A is for art school
Is it wise to pick a college during Senior Slump? We shall see. Going to Accepted Student Day events is both entertaining and loaded with portent. As a RISD alum, it was pure nostalgia for me. And there were daffodils! Mosaics are all over the freshman dorm complex. The Met dining hall is more chic than it was in the 70’s. Before the official presentation, we stopped at the Nature Lab, scene of many hours of my studies. I couldn’t resist sitting down to sketch this specimen, the tragulus javanicus. Here Marty takes in the creaky ambiance. The Waterman Building is home to...
Read Moreroadtrip: MICA!
We blasted to Baltimore last week for a college visit with our daughter, who was accepted to Maryland Institute College of Art. It’s a good road trip when your name is on it… We kept our eyes peeled for anything and everything, spotting a black rooster along the Cross Bronx highway, and also this spectacular mural. Baltimore has quite the buffet of mural art, too. This one greeted us when we rolled into town. Our hosts are former Peaks Islanders, award-winning writers, and now educators in Baltimore. Karen teaches at Morgan State and Steve teaches in the grad program at Towson...
Read Moresketching natural history
What a thrill when a box of new books lands on your doorstep! Yesterday was Publication Day for John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall by Julie Danneberg, my first book illustrated with colored pencils. Charlesbridge Art Director Whitney Leader-Picone had seen my Sketchbook Project postings, and wanted to mirror the pencil sketching Muir did in wilderness travels. You can read more about that meander here. I’m all for drawing directly from nature. Last week I brought Maine College of Art’s senior illustration majors to the Harvard Musuem of Natural History in Cambridge, MA. With over...
Read MoreOsher Map Library: to heaven and back
When Art History professor Sue Nutty invited Maine College of Art faculty to tour the nearby Osher Map Library, I jumped at the chance. I’ve had a thing for maps, always. They are fascinating documents and lovely to look at. Maps have served many a visual purpose in my work over the years. In a self-promo postcard during my collage phase, I showed how I playfully exercise my skills with deadlines, and on top of the world, to boot. This editorial illustration was for a business article about the European economy. Livin’ large, I guess. When I illustrated Stephanie Pearl McPhee...
Read Moremy mountains
I’ve lived on an island for 22 years, yet every autumn when the air turns crisp, my mountains in New Hampshire beckon. Sailing over the Kancamagus Highway last week with my curious partner in creative retreats, Kirsten, we saw sunset clouds tumbling over a ridge in the White Mountains. We arrived at dusk at the Indian Head Resort, where I waitressed one season in high school. The motel my parents owned down the road has changed owners many times since they sold it in 1977. Yet Indian Head is remarkably the same as I remember it. We checked into a wee cottage with a gas fireplace for...
Read MoreFenway Frank
Frank is our former neighbor in San Francisco, a dedicated baseball fan, and freshly retired. He’s also a good sport: he let me use his face in this collage I created for St. Martin’s Press awhile back. That’s him with the chopsticks. We lived next door for nearly four years, yet I learned a new fact during his recent visit to Maine: his full name is Franklin, born of the custom of Chinese mothers in his Bay Area neighborhood to name their sons after American presidents. Wonder if there was a Calvin…. During a 2006 return to San Francisco, he brought us to a Giants...
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