(Inside A Black Apple)

One of These Days, I'll Sail in a Sea Monster Carriage

(A detail of a painting)

I've realized that an awful lot of my work is about improved & more spectacular modes of transportation (Dream Animals is about this, in a big way.)

And I've been thinking about what my impetus is to make pictures and stories, and I never come to anything more elaborate than the simplest reason:
"I just wish this (person/place/thing/Sea Monster Carriage) was real."

But that's why we make anything, right? Besides necessity, it might be the only reason.
And even if it doesn't conjure up the wished-for thing, it's the next best consolation prize to have a picture of it, or a story about it.
The souvenir, rather than the visit.

I wish we could travel by bear rather than bus. I wish we could sail in a sea monster carriage instead of putter down the street in a station wagon.
Until we can, I'll keep stealing snapshots from the better place.

The Sound of the Sea

Ahoy there,

One of the things I am working on right now are paintings and things for a Seafaring show in October with my friends at Land gallery. I wanted to scan a few pencil sketches, something I hardly ever think to share (because I generally consider them a preporatory step and hardly ever think to scan or photograph them.)

I've been drawing wistful girls and tearful mermaids and even with a nice dose of sea monsters, it's shaping up to be a most melancholy series of work. The ocean is like that, isn't it? It thrills us so much to be close to its endlessness & mystery, but it's the same vastness that feels so lonely.

I hope you have a nice week ahead! I plan to spend mine tangled up in coral branches and handsome sailors and swimming monsters and nudie mermaids.

(There are worse things.)

Out of the Woods Originals Posted

I just listed all 15 paintings for sale in my shop! Hop over for a look.

Boy Beekeeper

Boy & Bee      8"x10"     Acrylic on wood

This is the last little painting to sneak into this collection of pieces.
A dapper little beekeper!

I'm nearly done framing all the paintings, and nearly ready to announce a time & date for the update (when all of the originals will be posted for sale.) I've been getting so many inquiries about this new work (thank you!) so watch right here for the update announcement in the next day or so. If you're not familiar with how I post my original work for sale, I'll let you know exactly how it works.

And thank you also for the awfully kind comments about Dream Animals! It's so nice to start talking about the book and to see excitement start building beyond the small team of us who worked on it.

Dream Animals

I was thinking I'd wait a bit before I posted the cover here, but lately the book keeps popping up here and there (the Publisher's Weekly Fall Previews, plus it's pre-orderable at Amazon & B&N!) These little hints decided it was time.

Remember these snippets? They come from this book, my very first picture book.

Dream Animals is, as the subtitle suggests, a bedtime journey (or series of journeys, really.) In it, a new dream-myth is born, and animals as old as time (and dreams themselves) carry each small dreamer to their own particular (and spectacular) dream.

You can catch a glimpse of one interior illustration by following the Publisher's Weekly link, but I wish I could share it all! Waiting to share more of the insides (and waiting for people to be able to hold the real, bound books) is so hard. This is my third time at this particular kind of rodeo, and I feel more impatient than ever. I think it's because I'm so terribly excited about the October release of Dream Animals and it makes me quite rabbity and twitchy to wait.

I can't wait to share more, more, more as October draws closer!
* Furred, or finned, or feathered...your dream animal is waiting. *

Out of the Woods, or How We Quit The Forest

Out of the Woods, or How We Quit The Forest   11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood

There are many reasons for the girl and the creatures to pack their bags and go, but I can't imagine any reason good enough to leave the woods unless under you were in serious danger or distress.

 How We Quit The Forest is the name of a favorite album of mine, and I'd been thinking of a loosely related painting for years and years (though what happens in the song is mostly between an ostrich & an egret and doesn't have too much to do with this picture at all.)

Of course, this painting will be part of the big update of original work happening in the next few weeks. And it's the title piece - I think Out of the Woods is a good title for a collection of paintings like these, about the wild & the ordinary intertwining.

Be assured, I'll let you know the exact time & date as soon as I'm able!

♥

Boris Plays the Mandolin

An earnest bear musician before the weekend.

Boris Plays the Mandolin    8"x10"    Acrylic on wood

Is there a more endearing instrument than the mandolin? In college, my friend picked up a hitchhiker and I wasn't sure it was really such a good idea. Then I saw his mandolin, and thought - well, how bad can he be? It wasn't my decision anyway, so I also thought: lemons/lemonade.

(It all turned out fine, by the way, but I do strongly advise against young girls picking up stray, rambling men, regardless of what instrument they play.)

Happy weekend - I hope yours is a nice one!

PS: The new work will be available very soon - thank you for all your emails & questions about them. I need to finish up a few things & frame the paintings, but I'll post a time & date for the update soon!

Masked Evaline with Floral Wallpaper

Masked Evaline with Floral Wallpaper     11"x14"   Acrylic on wood

Never enough bears, never enough bandits.

