Date: Fri 19-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Paula-Brinkman-artist-stock

Full Text:

An Artist Offers Pre-Finals Words Of Advice

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Paula Brinkman Hughes visited Newtown High School last week to speak to three

art classes. From the classes she spoke with, there may emerge the next

Picasso, Van Gogh... or Paula Brinkman Hughes.

Mrs Hughes, who uses her maiden name professionally, is an artist. Paula

Brinkman illustrations can be found around the world on everything from

greeting cards, T-shirts and gift bags to portable clocks, photo albums,

diaries and even wine labels.

Paula created the label for McLaughlin Vineyard's Blush wine a few years ago,

a wine that is sold in stores and directly from the Sandy Hook vineyard. The

cartoon-like character is a ideal example of the style of illustration work Ms

Brinkman has used to create a career for herself since graduating from Newtown

High School, and then the University of Connecticut.

A 1982 graduate of Newtown High School, Paula now lives in New York City with

her husband. Her parents, Al and Kit, still live in Newtown.

Paula Brinkman (who eventually married a classmate, John Patrick ("J.P.")

Hughes) took time on June 9 to visit with high school students, to discuss her

career, its possibilities, and the future for students. She offered

encouragement, personal stories of success and setback, and even shared her

work journals so the students had an idea of the serious work that goes into

the career of a full-time artist.

It isn't always easy, she forewarned them. Her earliest experiences when first

arriving in Manhattan were miserable. Just days after her arrival in the city,

her car -- the trunk filled with her portfolios, all of her sketches, and

personal belongings -- was broken into. Irreplaceable work was gone forever.

While Ms Brinkman has an impressive body of work with which to represent

herself today, she had to put in long hours working for others before she

found success working on her own. After graduating from college, there were

jobs that helped pay the bills, but she was not putting her creativity to full

use. She also knew these jobs were not forever, she said.

Ms Brinkman also told the students some of her firmest beliefs.

"I don't think you become an artist," she said. "I believe you are an artist.

"You can't expect, when you get out of school, that there's going to be this

ladder to climb. You have to build it yourself."

As far as what courses young artists can focus on, Ms Brinkman again feels

there is no specific art course that is going to fully create an artist.

"There's really no course you can take," she said. "But the teachers, at all

levels, cherish you, and you cherish them. Even now," she said, looking

directly at Newtown High art teachers Joyce Hannah and Diane Dutchick, "it's

influenced me."

While Ms Brinkman was speaking, the students had an array of products they

were invited to look at. Ms Brinkman had spread some of her work -- the

greeting cards, clocks, T-shirts, etc, mentioned earlier -- on a large table

in front of the students. Some of her work has also been used in magazines,

such as Cosmopolitan , and she had tear sheets from the magazines for the

students to look at.

It was an impressive display, one which encompasses years of hard work and

dedication. A look through Ms Brinkman's work journals shows pages of tiny

hand-written notes filling every available space.

Recently, Ms Brinkman became involved with stock illustration. In explaining

the procedure, Ms Brinkman compared it to the more familiar term stock

photography, where photographers provide shots of generic images that can be

purchased and used commercially by anyone. The photographers receive a

percentage of the price paid each time someone purchases one of their images

for use.

Stock illustration is the same principle, she explained, using drawings by

different artists. Ms Brinkman has one image that has been sold as a stock

illustration and used around the world, appearing in "Reader's Digest-like

publications," she said, and on a Mother's Day card, among its numerous uses.

"I try to get as much mileage as I can out of a single design," she said.

"It's exciting to think of the potential."

The students Ms Brinkman was speaking to last week were less than a week away

from beginning final examinations. Some of the students were seniors, many of

whom will be going off to college in the fall. For all the students, Ms

Brinkman's two words of advice were patience and persistence .

Long after final exams and college years, these two words of advice continue

to guide the successful artist herself.