OK - so I'm gonna try to get this articles thing happenin right here and now. A number of us have been in the illo biz long enough to remember pre tech times...and then came the Faxeolithic and Macolithic eras, respectively. I've got plenty o' spunk left in me, so the last thing I wanna start is a thread of "the good ol' days". I am thinking, however, that it would be interestin for those artists who have started up their careers in the age of communication, to hear just a little about how dramatically the illo world changed in terms of locations, deadlines, workloads, portfolios etc. with the advent of technology. Like everything else, this change brought some pros and cons. One big result is that it scattered us out from NYC like a tear in the bottom of a big bag of marbles. all rollin in different directions. Which is why we are using this current form to connect. Before fax made it possible to exist outside NYC's boundaries, there was an even bigger concentration of artists living and working in the one community. Freindships were formed amomg artists and between artist and client. There were a few spots that served as a kind of social club for artists. I'm thinkin of the NYTimes bullpen. I met a few of you "drawgers" there. Now, of course, if you tried to hang there you'd be hauled off fer loitterin, but there was a time (if you care to remember).