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I got caught in a downpour at Dixon last week and for a second time found myself waiting it out on the porch sketching the three fantastic butts of the Rodin Three Shades from his Gates of Hell masterpiece. After posting I was asked if I could post the series of sketches I've done of those statues, and it sent me down a small rabbit hole. Above is the same scene two years ago, but with fountain pen and a wider viewpoint. It's honestly one of my favorite all time sketches, catching that crazy spring rain. Here is last week's version, closer up and in watercolor crayon.
I tend to sketch scenes I love over and over again, and Dixon is one of my favorite places to sketch. Here are the guys from the front for a change, with the overall view of the museum entrance.
I've also sketched them from inside a tent at one of the evening events Dixon puts on.
And finally with Autumn foliage, once again from my favorite front porch bench.
Dixon and Rodin are a great combination. They had a traveling show of his work my senior year in high school, as I was headed out to become an art major and hopefully an artist afterwards. I was unprepared for figure drawing, so I spent a lot of time that year sketching the Rodin sculptures to prepare myself. One of my favorite t-shirts in my college years was a Rodin shirt from that very exhibit. (Black is also super handy for art majors since it doesn't show charcoal.) I just recently dug out old photos of me and sketched myself for my memoir project in that same shirt. I wish I still had it (and my Arlo Guthrie shirt), but they seem to have dropped away over time. But here I am in my art major prime for a book hopefully to come later. You apparently never outgrow that, can-I-really-do-this feeling as an artist, that pushing into something new. It feels like full circle, all tied together by both Dixon and Rodin.
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I'm still working away on the graphic memoir, and it's slow to tell a story in watercolor, but I'm also still excited about the project. I haven't yet made it to the summer in Greece that is going to be the central part of the book, but here's a small glimpse of the table setting -- distance in my early marriage, both physical and emotional.
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I'm trying not to "publish" my whole memoir here, but it's mostly what I'm working on these days, so I'm going to show bits and pieces. It's been fun to go through old photos and journals and ticket stubs and remember trips and people. I found a photo I didn't remember at all of my first dog Dougal lying on my lap while I played banjo. Henry gets across from me and glares and looks put upon. He is much less a music fan. Here are the photo and the version I did from it for the book.
You can also see the font I'm tinkering with. I keep going in and making minor adjustments. It's an app for my ipad, iFontMaker, that lets me draw my own letters. My first attempt looked scarily like Comic Sans (or a ransom note, as fellow illustrator Martha Park said of her own first attempt), but I tried again and came out with this, after numerous adjustments and probably more to come. If I'm going to do a whole book, it would be way easier to use a font (even drawing with an apple pencil requires me doing most words several times), and it's more legible. So I'm laying out with the font for now. Worst case scenario it's a good place holder for me to know what to write where if I decide I don't like the final look.
You can also see the font I'm tinkering with. I keep going in and making minor adjustments. It's an app for my ipad, iFontMaker, that lets me draw my own letters. My first attempt looked scarily like Comic Sans (or a ransom note, as fellow illustrator Martha Park said of her own first attempt), but I tried again and came out with this, after numerous adjustments and probably more to come. If I'm going to do a whole book, it would be way easier to use a font (even drawing with an apple pencil requires me doing most words several times), and it's more legible. So I'm laying out with the font for now. Worst case scenario it's a good place holder for me to know what to write where if I decide I don't like the final look.
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Three years ago I wrote about 19,000 words of a first draft of a memoir. What I learned is that prose isn't really my medium. But it was cathartic. I ended up writing a path out for my younger self from a bad place, and it was helpful. I also figured out that I had written way too broadly, and the story I'd like to tell is tighter and centers around a transformative summer in Greece I was lucky enough to spend there. I thought that maybe someday I would mine some of that outpouring for graphic storytelling.
This spring, as I am stuck in my house for most of the days thanks to a flare up of the POTS I've been trying to figure out how to live with, I'm toying with that project again. I don't currently have the physicality to do a lot of standing up work in my print shop, but sitting on the couch and noodling with small illustrations gives me joy. And going back to relive some of that travel when I'm feeling more closed in is also appealing.
