Chihuly: Nature of Glass

One of the great pleasures from this weeks trip to Arizona was a visit to the exhibit "Chihuly: Nature of Glass" at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Having seen many of Chihuly's pieces before, I was not prepared for the immensity of what I was to see. Not only was the gardens a perfect fit for his work, but the day was as great as it could get with temps in the 70's. It truly is amazing how an ordinary space can be transformed through one artists vision. Overall, the piece that spoke the most to me was the "Blue and Purple Boat".


And then the "Blue Polyvitro Crystals"


And then...... Sorry, I could go on and on about all the beautiful pieces.






There were also some natural surprises as well with some of the blooming plants.

Off to catch some sun!

Happy Easter weekend to you all. I hope you have some wonderful plans to be with family and friends. I know I will be enjoying not only the company of my family, but also the beautiful sunshine that only Arizona can offer! I will be sure to share with you the amazing photos that I capture of the landscape while I am out there. Until then, TGIF!

Making a push before the trip

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend and were able to get some fun activities in. Things here have been pretty busy lately with lots of illustrations needing to get done and a shorter and shorter window to do them in. So with a trip to Arizona coming up at the end of the week, it is going to be a crazy busy week. The good thing though is it is really exciting to see the progress of the illustrations come together. To give you a little tease of one that is in its beginning stages, I have attached a photo of its progress. I know it isn't going to look like this when it is done, but wanted to show you how it looks now. Hope you like and wishing you all a productive week!

Illustration Friday: "Talisman"

Before Ned could go out and scare the local children during the night, he had to make sure he carried his lucky Talisman around his neck. I guess even scary things need something to protect them!

Festival of Children's literature

Coming up in a few short weeks is going to be a great event at Open Book in downtown Minneapolis. Not only will the"Reflections" show that I spoke of earlier be on display, but there will be a great festival full of wonderful opportunities and workshops galore. The"Festival of Children's Literature" will be held the weekend of April 18 and 19 at Open Book in Minneapolis. It is sure to be a great time with speakers ranging from Novelists, publishers, and literary agents. Beings this is my first time going, I am anxious to see all that goes on since I have heard great things from it in the past. For those of you interested in going, the information is as follows.

Festival of Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature & Illustration
Saturday and Sunday, April 18-19, 2009
Open Book in Minneapolis
1011 Washington Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Cost

$ 265 for Loft Members
$ 280 for non members
$ 265 for members of MNSCBWI

Chalk Street Art and supplies

As the spring weather gets better and better, I am anxiously awaiting a fun event that will be happening at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in a little more than a month. Art in Bloom is a great fundraising event that the Friends of the Institute put together and help raise money for the Friends Children's Fund. This year I will be doing 2 sidewalk chalk paintings and am going to have a blast, weather permitting of course. So with that, I have been busy getting the supplies of chalk that I will be needing and wanted to share with you some of the ones that I have had success with! The biggest problem I had up until I bought the chalk backpack below was how to get all of the messy chalk out to events that were across town. I have really come to love this tackle box that I picked up at Cabelas. It allows me to store my chalk and still be able to look into it without having to open up each of the plastic bins.




So onto the most important aspect of any chalk artist and that is the CHALK/PASTEL. Over the years I have come to find varieties that work well for me on surfaces including concrete, asphalt, and bricks. The one that is always my go to is the brand of Koss. I have really loved this semi hard chalk and its brillant colors that it brings. The only problem is that it is not the most readily available, but worth the shipping costs to get it. Most of the time with Koss, I will order the 48 stick packs and they are usually around $20 each set.


Another variety that I really love to use is the Reeves pastels. I know that these tend to be on the lower end of the quality scale but when you are painting on concrete, you can go through tons of chalk in a hurry. It just isn't feasible to use high quality like Unison, you would go broke if you did. Anyways, Reeves provides a great foundation to get your images started and can be a very useful and inexpensive product. With these, the sets of 12 can usually be bought for around $4 and the sets of 36 can be attained for around $9


A third great option that I like to use is chalk from "Eternity Arts". It is larger in size, but works great for a quick layer of color. It also is used by some of the well known sidewalk artists such as "Tracy Lee Stum". These sticks of chalk are available in sets of 72 or 35 or by individual sticks for around 90 cents a piece.


