Pics from the LA Times Book festival

After an amazing trip out to LA for the LA Times Festival of Books this past weekend, how can one describe such a wonderful time. Not only was the weather beautiful, but the size and scope of the festival was breathtaking. Over the course of two days there was over 150,000 people on the campus of UCLA for the love of books! From all regions and avenues of books, one could delve into and meet some pretty amazing people. As a children's book illustrator, being invited in the first place was a huge honor and was a little intimidating with other children's book presenters such as Henry Winkler (The Fonz), Carl Reiner, Jarrett Krosoczka, Petter Yarrow, and John Carter Cash. But what an honor it was to be there! As you can see from the pics below, Susie and I had a great time and hope you like the pics. I think they best describe how it went and what the event was like.

Let the fun begin

After much waiting, the LA Times Festival of Books has finally arrived. With the last few items being packed at the moment, I am looking forward to my short three day trip to LA for this wonderful event. It is such an honor to be asked to appear at the festival and am anxious to meet many wonderful presenters and the all the people that will be coming out for the two day event. If you happen to be in the LA area, here is the link for the festival and my stage time will be at: For more info click here

Target Childrens Stage

11:15 AM followed by an hour long signing

LA Times Festival of Books

Sat April 24 and Sunday April 25

405 Hilgard Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90025

In other news, I will be creating a 3D street painting next Wednesday April 28 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for Art in Bloom . If you are near the museum, swing on by and say hi. I will be there all day from 8-5. I will be doing another post for this so no worries if you need more info. You can go here if you can't wait till then! So with that, hope all of your weekends go great and will be back in a few days with some pics of the events!

Illustration Friday: "Linked"

Linked to family. This illustration is from my forthcoming book titled "Staarabu was Wise, Anana was Gentle"

CBIG opening tomorrow night

My new illustration "All Hands Hoay!" for the CBIG exhibit at MCBA


If you happen to be in the downtown Minneapolis area tomorrow night, stop on down to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and check out the new gallery exhibition from the Minnesota Children's Book Illustrators Guild (CBIG). The show "Exploration and Creativity" opens tomorrow April 8 and runs thru June 20, 2010. There is also a reception tomorrow for the opening from 6-8pm and is free for all to attend. Here is a little info about the show and CBIG

"Exploration and Creativity: An exhibition from the Minnesota Children's Book Illustrators Guild"

When: April 8 - June 20, 2010

Where: Minnesota Center for Book Arts
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55415
612-215-2520

Opening Reception: Thursday April 8 6-8pm

Members exhibiting:

Barb Bjornson, Sara Weingartner, Franklin Haws, Alicia Schwab, MaryBeth Hinrichs, Chris Dyrud, Sharon Wagner, James Powell, Shawn McCann,Beth Wilson, Christina Rodriguez, Lorrie Gibson, Nina Crittenden, Vicki Deutsch, Linnell Esler, Tessie Bundick, Eileen Matro, Dawn Schreiber, and Anne Adix Fabie

For more info, click here

Foley Elementary

Another great school visit in the books! On Friday of last week, Susie Bazil and I were fortunate enough to visit the 2nd graders from Foley Elementary. We were there to share The Sick Bug!!!!!!! We started the sessions with the 2nd graders off with some show and tell, some sketching and then went into full scale sick bug production. Using nothing but newspaper and colored vet wrap, the kids created some amazing 3d Sick bugs! The truly took the project to heart and left quite a mess for the media center afterwords. But all together, it was an amazing visit and look forward to bringing the new book "The Sick Bug Goes to School" back to Foley next year! Check out these amazing sick bugs that the kids created!

School visit and upcoming CBIG exhibit

After a few weeks of not posting, I am back! Hard to believe how fast the month of March has gone by, but with the summer looming ever closer, i am not going to complain. Hopefully April will slow down a bit as there is much to be done. Between the two books The Sick Bug Goes to School and Gregory's Paper Airplane that I am currently working on, there is the upcoming CBIG exhibit at Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the LA Times Festival of Books, and some fun streetpaintings that will kick off with Art in Bloom at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

To kick off the next three months of craziness, there will be a school visit tomorrow to Foley Elementary in Central Minnesota. Susie and I are looking forward to visiting with the kids and helping them create their very own sick bug sculptures. With the second edition of The Sick Bug book series titled The Sick Bug goes to School, I am thinking that the upcoming school year might be a busy one with visits to the schools. So, I will be sure to post about the visit to Foley in another note when we get back! Until then, I hope everyone has a great weekend and keep Thursday April 8 in your memory bank, as that will be the opening reception for the CBIG exhibit at MCBA. I will do a separate post about that soon!

