Recently sold cover art for a children’s science book done in 1994 for Penguin Random House Books for Young Readers.
Now considered vintage, these two books—The Ultimate Bug Book (1993) and The Ultimate Ocean Book (1995)—were published by Western Publishing Co. I painted the covers for both titles, while other artists and paper designers handled the interior artwork.
Could an image itself be a spell? This drawing began as a simple still life of skull, pinecone, and violets, but soon became an altar of intention. I explore how art can function as an operative image—more than illustration, a form of magic
When designing this piece, my intention was to call upon the children’s book design of the Art Nouveau era and the Eastern European aesthetic of the 1800s. I was thinking specifically of Alphonse Mucha, tinged with the character development quality of….
What I particularly enjoyed about doing this cover was envisioning the distant landscape from the treetops and canopy of the South American continental rain forest. I hope that the American kids who had this book in school enjoyed daydreaming about the faraway vistas in these lands. I hope it inspired them to dream about creating a better environmental future.
My “about” page mentions that I like to collect all kinds of specimens. Well, this old habit extends to dead birds and I use the found opportunity to indulge my love of drawing them....
When you’re a snail, time doesn’t really mean anything, does it? Perhaps it only matters when it’s getting that time to get under the leaves when it’s too cold. There’s a time to....
Certain art teachers over the years have said that any art we make is a kind of self-portrait. While the girl doesn’t really look like me, she contains my doubt and fear. I painted this close my graduation, so the academic robe and lab rat were deliberate choices….
My enthusiasm for doing the art for this title came from having read this story when I was in 4th of 5th grade. At the time, it seemed so adventurous, and so gritty. London’s storytelling was so sharp— I could smell the fresh snow and hear the dogs yelping.
Every year on Earth Day I think of this piece and how much I enjoyed making it and I wonder who and where it’s affecting the world right now.
A freelance cover for Aqueduct Press. I had a great deal of fun drawing and painting the figure especially. Making it look like it had been sculpted of weathered and stained stone was a wonderful challenge.
In my 1 year partnership in selling my work with art agent, Jane Frank, I’ve learned a lot about the market of art and the specificities around selling to buyers. One thing that’s come up in our conversations is why one should refrain from ever …
Llewellyn’s Astrological Calendar is one of those projects that many young fantasy illustrators seek to do at some point. I really enjoyed interpreting the astrological canon of the signs and found that my feminist filter caused me to …
Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d end up creating a brochure for the National Parks ….
The art that now lives in the frame started with an October walk through a section of the Appalachian Trail in Gardners, PA. There, I took a few reference shots of some mushrooms I saw, including these deadly…
With multiples, I wanted to promote the idea that we can create social justice and change when we work together in an interdependent way— that we needn’t continue to be alone or isolated.
So, my fun idea for the image was to imagine if these creatures were real, what natural environment and niche might they inhabit? I viewed them as pelagic creatures roaming in aether, floating gas giants possibly on a hydrogen-rich planet….
Where is she going? Where will she land? It’s much like the act of making any art. We leap and trust that we’ll land where we need to be. Are we safe? Not really, but that’s part of the thrill and delight of making art and making a life.
In my early grad school time at MICA, I was exploring the question of “gaydar” and whether someone could be recognizably LGBT. Was that a quality that could be painted or shown in a portrait if the sitter was pregnant?
The wizened gnome in this image was added after the paintings were submitted and published in The Old Farmer’s Almanac Calendar in 2010. Initially, the calendar art called for a woodland setting showcasing Maidenhair Ferns. Ok, so then what do you do with the art?
Another cover done for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, under the excellent art direction of Gordon Van Gelder. The story is called “The Cat Bell”, by Esther Friesner, and it’s a Puss-in-Boots kind of story with a really fun ending.
A Girl and her Dragon decide it’s much more fun to read and look at old books than it is to fight about silly things.
The scent of leather and oil and the rumble of the machine will be irresistible. The Muse and her sidekick will take you for a ride. Sunscreen a necessity. No need for matches.
My agent suggested that I try my hand at anthropomorphizing a few of my favorite animals to see if I could make a transition into the narrative side of the children’s market. Aside from medical illustration, opportunities to work in hard science illustration were becoming…
One of 40 drawings I made for my thesis exhibition, the focus of each of the images was to subvert or disentangle the meaning of a particular story, fairy tale, or cultural mythology. In this case, I decided to have some fun with the reputation of a rather sacred cow, er… rodent….
Started in 2003 while I was still at YCP, I didn’t get the impetus to finish this piece until my first year of grad school in 2007. I’m not sure why it languished in my studio for a few years. Sometimes the Muse is off wandering in the desert (I like to think she was at a jazz festival in Palm Springs).
I created a group of paintings during the early 2000s which I lumped together in a group I called “Contested Bodies”. It was my way of processing a lot of what I was getting in my feminist thought classes…
This image was inspired by a poem by Adrienne Rich, Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law. The line that so struck me goes like this: “She shaves her legs until they gleam like petrified mammoth tusk.” It speaks about the habits and traditions given to us from our mothers, behaviors we’d barely questioned or given a passing thought…
During the latter part of this year, I embarked on several new works that seemed to come out of nowhere, sigil paintings rooted in apotropaic symbolism and the Eye of Providence.