almost December

Here I am with Melinda Long of pirate fame, last year in Greenville.

 The 12 Days of Christmas in South Carolina books are still going strong this year.

 I'm honored to get calls every now and then for me to sign a bunch of books as presents, usually, appropriately enough, for cousins.

Lisa and Lotty- take two

I think it is more easily readable with the second color...hmm, maybe this opens the door to multicolored paper cut illustrations. I have definitely been admiring these.
that makes me think that a black background may make my words easier to read, hold on...

well, maybe not with the second color, hold on....

still need to squint a bit, but better, and I liked the red flowers, so I kept them

All in all, I kind of like it, and it was fun to experiment. This would be a great time for comments, what do you think?

Lisa and Lotty

This is a personal papercut  did for a fantasy cover for one of my favorite childhood books.
I think it's still a bit hard to read the text, I'm going to try it with a paper cut overlay just for the title. Back to the drawing board

lucky day

Ok, there are waay to many distractions around here.....
Between construction outside and organizing and planning inside, with a few holidays thrown in to spice it up, I am having a hard time settling down and concentrating on anything.
So, here's a picture of my new thrift shop chair, waiting for it's proper space to free up.
It's already a family favorite, and the dog approves.
For me it was love at first sight - for $15 bucks - score!

better luck on the artist front tomorrow, happy monday!

A Song for My Sister

Early this week I found a large package from Random House on my doorstep. Here's a peek at some of what was inside. This is a random scan from the art for the front/back cover (wrap around) of a book coming out June 2012.
 Lesley Simpson wrote the book called "A Song for my Sister", it's a sweet story of a little girl and her baby sister, centered around the Jewish ceremony of simchat bat.
I'll tell you more about it when the book comes out.

pet portraits

This is the first in a series of pet portraits I have planned. It shows my dog Coco, but it is it is more of  an exaggerated personality portrait than a realistic view. I had much more fun with it that I expected, next I will try to make a more realistic one.
This project came about because I agreed to put some pieces in the Holiday Art/Gift  Sale at the local Arts Center. I ordered some more christmas books , but I also wanted to make a few things.
I'm painting some portraits of friends pets, and I'll take commissions, if someone wants to order one.
I made a few more random things, I haven't had a lot of time to sew stuffed animals, every year I realize - I should really have started earlier...
So it's an ongoing process, I'll  take a picture of the whole setup when I'm done, but now I need a few elves to come in and clean up my studio. It looks like something exploded in there.
No wonder my kids just give me a wry look when I tell them to clean up their rooms : "seriously?"

hot dog!

do you remember the Ladybug illustration with the trick or treaters...with the dog dressed in costume? Well, look who we ran into downtown this Halloween!