Selfie or Not to Selfie

art from Roswell Park Cancer Institute

It's no surprise to anyone that we are living in a time of the glorified "ME".  Most people I know are sick of the "selfie" and the focus on "me, me, me" by our society.  Even the college students who I teach are sick of our culture's obsession with "constant self promotion".  They tell me they find it annoying.  

While I was driving home from work today I was listening to the radio I heard a great talk from David Jeremiah on the opposite of the selfie.....being humble and humility.  He had such a great quote I had to share it with you.

I love that!!  Thinking of myself less and thinking of others more is all I need to do to counter balance this culture of "self obsession".  I hope this quote is as motivational for you as it was for me!  What do you think humility means?

Thanksgiving Weekend Book Signing

After your Thanksgiving turkey and shopping are done, take a refreshing break and join me at the Local Author/Illustrator Book Signing & Sale at the Buffalo History Museum this weekend.  The event is free and there will be over 65 local authors and illustrators in attendance.  I will be there with The Swing and all the many great books published by Buffalo Heritage Unlimited.  It's like "Shop Small" for authors and illustrators:)  Hope to see you there!

Mastodons, Lava and Art!

Wow!  I can't believe what a wonderful weekend I had at the Rochester Science Museum's 45th Annual Holiday Bazaar! This has got to be the coolest art show I have ever been in!  My booth was in what I like to call, "the lava cave".  It is an exhibit at the museum that talks about the tectonic plates of the earth and how they form land formations that we see today.  I had lava flowing down one wall and an earthquake display on another.  And the right across from me was a Mastodon!  Check it out!

The people at the show were great and so many of them gave me wonderful complements on my work.  I exhibited "The Swing" book, art from that book, my Five Hungry Mice art and my new 4 Seasons of Dresses series.  The children that wandered into my booth were so full of light and Holiday cheer that is was contagious and it was so much fun watching them discover my book and leave through the pages.  One little girl who bought my book was so happy with her purchase she asked me if she could take a "selfie" with me:)  She was adorable!  Another little boy, Wyatt, came by my booth and talked me ear off about all the things he had discovered in the museum.  He was such a joy.  

Many grandparents were out too and they were looking for that special gift for their grandchildren.  I was so honored when they decided it would be my book.  I had the pleasure of signing books to all these little children.  I wrote each name on a piece of paper first to make sure I had the spelling right.  Afterwards I realized I had made Santa's List.  Look at all the children who are definitely on the "nice" list for Santa this year!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and offered me their support.  It was a really exciting time and a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season.  I can't wait to see you all again next year!

I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! Gobble,  gobble, gobble:)

Jack Skeleton and Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!!!!  It holds a special place in my heart for many reasons, but mostly I just love seeing kids show up at my house in their costumes.  I also enjoy helping my children come up with awesome homemade costumes every year.  Sure you can go out to the Halloween stores now-a-days and buy some pretty awesome costumes, but making them is so much more fun! Over the years I have helped my children become robots, mime's, mummies, freaks, bloody scary things, hobos, and so much more.

My favorite Halloween character has to be Jack Skeleton for several reasons --- one of them very special.  1) I just love the character.  He has such a big heart for being such a "king" at scaring people.  2) He is a lot like me.  He is long and thin like I am, and he has long legs like a spider, just like me:)  3) I dressed up like him on the evening my husband proposed me many years ago!  (That's the special part!)

So in honor of Halloween and Jack Skelton, here is a drawing I did of him and a picture of me dressed as him all those many years ago!

What will you dress up as this Halloween?  I hope you do.  It's so much fun!

  

Art Trail

Coming up in November I will be participating in the Southtowns Art Trail.  This is a wonderful event that was organized by The Evans Art Guild and my good friend Steve Mayo.  I was so honored he asked me to be a part of it this year.  This past summer my husband and I renovated our home to create a "home studio" for me to work out of.  So we will be opening our home and my new studio for the Southtowns Art Trail.  I would love it if you can come!  

You can check out my new studio, enjoy some yummy treats, warm drinks and art - of course!  I will be showing some of my work from my picture books, my new series of paintings of little girl's dresses and a few additional pieces that haven't been shown yet.  Check out the map below for all the details of who will be participating and what you can see at each stop.

See you on the trail!

Stop Motion Inspiration - The Making of The Boxtrolls

I follow an artist on Tumblr whose name is Aurelie Neyret.  She has beautiful work that I love to look at and that always inspires me.  You should check out her work too, I have linked her website to her name.  

Well, the other day when I went to her Tumblr I found a link she attached that inspired her.  It was a Talks at Google event with the producers of the stop motion film The Boxtrolls.  I watched the entire 1 hour+ long talk and was truly amazed.  I have always loved animation and particularly stop motion animation....it reminds me of my youth and watching Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer:)

Watching how they developed this film, the obstacles they overcame, the rewrites and redirection, and the joy they had in pressing the bounds of what can be done in stop motion was fascinating and fun!  I thought.... I just have to share this with you all.  Put it on while you are working on something creative and feel the energy flow:)

Enjoy!

The Making of the Boxtrolls a Talks at Google production.  

Opening the sketchbook...

Every once in a while I like to open the sketchbook to show you what is going on in my head:)  My life has been very topsy turvy lately so the sketchbook is not at full as usual, but it still has some promising doodles.  One doodle is an idea for a gift book that I am working on.   I hope to post more about that gift book either later this week or early next....

In the meantime, here are a few for you to enjoy:)