My Time Inside

A Writer Infiltrates An Illustrator Schmooze

A Roman A Clef

by Ken W.Min

What is a schmooze? More specifically, what is an illustrator schmooze? I had an assignment to write an article for the paper about an illustrator schmooze but where to begin? I looked it up in a dictionary but couldn’t find it. I broke it down into it’s component parts and came up with this:

Illustrators n: an artist who makes illustrations (for books or magazines or advertisements etc.)

Schmooze n: an informal conversation
v: talk idly or casually and in a friendly way or make a social connection.

So if I put it together I would have something like this:

Illustrators Schmooze: artists who make illustrations talking idly or casually in social settings.

That sounded about right but didn’t really tell me anything so I decided to venture out and actually see what goes on at one (or two) of these events.

By the way, call me Isabel. This is my inside look into the San Fernando Valley Illustrators Schmooze. Let’s see what we’ll uncover.

The first night I attended was on the topic of “Favorite, Memorable Illustrated Characters”. They wanted to discuss those particular characters that we grew up with. The ones whose stories we would want to read again and again. One fellow read Curious George as a child. In Spanish! It was the book he learned to read from. The yellow color on the cover made a huge impression on him. Influencing his color styling to this day. Another lady wrote a poem coaxing us to guess whom her favorite character was. Some of the clues she gave were:

Cruising tumbling stumbling
Past books and orange marmalade
Was all of her life beginning to fade?

Playing chess sure
Smile fading
But not through the door
What could be more demure? *

The group leader, Stephanie, gave her historical dissertation of Paddington Bear. She admired his childlike qualities and good manners. She loved the bear so much that when a school friend said they had a panda, Stephanie wanted one too. Whether the friend had a real bear or not, Stephanie thought it was the real deal.

We saw lots of books from people’s childhoods. Even some original copies from the 50’s and 60’s. It was a little like unearthing buried treasures.

I enjoyed myself that night. They all seem to be nice people. Still I couldn’t help but wonder what brings them out month after month. I decided to look deeper. I had to attend one more night.

The following month the group did something a little different. They played “BINGO!” Yes, BINGO, but with a twist. Instead of calling out numbers, they flashed images by different children’s book illustrators. The idea was to guess who the illustrator was and then hope to mark his/her name on your game board. As in the game of BINGO, if you get 5 in a row you win the game. They even handed out prizes of paint by number kits to the winners and also gave away candy for correctly guessing the illustrators. I had to admit it was a fun and informative night. The two moderators read off varied arcane trivia and little known facts about the different illustrators to help people guess along. I have to admit it got my competitive juices going but in a fun, carefree way.

Still, with all my research, I needed to find an angle on this schmooze. What makes it “tick”? I decided to get a first hand impression of what some of the attendees thought of their schmooze, one word to describe their feelings. “Informative” was one. Other words that came up were “friendship” and “encouragement”. But the one word that sticks in my mind is the word “cohesive”. As the fellow who mentioned it states, “We're one body made of many different parts.” I guess that’s the impression I get when I look at their schmooze. They are individuals who bring different perspectives to the table and share in their love of all things related to the medium of children’s literature. I guess you can’t hope for better than that. I know I’m hooked.

* Excerpt from a poem by Linda Everhart.