Exciting news......

It is with great pleasure that I announce an amazing new adventure that I will be partaking in with my street painting. As many of you know, I have been increasingly producing street paintings for the last couple of years and have come to love the thrill that comes from creating such ephemeral pieces of art. To be able to create these rather large street paintings in front of an ever changing audience has created a thrill that I can not shake!

It has been hard the last month or so not to post about it, but am happy to say that I will be joining Art for After Hour's as one of their professional Madonnari (street painting artist). Having the opportunity to learn and work with some of the industry's best Madonnari will be a joy to say the least. Not only will it be great to work with these artists, but also the diverse clientele and locations that come from this wonderful avenue of art. Many thanks to Art for After Hours President Anthony Cappetto and Marketing Director Wendy Stum for bringing me on board. I look forward to the fun that is to come! To check out Art for After Hours visit their website or you can directly link to my artists page.

So to leave you with a few images, here are some of my previous street paintings.

Burnsville Jazz Festival 2009

Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2008

Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2009

Upcoming MN Children's Book Events

This was such a great post by my fellow children's book illustrator Christina Rodriguez, that i had to repost it here!

Attention children’s book and YA writers, illustrators, librarians, readers and enthusiasts: you’re in luck if you live in or near the Twin Cities! You wouldn’t believe how many awesome events are coming up this year for folks like us. There is at least one children’s literature event nearly every month from now until October! I’m very proud of my state for being so supportive of its talent!

Mark your calendars:

Saturday	February 17	8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.	Hubbs Children’s Literature Conference
Saturday	March 13	9 a.m. – 2 p.m.	Children’s Literature Network Publicity Workshop
Saturday	April 17	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	Minnesota SCBWI Spring Workshop
Saturday	April 17	6:30pm – 9pm	Minnesota Book Awards Gala
Saturday	April 24	12 p.m. – 3 p.m.	Kerlan Award Luncheon and Lecture
Sat.-Sun.	May 1-2		The Loft’s Children’s and YA Literature Conference
Saturday	May 15	Details TBA	Minnesota SCBWI Spring Fling
Fri. – Sat.	May 21-22		Children’s Literature Network School Presentations Workshop
Saturday	June 12	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	Minnesota SCBWI Summer Workshop
Mon.-Tues.	June 21-22		St. Cloud Children’s Literature Workshop
Saturday	July 10	10 a.m. – 2 p.m.	Minnesota SCBWI Summer Field Trip
Saturday	Sept. 11	12:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.	Anderson Center’s Celebration of Children’s Literature
Thurs. – Sun.	Sept. 30 – Oct. 3		Northwoods Children’s Book Conference and Writer Retreat
Not included (because we’ve not “officially” set our date yet): The Minnesota SCBWI Annual Conference. This will take place sometime in September or October.

Please note that all of this information is subject to change. Be sure to check out each event’s page often for the most accurate updates.

Sun Path Elementary School Visit

One of the great joys of being a children's book illustrator is when you get to go and visit schools. There is nothing like the excitement that the kids can bring and bringing back memories of my own school days. Well, last Thursday I had a great time when visiting the kids at Sun Path Elementary in Shakopee. The energy and excitement they had for "The Sick Bug" was by far the best Susie and I have seen. Not only did they create their own sick bugs, but they decorated the entire media center just for our visit! How awesome was that!!!! Thru the course of the day we were able to visit with over 500 kids from K-3 and couldn't have had a better time. Thanks to Bob for the memorable visit! To show you what we encountered when we arrived, here are a few images of the amazing works of art the kids did. Hope you enjoy.

Minnesota SCBWI 2010 Winter Workshop

Thanks to Christina for the post!

Do you think you’re ready to start submitting your manuscript or artwork to publishers? Learn how to put your best foot forward at The Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Winter Workshop: How To Stand Out: Preparing A Manuscript Or Portfolio For Submission.

Listen as award-winning author John Coy talks about the steps involved before submitting a story to a publisher and ways to stand out when you do. Learn from illustrator and designer Marieka Heinlen as she shares tips from her experience as a creative director to create eye-catching art samples, effective personal branding, and a strong portfolio.

Participants are encouraged to bring a copy of their manuscript or art samples and portfolio for critique. This is a great opportunity for all writers and illustrators to get fresh feedback on their work before submitting to publishers.

Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Place: Brookdale Library, 6125 Shingle Creek Pkwy., Brooklyn Center, MN 55430
Cost: $25 members / $35 non-members

Registration will be at the door and light refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!

Illustration Friday: "Muddy"

Owl sits on a branch covered in dirt. Made for quite the muddy situation!

