The Little Explorer

I have been interested in time, lately, as an intangible thing.  Maybe because it slips away so quickly (except in waiting rooms...)  I just sent this off to a client, so thought I would post it here as well. 

Animation and me...

The infamous John Culhane,  chronicler of Studio Disney and author of Fantasia 2000: Visions of Hope, among others, has asked me to teach his class "The History of Animation" at Mercy College while he recovers from an operation. Luckily all the little creatures are still running around in his head, but the class will be challenging for me. Last night I watched Willie the Whale and a few Daffy Ducks to get up to speed. Its very exciting that an animator just won the Pulitzer Prize: http://www.markfiore.com/pulitzer/

Just received a gold certificate in the mail and the news that The Very Little Princess has been named "A Junior Library Guild Selection."  Meanwhile, I am preparing for a trip to Michigan to sign books and give a picturebook workshop at the Ann Arbor district library. Will have to squish all my stuff into one carry-on and one checked bag.  I am looking forward to seeing the Ghost Army Exhibit at University of Michigan's Hatcher Library,  and to meeting everyone who I've been corresponding with in Ann Arbor.

Art All Over

Maurice Sendak's "Wild Things" ambushed me as I turned a corner at last night's opening of the Neo-Integrity exhibit at MoCCA. What a great show! I am so happy to be a part of it. Floor-to-ceiling art. Gems tucked into corners and wrapped around columns, animations playing continuously and wine... who could ask for more. Original ink drawings from "Peanuts" complete with zip-a-tone. Jules Feiffer's cartoons for the Village Voice... This show requires a few visits,  preferably without a lot of other people standing around chatting... ha! Keep an eye out for the catalog – can't miss it at about 4 inches thick. Kudos to Keith, Grace and the volunteers and staff at MoCCA.

The Goat-man

Neo-Integrity: Comics Edition

March 12 – May 30

This piece is the fourth piece from the fairy-tale Gold on view now at the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art (MOCCA), along with the work of many others illustrators & cartoonists.  "It is a super-salon show... a "King Solomon's Mines" ...  a spectacular experience for all.  A  floor-to-ceiling, frame-to-frame salon-style show!  Imagine the salons of the 1800's, and you'll get the  idea."  Some of the artists are... Maurice Sendak, Peter Arno, Isabella Bannerman, Julie Doucet, Jules Feiffer, Tomer + Asaf Hanuka... and me!  Curated by Keith Mayerson

MoCCA

594 Broadway, Suite 401, New York, NY 10012

Mad

Reality crashes down on Zoey and she finally gets mad.

From The Very Little Princess.

Toast

An interior illustration from "The Very Little Princess," coming this spring from Random House.

Amelia

I am re-posting this image, because I have been too busy to upload anything new, and I can't show the projects I am working on yet because of client confidentiality... (although my students have seen some of them in progress.) So here is Amelia, a dreamer and adventurer.

For a short story called "Where's Father?"

The Very Little Princess

This is the jacket art I recently finished for "The Very Little Princess" a chapter book about a girl named Zoey who, one morning finds out she has a grandmother named Hazel (isn’t that a witch’s name?) She also finds out that friends sometimes come in unexpected sizes, and maybe with a little attitude. I also illustrated 22 interior pictures for the book. It was fun drawing Zoey's curly out of control hair, and the princess's snooty attitude. Written by Newbery Honor-winning author, Marion Dane Bauer.
Pub date: February 23, 2010
PreOrder

Back to Brooklyn

Looking forward to Friday night and the ABC gala– where? ... really? Brooklyn USA!!! Well, its nice to have an excuse to dress up & visit my old hometown.
Art from "The Very Little Princess" (Random House / Feb '10)

This was for a collection of lullabies for Sony/BMG music. Art direction by Gina Bello of Bello Design.

for Mumbai

One of my students called me from Mumbai on Thanksgiving to let me know that she and her family were alright. That they were under siege, but ok. She called again this morning to say that it was all over, that the Indian military had prevailed. She said Mumbai will gather up the fragments that remain, not all will be lost.

It seems as though it has been raining everywhere lately, including my porch, so I am posting this image from The Sleeping Porchby Karen Ackerman which I illustrated a while ago. It takes place on a hot, stormy summer night, in a big old house with a very leaky roof.

ICON Roadshow

Under sparkling chandeliers in the Grand Ballroom of the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday evening gathered a stellar group of illustrators who, in lieu of sleep, had spent the night before polishing up their portfolios and urging their printers to spin out more and more sample cards and giveaways. It was the kick off event to Illustration Conference #5--the Roadshow Salon. And the amazing thing was that, in this age of the internet, so many art buyers flew in from around the country just to meet with 100 illustrators at this 3 hour long event! I actually met - in person- clients I have been working with for years and never met before! There were also clients and friends (fellow illustrators) who I haven't seen in awhile and was able to catch up with, including my table mate, Nicole Schooley, a former SVA student of mine, who was excellent at scoring an icy bottle of Pinot Grigio with 2 glasses just in the nick of time. Thanks to everyone who made the Roadshow happen, to the art directors, editors and art buyers who took the time to come (on the eve of the July 4th weekend) and especially to Mark Heflin and the Roadshow team.

Skateboard Deck Art

Like many of my cohorts in the arts, I am asked to contribute a piece of art, or maybe books or sketches to this or that institution to be auctioned off. This despite the fact that artists are usually the ones most in need of funding themselves. In any case we are a bunch of softies and usually say "YES!" (and then later on ask ourselves "why did I agree to do this?") But sometimes it is also a very creative outlet, such as the Snowflakes for Robert's Snow Auction for Cancer's Cure. And last month, in the middle of a lot of mundane (but paying) jobs, I was asked by Rockland Center for the Arts to decorate a skateboard deck (What?) After finding out that a deck is just the skateboard w/o wheels, I said the usual YES! (And at 2 in the mornng "Why.....") But anyway it was a lot of fun. I didn't plan it very much, just let the paint brush do the work. It will be up for auction, along with 24 other decks, from Nov. 11- Dec. 16, to benefit Rockland Center for the Arts - 27 South Greenbush Road, West Nyack, NY 10994