An Interview With Bryan Ballinger

This interview originally appeared on The Intersection, a Weblog that E. Christopher Clark published from 2007 through early 2008. The Intersection was dedicated to the discussion of the intersection of the creative life, the work life, and the family life.

Bryan Ballinger graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1990 with a degree in Illustration. He also has a master’s degree in Writing for Children from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After moving to Seattle in 1991 and doing freelance work for companies such as Nintendo Power magazine, he started working at Microsoft as an illustrator. He was lead illustrator for the first version of the award-winning Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia as well as the Explorapedia children’s encyclopedia series. Bryan was the 3D Design Lead for 5 years at Big Idea Productions, the producers of the VeggieTales children’s videos. Bryan is also a professor of Digital Media Arts at Huntington University in Indiana. Bryan does illustration for children’s books, websites, games, videos, ads, etc. He is also the co-author of The Great Cheese Squeeze, a children’s book he did with his buddy Keith Lango. He is also a husband and a father.

And we haven’t even gotten to the slew of websites he runs, from Breadwig.com to Suxco.com and everything in between.

Clarkwoods: Bryan, you’re a writer, an illustrator, a professor, and a family man. With all of that on your plate, how do you keep yourself from going insane? Is there a secret to your success?

Bryan Ballinger: Honestly, I never get to all the things I want to do. My problem is, once I get an idea for something, it is very hard for me to concentrate on anything else until I’ve worked through the idea. A curse no doubt, but maybe a blessing too (I keep telling myself). I haven’t decided on that one yet. For instance, this summer I got an idea to do a website called www.taterbot.com that features my robotic potato toy designs. So, I ploughed on and did it. Nothing’s come of it yet, but I shoved all my other personal projects to the side until I’d gone and made the thing. Help me. Please.

I don’t know that I’d call myself successful. Slovenly inefficient maybe.

CW: When do you find time to do your own work, whether it be writing or illustration?

Ballinger: Late at night usually. Teaching also gives me time during winter and summer time off to work on my own stuff. But any time never seems to be enough. If I’m writing, my visual art is pounding on the inside of my head. If I’m drawing, my drive to write is squeezing my soul like it was a twisted wet towel. I’m also a night owl and get to work on my own stuff late at night after the rest of my family’s asleep.

I’ve also learned (the hard way) to be disciplined in some things. I’ve learned (even if it frustrates a lot of people) to say no, and to prioritize things. A tough lesson for someone (me) who wants approval and has a tendency to want to play the martyr at times. (Now I just need to learn to stop using parenthetical expressions so often.)

CW: You and me both. You’ve posted some of your daughter’s drawings on Breadwig.com, and even turned one of them into a full-scale illustration for DrawerGeeks. Do you encourage her to draw herself? And if she grew up to be an accountant instead of pursuing some more artistically-oriented occupation, would that disappoint you?

Ballinger: I do encourage my daughter to draw and to make up stories. I want to fan that amazing creativity that all kids have. Somewhere between kindergarten and high school creativity and the arts gets shamed out of most kids, which quite frankly pisses me off. I don’t ever want my daughter’s joy in her own creativity to be suppressed, and I figure society will soon be doing its best to crush it. Hopefully it fails. If my daughter ends up being an accountant, that wouldn’t make me sad if those are the gifts she has and she isn’t doing it out of faux practicality and conformism.

CW: What did your daughter think of your version of the alien she drew, if you showed it to her?

Ballinger: Fortunately she dug it. I actually asked for her input as I was doing it, so she saw it as I was creating it.

 

CW: Has family ever gotten in the way of your art to such an extent that you’ve felt resentful? Has your writing and/or illustration ever gotten in the way of family to such an extent that you’ve felt resentful? And, if so, how do you deal with those emotions?

