All That Work I Did in 2016-2019...Where Did it Go?

I’ve been working on my website- doing a little rebrand as one does- and I was considering what work to feature in my “collaborations” tab. I pondered for a while and added some companies. Oh yeah, there was that one company I did tons of work for, I thought. I made lots of fun art and a cute mascot. In fact I did a bunch of stuff for that client’s other companies, too, and over the course of a few years.

And when I was done I moved onto the next company. I didn’t make time to pause and see where my art traveled to.

When I started freelancing in 2016, I had very flew clients. It was a rough first year, but eventually I got enough work to essentially “live on my own” although very broke. One of my first clients was X, who was great to work with and had lots of fun projects based on education, health, and afterschool programs in Minnesota. We’d talked on the phone, he was easy going and I was even on retainer for a while. As an artist, that’s GOLD. I was overall a good working relationship.

I knew that X moved to Ohio, and moved onto other things, but I wondered if his education programs were still running in Minnesota, so I googled the comapny’s website.

My eyes scanned to the AI summary at the top.

“This entity was involved in the $250 million "Feeding Our Future" pandemic relief fraud scheme in Minnesota. XXX was a key player and has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Oh. Dear. I looked into other articles, which stated clearly that X had stolen millions of dollars, and all of his companies were fraudulent. The food truck, the STEM program, and more. The weird part is he did start a research and design firm with other professors and reputable people, them has did seem to do some very useful work with healthcare. But it has since shut down…

I am still floored that it was so easy to be lied to. And that I even enjoyed working with a well educated, well connected person that chose to set up shell companies and launder money. He did it well. and I got paid for many years while he did it.

So, although this story is strange and kind of embarrassing, I’d love ot show you some of the work I made since it will not be living on my Collaborations page. ;) Here goes:

The Mascot on the right with his assistant.

For the STEM program

Sketches for Team Crests

An illustration for a workbook we did together

And sketches for a side gig by X.

I have hundreds of images I did, that basically went on to live nowhere and become nothing, so at least some of them can be seen by the light of day. Lesson learned: vet your companies, ask good questions, follow up. Also, forgive forgive forgive. I felt pretty dumb when I found out about all this, but the truth is- there were little to no red flags.

Onward!

-Annie