ALL the news.
Lots and lots and lots to share. The big news first: I was selected as SCBWI’s Featured Artist — such a surprise and honor! The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is an international professional organization for writers and illustrators of children’s literature. There are currently more than 22,000 members worldwide making it the largest children’s writing organization in the world. Check out my work, and other members as well, over here.
*and* I just signed with a literary agency! I created the logo for Full Circle Literary 10+ years ago, so I’m coming full circle by working with wonderful agent and longtime friend Stefanie von Borstel + so excited for the projects we have in store!
Lots going on this week! Here’s more:
Opening Thursday, July 24th: I’ll have original artwork at ArtExpoSD – a pop up show and marketplace at the Wonderbread Factory during San Diego Comic Con, 121 14th St. Below is my piece “Night Forest” for the curated show assembled by Mark Murphy. And also below is a VIP ticket – print it out and come on down Thursday night for the closed door party! Thanks to Cartwheel Art for this nice write-up.
VIP opening Thursday July 24, 4 – 9pm
Friday, July 25th: 10am – 9pm
Saturday, July 26th: 10am – 6pm
This Sunday, Viz will be pre-releasing a limited edition of Hello Kitty, Hello 40, an anthology celebrating 40 years of Hello Kitty! 41 artists have created visual, wordless comics about Hello Kitty throughout time for the book. I’ll be signing copies of the book with other authors from the book at San Diego Comic Con at Viz, booth #2813 at 1pm, Sunday, July 27th.
Also, only up until Sunday 7/27 in Los Angeles is “Cowabunga!” 30 yrs of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (!) at iam8bit, 2147 W. Sunset Blvd. I have several affordable works in the show, pictured below and written about in this post on Nerdist (thank you, Nerdist!)
And on the other coast, check out Dime Bag 4 while you can where I have a painting in the show curated by my dear friend Jordin Isip. 465a 7th ave, Brooklyn.
Jordin was a teacher of mine back at RISD a long time ago – read a little about his influence on my work and career in my interview in Art Inc, a book by Lisa Congdon due out this fall. More about Lisa and Chronicle below!
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Last week was ICON the Illustration Conference, a massive conference bringing together illustrators from all corners of the world. For it, I served as a board member for two years, planning and developing the Roadshow (pop up marketplace for illustrators), Bookstore, Kaleidoscope (20 slides x 20 seconds each), workshops, main stage speakers, and a million other things! Truly, I ran myself into the ground for it, but here are some of the week’s highlights:
The Roadshow! A show I put together with my friend Esther Pearl Watson, turned out like this:
Thank you to all the exhibitors and attendees who made the show such a success! I personally was thrilled to sell one of my paintings to one of my favorite artists at the show. Let me tell you: there is no bigger thrill in the world than knowing someone you admire responds to your work.
Then — another highlight for me from ICON — presenting on the main stage as a moderator and participant with my friend Lisa Congdon and Kristen + Christina at Chronicle Books about how we came to work together + the attitudes we bring in to our projects. I’ve created more than 14 projects with Chronicle Books over the years, so it was cool to get to talk a little about our collaborations! I only had a few slides in the talk about myself, but here’s my bio slide below!
If I look super sleepy, it’s because I had gotten about 6 hrs of sleep total all week. Running a conference is no joke.
Here’s a slide I composed for our talk is below, too, listing many of the projects I’ve worked on with them over the years:
And one more slide from our talk that I made. Correspondence! I love that I’ve worked with people who love snail mail as much as I do.
Ok believe it or not, I actually have more news to share but I have to go call my mom back and get to work on ArtExpoSD so I’ll update you more after this crazy week is over. Thank you for keeping in touch with me and my work!