Awesome Opossums in Orono
Author Lyn Smith and I traveled north to Orono on Monday to visit the awesome Asa C. Adams Elementary School. What a warm and welcoming learning place filled with color and history! The knotty pine halls are lined with fantastic art by students from Pre K to 5th grade. Librarian Diana Smart and art teacher Nancy Fitch had prepared well for our visit, with an Arts and Literacy celebration prior to our arrival. We were tickled by this decorated door to the library! Lyn read aloud What Makes an Opossum Tick? to each of the 6 groups who gathered during the day. I detailed my process of making...
Read MoreWhat Makes a Book Tick?
I’m so excited What Makes an Opossum Tick? by Lyn Smith is now published!! She and I will be guests of the Graves Library’s Pasco Lecture Series next Sunday, March 3 at 2 PM. Hope you can join us! We’ll also be celebrating our book at the Peaks Island Library on Saturday, April 6 at 10 AM. After illustrating Lyn’s first book, A Porcupine’s Promenade, I knew she had another story up her sleeve. I blogged about it HERE after I delivered the illustrations last September. Now that it’s out, here’s more details of my process. The illustrations began...
Read MoreArt 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 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 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...
Read MoreVisit JamieHogan.com
