I’ve been invited by Judith Moffat to be the next stop on
this fun and informative blog tour of authors and illustrators. I met Judith at
the Rhode Island School of Design when she was the instructor for the first class I ever took in children’s book illustration.
She’s been a tremendous help and inspiration since that day I dropped in
begging to be admitted one week late.
What am I working on now?
Right now I am working on a couple of different projects.
The first is the expansion of my greeting card line, “Look Who’s Squawking.”
When it comes to my cards, I usually imagine the visual first and then write
the copy. My goal is to have the new series packaged and ready by October 11,
when I will be participating in the Rhode Island School of Design’s Fall Alumni
Sale. The other item on my desk is to design a collection of floor mats for the
home décor product market. This past March, I was in NYC for Home Fashions
Market Week and was able to see the prototypes of several of my designs. I
didn’t realize how much fun it would be to have people walking all over my art!
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One of the latest pieces from my greeting card line,
"Look Who's Squawking" |
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| Getting ready to start a new project |
Why do I write/illustrate
what I do?
I love the creative process. I have had a pencil or paintbrush in my hand for as long as
I can remember. When I was very young, I used to camouflage the margins (and
often the problems themselves) of my math notebooks with drawings -- notably
dogs, monkeys, and the occasional toad. I worked very hard to perfect my
menagerie of animal characters! In college, my obsession with animals turned
briefly to legumes, and I collaborated with an author friend who wrote the prose
while I illustrated a book in which beans were the main characters.
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| Sketch for a hedgehog piece |
How does your
writing/illustrating process work?
I can be inspired by the tiniest detail: a found object, a
small but beautiful bead, even the discovery of an unusual piece of paper. Once
the inspiration hits, I’ll head to my studio and begin sketching, usually on a
pad of 9 x 12 tracing paper, making very rough, loose sketches. When I’m
satisfied with the characters and design I’ll choose my color palette, do the
calligraphy for any text I’ve decided to incorporate, and then carefully
deconstruct each element of the drawing. Once that process is completed, I
break out my ExActo knife. When the individual components are cut out, I get to
reassemble them in a whole new way. Kind of like Humpty Dumpty, but hopefully
more successful!
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| Progress! |
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| The hedgehogs spring to life |
How does my work differ from
others of its genre?
I like to think of my art as a multi-dimensional,
multi-media circus of line and texture, colored pencils and pastels – a paper
performance – intended to engage and delight children of all ages.
Thanks so much for visiting -- come back again, soon!
The Blog Tour Continues!
Next, I would like to introduce you to my friend and
colleague,
Susie Slosberg, a multi-media artist based in New York and
Connecticut.
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| Photo: John DeAngelis |
One of her first writing projects for children was the
script for “Don’t Play Games with Fanny Flame,” a fire prevention video. Winner of the Bronze Apple Award, Fanny
Flame terrifies children in New York schools annually during Fire Prevention
Week. Susie is now shopping a middle grade chapter book. A Finalist in the
William Faulkner-William Wisdom 2013 Creative Writing Competition for Short
Story, and Short List Finalist for Novel-in-Progress, she is also shopping a
bookclub novel.
Susie started her photography business, PinkChairPrints, in
2012 and had a booth that year at the Mystic Art Show. Her work is available in Connecticut as
well as New York. A poster of Mystic Beam
was included in the New Rochelle Rotunda Exhibit in 2012. The following year, while completing
her yoga teacher training, she showed Mermaid
and Downward Facing Dog.
After initially creating custom house portraits, the beauty and symmetry of yoga inspired her to begin the Yoga Where You Are series, where
seasoned as well as new instructors illustrate how yoga can be done anywhere,
any time.
Links to some of the Blog Tour Author/illustrators
