Hello! It’s already mid-September and school is in full swing, but summer weather is just starting here in the bay area. I hope wherever you are, the weather is treating you right. In this month’s newsletter there’s a quick look inside my new book A Language of Stitches, a glance at playful student work, a reminder about my online class and news of my upcoming art show. I hope you enjoy. Let’s get into it…

Pictures & Words

Here’s a sneak peak inside A Language of Stitches: The Radical Quilts of Rosie Lee Tompkins. This spread depicts Rosie’s journey from Gould, Arkansas to Richmond, California. Like many African Americans, she was a part of the great migration. She left the south, first moving up north, then out west. She arrived in Richmond and began stitching together a new life.

I had so much fun working on this map of the USA that I forgot to leave enough room for the text. Thank goodness for the “magic” of technology and wonderful art direction by Melissa Greenberg. This image is created from color pencils and gouache.

Inspired by Picture Books: A Daily Practice of Creative Prompts

Picture books can inspire creativity for all ages. This daily practice will spark your imagination with prompts for making art based on a new picture book every day. You’ll make something new each session. It’s online so you set the pace. Inspired by Picture Books is a class for curious creatives of all ages.

Inspired by Picture Books is available on Creativebug.com. A subscription to Creativebug is like a Netflix subscription, but for your creative soul. So worth it! Creativebug is also available through your local library.

Art in School

How do artists get serious about play?

In first and second grades we are learning about Sister Corita Kent. We read Signs of Hope: The Revolutionary Art of Sister Corita Kent by Mara Rockliff with glorious illustrations by Melissa Sweet. We made word collages and our own viewfinders to help us focus.

Sister Corita invented the word “Plork” Play + Work. She was a teacher who inspired her students through experimentation, close looking and celebrating with joy.

In the upper grades we are getting serious about play by using chance. Each mark on the drawing was dictated by a roll of the dice. Students let chance create their drawings. But they decide on scale, color and composition. First, students used a game board I created, then they created their own game boards.

Fun fact: A 3rd grade teacher and her student rolled the same number in five out of their six rolls. There’s a 5:7776 chance that would happen! The probability is 0.0643%. Amazing! (Math according to AI - not me!)

Portrait of Art Teacher and Book drawn by a Kindergarten artist. That’s me, if you couldn’t tell, and Blue: The Many Ways I Feel, one of the books I illustrated (I think it’s quite accurate).

Studio News

Thank you in advance for pre-ordering your copy of A Language of Stitches. And thank you for sharing the pre-order information with everyone you know!

Pre-orders are a good indication of a book’s potential success. Good pre-order sales inspire confidence in retail buyers. Every pre-order goes a long way toward helping the book succeed!

I truly appreciate your support.