Finally, there are other options when it come to pastels, I would just suggest that you find the manufacturers that you like. Others that I use here and there include Unison, Sennelier, and Rembrant. So as you can see, there isn't any one chalk that is out there, but by mixing and utilizing the different brands, you can attain the best images for the sidewalk! The one below was one I did from a mixture of Koss and Reeves.

And the winners are........

What a fun evening last night was! I attended the opening reception of "Reflections" at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts and had a wonderful time mingling with fellow illustrators and poets and perusing the beautiful work that was juried into the show. "Reflections" was a two year long competition between the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts and the "Minnesota Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)". It started with a poetry competition last year that produced 5 wonderful poems that turned into this years illustration competition to illustrate them. I was fortunate enough to have been juried into the show and as you will see below, a little more excitement came at the opening. Here are some shots from the show



This is the piece of mine that was juried into the show for the poem "Two-Wheeler" by Jane Thomas Noland



AND THE WINNERS ARE........

So onto some really exciting news, the awards. The awards for the show included three honorable mentions, three first place for each category and an overall Best of Show. With that I was so proud to see my fellow friends and illustrators Nina Crittenden and Barb Bjornson receive honorable mentions for their pieces. In Nina's case, it really shows how much of a great track she is on to becoming an up and coming illustrator in the children's market. Way to go both of you. Your pieces were wonderful. And then just when I thought the evening was done, there was one more award that blew me away. Having looked at all of the wonderful illustrations in the show, I would have never expected to have walked away with the Best of Show! What an honor it was to receive this award from a panel of very esteemed judges! I recommend that if you are near the downtown Minneapolis area before May 3 to check out this amazing show. The details for the MCBA are below.


"Reflections"
March 20, 2009 thru May 3, 2009

MCBA
1011 Washington Ave South
MInneapolis, MN 55415

Finding history

This weekend's trip back home was one that brought about some interesting surprises. It first started with heading towards Wahpeton, North Dakota and the notion that we were going to be cleaning out my grandma's house in order to get it to the necessities she needs in her new apartment. At first it seemed like any other move that I have helped with; packing things up and deciding what should stay and what should go. But this was definitely different. Having never truly dug through my grandma's stuff, we were astounded at all of the memories that came alive as objects both present and past came to light. Decades worth of memories were being found in every closet, cabinet, nook and cranny. But what really hit home for me was a discarded notebook that at first we thought was trash. Having already gone through many many old papers, note pads and chicken scratch, something caught my eye as it was being looked at. This notebook was one that was full of sketches. Sketches that were placed in a Ford Model T Mechanics student handbook. It was one that was used to train students how to fix these new machines, these horseless vehicles. Since the Model T was first introduced in 1908, it was only two years into the production that this 1910 student training manual was being used by my Great grandfather Parley McCann.

Now what I happened to notice as I started gingerly looking through this student notebook was that wherever there was a spot for "student notes", there were sketches instead! Now this is my kind of learning. I was astounded at the scenes of steam engines, bailers, farms and such that filled the pages. Having found this new information that I had never known about my great grandfather. He too loved to doodle! How great of a find it was and how much I am going to cherish this notebook. To share with you some of the sketches that I was able to scan without damaging the pages, here you too can see where my artistic roots may have started!

"Reflections" at MCBA

In a little over a week, a great show is going to be opening up at the"Minnesota Center for Book Arts". "Reflections" is a juried exhibit sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of"SCBWI" and is a show that features illustrations inspired by 5 award winning poems. It is sure to be a great event and am really looking forward to the opening reception next Friday. The info is as follows

"Reflections"
Opening reception Friday March 20, 2009
6-9pm

MCBA
1011 Washington Ave South
MInneapolis, MN 55415

Another award for "The Sick Bug"

Happy Saturday to you all. Some exciting news came through the wire the other day about my children's book "The Sick Bug". It won Honorary Mention in the Readers View Annual Literary Awards. That makes it the second award that the"The Sick Bug" has won and hopefully not the last! I just want to thank everyone who has helped support and spread the word about the book. Without you guys, none of this would be possilbe!