I don't honestly know if I'll have the courage to put this very personal story out into the world, but I'm enjoying exploring it. There is nothing like the brain fizz of a new project to perk you up a little. So here's the first page. We'll see how much more makes it to the public sphere.
This spring, as I am stuck in my house for most of the days thanks to a flare up of the POTS I've been trying to figure out how to live with, I'm toying with that project again. I don't currently have the physicality to do a lot of standing up work in my print shop, but sitting on the couch and noodling with small illustrations gives me joy. And going back to relive some of that travel when I'm feeling more closed in is also appealing.
I don't honestly know if I'll have the courage to put this very personal story out into the world, but I'm enjoying exploring it. There is nothing like the brain fizz of a new project to perk you up a little. So here's the first page. We'll see how much more makes it to the public sphere.
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Gill Books in Ireland found me and wanted to use one of my prints on a book cover, which is delightful. I love how they've laid it out from front to back, and I love Ireland, and I love that my art is on bookshelves over there right now. What a lovely lift for my art year.
Here is the original print (one block with four colors hand mixed with rollers in one go) and the original watercolor I did sitting out on Levisham moor in Yorkshire.
Here is the original print (one block with four colors hand mixed with rollers in one go) and the original watercolor I did sitting out on Levisham moor in Yorkshire.
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My friend Mandy who works for Novel bookstore in town had a brain wave a few years ago and realized that the Scholastic book fair day was the absolute best day of school and that grown ups should get to have a little of that happiness too. So she invented the Skol-astic book fair at a local brewery. Various bookstores and comic book artists and other book nerds set up tables in the huge indoor space. Burke's Books invited me to join their table for an hour's worth of book signing, and since it was a dog friendly space they said please bring Henry too, since he's part of the family.
At the last minute, my dad asked if he could come too and be there for me, which was lovely of him. It was super low key, but it was sweet to have him there. I did a little sketching while I was sitting there so as not to follow potential buyers around with sad puppy dog eyes (which is why I usually knit through my own shows -- I'm available but not intrusive). I mostly sketched Henry, of course, who was hanging out happily. It was fun to watch people see him and then spot him on the cover of his own small book Portal. He made a couple of sales.
I also sketched Dad. People are hard, and it looks almost nothing like him (except for the bushy eyebrows), but I'll have the record in my sketchbook that he wanted to come down and support my art. That's priceless.
I also sketched Dad. People are hard, and it looks almost nothing like him (except for the bushy eyebrows), but I'll have the record in my sketchbook that he wanted to come down and support my art. That's priceless.
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I've been working to update my website lately, and I've added several book covers to my illustration page. A Troubling of Goldfish is new this summer, my second for Corey Mesler who also owns (with his wife Cheryl) Burke's Book Store which turns 150 this year (!) and has supported my own books since I started. I'm delighted his publishers wanted to use my work. The tree on the grey textured cover is from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church, USA. That's my biggest illustration job to date, finished several years ago.
The newest cover is one I designed for my Dad's book, Poems of a Green and Pleasant Land. Dad wrote his way through most of British and Irish history back in the 70's to 90's, before self publishing was easily available. It's felt great to circle back to this project and be able to put it together for him and have a physical book in his hands. The hard copy proof came today, and I'll put the order in as soon as the Ingram website finishes its maintenance this week. Burke's is going to stock a few for the history nerds out there, and I'm so grateful to them for keeping all our family books.
The newest cover is one I designed for my Dad's book, Poems of a Green and Pleasant Land. Dad wrote his way through most of British and Irish history back in the 70's to 90's, before self publishing was easily available. It's felt great to circle back to this project and be able to put it together for him and have a physical book in his hands. The hard copy proof came today, and I'll put the order in as soon as the Ingram website finishes its maintenance this week. Burke's is going to stock a few for the history nerds out there, and I'm so grateful to them for keeping all our family books.
