my 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...
Read Moretbt: RISD redux
That crisp feel in the air? It’s the smell of back-to-school. I personally love autumn the best. It brings new rhythms and sometimes uncanny flashbacks. As the semester’s about to begin again at Maine College of Art while my own daughter faces her senior year and college applications, I went back a few decades to find my application slides for RISD. They still ask for a drawing of a bicycle. Back then, a drawing of boots was also required. I’d taken a life drawing class at Plymouth State College, so included this, done in 1975. Today I attended a life drawing session on...
Read Morematinicus island
Tilbury House editor Audrey Maynard asked in April if I’d illustrate a picture book set on an island? YES. Written by Eva Murray? DOUBLE YES. I’ve enjoyed her colorful voice since reading her local columns and hearing her speak on Peaks Island about her book, Well Out to Sea a few years back. I handed over my book dummy for “Island Birthday” in mid-July, and now seemed a good time to combine research with a family field trip. The contrasts between Peaks Island and Matinicus abound: Peaks gets 16 ferries every DAY, each trip about 15 minutes one way. Matinicus gets 30...
Read Moremore PDX love
It’s been two weeks since we visited the Other Portland, but the glow remains. This is one souvenir, a tea towel by Catstudio. ICON8 kept us pretty busy, but we enjoyed many sights in transit. Especially the public art. An eyeball with a steering wheel, now that’s a metaphor I can love. This one’s on a busy island, so people walk through it. Total whimsy. A monument to two wheels. This is my sketch of a sculpture seen on the way to the airport. A funny cloud standing on steel rain. Loved this assemblage seen at Oblations, spokes of measurements. Time shines on. That place...
Read Moreepic ICON8 recap
For those who were at ICON8, the biennial illustration conference, this drawing by Souther Salazar pretty much sums up the corps d’esprit of the whole shebang. For those who weren’t, beware a long and detailed report follows. Too much delicious to leave a crumb out. The Student Council secretary still lives inside me. Bitten two years ago by ICON7 and the blood, sweat, and tears that an all-volunteer posse brings to life, I could barely wait for this one. We made our way July 8 from Portland to Portland and crashed at the Benson Hotel. The schedule on July 9, held at Pacific...
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