love letters
‘Tis the season: love’s gonna get me through the blizzard outside. I’ve got my valentine making station all ready. If the power goes out, I still have hands, glue sticks, scissors and paper. I’ve been thinking about the power of old fashioned love letters lately. Who still sends them? What a joyful greeting this door made when I visited my dear friend Mary Anne Lloyd! We share a love of snail mail and fond attention to hand lettering, groovy stamps, and stickers. Oh, and illustrative tape, too! Here’s a recent batch of my mail on it’s way. My love of...
Read Moreoctober fest
October is my birth month, so the opal in my soul shines a little brighter these days. I received a fantastic surprise via Caroline Arnold, author of A Warmer World: my first book trailer! One luxury is being between deadlines, and having time to enjoy the busy scene in Portland. Marty and I attended the preview opening for Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey at the Portland Public Library. Kudos to Scott Nash, who found the sponsors to bring this incredible show to town. Here he recites a few of his favorite Gorey rhymes. It was a delighted crowd, and one filled with familiar faces,...
Read MoreSisters!
Final details are working into place for the opening of The Sisters Rosensweig at Portland Stage Company. I dropped off the original art as well as process sketches yesterday. Indispensable Intern and Marketing Journeyman Todd Backus helped me hang the works in the lobby. Portland Stage likes to showcase all aspects of what makes a production, including the marketing visuals. Lucky me! I enjoy seeing my illustration in it’s various incarnations. This large horizontal hangs in the lobby. There’s a sign on the sidewalk on Forest Avenue. And a narrow poster on each side of the...
Read Moreposter process
I just spotted my marketing visual for Portland Stage Company in print, so now I can spill about what fun I had illustrating it. By Wendy Wasserstein, The Sisters Rosensweig, is an award-winning play, a funny family drama about three Jewish-American sisters who gather in London for the birthday of the eldest. There’s great dialogue, dishing, and reckoning about love and choices each have made. After reading the script, I made about 14 rough thumbnail sketches to show Carole Harris, marketing director extraordinaire. These are loose and quick, and 3 that led to the final image: The one...
Read Morethe play’s the thing
Theater is on the brain here. Marty and I had the good fortune to attend Portland Stage’s annual Spring Gala benefit last week. I illustrated the brochure (above) and then created a layered collage in a shadow box, below. This was presented to L.L. Bean at the event, in honor of their loyal sponsorship of Portland Stage. Here’s Artistic Director, Anita Stewart, with the art: Her dashing husband, Ron Botting, then handed it to Rosemary Moser, Community Relations Director at LL Bean. Elements from my illustration were used in signage here and there, in curious company at the...
Read Morepaper theater
It’s been my good fortune to work with Portland Stage Company, a highly original and energetic group of amazing creators. Here’s the process for my latest poster for the production Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh, which I began last summer. For efficiency, the entire season’s marketing needed to go to the printer well in advance. The play opens on May Day. Of all the offerings, I seized on this one. Fashion, history, flesh…what’s not to love? I dove in by reading a couple of books, watching a couple of movies, and reveling in the realms of Versailles. I did...
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