Drew Vaughn Jones

 

FUNDING:   

                                                      

     I'm going to be totally upfront here: my project needs funding! At this point I'm really trying to pique the interest of a progressive patron of the arts to back the project as tax deductible donations via a Fractured Atlas sponsorship. This will be for the first chapter of my graphic novel so that this first stage of the production can be my full-time focus. Chapter One will be a 76 page initial graphic novel including a grouping of concept character designs at the end of the chapter. I'm estimating the ample time it should take to complete these pages, including the painted cover artwork some character and creature maquettes, will be somewhere in the two year to three year range. I can provide a budget breakdown for review. I have already applied for a number of grants and attempted crowdfunding campaigns to no avail: 

 

1.  Regional Arts and Culture Council grant (2012) 

2.  Kickstarter campaign (2014) 

3.  Submission to Dark Horse Comics (2014) for a creator-owned publishing deal 

4.  Tennessee Arts Council grant (2015)

5.  Patreon campaign (2015) 

6.  Fractured Atlas fiscal sponsorship (2016)  

7.  Creative Capital grant (2017) 

8.  Creator's for Creator's grant (2017) 

9.  Creator's for Creator's grant (2018) *had copyrights infringed by an Image Comics artist

   10. ​Creative Capital grant (2019) 

   11. Creative Capital grant (2021)

   12. Creative Capital grant (2023) **totally convinced by the letter below that the granting process is corrupted

 

     It's not that I haven't been trying on my own to secure my own funding. So now, I'm totally welcome to being discovered by an amazing and magnanimous patron of the arts who likes my graphic novel style and my direction with the project and would care to help and work with me to get my graphic novel project off the ground - at the minimum just helping me get the first Chapter 1 completed. In the event this could occur, with my graphic novel becoming a success I'd feel compelled to reciprocate the kindness to my patron full fold. I’m trying to avoid working with an individual investor who has venture capital just trying to get a return on investment - I'd like to get around commodity culture influence on my project in it's initial production stage. If I'm to not move at a snail's pace, funding will be needed in one way or another so I can make it my primary focus. I know how some people want to hail the capitalist notion of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" hyper-individual ruggedness, but in reality no one ever truly makes it on their own and we in fact live in a world that's interconnected and interdependent. Please feel free to visit my Fractured Atlas Sponsorship profile below and reach out to me in email about the details of that funding campaign...

 

https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/epic-archetype-implosion

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OR search on Facebook for the hashtag #DistinctJones for more details as to the cause of my current predicament with all that's involved for why the project is currently stalled.

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The email I sent the Executive Director of Creative Capital grants organization Spring 2023:

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To Whom it May Concern,

 

I'm writing you today out of a need to express my concerns pertaining to Creative Capital's granting process. I am actually dismayed my project has yet to win a grant after applying four times. If I apply this year it will be my fifth attempt, for what I've come to regard as my having to compete against others for my paycheck basically that I've already earned, which feels very unethical, as I absolutely feel my project, as an individual creator, far exceeds in multidisciplinary work output and the sheer scope of the project, anything that I've seen for individual's projects that have won a grant for the last six years or so. I really need to explain this in further detail, how my project having yet won a grant, how it doesn't make any sense, when my project is way beyond any other individual's projects. And I need to follow saying that, with that this is not about my personal opinion of my own work tooting my own horn, as it is stating facts.

 

As an independent creator-owned project, I am doing the job positions it takes multiple people in the comic book industry to do: writing, penciling, inking and being a colorist are all separate jobs in this industry with a market value attached to each; each of which gets paid per page a "page rate" depending on the quality of the work and level of experience. When my Story Design graphic novel project involves myself doing the bulk of this work as multiple positions, at top quality level as anything popular in the industry, and especially when I have original character designs that I am sculpting as miniature maquettes, that I was told by an internationally renowned sculptor in the special effects industry that I had once as an instructor, that my ability to sculpt my original designs is extremely rare talent, I am absolutely perplexed as to why my project has yet been awarded a grant, when the other individual's over the years that have won grants for their projects, are not coming close the level of work I'm producing for my project.

 

Is there any sort of appeal process for contesting why some individual projects are chosen over others who's work output far exceeds what these individuals are doing who are winning the grants? 

 

It seems to me that the difficulty level of the work that an individual is doing for a project should be a *top factor* in the criteria that goes into the judges judging process. Otherwise I'm left with this feeling like these grants are being given to individual projects not based on the sheer level of multidisciplinary talent and work output, but instead the judges are choosing them for other reasons than for the magnitude of their project and difficulty level involved. Unless there's projects that won a grant, as individual's working on a project - not a group of individuals working on a larger production collaboration, if these individuals who have been winning these grants are not like I am, world building another universe, designing dynamic unique characters, creatures and innovative technology to convey the story with, are writing the entire graphic novel series themselves based on years of research and study, with their stories revolved around tackling the most impending ecological crisis we are all facing as top priority, penciling and inking all the pages, doing the paintings for the cover artwork for each chapter in the series, and also sculpting their original designs, as 3-D model maquettes to subsequently use in miniature dioramas that are professionally photographed and used for the covers of the hardback volume graphic novels, then there's a serious injustice occurring here, at an artistic injustice level, that almost feels like a worker's rights/civil rights violation, that otherwise comes off as a serious dishonor and disrespect to the greater arts society. This has been two decades of development, registering a series of copyrights to protect my work, while struggling with a c-ptsd disability and poverty for most of my life, this is a matter of creator dedication, not some form of privilege that has gotten my work to where it's at; as I also work to fight against forms of white privilege to try and help usher in a new humanity based in equity, egalitarianism and ecological responsibility.

 

So being that these grants are competitive, then the work output I'm doing for my project far surpasses the competition. Is there any appeals process to challenging what the judges are doing? If not, could one be set up? Is there any way a grant could be established for specifically creator-owned graphic novel projects that are way more labor intensive than other projects?

 

Sincerely,

 

Drew Vaughn Jones

#DistinctJones

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FREELANCE:  

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 For those who like my work with traditional mediums in my portfolio slideshows

 and would to hire me for freelance work in:

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• Character Design    

• Original Tattoo Design

• Portraits 

• Architectural Rendering

• Logo Design

• Fine Art Paintings

• Mask Making

• Sculpture

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** Not taking commissions at this time thank you

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PRINTS: 

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A number of images in my first slideshow on my portfolio page are available for 

purchase as prints. Please email me if you would like prints signed by myself the artist.

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