It is the simple things...

in life that make me happy.

Like the cardinals that hop around on the branch of the tree which is outside the window behind my computer on the kitchen counter.

How many prepositions are in this sentence... or SAT question of the day...

Is this sentence error free.

You tell me.

S'up!

I hung my art last night with a little help from my friends.

It took three hours.

It looks pretty darn good up there on them walls.

I am pleased. I am tired. I am elated.

The Biting Pear of Salamanca by Ursula Vernon

I usually don't like anthropomorphic food... but sometimes I eat it. (I also love and collect pear paraphernalia.) Sold right there... like I am so there. And I need this today while I work... for inspiration.

(Could this be in a picture book, perhaps?.....................................no, that pear is scary)

But there is something funny about this without being campy and cheesy (I could use a pear salad right now)... to me anyway. Maybe the lack of a complete face on the pear's part, and the traditional styled little rodent with his daguerreotyper alongside this five-foot tall, food-engineered poire.

Should that chipmunk be afeared?

"If you bite me, there will be no more portrait du poire, today."

(But you can't see anyway, pear... so your mouth would be chasing only air.)

Thank you, and courtesy of 'Art of the Day' on my homepage... one of my favorite things to wake up to.

My World and Welcome to It

Remember that show with William Windom... the cartoonist (he really is NOT a cartoonist... he is an actor.) EDIT: Based on Thurber. Good ole "One-eyed Thurber".

And his daughter with the braids... what's her name?

no. Me neither. EDIT: Her name was Lisa Gerritson and she was a pistol!

Well. You (we) are (were) too young... or just lost that segment of our over crowded-minds. Ahem. That was a great show. Windom's cartoons kinda morphed into live action. Dry and funny and... wise.

The show never took off but it did maintain a viable presence thanks to side-by-side air-time (by Sondheim) ...no no by Bewitched... I mean Bewitched (great show... Darrin... Tabitha... Sabrina...) campy like most shows of its day but fun nonetheless...EDIT: That show won two Emmys. (Oops.I wrote too soon!) So it DID take off.

I digress...

I LOVE making worlds in my art and I think it one of my strong points. My World and Welcome to It. You got me.

And I proudly jest that I am completing (illustrating and writing) two more worlds for my In-Progress picture book, and it is so much fun and working well. Check off a summer project.

Caveat: Never post until you've got the answers. Smirk.

Picking papers... and words?

Peter Piper picked a pack of pasteled papers;
A pack of pasteled papers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a pack of pasteled papers,
Where's the pack of pastled papers Peter Piper picked?

No, this verse will not go in the manuscript dummy. Not this way anyway.

But the pack of pasteled papers will.

Hippo Birdy Two Ewes

Hippo Birdy Two Ewes
Hippo Birdy Two Ewes
HIPPO BIRDY TWO EWES
Hippo Birdy Two Ewes!




Yes. The Big One is today and to compensate for the total shock and denial I feel about it I am going to illustrate my own birthday card using the ewe. A cinnamon colored ewe.

Who ewe? Yes, me. Actually, I'll nix that birthday card and finish that neglected second illustration for my newest book idea. And substitute the hippo and birdy with a wooly bear caterpillar. Already got the birdy one down in another illustration anyway.


Hippo Birdy to me!

Happy Easter

Today I watched Irving Berlin's Easter Parade with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. I grew up on old dancy musicals and I still adore them. And I love those two so much. So much. Class acts.

Then I watched a tribute to Henry Fonda. And cried.

Then I spent two hours working on a pb query. It is still not done... not quite right. And I won't rush it. I've learned that every little step you make has complete impact on the outcome. Every little thing.

Happy Easter

Aging gracefully

The Restaurant


A group of 40 year old girlfriends discussed where they should meet for lunch.

Finally it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View
restaurant because the waiters there had tight pants and nice buns.

10 years later at 50 years of age, the group once again discussed where they
should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at
the Ocean View restaurant because the food there was very good and the wine
selection was good also.

10 years later at 60 years of age, the group once again discussed where
they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at
the Ocean View restaurant because they could eat there in peace and quiet
and the restaurant had a beautiful view of the ocean.


10 years later, at 70 years of age, the group once again discussed where
they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they should
meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the restaurant was wheel chair
accessible and they even had an elevator.


10 years later, at 80 years of age, the group once again discussed where
they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they should
meet at the Ocean View restaurant because they had never been there before.



As I reach the last month of my 40s (hah) I treated myself to a little snippet of realistic humor.

