The Niceties
The Niceties is a sharply relevant play by Eleanor Burgess now in it’s final performances at Portland Stage Company. Thanks to a busy April, I didn’t see it til Friday night. I gathered a group of educators, mostly at the college level, to see the train wreck that transpires between a white female history professor at an elite university and her black student. When I read the script, I knew it would be one of the most compelling productions of the current season. The dialogue is fast-paced and urgent. The divides are many: of race, age, privilege, class. While gender may unite...
Read MoreBright Horizons
I traveled last week to a Boston area Bright Horizons. I made an evening presentation to early childhood educators about illustrating picture books and how visual literacy and drawing engages children. I always bring ample materials for discussion! The Riverpark Center’s Lead Teacher in Kindergarten Prep, Julie, helped me set up my table of books, art supplies, and props. While kids and parents were departing, I checked out the colorful rooms filled with stimulating shapes and textures. After talking about writing and illustrating Seven Days of Daisy, and answering questions, I...
Read MoreSeason Launch at Portland Stage
Last night Portland Stage revealed the posters I’ve been working on since January during their Season Launch. That crew never ceases to amaze me with their acrobatic juggling of events and sheer creative muscle. Director of Communications Eileen Phelan built a crowd eager to see what’s in store for next season, while Marketing Associate Lena Castro had managed all my digital files into their proper places. Thank you! Executive and Artistic Director Anita Stewart and Literary Manager Todd Brian Backus greeted me. Love these two visionaries. While the audience streamed in, photos...
Read MoreBrick by brick
Nicole d’Entremont is a Peaks Island neighbor who inspires me deeply. We met in Eleanor Morse’s Sudden Fiction course years ago, when she first arrived on the island. Both Eleanor and Nicole have been tremendous mentors for me, with writing and leading the way in social justice activism. I made this card for Nicole from an illustration I did for The Star Fruit Tree, a Vietnamese folk tale. She traveled to Vietnam in December, volunteering in a Habitat for Humanity Global Build in the Mekong Delta. Nicole was recruited by old friends who had, like her, worked at the Catholic...
Read Morewhat spring break?
While the temps still hover around freezing, I wonder where spring is hiding. We had a fleeting visit from our MICA art student during the first half of her spring break, yet it filled my well like nothing else can. Just before Daisy returned from Baltimore, Maine got dumped again with raw beauty. The birds don’t care, they’ve been flocking our feeder with a springy frenzy. Before heading to the airport, I returned this book, about a young recruit in the 10th Mountain Division, in which my dad served during WW2. It would have been his 93rd birthday on March 9. Soon enough, our...
Read MoreRed Herring
Yet another storm bears down, leaving us hunkered down in the studio. Around this time last year, I was sketching up a storm for Portland Stage’s production of Red Herring by Michael Hollinger. A fable about marriage in a pulp noir package, the script is loaded with detectives, dames, and a dead spy. My sketches are super rough, because I had about 8 weeks to do 7 posters, but you get the idea. Act one, scene 1 calls for a billboard of Winslow Homer’s painting, The Herring, to glow above the stage. Tried that in my first idea. Fishing themes and variations thereof…...
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