Normally, having your artwork defaced by liquified rice is not a good thing. Except in this case…
Bring on the peas and yams.
From the monthly archives:
April 2005
With the pending release of my new book, Escape Adulthood: 8 Secrets from Childhood for the Streessed-Out Grown-Up, I’ve been working on developing some new talks for “grown-ups” based on the content of the book. There are five:
•Be Mine: Winning The Hearts of Your Customers
•The Wisdom of Curious George: Improving Yourself, Your Team, and Your Company
•Recess is Mandatory: Building Teams by Having Fun
•Making Pigs Fly: Accomplishing Big Things in Life and Work
•Amscray: Telling Stress to Get Lost
These topics can be delivered as 30-90 minute keynote presentations as well as 2-3 hour seminars. I promise that they’ll be chock full of fun and useful ideas you can use to improve your life and Escape Adulthood. If you’re interested in booking info, contact Kim for details.
We only have 16 t-shirts left from our recently concluded second annual Kim & Jason Benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They are sure to be a collectible phenomenon destined to command thousands on eBay. Or they will just be cool t-shirts commemorating a fun event. If you weren’t there and want to pretend like you were, pick one up before they disappear.
How cool is this: The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Wisconsin has a wish child with an extraordinary wish. He wishes to train and participate in a large charitable bike ride to raise money for cancer research so other children do not have to go through what he has.
David will be raising funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and riding in its Ride for the Roses in October. In preparation for his participation in the event, he is participating in two training rides.
The first is on Saturday, May 7 at Sheedan Park, Sun Prairie. Please join us at 9:30 a.m. (ride begins at 10:30) to support, cheer and encourage David as he participates in the 2005 Trek Spring into Wisconsin bike ride.
Ride organizer, Todd McLaughlin, is helping the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin with David’s wish request. Proceeds from the Trek Spring into Wisconsin and the Tour de Villes, the second of David’s two training rides, will allow David to participate in the Ride for the Roses in Houston, Texas with Lance Armstrong.
How can YOU help?
–>Stop by Sheedan park to show David your support.
–>Pledge David by going to www.springintowisconsin.com and click on “Help Make David’s Wish Come True”
–>Ride in the 2005 Trek Spring into Wisconsin with David
–>Volunteer to help at the ride
(If you can join us or help, please RSVP to David Groszczyk at the Make-A-Wish office at 800.236.9474 or 262.781.4445)
Earlier this year, I had the distinct privilege of putting on a 3-day cartooning workshop for the fourth and fifth graders at Huegel Elementary here in Madison. I had fun, the kids had fun, and I’m pretty sure the teachers did, too. One of the coolest things that happened after my visit is that the kids ended up doing a letter writing campaign to the Wisconsin State Journal on my behalf. As far as I know, every single student in both grade levels wrote a letter requesting that Kim & Jason be added to the comics page. Who knows if it will make a difference in the eyes of the editor, but it sure made an impact on me. I just had to share some exceprts from a few of the letters:
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Dear Mr. Milfred,
I am writing you to suggest that the Wisconsin State Journal put in cartoons from jason Kotecki. His comic is called Kim & Jason. I love making comics. I never knew it was so much fun. Jason taught me that whatever you put your mind to, you can do it. He is a very good comic artist and writer. People in Wisconsin would enjoy his work. I showed my mom a Kim & Jason comic and she laughed. She said she loved it. So put Jason Kotecki’s comic in the newspaper and put a smile on people’s faces.
Sincerely,
Javonae
Dear Mr. Milfred,
I am writing to suggest Wis. State Journal put in comics from Jason Kotecki. He is a local artist and you can see his work on KimandJason.com. He is a very talented cartoonist, and he inspires many people to make their own comics, including me. He works very hard, and all that hard work should be able to pay off. My class knows how much Jason wants his comics in WSJ, and we want to help him with that.
Sincerely,
Alana
Dear Mr. Milfred,
I think Jason Kotecki (the cartoonist for “Kim & Jason”) deserves to have his cartoon in the Wisconsin State Journal. One reason I believe that Jason should have his cartoon published in the Wisconsin State Journal is because people who would read it would be entertained and you would have happy customers. Another reason I think this is because he worked with my class and did an excellent job. He also worked with other classes at my school, and all the kids that worked with Jason were able to create there own cartoon. The third reason is because I know a lot of kids who get a laugh when they read a “Kim & Jason” cartoon. Jason is a local cartoonist and has worked very hard. Jason has a website (www.kimandjason.com) and I think people would like to read it in the Wisconsin State Journal, not just online. I appreciate you listening to my opinion. I hope to read “Kim & Jason” in the Wisconsin State Journal soon!
Gabriela
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Convincing arguments, no?
Thanks Huegel!
(Another girl named Sydney wrote her letter in the form of a comic strip, with the text: “I think you should put comic strips by Jason Kotecki in the newspaper. He inspired me…Look how good I can do cartooning now!”)
I just couldn’t take it anymore.
I switched the background of Kimandjason.com several weeks ago from a “lunch bag brown” kraft color to a vibrant red. I did this because in a recent poll we conducted involving new visitors to the web site, many of them mentioned that the background was too drab. Eventually, the comments got to me and I made the change to red.
I picked red because it matched our logo, and because I know red to be the most vibrant and attention-grabbing color (that’s why stop signs and brake lights and Target uniforms are red). I was not about to have anyone call my web site drab.
Several weeks of staring at the bright red background drove me to the brink. I hated it. Even though we conducted another survey that showed a large margin of people actually preferring the red, I just couldn’t stand looking at it anymore. I found it too distracting, and it seemed to clash with a lot of the artwork. And that led me to remember the reason I chose the original color in the first place: I wanted something neutral, something that would allow the artwork itself to stand out.
After many days of agonizing whether or not to change it back (and getting increasingly more angry that something so stupid as a website background should dominate my thoughts) I brought back the old “lunch bag brown”. I added some Kim & Jason sketches to liven it up.
I don’t know if the sketches make it less drab, but at least I’m more happy.
“Life is made up of little things. It is very rarely that an occasion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True greatness consists in being great in the little things.”
- Charles Simmons
The other day, a little girl in Kim’s kindergarten class commented to one of the teacher’s aides, “You look really pretty today.”
Then she added, “But I did just get done spinning around and I am pretty dizzy.”
Although not always tactful, the honesty of children is always a breath of fresh air.
