Best job ever - Illustrating children's books. Painting birds, bears, and fish wearing jackets and hats. I have illustrated 34 picture books so far.
I wrote my first picture book - Gingerbread Mouse, my favorite project ever, published by HarperCollins. Mouse moves into a gingerbread house and sees Christmas for the first time; the reader experiences Christmas from Mouse's point of view. I loved painting Mouse peeking out of her gingerbread window watching as the family hangs stockings and wraps packages around the tree. A yummy gingerbread cookie recipe is included in the book - for baking and gobbling after the story.
The Kensington Stobart Gallery featured my picture book art in a solo show in Salem, Massachusetts in 2013. It was great fun staging the show. "From Pencil to Print" included preliminary sketches along with finished paintings, focusing on the step-by-step process of illustrating a picture book. We included blank paper on an easel for visitors to create their own drawings, and we offered kids' and grownups' classes and projects focused on children's books.
I have featured my children's book art on snazzy items for sale in my online shop MAROOKAT. I love designing mugs, pillows, phone covers, clocks and other fun stuff. It is easy to add photos or drawings to Zazzle products -- try it sometime! Take a peek at my shop
I am also working on a new picture book story I wrote - a winter tale with a menagerie of unruly animals wearing sweaters and mittens, and I am creating folk art animal sculpture with paper mache, textiles, fabrics, and paint. Straddling the gap between reality and fantasy, as always....fantasy frequently taking precedence....
My Clients Include:
HarperCollins, Random House, Grosset and Dunlap, Scholastic,
Simon and Schuster, Pelican Publishing, Sterling Publishing,
Soundprints/Smithsonian Institution, Marvel Monkey Tales,
Hasbro Toys, Hands On Toys, Portal Publications, F.X. Schmidt,
Marcel Schurman, New England Technology Group,
Audubon Insectarium
My Projects Include:
Children's books, book covers, stickers, lift-the-flap books,
greeting cards, accordian greeting cards, posters, puzzles,
museum display posters, museum exhibit illustration, drawing
books, coloring posters, game board/box cover, children's craft
kits, advertising illustrations and line illustrations
for toy company.
Events and Art Instruction:
Solo art show, "From Pencil to Print", Kensington Stobart Gallery, Salem MA 2013
Art Instructor - Illustration Techniques, Illustration, Art Institute of Boston, Boston MA
Children's book illustration - Gingerbread Mouse, Be My Valentine, Peabody Essex Museum MA
"Drawing from Nature" program, "Writing with Pictures" program, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA
"Lights! Camera! Draw!" - teachers' conference program, writing with pictures, Hyannis MA
Christmas Tree book festival and presentation, Gingerbread Mouse, Concord Museum
Gingerbread Mouse reading and gingerbread house craft, Wenham Museum, Wenham MA
Presentation - Illustrating picture books,, Wenham Museum, Wenham MA
From "Bunny's Easter Hunt", Sterling Publishing
"A Present for Mama Bear", Scholastic
