happy new year
I’m very fond of the Chinese New Year. As a former resident of San Francisco, I relate to all the Asian wisdom and ritual around new beginnings. And, it’s nice to have another fresh start, since the calendar new year seems to come too close behind the holidays for a truly clean slate. However, I am NOT fond of snakes. In fact, I am totally phobic! I repurposed my illustration of a snake from Nest, Nook & Cranny by Susan Blackaby for a New Year’s card for my SF neighbor, Frank Ching. I guess the snake is all about transforming with ease, so I will embrace my fears,...
Read Morethe life aquatic
Hooray! Here Come the Humpbacks! has arrived. When the box of complimentary copies shows up, it’s official. Since the non-fiction story by April Pulley Sayre is about a mother humpback and her calf’s migration, my dedication is to my daughter, “who crosses water twice a day,” her own six-word memoir, written in a comics class exercise. Yes, we live the life aquatic here on an island, crisscrossing Casco Bay. She headed to the ferry one morning wearing a t-shirt she designed. The same day I hung up a sparkly piece I bought from Maine College of Art student Devon...
Read Moreautumn attitude
So what does an illustrator do between deadlines? Celebrate! I started with birthday cake for breakfast, before it was light out. Icing and coffee: so good together. Getting cool cards like this one from Marty is always a gift. And to get tickets to a Cirque du Soleil performance, whew. My daughter and I were thrilled! C’est tres bien to share a birthday with a soul sistah like Nicole d’Entremont, neighbor, friend, author, and teacher. Here we are wishing big things. Thanks, Eleanor Morse, for hosting! I cured my hankering for mountains with a visit to the motherland of orange...
Read Morepop up show at Charlesbridge
In honor of Children’s Book Week, Charlesbridge Publishing had the brilliant idea for a pop-up show in the empty office space two flights below theirs, on Main Street in Watertown, MA. I bopped down with Curious Co-Pilot, Kirsten Cappy, in dotty style. Trivia question: what are we holding? I brought along original sketches and my toy polar bear that provided handy reference for A Warmer World. Some framed pieces were part of an incredibly abundant exhibit of children’s book illustration. I’m thrilled by the company I’m in! Here’s one of Rafael Lopez’s...
Read Moreboston blast
The whales have made their journey to Charlesbridge at last. If I didn’t deliver my illustrations for Here Come the Humpbacks a minute sooner, I might still be obsessively redrawing them all. There wasn’t even time for me to lay them all out together until I arrived at their offices. I’m proud of these! I have the dusty blue sneakers to show for it, too. I wasn’t at the publisher long enough to take off my coat. But I sported my whale t-shirt by Miles to Go with pride. With business complete, we visited my nephew, Garrett, who graciously gave us his two cent tour of...
Read Morethar she blows
I am feverishly fussing over the last touches on my illustrations for Here Come the Humpbacks by April Pulley Sayre. Above is a detail, since the art’s all too large for my scanner. Here’s a humpback spouting, just as I’ve been blowing blue dust all over my studio for weeks (cough, cough..) Ahoy, thar be a whale in Casco Bay this morning? Oh, what fun! I just came across a very life-like toy by Schleich that I had to play with. If only I’d had this at the beginning of this project! Here’s another detail in which I got to draw other sea creatures, a welcome...
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