Route 66
I’m on pins and needles right now. This election is beyond nerve-wracking. So, here’s my report on the road trip from which we returned a week ago. Our trip was less about destination and more about friends we haven’t seen in too long. Does it feel like our friendships withered during the pandemic? With me turning 66 last month, my rabbit illustration on the first of October made use of my Batman pencil case as a vehicle for adventures on Route 66. We had first planned to connect with folks on both coasts, but realized that plan was not realistic. And yet a certain urgency...
Read MoreHowdy, Austin
I’ve known my dear friend, Kathy Mahoney, since our early days freelancing as illustrators in Boston in the 80’s. She’s been inviting me to her new place in Austin for almost four years. Instead, I’ve caught up with her when she’s in Maine every summer. Opportunistic, I know. This year felt like the right time to go, and coincide with the total eclipse. Last Saturday, we caught the 7:15 am ferry from Peaks and arrived at Kathy’s house on the edge of downtown Austin by around 9 pm. Ample lulls between each leg of the journey were good for sketching while...
Read MoreSkywatcher school visits with IRW
I was delighted to visit three schools this past week at the invitation of Island Readers & Writers, a wonderful non-profit literacy organization centered in Mount Desert Island! On St. Patrick’s Day I drove three hours down east to Birch Harbor where this sign greeted me. After a warm welcome from Alison Johnson, the IRW school coordinator, at their wonderful farm house, a rainbow showed up. A lucky sign! Their frisky dog, Pip, inspired this sketch. On Monday, March 18, we arrived at the Ella Lewis School in Stueben, Maine. After reading Skywatcher to a group of Pre-K students, I...
Read MoreSkywatchers Downeast
These have been heavy times, for Maine and for the world. I hope you’re holding on OK, dear readers. The natural world has been a tremendous solace. It’s a privilege to find sanctuary there. It lifted my spirits to see my book, Skywatcher, featured in Waterville’s Story Walk along the Messalonskee Stream. Serena at Waterville Creates, Miss Liz at the Waterville Public Library, and Amarinda at the Children’s Discovery Museum combined talents to create the catchy text that accompanies the book pages. It was a much needed exhale, to stroll along outdoors and read my book...
Read MoreArt Market Budapest
We are back from a week in Budapest, Hungary! Our trip destination was Art Market Budapest, the biggest international contemporary art fair in Eastern Europe that highlights the work of emerging talents from Hungary and beyond. Our daughter, Daisy Braun, was invited to show her thesis work from MICA with fellow alum, Fanni Somogyi, a native of Budapest. Daisy and Fanni arrived about three weeks prior to the opening, to make work and prepare for their installation, Communal Current. Besides making new sculptures based on her Exoskeleton series, Daisy needed to find models to wear them. Fanni...
Read MoreJumpin’ July
A friend recently called July the “ADHD of months” and I agree. So. Much. Going. ON. Normally I make blog posts about individual events, but they have been coming at me too dang fast. Here is the whole jam of July: kids books, talks, classes, travels, friends, family. A bounty of sun and color and amazing humans. I was off to the Friends School for their Story in the Forest program on July 9. I read Ana and the Sea Star and then eager campers played a lively game of Ocean Locomotion. They tried moving like sea stars! They also drew sea creatures in pastel, with gusto. I’m...
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