Greetings good people!
It is with great pride, and sore fingers, that I present the years-in-the-making, finally complete, brand spanking new, MarkTavares.com!!
To all of you who thought this would never actually come to pass, well, you were almost right! 🙂 I have owned this particular plot of cyber-real estate for a number of years. Plenty of folks, including my very patient parents, have tried over the years to gently nudge me into putting my stuff online. Being portfolio adverse, I would always seem to find reasons to avoid this. One of the main reasons was that I had steady work in recent years with Don Post Studios. My thought process being “Hey, so what if I am technically freelance? I’ve got steady work. I don’t need to build the website just yet. What could POSSIBLY GO WRONG?”
Okay, I never said the last part. Still, in September of this year, the Don Post Studios train pulled into the station for the last time. With no fanfare whatsoever, the parent company, CSS Industries, pulled the plug and sold the entire Halloween division to a competitor, Gemmy Industries. Don and the remaining staff, including me, were all let go in one fell swoop.
Let me take this moment to say that I loved every moment of my time at Don Post Studios. Really, what’s NOT to love? I got to make Boogedy Halloween masks all year round. Don treated me like I walked on water. Not to mention, I got paid to do this job! There was no downside. However, in the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit that I had been getting restless in recent years. It had nothing to do with the job. I just found myself in my mid forties and somewhat rudderless. Make-up Effects, the profession for which I moved to California, had sort of dried up for me. As previously stated, the Halloween Industry was very good to me. It just wasn’t getting me to where I wanted to be. I had been making noises about being taken more seriously as an artist. A good goal, but one that takes focus. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have sometimes found focus a little hard to come by. Life tends to get in the way. It’s much easier to say “I’m tired. I’ll paint tomorrow” when you have steady, easy work coming in. I pretty much knew that it would take a breakaway from Don Post Studios to put me back on the right path. Well, “be careful what you wish for” as they always say.
Now that the DPS chapter of my career has come to a close, I had the motivation to get off my ass, and start making headway towards my artistic goals. Among the more important steps was getting this site built. Now, not only do I have a portfolio for potential clients to view, I have a means of charting my progress. You may notice that some of the pages are sparsely populated. That will change soon enough. I am still going through piles of poorly cataloged material. As I pull more stuff, it will be posted.
I am also starting to look into doing more commission work. I have already completed a couple of assignments. When I get permission, I will share them with all of you. Hey, if you’re interested in commissioning some artwork, I am always willing to discuss! (End of Shameless Plug)
In the meantime, please stop by regularly. I am going to do my best to keep up with these postings. At the very least, I will announce here when I have posted a new scribble on Facebook or something like that.
Thanks for reading!
-Mark