I FEEL GOOD AND I LOOK EVEN BETTER!! WOOHOO! And I'm going out tonight, too. But not to the Ocean View. Jazz baby. Good food and good friends.

Can you tell me how to get... how to get to

Just about had a car crash today. Maybe it is because it is such a sunny day outside this last day of Whimper.

Or is it that whilst driving I lose myself in NJ's great jazz station 'WGBO" I am hearing hints of the music theme of Sesame Street. Wait a minute... I know what Sesame Street is and I am not going there. (We don't have one but we need one.) I think I even know what TV Broadcaster this is on. It is in a land called PBS. But heck. I am not on PBS. I am on Grove Street ( where is Grover?) I am in Montclair doing mindless yet meaningful errands.

Where the heck am I now?

This cool rendition of Sesame Street is telling how to get there. What a cool rendition of Sesame Street... these WGBO jazz musicians have found it... wow!

WGBO is great but I 'WIll Go Back Over' my directions. There is no Sesame Street here... in Montclair...

not yet.

But there should be. That would be such a sunny day!

Happy Birthday Ezra Jack Keats!

Born today March 11, 1916


One of my favorite artists who made art from his heart. An artist who broke the mold with Peter, a boy protaganist of color. An artist who created intimate, private and large worlds for his characters to inhabit and explore. Simple, meaningful, right-there worlds for them.

Keats is one of my largest inspirations as an artist. And specifically as a collagist. I remember hearing and seeing his books as a child. Like it was yesterday. Melting in his snowy world.

He was so great at creating a tone and a mood with his work. A serene and fun snowy day. He captured how the youngest child experiences that cold, powdery, magical stuff.



But, hey. Honestly right now I am so glad winter is almost over.

Sometimes it is what you don't write and illustrate

A Happy Birthday to Edward Gorey born 2. 22. 1925.

The illustrator of The Utter Zoo, The Wuggle Ump, The Broken Spoke, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, The Doubtful Guest, The Epiplectic Bicycle, The Gashlycrumb Tinies and of course, the classic Mystery Masterpiece Theater.

And thank you Pomegranate Press for printing up all the Gorey paraphernalia and postcards you publish and provide to this pleased purchaser.

It was how he takes you to a high point and leaves you there to finish up. It is what he doesn't write and illustrate that plays in your mind. You can draw your own conclusion.

Cardinals Rule!

I have an affinity for cardinals. And I am blessed to have a tree in front of my kitchen window/Mac where cardinals flock to in the cold months. As I write, there is one hopping all about that branch. So temporarily I lose sight of my writing, blog browsing, googling etc... And when they sing I am a goner.

My start in the art world began in second grade when I decided to paint every bird I could think of... on my dad's dry cleaning cardboard shirt inserts. I think I did about one-hundred of them.

I have this desire to write and illustrate with collage a picture book entirely about the birds I love because I think I would be in euphoria just conceiving it. Maybe it will be about me painting birds and what it meant to me.

Sounds quiet right now but that is alright.

But the little guy on this blog is ready to star (or co-star) in a book.


Or maybe it will go someplace else entirely...

How Holly Hobbie helps me

I love Holly Hobbie's Toot and Puddle series.

And while I clamber down and write my first draft of my new pb manuscript I stare not only at my samples for this book, but I nestle with Toot and Puddle.

Not only is Ms. Hobbie a funny and dry illustrator with a brave voice, she has a great way with language and word sounds in her sentences. Her sentences roll of the tongue. So I examine them in my own writing... my own way.

(First get your premise down to a few sentences and establish your set-up and have a few hooks. Put in a bad guy who is not so bad intentionally and make your boy mc a hero.)

Erk... Back to Holly... and what is really cool is that she is not young. But she is still going strong....

and she doesn't get talked about that much IMHO. Huh?

Love you Holly. You rock! And you delight your readers.

I am bored and when I get bored I

look at other illustrators sites and get ideas that take me out of my comfort zone.

So last weekend I attended my daughter's Parent's Weekend at UVa (home of Edgar Allen Poe who pretended he was rich but he was really po, Faulkner, Couric... Jefferson?!!) and Grisham's home town. We visited their small yet classy Art Museum. Of course we saw the Jeffersonian architectural drawings of all his campus "Grounds" buildings and quadrangle "Lawns" landscapes which are so beautiful and smart. And freshman here are not freshman. They are 'first year'. And sophomores here are not sophomores. They are 'second year' etc. etc.. And don't you ever forget that... you parents, you! But ooooh, ooooh, ooooh..what's this?

