meet {so&so} monday

meet: SOPHIE BLACKALL, illustrator of missed connections

Sophie Blackall is an illustrator of sorts.  Originating from Sydney, Australia she now resides in the Big Apple–Brooklyn, to be exact.  Her whimsy drawings stem from a transparent charm that appear to speak volumes of her personality.  Though I’ve never met Ms. Blackall, I have stalked her Missed Connections project for the past couple of months.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  As a child, Blackall was aware of her lack of artistic talent.  She recalls one occasion, in particular, that brought about great frustration:

❝I remember having a dreadful tantrum when I couldn’t draw a deer that didn’t look like a plasticine dog.❞

Nonetheless, she kept at it, and clearly, it paid off.  Although, she would first have a string of peculiar careers in a shoe store, robot factory and as a magazine columnist, just to name a few.  Ultimately, her drawing skills came to fruition.  Blackall began illustrating for magazines and then went on to illustrate her first book, Ruby’s Wish.  In between the latter two accomplishments, she would have two personal accomplishments to add to her repertoire–children. At present, Blackall is gainfully employed as an illustrator for editorial magazines, part-time as a children’s book illustrator, and most recently, a project titled Missed Connections.  She describes her inspiration to capture these seemingly hopeless romantic postings on the somewhat controversial Craigslist:

❝A Missed Connection is a fleeting moment where people sensed an attraction but didn’t act on it; two people’s lives crisscrossing in a moment, sometimes they don’t even speak.  It’s a look, it’s a glance, it’s a smile, whatever it might be that make two people remember each other and wish that they could see each other again.❞

Blackall has since read thousands of Brooklyn’s Missed Connections, as well as the Village Voice and other message-in-a-bottle sites.  In March, she published a  blog to exhibit such pieces, and will typically update it once a week.  In case you were wondering, it takes about two hours of her time to illustrate these fleeting moments.  Her perspective makes one conscious that every passing glance is an unfinished story; whether we experience it ourselves or witness such an interaction in our daily commute. After browsing her pieces, one will surely be more cognizant of those serendipitous passings that we often think nothing of. Yet Craigslist is a butterfly net waiting to be cast out by those hopeless romantics who clearly did think something of it.  Blackall’s mission applies the butterfly metaphor further:

❝Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly. I’m trying to pin a few of them down.❞

Missed Connections:

blog here or a mini documentary here!

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