I had the chance to briefly interview Bill Sienkiewicz about his career in art and what keeps him going.
Q1: You’ve been illustrating and painting, using different kinds of mediums for many years, what is that keeps you going in this craft? What is it that you look forward to every time you pick up the pen or brush? And in the midst of the craft, what is it that you hope for other artists from various ages and walks of life to take home whenever they see your work?
BS: What keeps me going is partly a level of impatience and restlessness and the love of drawing, painting, and telling stories. So for me, if I can learn something, play or experiment, that’s what’s so fun about it. There’s always an opportunity to learn something. That’s why any particular piece that I do at that particular time, it’s the most important piece that I’m working on. All the eggs are sorta in that basket, and I lose sleep over a piece and whatever. Then I finish it, ends up in a flat file or in a box and I’ll be reflecting through them and go “at one time, this piece was an important piece, and now it’s just another piece that I’ve done.”
In a way that also helps keep things in perspective, because it’s so easy to get so tightened up and want a piece to come out a certain way, that you forget about simply being in the moment, letting a piece be what it’s gonna be. I try to walk that line between really caring a lot about what I’m doing because any piece that I’m going to do let’s me know what medium it wants to be in. So I’m walking the line between caring very deeply, fighting with it, and also trying to not care at all. Too much caring can make you feel pressure and stop the enjoyment because it should be fun.
Q2: That’s an interesting tightrope when it comes to illustrating but also working in the field of comics. Thank you for taking the time giving the viewers and all the young illustrators something to look forward to and something to think about when they work in this craft because it’s a lifelong craft. You shouldn’t be thinking too much about the reward, but more of the journey and evolution of the craft.
BS: Any awards, or anything else, to me success is being able to continue to do what you love to do. It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint as they say. I’ve seen plenty of people who were sorta flashes in the pan, the one-hit wonders, musically or whatever. So if you want to be in it for the long haul, you gotta settle in and pace yourself.
Thank you Bill Sienkiewicz for your time, your work, and everything that you do.
Newsdesk