Art School Confidential

Yesterday, Missy was invited to Madison County High School, in nearby Danielsville, to speak to the students of Ms. Sam Barnum's ART CLASS. She spoke to two of her classes about her many art and craft projects, and her career as a professional product designer. She began by telling the students about how she had always drawn since a very early age. She started drawing comics for the school newspaper in junior high, later getting into the underground zine scene during her high school and college years. She talked about all the art classes she took in high school and college, and how her training in graphic design led her to a career as a product designer. She also discussed how she did various arts and crafts as a side business and we even got to check out her ETSY SHOP on their super cool touch screen presentation board. And of course, Missy also talked about her controversial TOFU BABY comic in FLAGPOLE MAGAZINE and told funny stories about fans and haters alike...









We brought a bunch of Missy's zines, comics, and crafts, along with some items that she had designed that were produced and sold by our company. We laid them out on the table, with the zines, arts, and crafts stuff on one side, and work product on the other. It felt like we were setting up for a craft sale!



Before Missy began her presentation, the kids stood up and did the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE while facing a poster of one of JASPER JOHNS' American flags...which we thought was pretty awesome:













We tried to respect the students' privacy (many were on a "no photo/no video" list) by not showing anyone's faces, and we didn't video the question and answer sessions. We were, however, able to take photos of some of the artwork the kids did...Ms. Barnum Xerox-copied a couple of Missy's comics with the dialogue taken out. She had each student embellish the strips in their own unique way. Many colored in their strips and added their own dialogue. Some drew backgrounds and other characters. Some of the special needs kids got really abstract with their drawings...often times, they were more imaginative than the other kids! Anyways, we thought all the different interpretations of Tofu Baby were pretty funny...we couldn't have asked for a more perfect ending and we were honored that the kids had us as their guests...