Listening to Mela, NYC art agent

Photos by Mark Taguiwalo. License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/

Here are the other artists who were there, just as eager as I was to hear what Mela had to say. I've heard it many times, and read it in numerous FAQs - the do's and don'ts in preparing your portfolio. It was something else, however, to hear it again right there, from an honest to goodness artist agent. I certainly picked up more than a thing or two last March 7. And I also finally and completely understood a few things that I knew beforehand, but only in theory. "Have a distinct, signature style," for example.

Beaulah's 2 Cents

On March 7, 2006, from 5:30 to 9:30 in the evening, the SCBWI hosted a Gathering of Illustrators. Our speaker for the evening was Mela Bolinao, a Filipino American who is also a New York based illustrators’ agent with 11 years experience, specializing in children’s books. She critiqued portfolios and gave a brief talk on the art and craft of putting together a portfolio.

But this was not what the evening was solely about – at least not for me.

The evening was also about meeting new people. While the world of Philippine illustrators is small, there were a significant number of people who were new to us. And these people included graduating Fine Arts students from the University of Sto. Tomas (kids to people my age, I guess), students from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, members of Ang InK (an association of children's illustrators in the Philipppines), the group from the ad agency Campaigns & Grey, Dennis Rito whom we finally met... they all took the chance, plunged in and made new contacts. Pretty soon, we had little groups of people partaking of the many, many dishes from the potluck dinner, talking and talking and talking about their craft, mutual friends and everything else under the sun it seemed. I wouldn’t be surprised if a deal or two was crafted during the eating and mingling period of the evening.

Mela, lovely patient Mela, took the time to look over every single one of the portfolios, and give comments to each person. Her comments were as candid as was necessary and I am certain that a majority of the artists learned much more than a thing or two.

After the portfolios were studied and put away, we had dinner. Absolutely delicious. My stomach sends its thanks to Joel Chua for the Kangkong fritters.

Finally, Mela talked. While she had a long speech prepared, after the portfolio critique, after she had gotten a better grasp of who the artists were and what they worked on, Mela decided to partially junk her “script” and just talk about what she now new to be relavant to the present crowd. After this, she answered all the questions thrown her way.

A few announcements about forthcoming activities, and the evening was officially over.

In the end, a young man, Jordan, came up to me, Nikki, the person who rarely admits her desire to be published, the person whom he probably knows only as Beaulah’s assistant, the person (dragon) who guarded the gate and laid down the rules. He came up to me and said, “Thank you for taking care of us.”

I do not want to sound like a greeting card but this simple statement of thanks is what it is all about for me. I agreed to be an ARA because it gives me the privilege of meeting people who adore books as I do. I agreed to be an ARA because, well Jordan, because it is a pleasure to care for and to support artists and to find ways to pass on knowledge to each one and to simply interact.

So Jordan, thank You!

Nikki Garde-Torres