Fishing for story in Belgrade
We headed to Belgrade Lakes on Friday for a rare Maine gathering, the Agents Editors Writers Conference. I felt rushed and unprepared until we pulled up to the cutest cabin at Castle Island Camps. The tiny but tidy spot on the edge of Long Pond put me in the best mood. A dinner bell rang at 6 PM, and we crossed the road to join guests gathered in the lodge for a lobster feast. The owners, John and Rhonda Rice, have photos of proud catches all over the walls. This is Rhonda’s grandfather on the left. We met a father and son pair of fishermen who have been coming to the area and this...
Read MoreBounty
What an honor to be included in the 2016 Biennial Faculty Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art! The catalog’s cover (designed by Nicole Holmes ’14) is a detail from Treppenhaus, an oil painting by Hilary Irons. Guest Curator Sage Lewis writes “Artists have a deep and often private relationship with their subject matter before it becomes public. It develops and changes over time as life experience, research, and inspiration comingle with the handling of materials, the recording of images, and the reading of texts. As I was selecting work...
Read MoreOnce upon a prickle
Sometimes the seed of a story can take awhile to sprout. Lyn Smith wrote a picture book story in 2008 during a graduate class in The University of Southern Maine’s literacy education program. She titled it “A Prickly Tale” and just a few months ago her sweet book dummy came my way. The story follows a porcupine making it’s journey through the woods, an event witnessed and photographed by her husband, Brian Smith. Lyn and I were matched up in early May by Maine Authors Publishing, and I said a big YES to illustrating the book. While the photos within were informative,...
Read MoreBook Makers Meet Up
Here Comes April! Yes, the award-winning author of Here Come the Humpbacks! came east from Indiana, and migrated to my shore last week. What a pleasure to meet April Pulley Sayre for the first time. April’s always on the search for natural wonders and wanted to explore tide pools. I brought her to the best spot at low tide, Picnic Point, where she didn’t waste any time getting her feet wet. I perched nearby, sketching Whitehead Passage. She caught me in a pano shot. We watched a tanker emerge from the distant mist. The steady tanker flow into Portland harbor became ready...
Read MoreTall Tales from ICON9: Day 3 & 4
Welcome to more epic recapping of ICON9, the Illustration Con held in Austin. Last Friday July 8 more awesomeness awaited us in the form of Martha Rich, ICON’s Emcee and quick-change artist. Who needs a Martha Rich paper doll set? I do! Tall Tale or fact? Martha is a Mainer! She grew up in Pennsylvania, the daughter of ministers, and invited us all to exchange the peace, which the mob of 600 gladly did. Anita Kunz made a stellar presentation on why art matters. Whoever thought a cartoon could kill, she asked. With imagery, she showed how art can recruit or resist war, worship gods,...
Read MoreTall Tales from ICON9: Day 1 and 2
ICON9 was one giddy up good time in Austin! My sketch of Daisy’s boot, from a pair she bought the last time we were in Austin, became the opener for zines I brought along. I drew on the flights from Maine, too. Couldn’t believe what I saw out the window! After a hearty welcome from our dear locals, Kathy and Barton, Marty and I checked into the Hilton Austin which was HQ for the hoedown. July 6 began four rootin’ tootin’ days of the best illustration conference on the prairie. I missed the introductions, trying to find coffee to fuel me for the full day ahead of an...
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