Martha Rich!
posted:
I'm pretty lucky to have an awesome studio mate and buddy, and it's her birthday this weekend. Happy Birthday Martha!
Martha was nice to me before I was an illustrator, when I was just Gina's date at illustration parties. This meant a lot because I had so much respect for the totally ballsy work she did for clients and galleries. Martha's originally from Philly, and she'd come back here to visit her dad and step mom a few blocks from our place. That gave Gina and me the chance to hang out with her outside the usual AI, ICON cycle, and we all grew close through a mutual love of smiles and the occasional dirty drawing. Needless to say, we were super psyched when Martha moved from Pasadena to Philly to attend Penn's MFA program.
This was right around when my daughter Juniper was born and Gina and I had to cut down on going out. We were happy to have a buddy for nights of wine and whisky around the dinner table. Martha would tell us crazy stories about what an Ivy League fine artsy crit is like (and I'll take a conference call with 4 advertising guys over it any day btw) and we'd try to make each other laugh.
After she graduated, Martha and our photographer friend Andrea were looking for a studio mate to share a storefront in our neighborhood. Gina and I have always worked at home, and I had a pretty good set up here. I reluctantly moved my stuff over there to try it out, and it's been awesome ever since. Martha's pretty fearless with her artwork, and there's always something new going on in her space.
She had a mega studio back In LA with Mark Todd, Esther Watson, Calef Brown, Souther Salazar and Saelee Oh. I'm not sure Andrea and I can fill those shoes, but I hope we keep things fun enough.