Illustration Friday: "Intricate"

This is one of many intricate sketches i did of an amazing organ in a local Minneapolis church.

Dog days of painting...

My very good friend and mentor "Terry Stanley" has decided to put a great challenge out to herself this year by creating a new dog painting each day for a year. Doing 5 of these a week is definitely going to be a challenge, but I know her love of animals is going to inspire her to create the best. I would definitely suggest you checking out her "Dog Days of Painting" and maybe even submit your own doggy photo into the mix!

In studio news, I have been busy getting the groundwork done for a children's book I have been working on recently. I am excited to get to work on the final illustrations and can't wait to show you guys more as I am able to. To give you an idea of how many illustrations there are, this is just half of them on the boards in the photo. Looks like fun doesn't it!

Taking a crazy leap

Hard to believe that the weekend has slipped away already, but that is the outcome when I get a chance to work in the studio pretty much uninterrupted. It is a luxury that I wish would happen more often, and relish in the next opportunity to dig into a creative mode. As I have been blessed lately with the workings of many books, I have come to find myself even more interested in the nuances of children's books. With that, I have decided to take a crazy leap into the writing side of children's books. I know that you think I may be crazy, but rest assured that I would also be doing the illustrations for these books. I have really come to find that I want my voice to be heard, even though it might be a little rough on the writing side. I am curious as to what other illustrators have to say on this subject. Is the notion of writing and illustrating your own books a calling as well? If so, what was the deciding factor in moving forward with sharing your words as well as your art? Any thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Illustration Friday: "Instinct"

Good thing Owls remember how to fly!
Cause I'd get scared and fall out the sky!

"The Big Draw" and working on finals

Happy Wednesday to everyone. Hard to believe we are more than half way through the week, but I guess that means the weekend is getting closer and closer. Things here in the studio have been going really well lately. Most recently, I have started working on the final illustrations to a new children's book that I haven't talked about too much. The author is Michele Deville and am anxious to show you more as I am able to.

So since I don't have any visuals for that, I will talk about a fun event I am going to be apart of tomorrow at the "The MInneapolis Institute of Arts". It is called "The Big Draw" and will be apart of the Third Thursday event at the museum. What I am going to be doing is teaching a drop in drawing session in the classrooms. The drawing session is going to be for any age and any art level. The best thing is that it is FREE! All you need to do is be willing to throw some lead on the paper and you are set to go. The event runs from 6-9 pm tomorrow at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and would love to see you guys there!

Illustration Friday: "Celebrate"

Even though it had been the longest drought in history, the three little birds still had time to celebrate.

Valentines Day cards

Thanks to a post from fellow blogger "Nina Crittenden" to create illustrations from her sketches of animals, I have come up with my version. Since we are so close to the big Valentines Day, I have taken her outlines and created Valentines Day Cards. As you can see we have a penguin and a seal version. Thanks Nina for the inspiration. If you would like to print these and give them to your friends, just click on the images below with the multi image versions and print. Happy V-Day everyone!

A great weekend of fun!

Hard to believe that the weekend is into Sunday already, but with all the events that went on yesterday, it will be good to get a few things done here in the studio. Yesterdays "Hooked on Books" event in Chaska was a raving success. With all of the activities for kids to do and the space to do it in at the Chaska High School, I bet there were close to 1000 people that attended the festival. Having been there two years ago, I was blown away with how large the event has become and am already looking forward to next years event. I would definitely recommend this fun day of activities for anyone with a family and for you authors and illustrators out there that have published books. One of the highlights though was when a couple of kids were so excited to see me drawing "bugs" on the easel that they were overcome and had to show me what they would have done had they been given the chance. As you can see, I have some stiff competition! They really went all out and the average age of the kids was around 4 or 5. So, now I have a fun piece to hang in the studio to remind me of the fun interaction we had.



