Sunday, May 28, 2006

Art All State

I had an amazing weekend at Art All State this past weekend. I've been going to A.A.S. for a while now as an artist mentor and it just gets better and better every year. It's just such a great experience to reconnect with young artists. They are all finishing up their junior year of high school and they always remind me of what it was like to be an artist at that age - unsure on your direction, being excited to be around other artists and finding pure joy in creating because you don't get to do it all of the time.

This year's group was no exception to the many talented artists that come through. I was paired up once again with my amazing co-artist mentor Shoham and we led the kids through a very cool installation - which was derived fully from their ideas. Here is the video that we created to document their experience (which was in the end played on the TV that is a part of the piece).

Studio 5 UP 4-life, people.



Friday, May 19, 2006

SCBWI in LA this August

Hey everyone - I'm excited to announce that I'll be a member of the faculty of the big fancy SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference in August. I'll be a keynote speaker on Saturday morning and then giving two break out sessions (one on Saturday, one on Monday). For more info, check it out here - http://scbwi.org/events.htm

Sunday, May 14, 2006

SUIT UP! - How I Met Your Moter - season finale

and if you look close enough - you'll see me in the backgroud at McClaren’s.....

Monday night, 8:30 PM EST - CBS

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/
(click on the preview for the season finale....)




Monday, May 08, 2006

the Boston Globe

If you live near Boston or can get the Boston Sunday Globe, look for the article on my work in the arts section next Sunday. I had a great interview with Globe reporter Cate in my studio a few weeks ago. If it doesn't turn up, check back in 2 weeks - but it should be there on the 14th.

UPDATE- the story didn't run this Sunday, but should in 2 Sundays.....I'll keep ya posted....

UPDATED UPDATE - the story is set to run on Wednesday May 31. Check it out on newsstands or at boston.comhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

I'm on imdb.com

So I've made it to the Internet Movie Data Base.... you know you've made it when.....

check it out.

4 months to go....

....until My Buddy, Slug is released! There are a lot of cool plans in the works to celebrate. Random House has done a lot of creative thinking and as time gets closer, I can't wait to tell you what they have planned. One thing that I can tell you is that I will be going out on tour for the book. Random House is organizing 3 cities, I'll be visiting some more local cities and then other places in other cities by invitation. So in all - I think there may be up to 10 cities involved in this SLUG tour... I'll tell you more later!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Texas!


So after a whirlwind week of a signing in Philly and an art opening in Providence, I boarded a plane for the Lone Star state. The Texas Librarian's Association was going on and I was making up school visits missed because of Hurricane Rita (I tacked on a few more schools as well). The coolest thing about getting down to Texas so often, is that my best friend from RISD grew up there and lives there. Jamie and her husband Jeremy are two of my favorite people on the face of the planet. They run a very successful business Imago Dei Gallery and will celebrate their 4th wedding anniversary at the end of May. So while a week's worth of school visits is hard work, I get to hang out with some great friends and their great friends who have now become great friends of mine as well.

I was honored by Baghead's permanent place on Sampson Elementary's new library mural and was also honored with some great drawings by kids that decorated Foster Elementary. When all was said and done, I probably spoke to close to 3,000 or so kids in the 6 days of visits I gave. It was also cool to have some friends and their kids come by to see the visits. Tyler and Timmy, whose parents are old family friends, came by and Isaiah came with his mom and sister and Mika came with her kids as well.





The real highlight for me during this Texas trip was our journey out to "the hill country". (Jamie has been talking about this place since we first met. She and her family go every summer.) Jamie and Jeremy's church had planned a retreat out to the Frio River and we stayed in these nice cabins. It was 5 hours west of Houston, so we drove through some towns that literally looked like they were from old western movies, towns that were built around railroads. I bought a cowboy hat at Buc-Cee's pit stop and oddly enough, I wasn't even self conscious about wearing it. I felt like a full out Texan. We went kayaking and swimming and it was a great getaway - no cell phone service, no internet... and if you fail to put suntan lotion on, you will pay for it. That Texan sun is ruthless! I had a few red stripes on my arms in places that I missed....










An all around great trip! I landed at about 1:30 AM (Flight delays are AWESOME!) And then I woke up to head down to Providence for RISD's illustration portfolio review. I saw so incredibly talented young artists. These kids will have books out in a few years, so watch outAnd now I need to kick the studio time into gear because I am revising what will be book #9! I've been working on a lot of research and I need to get work done before I head to NYC next weekend to see my friend Jonathan Weiner's art exhibit and I fly out to LA for a week for big important meetings.

And speaking of RISD, Jamie had this picture of our first day at RISD.