Art Expedition
I followed my daughter, Daisy, last week to another World Languages Art Expedition Kick-off at King Middle School in Portland. I first participated as a visiting artist in 2009 when she was a sixth-grader there. It was like old times heading to the bus from the 7:15 ferry. The language arts project asks 8th grade students studying Spanish or French to choose a Spanish or French artist to research and then create written and visual work based on that artist. In 2011, Daisy did this animation inspired by the art of Marc Boutavant. She’s now a senior sculpture major at Maryland Institute...
Read MoreA Christmas Carol redux
The holidays are all about traditions, making new and recreating old. I think this is the third run for my poster illustration for Portland Stage’s A Christmas Carol. I’ve blogged about it before HERE. Yet every production brings a new look and feel, and this year’s telling of the Charles Dicken’s classic hits every high note. Back in 2014, my early sketches involved Victorian ornaments with bits of narrative against a backdrop of smoking chimneys from Dicken’s London. I proceeded to color. But simple was best; ornaments were lost as the backdrop became the...
Read MoreTis the Season
Did those early snowstorms jump start your holiday spirits? They did mine! I kept thinking about that time I tapped my inner deer… and worked out an illustration for this year’s holiday card. This Deer Spirit is a cross between Ba from Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen and a sister in Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen. On a starry solstice night, our wild selves shine on, with some cut paper snowflakes for good measure. Shortly after I sent off my image file to be printed, we gathered for an intimate Thanksgiving here on Peaks, where the temps hovered around 4...
Read MorePastels ici!
I am thrilled to share that my pastel, Regatta, is included in Paintings of Portland by Carl Little and David Little. The book spans two hundred years of art in all seasons featuring my pretty city across the bay. Check it out! I did this pastel years ago for a show on Peaks Island, and it’s in the collection of Bill and Patty Zimmerman, wonderful patrons of the arts. That’s Fort Gorges, which I pass on every ferry trip, and I love seeing it under clouds of all shapes. Pastel studies of seascapes and changing light have kept me busy between illustration projects for many years....
Read MoreRefuge-Malja
Portland playwright Bess Welden’s play currently at Portland Stage, Refuge-Malja, is full of haunting visuals and time-shifting moments. It’s non-linear and complex, a multi-cultural story that unfolds in both dreams and flashback. We meet Jamie, a Jewish-American freelance photojournalist, who has encountered a young Syrian refugee on a beach in Lesbos. When I read the script last winter, I wondered how Portland Stage would handle the many changes of place and times, as well as the Wolf, a figure seen by Jamie since she was a child. There was a wealth of material to distill for...
Read MorePutting the A in STEM
I was invited to be a volunteer exhibitor at the 5th Annual STEM Expo sponsored by Portland Public Schools and Envirologix last Friday. Since many of my children’s books are nature-themed, I brought my collection of nature objects and some life-like toy models for nature studies with students. The event was held at USM’s Sullivan Gymnasium, and it was like a trade show for careers in science. Over 50 exhibitors, ranging from ecomaine to Maine Total Weather to Engineers Without Borders to IDEXX Labs to the Electro Toy Company drew busloads of local students along with displays...
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