Featured Artist: Caryn Leschen

My Background: I'm originally from Queens, New York, where the climate varies quite a bit, but I've lived in San Francisco for 20 years, where it's almost always 55 degrees. I come from this weird tight-knit post-WW2 veteran's housing development called "Bell Park," which is a lot like where Jerry's parents live in Seinfeld--neighbors traipsing through the tiny apartment at all hours, lots of sitting outside on benches and stoops in the summer and people having heart attacks from the stress of having their apartment painted every other fall. Every guy I went to high school with looks exactly like Jerry Seinfeld. I started taking art classes at the Art Student's League as a teenager, and finally got a BFA in 1987 at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, in Illustration and BART. I was quite active in the underground comix "scene" for awhile, where I was featured in many "Wimmin's Comix" as well as the Twisted Sisters series. In 1992, the SF Weekly suggested I do a comic just for them, so I started Ask Aunt Violet, because I like telling people what to do. I still run Ask Aunt Violet in several papers in the US and Canada. I now do a lot of Aunt Violet's Tips, and am expanding her readership from the "alternative weekly" market into food, travel and parenting magazines and websites. I also love teaching, and taught "Illustration & Comic Art" for UC Berkeley Extension for awhile. In recent years I've become quite digital and have worked on many websites, including a soap opera, a comix site & a food site. In 1997 I Came Out as bicoastal, and spend a week or so each month in my seaside New England studio wishing it was warm enough to go out. My illustration & web clients include the Wall Street Journal, Sun Microsystems and the SF Chronicle.

My Technique: I use several different techniques, but I am primarily a watercolor and ink artist, with forays into the gorgeous world of pastels. I paint in watercolors because I like to paint rather small--I think because I've always lived in small places!--and because I'm allergic to bigger, more exotic media. I adore the gorgeous watercolor illustrations of James McMullan, Paul Cox and Maurice Vellekoop. These days I often scan an inked drawing and do the color (and generally mess around) in Photoshop.

My involvement with the Guild: I try to volunteer with the Guild but often find this difficult with my hectic schedule of working, being bicoastal and also being a mom. The Guild people are nice and open and have a great sense of humor, and they are very talented and aren't snobs at all! I wish I could participate more, in fact. I do enjoy the monthly luncheons when I'm in town.

My Favorite Client story: OK, I have to get this out of my system. This guy hired me last week to do a little illustration job for his website. He was a meditation instructor and a shrink, so I thought, hey, I don't need to write up a contract or anything. (Ha!) I gave him a great price, too, I don't know why--I mean, he probably charges $100 an hour, but I gave him a great price anyway. I guess I thought, "good karma points," or something. Well, after spending some time talking it over, he hired me to do 3 color illos. We then emailed quite a bit, chatted, looked at his website together, and he faxed me sketches (of people in yoga poses) to work from. Monday he emailed me-- a day before my sketches were due-- and canceled the job, without offering to pay me anything! He explained that someone he knew presented him with great sketches for free!--and that this other guy was also cheaper. He said he was "sorry." I wrote him that I worked at least 2 hours on his project already so he should pay me for that. He said the time we spent discussing his website was "just shmoozing" and he thought it was OK to cancel because it wasn't Tuesday yet. Then he rather condescendingly explained to me that in most "trades" one is entitled to an "estimate" and then not to hire that person if they want. I said, his bill ALREADY included his free hour of consultation. Anyway, all this bothers me quite a bit, because I have been working on my poor attitude about people from Marin, and especially about people who are meditation instructors from Marin, and this guy comes along and blows the whole program.

All artwork © 2002 Caryn Leschen. Not to be used without permission.