Illustration Friday: "Focused"

This is an illustration I did from a book titled "The Path to Forgiveness". Trying not to stay focused on the past will lead you to the a happier place!

So you want to be an illustrator?

So you think you want to be an illustrator? Well, look what my world has turned into! I know, it looks bad, but this is actually a good thing(those little chunks of paper are what I use as a collage and texture base for my illustrations). I know I haven't been too attentive to the blog, but please be patient as I get a few things done so that I can get back to the blogging on a more consistant basis.

So you may be wondering what I have been up to lately, well I will tell ya. Currently I am in the midst of finishing two books up that will be off to the design stage in the next week or two. I am also excited to be starting "Sick Bug 2" which will be a really fun project to work on. I just got the final manuscript on Friday and am hoping to get started with that book by next week.

Also, if you haven't seen the note in the post below, there is an exhibit of children's book illustrators from the Minnesota Children's Book Illustrators Guild at University of St. Thomas. I have two illustrations in the show and there are many other great illustrations from friends such as Nina Crittenden, Christina Rodriguez, Betsy Leplatt, Sharon Wagnor, Linnell Esler and more! So if you happen to be in St. Paul before the end of Feb, stop by and check it out.

Well, that is about it for now. Back to work here and will hopefully start posting some more fun images in the next couple of days!

"Minnesota Made" at University of St. Thomas

Happy 2010 everyone. Hard to believe it has been almost a month since my last post, but am hoping to get back on track with some new and fun posts upcoming. With that, I wanted to announce an exhibit that will be opening up in the next couple of weeks that i will have two illustrations in.

"Minnesota Made : Through the Eyes of the Children's Book Illustrators Guild of Minnesota" will be opening up on January 22, 2010 at the O'Shaughnessy Educational Center Lobby Gallery at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. An artist reception will be held on January 24 from 2-4pm. I look forward to seeing you there! Here is all of the information for the show!

"Minnesota Made"

O'Shaughnessy Educational Center Lobby Gallery

University of St. Thomas

2115 Summit Ave

St. Paul, MN 55105

651-962-5560

www.stthomas.edu/arthistory/exhibitions

Another illustration from "Staarabu was Wise, Anana was Gentle"

Just a quick post tonight as it is another working night in the studio. This is another image from my upcoming book titled "Staarabu was Wise, Anana was Gentle". Also am working on a list of books that have been done by members of The Children's Book Illustrators Guild (CBIG). I am hoping to have that done in the next couple of days and will be doing a post about it. Stay tuned.

A sneek peak at my new childrens book

Well it is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone, but the one thing I know is it is great to have a reason to be thankful. Without all of the wonderful friends, colleagues, and family, I know I wouldn't be where I am today. So a special thank you to all that I have come to know and will continue to enjoy being around for many years to come! So enough of the mush, and time to give a little sneak peak at a new book that I have been working on the last few months. The title of this book is "Staarabu was Wise, Anana was Gentle" written by Daniel Haugen. I have had so much fun with this project and can't wait to show you more. But until then, here is an image from the book. PS, Staarabu is the mouse. Hope you like!

Illustration Friday: "music"

Thought this would be a fitting piece for this weeks topic of "music"

My upcoming book signings at Barnes and Nobles

With the holidays here, there is nothing better to give as a gift than a personally signed children's book for your little ones or others you may know. To that note, here are some upcoming book signings that I will doing and where you can come and visit and say hi! If you can not make the events but would still like to get your personalized signed book, just drop me a line and I will be sure to get them to you.

Saturday Nov. 21, 2009

Barnes and Noble Minnetonka

10:00 am

13131 Ridgedale Drive

Minnetonka, MN 55305

Saturday Dec. 5, 2009

Barnes and Noble Fargo

3:30 - 5:30pm

event details here

1201 42 St SW

Fargo, ND 58103

Sunday Dec. 6, 2009

Barnes and Noble Apple Valley

1:00pm

14880 Florence Trail

Apple Valley, MN 55124

Thursday Dec. 10, 2009

Barnes and Noble Minnetonka

Time: 4-8pm

13131 Ridgedale Drive

Minnetonka, MN 55305

Book Launch Party Thursday!

Happy Wednesday everyone. It is with exciting news that I bring this post of a book launch Party tomorrow night (Thursday) in Apple Valley. Michele Deville is hosting a launch party for our new book "The Path to Forgiveness" at Enjoy! Restaurant in Apple Valley from 5-8pm. We would love to see you there!

"The Path to Forgiveness" book launch party 5-8pm

Enjoy! Restaurant

15435 Founders Lane

Apple Valley, MN 55124

click here for map

Are you a Twitterer?