Also taking place yesterday was the final celebration party for MCAD's beloved retiring professor Kinki Akagawa. The picture above was taken on Friday night at the opening celebration with Kinji sitting on one of his signature benches. It really was great to see the huge turnout for both Friday and Saturday nights. The Saturday night event was by far the gala though as it was held in the beautiful Mill City Museum and culminated with the auction of many alumni's work in honor of Kinji for a scholarship fund. It was really great seeing all of his former students and colleagues come together to honor such a wonderful person. And I have to say I was a little awestruck at all of the well known artists, some which were pretty famous, and of course the opportunity to meet our former Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale. There's just a certain swagger that some of these people tend to carry when they walk into a room! So with that, I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend and look forward to getting some things done!

Illustration Friday: "Time"

Is there any better time than "Dream Time"?

Hooked on Books and Paradigm Shift

Happy Thursday everyone. Hope you have had a productive week so far. I know I have been busy working on a number of Illustrations and am really looking forward to the action packed weekend. The main event that I will be enjoying will be the MCAD Paradigm Shift honoring Kinji Akagawa at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design this Friday through Sunday. There will be many wonderful events that will be going on in celebration of Kinji's retirement. As a member of MCAD's Board of Directors, it has been a real treat in helping prepare and organize this event around one of MCAD's most remarkable professors. His dedication and love of the arts has linked him to many of the last quarter of a century of alumni that were fortunate enough to have had him as a professor. To view all of the events surrounding this weekend, check out the "Honoring Kinji Akagawa".


Also on Saturday morning and early afternoon, I will also be appearing at a great family event in Chaska called "Hooked on Books". Susie and I will be part of the celebration from 11:15 to 1pm at the Chaska High School. The main celebration goes on from 9-1 and is sure to be a fun family outing. If you know of anyone with kids that are looking for a great time, send them over to Hooked on Books!

"The Sick Bug" 2009 Mom's Choice Awards® Gold Medal winner

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to all of you football fans out there. I know I briefly mentioned this earlier, but "The Sick Bug" was named a 2009 Mom's Choice Awards® Gold Winner. The "Mom's Choice Awards®"(MCA) is known for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. So with that, when I finally saw a copy of my book with the awards sticker on it I had to post an image! Thanks for everyones support of the book so far and here's hoping for a great 2009 with the book.

Illustration Friday: "Flawed"

We all are a little flawed in some way! That's what makes it so great.

Congrats Christina!

I would like to send a huge congrats to my friend and fellow children's book illustrator "Christina Rodriguez" who had the exciting news that not one but 2 of her books had won medals from the Mom's Choice Awards for 2009. "The Wishing Tree" won a gold medal and "Storm Codes" won a silver. This is even more exciting since my book "The Sick Bug" was also a gold medal winner so we will have to get together and have a toast to the "Mom's Choice Awards 2009"!

In news from the studio, it has been a busy few weeks. I have been putting some final touches on a book project and hope to get that one in the designers hands by the end of the week. I also have been working on getting all of the backgrounds done for a new book project that is close to going to final illustrations. This one is going to be the same texture and technique that "The Sick Bug" had so it should be a lot of paint flinging around soon. Stay tuned for images to come of this new project. As you can see by the picture, there is much work to get done yet!

Storing original illustrations

One of the things that often gets overlooked as an illustrator is what to do with all of the illustrations when they are finished. For the most part, if you are creating images that are one off's and are not tied to other illustrations, you can simply put them in a flat file for safe keeping. But what happens when you do children's books and have 20 or more illustrations tied to the same project and a number of these projects lying around? Well, the simplest way is again to store them in a flat file, but then every time you need to get something out of the file, you might have to adjust, move, or take them out. So, what I have found to be a great way to store them is to build a small storage box so that all of the illustrations from each project can be kept together and safe. With that, you will ensure that all of your artwork will be kept safe for years to come. Now you can surely go out and buy acid free boxes and storage units, but looking at the cost of those, I have decided to make them on my own and save a little money.





