This time I am going to talk some more about Adrian Tomine
and his life as an adult. At the age of 15, Adrian Tomine started working on his first “serious” work and self-published Optic
Nerve. However it wasn't until he was 20 when Drawn & Quarterly offered
to publish Optic Nerve as a
full-sized comic book when he became a professional comic book artist ("Adrian Tomine Biography", n.d.).
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| Optic Nerve: front page |
After graduating from high school, Tomine moved from
Sacramento, California to Berkeley, California in order to attend UC Berkeley.
He started off as an art major; however he felt that it was interfering with
his comic work, so changed his major over to English literature (Magazine, 2012). In the interview he says that it "...was a good way to keep my academic life and artistic life separate" (Magazine, 2012). He
lived a very collegiate lifestyle while in Berkeley – staying in the same
apartment that he had since his college days and living a lifestyle very much
like a college student (Terzian, 2012). During this
time, he continued with his work as well as, met and started dating his current
wife, Sarah Brennan. After the initial move to the city for school, this became
his home for the next 15 years, until he left for New York to begin the next
chapter in his life.
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| Sarah with her 's and Tomine's baby; Nora Emiko Tomine |
As I mentioned in my last blog post, the reason for his
moving to New York was, in fact, because of his desire to start a family with
his girlfriend at the time, Sarah Brennan. After he moved to New York in 2004,
the two got married – this led to the creation of Scenes from an Impending Marriage. On October 31, 2009, the couple had their
first child, Nora Emiko Tomine ("Shortcomings", 2009). Before their child was born, Adrian was
constantly out and about in the city experiencing all that it offered. For
example, he would be out to see shows, exhibitions and to watch concerts (Kaneko, 2012).
However once his daughter was born, he took joy in becoming a stay at home dad
and experiencing new things about the city that he wasn’t aware of before
having his child. Concerts, shows and trips to go see different exhibitions
turned into walking around the city with his daughter, going to the zoo or going
to go see puppet shows (Kaneko, 2012).
Here is a video that I found on YouTube that gives the top ten attractions to see and do while in New York for those who are visiting there.
As for what Adrian Tomine is doing these days, I imagine
that his life is busy and full with spending time with his beautiful wife,
raising their loving daughter, and continuing to work on more short stories to
come out with for the public to read. From what I know, the 13th Optic Nerve is to be coming soon for all
to enjoy.
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| Adrian Tomine signing his books, and his daughter with him |
Christina, your post on Tomine's Life as an Adult was very detailed and was a very good read. It is a great continuation to the post I made a few weeks ago about his youth. It was interesting to read about, how Tomine’s life had changed over the years. From living a college life in California, to meeting his girlfriend, Sarah Brenna, and later getting married and having a kid, he grew into his adult life at a healthy pace. I found the turning point he made by moving to New York, as you mention, is what set in stone his adulthood. He was going to have a family and made a big commitment to his wife, by leaving behind everything he grew up with in California. I also find it interesting how Tomine’s hobbies changed as you mention, once he had his daughter Nora Emiko Tomine. It is something every parent could relate to in my opinion. My parents always told me how they used go to the movies together and dinner, but once they had my sister and me, all of that changed. We had become their responsibility, and they would only do things that involved us, such as going to a playground.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your video too; it gave a very clear picture of what New York has to offer. From Times Square to Central Park to the Statue of Liberty, I can see why Tomine and his family like to live there. Here is an interview that goes further into what Tomine things of New York, and his new life. He mentions how New York being a place that could be calm and quiet, as well as very community friendly.