Megan here

1.)What have you been doing post-graduation (art-wise or life-wise) and what are your plans for the next few months?

Like Eamonn said, I've been balancing internships. Its great to be doing two that are so diverse, I do feel like I'm actually learning but hell if I have any energy at the end of the day. I'm quite surprised by how well I'm seeming to tolerate the 9-5, but its really made me realize I want to be able to support myself on freelance one day.
I also did ICON, which was a really fun experience and I got to hang out with a couple of MICAN's one last time before moving to Chicago. It was very interesting, and funny, to see a couple hundred illustrators congregate and talk about the business.
In the next couple of months I want to hunker down and start freelancing. I've done the odd thing here and there since graduation, but I'd like it to be a more substantial facet of my life.

2.)Where have you moved to (be specific: ex."hampden") ? Are you happy/excited/frustrated/ disappointed by your new location? Is there something about this new place you wanna advertise, or warn us about? (Ex. great Tex-Mex food, bad public transportation)

I am living with Eames in Rogers Park in Chicago. I love the city, and I'm glad everyday I chose to move here. Its really surreal, as well, because this is the neighborhood my dad, and the entirety of the Russell clan, grew up in. Its weird when he visits and points out the various apartments he lived in with my grandmother, or the bars that still exist and who he still knows people in. I'm confident, however, that if I ever get in a bind it'd be ridiculously easy to walk into the streets and shout that Jim Russell's daughter could use a hand.
Chicago has a ridiculous amount of good food, but my happiest day was when we moved in and the cheap-frequently open thai place less than a block away was supremely delicious. We also live a few blocks from the beach, and its pretty calming to walk there and collect rocks from the shore.

3.)Is there something you have created since you graduated you would like to share? (it doesn't have to be an illustration)

Well, at first I truly felt burnt out on art and loathed the idea of ever drawing again. But, slowly and surely, my fervor returned and I began drawing and doing the odd-freelance. I illustrated a story for Carus Pub that is very different for me, but I'm pretty happy with how the illustrations turned out. A little sneak peek can be seen here: ART ART ART!

4.)Which specific color have you been using/thinking about the most lately?

I'm always thinking about green. I guess now it would be an army green. Because of the project mentioned above, however, some obscenely bright colors are beginning to leak into my palette.

5.)Tell us something about you that has changed since we last met.

I shaved my head and I'm pregnant.

Ok, ok. Not really, I wish I had something super exciting to tell everyone but really the changes I've had since school have been entirely mental. Since coming to chicago I feel like some part of me that had been dying off or maybe just laying dormant in baltimore has come back alive. I feel really and truly good about myself and my future for the first time in a while. Probably the best kind of change that could of happened to me, I think.




Other than that, I miss you guys a ton. Come visit us and we'll show you the city! Anyone whose in the neighborhood really should give us a call.