Brad Shapiro:  

ome of the most talented young artists in the world---all this, with my entire future ahead of me. If I had to do it all over again I probably would have extended my education in the arts and gone on to graduate school after Pratt and studied film making. While at Pratt I struggled with the classes within my major sucn as graphic design and illustration, but seemed to excel at my minor classes in film and photography. As it turned out I ended up being a cartoonist, which wasn't even a class offered at Pratt. At the time, it seemed to me that Cartoonists at Pratt were considered to be illustrators who had not yet evolved past their unsophisticated tastes, and were not given a whole lot of respect by the faculty or in the curriculum. So as it turned out I spent four years of my life and thousands of dollars to end up doing as an adult exactly what I had done throughout my high school career: draw funny pictures. I graduated Pratt in 1984 and began my so-called career (see the work section of my BIO), then, (your all going to find this to be really weird) after graduation I decided to no longer use my middle name "Brad", the name by which people had known me all my life. Instead I started to use my first name, which is "Alexander", professionally, and asked my friends to try to make the difficult adjustment of suddenly having to call me by this new (to them) name. So, though most of you reading this bio know me as "Brad", I've actually been "Alex" for more than 20 years! It's a tough adjustment to make. In fact my own sister Carolyn still can't get used to it all these years later and often slips up and calls me "Brad"--That's okay. I don't mind. If any of you out there decides to contact me, it's fine to refer to me as "Brad"--it actually might be a bit nostalgic! At the time I decided to make this change I had simply decided that I liked my first name better, and now, as I get older, it actually seems to fit me much better. As I have said, one of my many (many) regrets, is that I never returned to college to get my Masters Degree. I am now at this late stage in my life and career am considering returning to school. If any of you has recently returned to school, I'd be interested in hearing how it went for you as an older student. If I go back to school at this time, I will most likely study writing. Are any of you out ther writers? If so, I'd be very interested in talking to you about your work. All that said, I'm not exactly finished with cartooning. I still do alot of illustration and am currently working on a cartoon memoir--(think of a lighter yet hipper version of "American Splendor" that isn't drawn quite as realistically) If all goes well you'll be able to pick it up soon at a bookstore near you. Workplace I graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1984 with a B.F.A. in Advertising Design. I had been trained to be one of those guys who designs print ads and T.V. commercials. My first job out of school was as an advertising copywriter for JC Penney Co. in New York. There, at Penney's Corporate headquarters I found myself bored out of my freakin' mind writing about women's wear for the petites catalog--stuff like: "Dress up, dress down, from office to evening you'll look fabulous mixing and matching these floral separates. Sizes 6, 7, 9 and 14. Made in USA. Machine wash,tumble dry..." After I almost went insane at that job I worked five years for my alma mater Pratt Institute as the Director of Recruitment--traveling all over the country trying to get talented art students to get their education at Pratt...After a while I realized that I didn't want to recruit artists, I wanted to BE an artist, so I quit. I moved to a little California coastal town located south of San Francisco called Half Moon Bay. I spent 7 months there trying to find myself until I was forced to move back to New York City. I owned a small apartment there and the person I had rented it to lost her job and stopped paying rent, leaving me with a hefty mortgage. I couldn't pay rent in California and my NYC apartment mortgage so I moved back into the NYC apartment. I ended up, however, not working as an artist at all because I had to pay that hefty mortgage ...and eat, so I became the Director of Recruitment for The City Volunteer Corps--a kind of Peace Corps for New York City. My job was to get high school kids to vounteer to do National Service in exchange for college scholarships. Finally, after a year of trying to convince myself that I was doing good work for the city of New York and that I was making the world a better place, I realized I am not a do-gooder-save-the-world type, and that I selfishly wanted to pursue my own ego-maniacal dreams and be a famous artist who attends lavish Hollywood parties and spends summers in Tuscany. So I quit. Now a cartoonist/illustrator/artist/writer who divides his time professionally between New York City and The San Francisco Bay area, I am still waiting to be invited to lavish Hollywood parties and I can't afford a villa in Tuscany. I HAVE been a working artist however and in the past I've done illustration work for such clients as The Central Park Conservancy, Madison Square Garden and CS First Boston. My cartoons and comic strips have appeared in several books and magazines, but I've regretted never having pursued my own syndication. These days I find myself doing alot of teaching, mostly to kids. I've taught cartooning and animation as a visiting artist in the New York City and San Francisco Public School Systems, The Queens Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, as well as the California College of the Arts. My students work has been exhibited in such places as the Citicorps Building and ABC Studios in New York and at the Yerba Buena Gardens Museum of Art in San Francisco. I had recently have taken on an additional responsibility as the curator of a small children's gallery/education center in Oakland, California called The Junior Center of Art and Science. It is a great little place located on the shore of Lake Merritt, surrounded by a beautiful park and an amazing bird sanctuary. Until recently, I had been their exhibit designer and curator, not just for art exhibitions, but for science exhibitions. Science has never been my area of expertise so it was quite a learning experience for me....and alot of fun. I couldn't continue as the fulltime curator their however because my beloved New York City was calling, as well as family members still on the east coast who begged me to spend more time there. So now I spend summers working in California and winters in NYC. It may sound glamorous to be a bi-coastal artist, but my career is relatively small time--and a disappointment.