Portrait by Alessandro Gottardo (SHOUT)
Ten years ago, when I just started illustrating, I was poor. I wanted to submit work to illustration competitions, but with a very limited budget I had to carefully pick and choose which competitions to apply to. I dropped the Society of Illustrators Annual from the list that year. I felt that the Society was more for celebrating the traditional and not welcoming newbies like me. Whether what I felt was a reality or not, I knew that a lot of young illustrators felt the same way I did.
Seeing the attendees of the three openings for the 54th competition ten years later, I could not help smiling. Young artists we had never heard of, or whose work we hadn’t seen before, giving beautiful acceptance speeches that brought tears to our eyes. And veterans who have never stopped growing and working to be even better artists, receiving their well-deserved medals. You can see it with your own eyes, packed in this annual, from the first page to the last. I am very proud of how the Society of Illustrators Annual is looking more diverse than ever. I am not a newbie anymore. In fact, I have been teaching the next generation of young artists for some time. And you know what? I tell them, if they can’t afford to apply to all the competitions they’d like to, they should consider the Society of Illustrators, because the Society is the most diverse one.
I thank all 45 jury members who donated their time, eyes, and brains. Some are my longtime heroes, some are peers and clients, and some are the future we believe in. They represent a full spectrum, just like the selected work. Thank you, Tomer Hanuka for creating such a powerful illustration for the call for entries poster, and Anton Ioukhonovets for designing the poster to enhance that power.
And thank you all who applied, whether you are in the annual or not; you are the ones who made this happen. Really. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.