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I've gotten a little bogged down in my current three block print, so it was fun to do this small fast one over the last couple of days. I'm still working on laying out that book of my Dad's poems, and there was one lone poem near the middle, bracketed by two really good pairs before and after, and instead of disrupting one of the pairs, I decided to just do a small illustration. We're keeping the book of history poems in chronological order, so I couldn't just shuffle things around too much. This is Glastonbury Abbey, which I've visited twice over the years, and it will accompany a poem about the dissolution of the monasteries. I'm really happy with how it turned out, which feels especially nice as I struggle with the other print.
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I printed and scanned in a batch of my antique letterpress ornaments this week. I'm working on a book of my dad's British and Irish history poems. He started writing them in the 80's, and it's much easier to publish something like that now than it was then. I want to be able to put the book in his hands. I'm considering using a few of these to fill in some empty spaces.
I've always kept printing for real, tactile projects and done my illustration work in watercolor and sketching. It has more recently occurred to me that I could use scanned in type or ornaments in certain projects as well. That Celtic alphabet I have that has almost all the letters, but only one of each, is barely usable as is for anything printed, but it's much more flexible digitally. Mostly I like making my own art, but the style and antique qualities of these might suit the current project. We'll see. It's fun to play, anyway, and now I'll have them ready if anything comes up to use them. I printed them in a reddish purple (my black letterpress ink has dried up at the bottom of its antique can), so I converted them to black and white after also saving the reddish version. Options.
I've always kept printing for real, tactile projects and done my illustration work in watercolor and sketching. It has more recently occurred to me that I could use scanned in type or ornaments in certain projects as well. That Celtic alphabet I have that has almost all the letters, but only one of each, is barely usable as is for anything printed, but it's much more flexible digitally. Mostly I like making my own art, but the style and antique qualities of these might suit the current project. We'll see. It's fun to play, anyway, and now I'll have them ready if anything comes up to use them. I printed them in a reddish purple (my black letterpress ink has dried up at the bottom of its antique can), so I converted them to black and white after also saving the reddish version. Options.
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I got to participate in a truly amazing event over the weekend. I was one of four chosen authors to be featured by the National Civil Rights Museum at their annual Ruby Bridges Reading Festival. It was Ruby Bridges herself, two New York Times best selling authors, and my self-published self. The introductory press conference was a little intimidating — I still think of myself much more as an artist than an author, but the other authors were incredibly inclusive and gracious to me, and I had a ball all day. I did two sessions of signings (and ran out of the 100 books the museum had bought to give away), talked through the M is for Memphis alphabet from the stage with a group of rapt kids, and watched kids of a variety of ages wander around clutching armfuls of books with enormous grins on their faces. That was truly the best part.
The signings were fun — I did a small drawing in the front for each kid (and occasional adult, which also delighted me). There was a steady stream of folks wanting my book, and everyone was having a great day out. The great Ella Fitzgerald’s foundation had given the museum 2000 books to distribute to kids, and my middle school book nerd self was delighted to be there as an author but also to see so many kids just delighted about new books.
The signings were fun — I did a small drawing in the front for each kid (and occasional adult, which also delighted me). There was a steady stream of folks wanting my book, and everyone was having a great day out. The great Ella Fitzgerald’s foundation had given the museum 2000 books to distribute to kids, and my middle school book nerd self was delighted to be there as an author but also to see so many kids just delighted about new books.
The day was beautifully organized and went like a well oiled machine. The museum was kind enough to give me the end space in the signing tent so I had a fan and some fresh air coming in to combat the crowds of folks. With my long covid still such a factor in my life, crowds continue to make me a little nervous. All the authors had a dedicated all-day volunteer, and I totally won the lottery with Ewa from International Paper. She was kind, involved, and offered to take a whole string of photos while I did my reading, which hadn’t occurred to me at all. I’m so glad to have those memories of this fantastic day. Here we are below at the start of the day, at the end of the press conference and ready to dive in. I can’t say enough how honored I was to be invited to participate. The NCRM is the spiritual center of Memphis. It was definitely a career moment for me.
