Cartooning is the center of LARK PIEN 's life. She began cartooning in 1997. Her first submission to a publication, Long Tail Kitty - Day Out, was rejected for the Expo 2000 anthology, however her next mini comic Long Tail Kitty - Heaven was nominated for an Ignatz award just the following year (ironically both the Ignatz awards and the Expo anthology spring from the same platform, the SPX in bethesda maryland). She has been knocked down and gotten up again many times over since then.
For example, in this year 2007, she suffers a no-work spell in the spring season and loses her studio, not once but twice (!) to the real estate market; but then by the summer time she is offered solo shows at the SF Cartoon Art Museum and Apature, residencies at the Charles Schultz Museum and Asian Art Museum, SF. While she struggles to keep her few friendships solid (after all, folks her age are buying houses now, having kids, moving away), she is gaining recognition by the wider public for her coloring work in American Born Chinese (nominated this year for both the Harvey and the Eisner comic awards), and her debut full-color story in Flight #4. If there's anything Pien has learned about herself while riding this heavy pendulum swing, it's that she's got endurance.
Endurance is a good thing, because changes aren't easy. Being rich one day and being poor the next is hardly considered fun. Needing to make money to make art but not having the place to make art is hard too. But she wants it, the art and comics, and even the money, so she welcomes change, for better or for worse. With faith in her talent, focus on her vision, and a disposition towards the unexpected that nears compassion, Pien draws with pen in hand, lines upon lines upon lines.
To view Lark Pien's current work:
http://larkpien.blogspot.com
To view Lark Pien's archived work:
http://www.larkpien.com
Above: Lark Pien: APAture 2007 Featured Artist in Comics/Zines (Image by Lark Pien)
Artist Statement
I like to tell stories. I have lots of stories to tell. Not just about me, about things. Real things, imaginary things, things that move and things that stay. Things that you might consider mundane. Things that don't go away, that leave you to wonder. I like comics, because I can tell my stories through them.
(Artist statement continued below panels.)
I also like reading comics. I like looking at all the pictures and details, and figuring out the structure especially. How the story is told. How it unfolds. Seeing the way the story is constructed in a comic also has the bonus feature of peeking into the senses of the cartoonist who drew it. You know after reading it how this artist thinks. It's like a director's commentary hidden in an easter egg on a DVD. When you discover it, it's a satisfying experience.
--Lark Pien
Above: Panels from"The Story of Binny" by Lark Pien, published in Flight #4 by Random House Books.
Lark Pien presents her work at the Comics & Zines expo on Saturday, September 29, 2007, 12 - 6pm, at KSW's space180.
