When Emily’s schedule had her running later than originally expected last night, I found myself signed up to attend a friend’s book launch party at BookPeople on my own. I didn’t think about it at first, but it turned out to be a great Artist Date! Today’s post is a quick share about that experience.

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100 Liminal Days is an experimental project of embracing my current transitional season after exiting my business by sharing an honest, real-time account of my self-initiation experience in daily posts. I’m using The Artist’s Way as a guiding tool, and sending shorter weekly recaps only via my newsletter. Visit Day 1/100 to learn more and sign up in the footer of this page to get the weekly recaps delivered to your inbox.

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The Back Story

More than a decade ago, when I worked for another startup before launching Trusty Oak, I was working as a website project manager and operations lead. The company I worked for regularly collaborated on projects with another company very similar to our digital marketing agency. My counterpart – the ops/project manager at their company – was a cool guy named Christopher. Since we both were nerdy process-oriented people, we really got along well. He is also from West Texas, not far from where I grew up and he, like me, spent some time in the evangelical Christian space before what I’d describe as growing disenchanted with the religious rigidity of that belief system. He’s just always been one of those people that I really like, even though we drifted out of communication for the most part after leaving our companies.

But, thanks to social media, we’ve kept that light connection, and earlier this week, I received an invitation to the book launch and signing for his new children’s book series, Pet Shop Racers.

Behind the Scenes With Creator, C. S. Jennings

You see, Christopher may have been working as an operations guy, but C.S. Jennings is really an artist – an incredible illustrator, animator, and author. He’s published 29 books and worked on a few films, including animating A Scanner Darkly. He’s been drawing since he was a young kid – something that his reading teacher mom encouraged when he was struggling with reading due to a mild form of dyslexia.

At the book signing event for Pet Shop Racers, C. S. Jennings shared an inspiring behind-the-scenes story that included pictures of drawings he did when he was 11 years old. (I wish I had gotten pictures!) The audience was a mix of adults and children of various ages, and he shared how we are all storytellers. He asked who has a stuffed animal that they have named, and helped us notice that just by naming a character, we are beginning to tell a story.

After the brief behind the scenes look at the process involved with creating even one two-page spread, I was amazed at how much goes into making a graphic novel. The main character in the book is a little hamster named Ham, and C.S. said he drew Ham around 300 times for each book! There are three books in the series so far, so that means he drew this little dude 900 times. That’s wild to think about for me – it shows such a commitment to the story.

Christopher is already a lively guy, but as he started reading the beginning of his graphic novel to the room – making the voices for the different characters, and getting us to read the sounds – he really came alive, and so did the audience. I watched this, smiling and participating as if I were a child, too. I felt that I was taking it all in from a true place of adoration, not just for my friend, but for how this moment of storytelling changed the atmosphere in the room.

After the reading, the moderator asked C.S. a few questions, and there was one that stuck with me. Jennings was asked what piece of advice does he often tell his students (he also teaches) that he has to regularly remind himself of as well. Here’s what he had to say without even a moment of hesistation.

Be true to yourself.

He went on to explain that as an artist, people will try to tell you how to change this or that and want you to do things differently from your vision. But the best art is created from our true authenticity. He told us to always create things we love.

I know I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to what makes me tear up, but I had to wipe a tear or two during this event. When I went through the book signing line with my copies of books one and two, I had the chance to tell Christopher how much his work inspires me. To see an artist creating their own art with a goal to infuse “humor, heart, and healing” in every piece – and offering advice to young people to be true to yourself – was a big highlight of my week.

Thanks for being an inspiring creator, C. S. Jennings!

PS. If you are looking for a great gift for a young reader in your life, check out Pet Shop Racers!

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