When my kids were still little, we lived up on a mountaintop where the wind could blow over one hundred miles per hour! Here they are wind surfing on the deck. On those nights, it was pretty hard to fall asleep with all of the excitement of the wind. We camped out on the floor […]
Once upon a time is why we read stories to kids. It is not just for entertainment, or to teach the love of reading, or to simply teach them what they need to know, it is most of all to give children a gift – the power of their own imagination. When you transport […]
Never judge a book by its cover. Were you given this tidbit of advice as a kid? Me, too. It’s true in life but not in the print world. A cover is what draws people in to a book, more than not. Even when it comes to packaging at the grocery store, I know better […]
75th Anniversary of Little Golden Books! As a child I was dazzled by the gold foil spine on the little hard cover books that fit just right in your hands. What I didn’t know was that this was only part of the legacy of Little Golden Books. Back in 1942 the company produced quality picture […]
I am working on the 2nd Edition of “Tastes Like Home”, a collection of recipes from my family and friends, just in time for Christmas. The project began so my kids could have a place to find an old favorite recipe like Grama’s Funnel Cakes — does anybody make those anymore (?) or Donora Pirogies. […]
In response to Martha Pfanschmidt’s blog/Georgia: I am also a fan of Georgia O’Keefe and strive for an economy of shape in my own work. I believe that to appreciate a shape is to reduce its form, not to oversimplify but to seek its essence. But with Georgia and another painter of her day, Emily […]
I’ve taught workshops for children and adults on how to make illustrated collage books from hand-painted papers. The stories were invented from the process.Here is one I worked on in Sitka, AK with students at the library. Click on the image below to see the whole book. I also used this collage technique of hand-painted […]
Second Wind, Kind of a Trippy Love Story by Matt McConville, sequel to It’s Just the Wind, Kind of a Sailing Story is available! I designed both covers using watercolor and digital painting. See back cover below, read about my friend Matt, click the link to buy and please, let me know what you think. […]
The unfinished wooden crankie box made its first debut but it needed a paint job. I had an idea… First I painted the box with random patterns of color. Then began to paint black over the colors to reveal my design. Here is the finished paint job with curtain up. Curtain down. The new box […]