Marilyn Faison Artist Residency
Many thanks to the Illustration Institute for a week’s artist residency a mere five minute walk from my Peaks Island home. So close, and yet so far away. The dirt road winds up into the woods where tall pines make you forget the summer hubbub that is now Peaks Island. The chance to be in a place apart brings a new awareness for any artist. I found so many objects of affection around the house, and drew some into the little book made in Gregory Christie’s Illustration Institute Workshop. Fallen petals urged me to capture the welcoming bouquet. too. I chose a work space on a second...
Read MoreThis Island Life
For the past two weeks, I’ve been up to my salty eyeballs with all things Illustration, largely thanks to the Illustration Institute’s second season of incredible programming. I’m excited to co-lead a Nature Sketchbooks By the Sea Workshop with author Lyn Smith this Thursday on July 26! Details HERE. On July 10, my MECA colleague, Judy Labrasca, joined me and several kidlit friends for Gregory Christie’s Illustration Institute bookmaking workshop at the Fifth Maine. Gregory is an award-winning illustrator and author with a special interest in book-binding. On the...
Read MoreColor of Peaks
The ferry to Peaks comes and goes, as always, carrying more people and memories than ever before. I have lived here for 26 years, and continue to marvel at the beauty. I document the boats, the reflections, the ever changing light, and they inform my personal work and my illustration. The 15th Annual Color and Pages of Peaks event held at the TEIA on Friday night was that kind of island gathering that reminds everyone what a shiny rock we share. I had spent the weeks prior preparing work for sale. I made this petite pastel titled Marsh Spirit and Marty placed it in a vintage frame....
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 MoreLlove is Llove
I heard the news today. We surely need love more than ever, every minute. I’ve been doing my tiny bit to spread it around. A few weeks ago, I dropped off a pile of cards and valentines at Knit Wit Yarn Shop, the one and only place to find my cards out in the world. Then I made a collage with a re-purposed illustration of mine for the first of February’s Rabbit Rabbit tradition. It got me thinking about an animal themed valentine. From a knitting book I illustrated this llama gave me an idea. It feels more urgent that opposites need to love each other. What animal would make a...
Read MoreWinter walks
As the anniversary of the Women’s March arrives, I’m reflecting on when I walked the very slowest in my life. Being in a huddled mass of humanity was life-affirming, our scrawled signs of dissent, our loud voices, our crush of bodies moving through Manhattan that historic day. In the year since, I have walked daily, mostly solo but sometimes with others. I am deeply nourished by these walks and none more so than now, in the heart of winter on an island in Maine. I recently came across two things that confirm why my winter walks are so important. In Brain Pickings, a marvelous...
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