Tips to remember:

1. You want to make sure that you are using acid free foam core to build the box. Having acid free with help with eliminating discoloration in the artwork.

2. Create the box 1/2" larger on each side so it is easy to get the artwork back out. The last thing you want is to have to damage the art when getting it back out.

3. Use glassine in between levels of illustrations to ensure maximum protection of art.

4. I also like to put a copy of the book in the box as well. That way if you happen to give out all of your samples, you will at least have the one copy along with the original artwork all together.

5. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. MAKE SURE YOU STORE IN A DRY AND COOL PLACE. Heat and humidity can damage artwork over a long period, so take care of your art before it is too late.

A new addition to my collection

Image copyright Mark Haglund

Closeup of boats. Copyright Mark Haglund

Happy Sunday everyone. Hope you are all enjoying a warmer weekend than what has been sitting around here for temps lately. It is nice to be finally above zero! Anyways, I am so excited about a new piece that I have added to my collection of fellow artists. At least I will be when I am able to pick it up at the end of Feb, when the show comes down. The piece itself is titled "Boats in Nice, France" by Mark Haglund and is beautifully framed in a copper colored frame. It really brings out the colors of the buildings. I first saw the painting a few weeks ago when I was taking some of my art out of the Elk River Art Gallery and he was starting to hang his show. Its funny how you can tell sometimes right away that you love a piece. For me, I saw it but didn't do anything about it at the time until yesterday when I went over to the gallery to see how the show came together. Well as you can tell by the post, It went well and I ended up getting it. So, if you happen to be in the Elk River area before the end of February, I would say go check out the show at the Elk River Arts gallery and see the great paintings that he and Roxanne Current have up. It is definitely worth a visit. The gallery info is as follows

Elk River Arts Gallery
716 Main Street
Elk River, MN

Show runs through Feb 28
Gallery hours: Thurs-Sat 12-6

Illustration Friday: "Pale"

With this cold, its hard not to be pale!

Plane-in-the-sky-cycle

After many many months of procrastinating and looking at the forms for an illustration competition that is going on here in the twin cities, I have finally finished the illustration and it is all framed up and ready to be dropped off tomorrow (the deadline)! It feels good to get it done and am hopeful that it is well received. The good thing is it sounds like they have almost 50 submissions so far so it should be a great show coming up in March at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts. The competition itself was a collaboration between the Minnesota Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Last years competition involved writers coming up with poems and 5 were chosen as winners. Then this years competition was for illustrators to choose a poem they liked and illustrate an image to it. My favorite poem was called "Two-Wheeler" by Jane Thomas Noland. The illustration above is an illustration to that poem. I just hope that I have done it justice. So with that complete and on its way out the door tomorrow you might think that I am looking for something to do, but don't worry, I will be busy with booksignings, more illustration projects and the like in the upcoming weeks. Hopefully I will come back with another original Illustration Friday tomorrow! Take care and stay warm, which is kind of hard when the temp right now is a mere -21! Yikes!

Illustration Friday: "Contained"

This is an illustration from a memoir I illustrated titled On the other side of the Ocean by Ruth Elisabeth Schoch.

The art of Terry Stanley

"Along for the Ride" copyright Terry Stanley

Of all the people that I have been blessed to have met over the years as an artist, there are few that have made such an impact on my work and life as one of my mentors Terry Stanley. Having met her a number of years ago at a fundraiser art event in White Bear Lake, I have come to enjoy our regular chats over the phone. Unfortunately since she lives all the way over in Green Bay, WI, it makes it a little harder to actually get together in person. That's why come the end of next week, it is going to be great to spend time over there, checking out her great new studio space and hopefully doing a little painting as well. The pastel work that she does has wonderful palette's of color and composition. I would definitely recommend checking out her work at either "Red Bubble" or her blog at "Art Lady Confidential".

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wishing each and every one of you a happy and prosperous New Year!