Ballinger: Wow, no fear in your questions! The interruptions of family life can get frustrating. And I struggle in general with anxiety over whether I’m spending enough time with my family, and anxiety over not getting to do all the things that seem to fizz out of my ears. But any resentment I have gotten towards my family, so far, has faded really quickly. Honestly, I love family time. Doing dishes, etc. not so much. But doing things as a family is part of my DNA, I think. For instance, I hate going grocery shopping by myself, there are so many other things I want to be doing. But I love going grocery shopping as a family.

CW: What was the most important thing you learned during your time in the Lesley MFA program? Was there any one mentor who meant more to you than any of the others? If so, why? And do you still keep in touch with him or her?

Ballinger: Hmmm, the most important thing. That is a tough question. I think one of the most important things I needed to learn was how to communicate more clearly and more simply.

Also, there was something that one of my all time heroes, Maurice Sendak, said when he was a guest speaker at the program. Someone (I think it was David Elliott) asked him if he intentionally wrote for children and why. Maurice said something to the effect that he wrote for himself and that what he wrote also happened to appeal to children. That really has stuck with me.

I enjoyed all of the mentors that I had at Lesley. They helped me a great deal and I keep loosely in touch with all of them. Susan Goodman was the mentor that had the biggest effect on my writing I’d have to say. She’s about the smartest, funniest, most creative person I’ve ever known.

CW: Do you find yourself drawing on your Lesley experience when you’re teaching at Huntington?

Ballinger: I do, especially when it comes to communicating clearly. It’s just so valuable for writing as well as visual art. Lesley helped me to think about art in general. How it’s important for you to create for yourself, i.e. if you don’t yourself feel what you’re doing has any meaning, it’s not going to have much for others. But if you aren’t able to communicate what you’re trying to say, it’s not going to be as effective either.

CW: Back in the summer of 2005, I was fortunate enough to see you give a presentation that, at least in part, focused on the pros and cons of digital illustration versus traditional non-digital illustration. Could you briefly summarize what you think each method is best at capturing? Do you think digital illustration programs are getting any closer to being able to replicate the look and feel of hand-drawn art? And, if so, is that a good thing?

Ballinger: Yeah, I think mostly I was drawing the comparison to 3d digital illustration and drawn illustration. 3d digital illustration is starting to approach some of the more organic aesthetics and ease of splatting what’s in your heart into the medium, but it’s got a ways to go too. There are some really nice 2d computer illustration tools that are getting very organic. And now there are some cool 3d sculpting softwares that are pushing in the right direction. But 3d computer illustration isn’t quite at the point where the beauty of unconscious spontaneity is as easily expressed as it is with traditional and 2d styles and techniques. And some stories are best served by that, and others benefit to the other strengths that 3d digital imagery has to offer.

CW: For you, what’s more fun: illustrating on the computer, or doodling on a Post-It note?

Ballinger: That’s a tough call. If I had to give one up, at this point, I’d give up the computer. But once doodling on a computer is as convenient, uncomplicated, and fragrant (I doodle with Sharpies), I might change my mind. I wear a completely unfashionable fanny pack (or tummy purse, as a friend calls it) mainly so I can carry my stash of post it notes and sharpies around.

CW: And, lastly, what’s next for you? It’s been a few years since you did The Great Cheese Squeeze. Are there any new books on the horizon?

Ballinger: I’ve had a couple books come out in the past year or so, including Hot Chocolate for Sale, which was a fun book written by Maribeth Boelts. I’m currently illustrating a series of children’s books about various dog characters for another publisher, and it’s a lot of fun. But I really wish I was doing more. And of course I’m trying to write and get my own stories published, which so far, hasn’t gone so well. Oh well. If I’m writing them for me, at least I get to read them.

E. Christopher Clark has been writing for the web since 1997. Offline, he is an office manager, an adjunct English instructor, an un(der)published novelist, a husband, and a father. He also slices, dices, and makes julienne fries. Chris earned his MFA in creative writing from Lesley University in July 2005. He lives in southern New Hampshire with his wife Stephanie and their daughter Kaylee.