Did I see a coupla Goya? Original Hogarth? Original Odilon? Odilon of Poe(dilon)?

I did.

Yes, some of my favorite illustrators of yore were making appearances that weekend. I have always been a sucker for Goya because his simple illustrations tell stories. Pierrots. Pastiches. Pasquinades.

And Hogarth's while they are far from simple say multitudes about society and politics in yester England. I never imagined his Gin Lane and the Beer Street to be so 'libational.' Water in London and the like was not water back then. It was 'im'potable, impossible, unthinkable, undrinkable. So Hogarth made a caricature about how booze embodied and 'de'souled society.

The downfall of it all. Happiness in a glass. A glass half empty perhaps but nevertheless an underclass with a glass of libation and liberation even if fleeting.

But these illustrations are black and bleak.

So no...no!!

I've tried black and white but I can't seem to stick with it. I love color. Lots of color. Color is hope and ...

I must try something new. So I've looked at some of my favorite NEW illustrators and have decided to try these awesome monochromatic techniques. But I adore these artists who stay in one color range and I simply have to try it.

And more white space.

It is like writing for me. I love to try new things that I read that I love. I don't think I am ready to leave the picture book arena altho I would love to attack middle grade illustrations. As long as there is humor, heart, cleverness, structure and sophistication...

So tomorrow I have the day off. The day to finish that rough draft of my Halloween doll story since we are coming up on that Hallowed Day, the day to lay out the colors and ideas for portfolio illustrations and to scrutinize and fine tune my pig dummy. And maybe find a few new Mother Gooses to 'besterdize' my collection of Up in the Air Verses.

Lots of irons in the fire. But that is me...

And I started the art and it is going to be a fun challenge. Working in confines. Like writing picture books. I love challenge. That is creativity!

A kinder, gentler keyboard

Finally, a keyboard I can live with. And type with.

The kind that produces quiet clicks, a gentle touch and a springy action.

It feels good on the finger pads. It bounces the letters along.

It is responsive.

And I finished the dummy of an old and majorly overhauled script. Only took a few years but it is here and it is so much better than the original. I like it.

Progress.

I have a lot of irons in the fire and a few of them are gonna get bought. I know it.

Including this one if I can help it.

Thank you critique groups. Thank you editors.

Now back to retyping the manuscript on my new keyboard.

Guts

I want all of my characters to have real guts.

Maybe because I don't. I am too emotional. But I can give them what I have always wanted in myself.

So all of my characters will be heroes.

I finished a second page of my continued pb doll book...my Christmas story. I thought it would be easy in that I could just fill a template using the first, but no that is not true. 

These books look simple but there is so much going on not only in the plotting but the art. This is not a language driven story probably because it is first person. But the language is snappy and brisk and lyrical.

Now figuring how the individual dolls work in this one, the important doll and how to bring the spirit of Xmas thru. A challenge but a fun one.

I love writing and plotting and structure of such more than ever.  But my characters must be just as important.

Julie and Julia.

France.
Cooking.
Blogging
Trying to get published

Sunshine on my cathedral makes me happy

David Macaulay, the brilliantly talented author illustrator of Walter Lorraine fame is starting his own imprint. This can only be wonderful news (and there is so much depressing news) as great talent forges forth into management. I love this. I love him. I have so much to do.

My first writing teacher showed me
"Black and White" and hooked me into this insane business. This book made me what I am today. Anxious, excited, neurotic and a thinker. It also made me the brainchild of a gargoyle with sunshine on his cathedral...which was written for this class and has been written a million times. and maybe one day will be on published paper.

Color, and Black and White...or Grey?

After watching Ms.Persepolisse I've thought much about the interplay between color and black and white. Or ahem... grey for little Mister Gargoyle. And I found it!!

Roses are red, gargoyles are grey, this gargoyle can gargle his troubles away.

And troubles are grey most of the day. Except when I say hey, hey... thank you Marjan, thank you Peter Sis!! I had this idea all along and you just validated it!! But I am doing it my way.....I love you both soooooooooooooo much!!

This is going to be fun to try and get across in a dummy. Heh...heh...heh...............

Persepolis - Le film impeccable

Holy smokes! What a great movie! So well done and engaging. Great graphics and animation. I feel inspired to go out and write a graphic novel and then work with screenwriters and cinematographers and ...............just kidding.


Read it and then go see it...go see it...go see it!

I feel inspired to make something so magnificent; one brain celluloid at a time.


Yikes.