Update from a crazed illustrator.

Thursday, August 30, 2007



Hey there! I am being very neglectful of this blog because of deadlines and overlapping projects!
I'm sorry most of it can't be posted, since it is in the middle/sketch stages or it is under an NDA. Phew! Working away all day, and taking breaks when night time falls. Possibly Waterfire in Providence this weekend, if I get enough done! I had a brief two day mini vaca with the family in Cape Ann on Bearskin Neck (above photo courtesy of my lovely sister Shauna). So so beautiful, reminded me a lot of the spreads in good ol' Miss Rumphius by Barb Cooney.

Hope all is well out there in the blogosphere. Send positivity and good thoughts or prayers to Grace Lin and friends of the Blue Rose Girls-a very sad event has occurred. I feel Robert's Snow means something very different now to the participants, and all involved in the fight to find a cure.

Love to all.

Auguste

Friday, August 10, 2007

Here is a small piece I am working on right now. I found her in the dusty files of personal art 2007, named "Auguste". I am patching her up to send on to my agency to add to my online portfolio. I am currently in the middle of totally reorganizing and cutting my portfolio down (aka removing very old pieces, etc. in styles I have outgrown). I have dubbed it spring cleaning with my agent, but it's more like cleaning out the closet and making a big pile of the clothes that just do not fit any longer and passing them on to younger sisters or friends. Shauna, want a cardigan? Oh wait, all my little sisters have outgrown ME! So much for "oldests" being "tallests".

I am also doing this big revamp in preparation for my current workload, and the hefty amount of finishes that will be produced in the next 3-5 weeks. Working on four new book covers, a picture book and a paperback short story, and the next Sleepover Squads! woohooo art.
Glad it's a rainy day here in S-ville.

A Saami Snowflake

Wednesday, August 1, 2007



So the finished snowflake! I finally mailed it in to Dana Farber before I took off for Mom's 50th in CT this week (woohoo!). I thought I would join the ranks of flake posters (check out the Blue Rose Girl blog for Anna Alter's and Alissa Imre Geis'). Feels great to be finished, and I'm excited to see where this little traveler and her red bird guide will end up. I'd like to say a big thanks to all my bulletin-responding friends for their input! :) These are the front and back done on Arches watercolor hot press paper and adhered to the wooden whitewashed snowflake. Mixed media: watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, graphite.

The red bird is a bit of a symbol in my family now, since my grandmother passed away in 2004 from Leukemia, since she had her own special story as to why she loved red birds so much. Her name was "Pocca", she was one of those grandmothers who allowed her grandchildren to name her and then strongly defended this namesake despite it originally being "Mocha Pocca". Haha... she was wonderful. So there is the red bird, a bit of hope at the top of the girl's massive hood, looking ahead as a tiny guide, and woven into the tribal fabric on the back.

For her costume design: I have recently in the past few years, fallen in love with the Saami people of northern Finland and the surrounding icy regions, which connect over into the north of Asia as well. They are reindeer herders, and even today, fight for maintaining this way of life amidst modernization. Their traditional clothing is so celebratory and beautiful, even in such a bleak (to us!) landscape. They are a beautiful people.

So there, all done. This one and all Robert's Snowflakes will be on auction on the Dana Farber site, and will be able to be viewed by late August, so keep checking to see the 2007 collection! All proceeds of all snowflakes will go to cancer research. If you want to see them in person, there will be 2 special gallery showings: Child at Heart Gallery, Newburyport, MA: October 3 - 22; Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA: October 30 - December 2