then we commenced to have a fifteen minute "chat" on paper. He was (obviously) deaf, and had learned about me from a friend who had shown him the article. They had printed our address in the article (something I really didn't like, but oh well) and that is how he had found me. He wanted me to do an illustration for a deaf organization he belongs to in Cedar Rapids.
Starting to get my bearings in these new surreal waters in which I was floating, I told him after the first of the year, maybe, since I was very busy right now. He nodded vigorously, and scribbled again.
"Do you have a business card..." he wrote.
I started to take the pad and pen to reply, then, realizing it was kind of rude to just make him stand in our front foyer like a pizza delivery dude, I motioned for him to follow me into the studio.
When he stepped in, he gazed around wide-eyed, taking in several full-size pages on my board, and a page on the computer screen that I was touching up. As I dug out the box of our new cards, I heard him scribbling again on his pad. As I turned to hand him the card, he held out his pad right in front of my face.
"Good job!" it read.
For a moment I was speechless. He didn't seem to mind.
Later that night, while King Kong roared and bellowed in my ear, I thought back on this careful, quiet encounter.
I smiled silently to myself.
Three or four weeks ago, we here at Candle Light Press were featured in a really nice article on the front page of the "Iowa" section of the Sunday Gazette (an eastern Iowa regional paper out of Cedar Rapids). We had many nice compliments from people around us, as well as a sort of spike in our web traffic and sales, too. But by this last weekend, I was (still am) buried way past my eyeballs in work on the new volume of The Fairer Sex, and had put the newspaper article out of mind.
Sunday afternoon, as I was scanning pages on the computer, the doorbell rang. My partner David answered it, and I turned my attention back to what I was doing. Then David came back into the drawing studio and said, "Um, there's someone here to see you.."
Stepping out into the front room, I saw a strange man ("strange" meaning he was a stranger to me...he looked perfectly normal and harmless). As I walked toward him, he held out his hand silently to shake mine, and then I noticed he was clutching a little notebook. He began to scribble on it.
"I am looking for Jeremy Smith, artist..." he had written.
I pointed at myself and nodded. Then we commenced to have a fifteen minute "chat" on paper. He was (obviously) deaf, and had learned about me from a friend who had shown him the article. They had printed our address in the article (something I really didn't like, but oh well) and that is how he had found me. He wanted me to do an illustration for a deaf organization he belongs to in Cedar Rapids.
Starting to get my bearings in these new surreal waters in which I was floating, I told him after the first of the year, maybe, since I was very busy right now. He nodded vigorously, and scribbled again.
"Do you have a business card..." he wrote.
I started to take the pad and pen to reply, then, realizing it was kind of rude to just make him stand in our front foyer like a pizza delivery dude, I motioned for him to follow me into the studio.
When he stepped in, he gazed around wide-eyed, taking in several full-size pages on my board, and a page on the computer screen that I was touching up. As I dug out the box of our new cards, I heard him scribbling again on his pad. As I turned to hand him the card, he held out his pad right in front of my face.
"Good job!" it read.
For a moment I was speechless. He didn't seem to mind.
Later that night, while King Kong roared and bellowed in my ear, I thought back on this careful, quiet encounter.
I smiled silently to myself.
posted by Jeremy Smith at 10:59 AM
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