If you haven't noticed already, the different social media options out there are being used by many members of the Children's Book Illustrators Guild. As a member myself, I have found it to be a very valuable tool to keep up with everyone in the group whether it be via Facebook, blogs, or by twitter. Since most of you are already familiar with the facebook and blog accounts of CBIG, I thought I would let you know about some of our members Twitter pages. If you happen to be a member and find yourself not listed, let me know and I will be sure to add you to the list!


@NVCrittenden (Nina Crittenden)

@carrie_hartman (Carrie Hartman)

@Mixologist (Christina Rodriguez)

@CERodriguez (Christina Rodriguez)

@studiomccann (Shawn McCann)

@Schwab_Alicia (Alicia Schwab)

1 month to go

Well, it has come, the final month on the deadline for my newest childrens' book. I've got a lot of the color added in already on the illustrations and will be looking forward to finishing all the details soon. The book is titled "Staarabu was Wise, Anana was Gentle" and will be excited to share with you more about the book when I can. I know the book will be out in the spring, but not sure of the exact release date yet. Till then, here are a few sketches from the book. Hope you like

Illustration Friday: "Fast"

UMN Kerlan Collection celebrating 60 years!

One of the treasures that the University of Minnesota houses and we are fortunate to have in our backyard is the Kerlan Collection. Regarded as one of the worlds best children's literature research collections, the Kerlan offers a rare glimpse into the world of children's literature like none other. Whether it is a manuscript, drawings, original illustrations, or correspondence between editor and author, the Kerlan is a treasure trove of magic waiting to be discovered. Having visited the Kerlan a number of times, I would highly recommend it for anyone who loves children's literature or who wishes to learn more about it.

With that, I wanted to pass on the news that the Kerlan is celebrating their 6oth Anniversary with an exhibition that runs thru the end of Dec. Here is the info and hope to see you there! PS, if you click on the Elmer Anderson Library link, it will give you more visitor info.

60th Anniversary Exhibit

Elmer Anderson Library Gallery

University of Minnesota

222 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis

Dates: November 12, 2009 to December 31, 2009

Opening Reception w/special guest Leonard S. Marcus

November 6th 2pm

Great things brewing at CBIG MN

Between the show in Red Wing at the Depot, and numerous books that have come out lately by members of CBIG MN, there is no better time to check out their blog than now. Having been a member now for a number of years, it has been great getting to know all of the wonderful artists behind some of your favorite books. So if you get a chance, swing over there by clicking here and leave a note to say hi. I know everyone would love to see you stop by !

Illustration Friday: "Flying"

Don't you ever wish your bicycle could fly? This is an illustration about just that. Created for a poem titled "Two-Wheeler", this piece is called "Plane in the Sky Cycle"

"The Path to Forgiveness" on Reading Minnesota

There are many great blogs out there dedicated to the art of books, but one that I recently came across was not only exciting for it's content, but the fact it was solely about books created by Minnesotans. Reading Minnesota features adult and children's books written by Minnesota authors and illustrators and celebrates Minnesota Bookstores, reviewers, publishers and libraries. This wonderful site is the work of Beth Solheim, who herself is an author of the Sadie Witt mystery series. Thanks go out to all of her hard work and dedication in bringing the many talented authors and artists that reside in the state to her blog! To learn more about Reading Minnesota, click here or you can visit Beth's website here.

With that, I am also thankful that Beth has chosen "The Path to Forgiveness" written by Michele Deville and illustrated by myself to be featured on the site. You can check out the post here

Illustration Friday: "Germs"

click for larger image

In this Illustration, the sicknesses are brewing away in bugland! From the book I illustrated aptly titled "The Sick Bug".

"Walk for Thought" Street painting

Well it was another successful day street painting today. Was a little worried that the weather was going to hold us out, but it turned out to be a perfect day of temp and sun! The event that I was chalking for was the Minnesota Brain Injury Associations annual "Walk for Thought". There were tons of great people around and the conversations were lively! Too bad the event had to end and all, but it was great seeing everyone, hearing their comments, and also getting to work with my coworker Mike McCann(who strangely enough isn't related). So with that I wanted to share some pics. The first one is of the finished 8' x 8' chalking. The theme of mine was achievement and how their are often many who help you achieve your goals in life.

And then this was I think the best part of the whole event. Seeing the kids have a blast with the individual chalk boards and then seeing them create a mosiac of images. I think they turned out great! A special thanks goes out to Lori Peterson of the Brain Injury Association for the invite to this wonderful and worthwhile event!