all time most embarrassing picture of me

Not too many people have found the all time most embarrassing photo of me yet. It's hidden deep within my website - somewhere. A few people have found it, but fewer than expected. I guess I did hide it very well...... I'm not about to give any hints...

PS - I just did.

Let me know if you find it. It's my 9th grade student ID.

www.studiojjk.com

The Career Cookbook

Last summer I was interviewed by the Career Cookbook - (here) Since then, I have become friends with the site's creator Paul Maniaci and have put him in touch with some friends who are doing cool stuff (both inside and outside of the publishing biz). Check out some recent interviews-

Chad Beckerman - children's book art director

Alvina Ling - children's book editor

Rebecca Sherman - children's book agent

Becky Birnholz - designer for Puma

the making of "Punk Farm"

So back when I relaunched my website last winter, I created a link from the sketchbook section called "The Making of Punk Farm". The thing was, I hadn't created that little bit of the website. I figured I'd get it done in a few weeks. But - I never had the time. Until now.

So to see how Punk Farm went from ideas on a sketchbook (When I didn't even realize it was Punk Farm yet) to the finished book, check it out -

www.studiojjk.com/makingofpunkfarm.html

preview My Buddy, Slug

The preview movie for My Buddy, Slug is up and ready for viewing! Check it out at www.studiojjk.com/mybuddyslugpreview.html

the 12th of June

June 12th is a significant date for me - because on June 12, 2001, my first book - Good Night, Monkey Boy was published. Which makes today Monkey Boy's (and my publishing career's) 5th anniversary. These past 5 years have flew and I've enjoyed every moment of creating, reading, traveling and everything that has come with this game of publishing. Needless to say there are so many people that have made this possible for me - my family, my friends, everyone at my publisher who has continually backed me up, all of my readers and librarian friends and of course most recently, too - my agents and everyone involved with the DreamWorks project.

And another reason why the 12th is a big number for me - 3 months to the date until My Buddy, Slug is published!!!

my brother's video

Last fall, I was honored when my younger brother asked if he could do a video on my life and work for his media project. It was the final project for the class and it had to focus on a member of his family. Rich wanted to talk about how I grew to be successful, along with the circumstances of my childhood. He used some outtakes from The Punk Farm Book Tour movie and shot additional video of me painting and us talking at my house. Why he wore a mullet wig, I don't really know. But I'm sure you may be asking yourself, too - why would I own a mullet wig in the first place? I guess both could be answered with a simple - "Why not?" At any rate - here's the video - I think he did a great job putting it together.


Watch it here.



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be one of Punk Farm's friends

If you are old enough to have a MySpace account, "friend" them up at www.myspace.com/punkfarm.

in the Boston Globe today

check out the Boston Globe article .

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.

the librarians at Ellsworth Public Library in Wisconsin know how to party.

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

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....)

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!

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.

photos from the URI show

Kelly Murphy and I are about as gangsta as you can get...

Jen and Erin representin' HITWGC!

'99 Represent! (don't look too closely at Evan's moustache...it may hypnotize you and overpower you....)

with Mary Jane Begin and Christopher Denise

For all you RISD kids out there, you'll be happy to know that 'Gallery Guy' was in attendance...for those of you who don't know this guy, 'Gallery Guy' (also known as 'Sample Man') mysteriously turns up at every opening at RISD and takes a look at all the art, while munching on whatever cheese or crackers that is there. But apparently it's more than just RISD...he is an enigma...this has been going on for years...

show in RI this thursday

hey everyone-

i'm in an art exhibit this thursday at uri. the opening is from 6-8. if you're around, stop by. the show is up until april 28th.

more info here

lucky.

As one could imagine – yesterday was a crazy day for me. The news officially broke that Dreamworks Animation has acquired the rights to develop and produce an animated CG film based on Punk Farm. It made the cover of Variety!

Thank you everyone for the messages, phone calls – everything! It all started at 8:30 in the morning when my phone rang and it was my old college buddy Steve (who had gotten a call from our friend Sean – who had read about it on comingsoon.net). The e-mails and phone calls of support didn’t stop until late in the evening. There were a lot of "Whoa's", "Woo Hoo's" and other "W" words as well as a lot of exclamation points and words in ALL CAPS!!!

I am truly a lucky man. Not just because of the great news but because of the amazingly supportive family that I have and because of all of the great friends that I’ve been able to surround myself by in life.

In the midst of this activity yesterday, I received a package from my friends down in Texas – J and Tendel. They wanted to share with me the goodie bag that had been given away at Isaiah’s 5th birthday party. Included was a CD of family friendly punk music. I listened to the CD as I ate lunch. And then, to my surprise, the last track wasn’t a song, but Isaiah reading Punk Farm.

It made everything that I’ve been working towards so worth it. And it will serve as a reminder to me as to what is real and important.

To listen to Isaiah reading Punk Farm, click here.

ready for my close up.....

BIG NEWS!!!