And that wallpaper! The wallpaper is based on a beautiful & real design (despite the fact that it seems too pretty to be real.) It papers a room in the little house of someone I know.

I've had such a nice time painting wallpapers that I think I might do a set of cards with wallpaper-ish patterns sometime this year. In all my free time.

Two (maybe three) more paintings, and then this series will be finished with (for now, anyway.) I'm thinking of naming it Out Of The Woods.

The Death of Cock Robin

Who killed Cock Robin?
"I," said the Sparrow,
"With my bow and arrow,
I killed Cock Robin."

The Death of Cock Robin     14"x11"x1"     Acrylic on wood

I love the famous (and excellently macabre) nursery rhyme Who Killed Cock Robin. There are a lot of variations and expansions on it, too, and many illustrated little books of the story from the 19th and early 20th century from dozens of different illustrators.

No matter how many exist, I think (because I'm crazy for Mr. Potter) that the most grand and beautiful illustration of the poem is the Walter Potter tableau.

I'd really like to do an expanded Cock Robin series some day, but for now, this is my imagining of the last lines (my favorite part):

All the birds of the air
Fell sighing and sobbing,
When the heard the bell toll
For poor Cock Robin.

Thank you for all of your kind words about the new paintings! See you soon with a few more before this series draws to a close.

Happy weekend!

Flying By Night

There are lots of nighttime travels via various animals in my next picture book, but except in a tiny cameo (much to my chagrin) we didn't manage to include a bat.

So this is me, setting things right.


Flying By Night     11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood

Bats are getting their day in this new series of paintings!

Over fir forests, with the faintest pink of dawn creeping in. Just the most lovely dream (or thing to do while everyone else is dreaming.)

 

A Boxing Match

Fisticuffs!

A Boxing Match    14"x11"x1"    Acrylic on wood

(as always, you can click to enlarge a bit)

First, I have to confess to a hopeless crush on old-fashioned boxers (ie: Ron Swanson's steakhouse poster is one of my favorite things about Parks & Recreation.) Secondly, I am a known bear-fan, so there we have it: two loves in battle.

The last week has been very wonderful and very busy and otherworldly: I had a pie-party, left my twenties behind, and visited Snow White.

Now I'm setting back to work at finishing the handful of paintings left to complete this series. When they're ready, I'll be having an enormous update with over a dozen new paintings and possibly/probably some other treasures.

More pictures & further dispatches soon!

Tattooed Lady, Flora

Tattooed Lady, Flora     11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood

A companion of sorts to the illustrated lady featured in the last portrait! What could be nicer than to carry a garden with you, always in bloom, even in the darkest Winter?

I've gotten a few emails about when these new paintings will be available, and I'm hoping for early March! In the meantime, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, framing to do, etc.

Oh! And Stay tuned for some personalizable Valentines in a day or two.

Happy Monday!

Tattooed Lady, Rara Avis

Since this group of paintings seems to be about the intertwining of the wild world and the ordinary one, I thought there should be portraits with skin inked in beautiful tattoos of natural things.

Tattooed Lady, Rara Avis     11x14x1    Acrylic on wood

I've actually had this rare bird in my mind for a long time, and now she is here. There is another of these portraits already finished - a companion of sorts. She'll be up here soon!

Right now I am off to make and send some valentines...I am woefully behind this year, but I have faith in my stores of glitter and red envelopes.

Happy weekend!

Common Black Squirrel with Ribbon

Common Black Squirrel with Ribbon     8"x10"     Acrylic on wood

A dapper little squirrel (I love black squirrels, they seem so otherworldly) and a couple of portraits I'm really excited about coming up! I'm in such a work-mode that it's hard for me to tear myself away for anything, even scanning & sharing the paintings.

See you soon!

In the Spring, She Married a Bear

 I feel like I could ramble for a long time about this painting, so I'll leave it alone and just say: I am fond of it & here it is.

In the Spring, She Married a Bear     11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood

I thought you might get portrait hypnosis, so I thought I'd share something more scenic.

Thank you for all your kind words about the new work! It's been a really nice rabbit hole to fall down, and I don't plan on coming out of it for a good little while.

Happy Weekend to you!

Portrait with Pet Bat

Portrait with Pet Bat    11"x14"x1"     Acrylic on wood

There's a nursery/nonsense rhyme that turns up in several of my old children's books (Mother Goose & elsewhere) which goes:

Bat, bat,
Come under my hat,
And I'll give you a slice of bacon;
And when I bake
I'll give you a cake,
If I am not mistaken.

I'm not sure if she lured him with bacon, or how exactly they got to know each other, but whatever treats she promised him aside: How nice to have a docile little bat to perch on your hand!

I wonder what his name is? Morris? ...or Mervyn? ...or Melvin?

More new pictures for your viewing amusement very soon. Illustrated ladies...forest weddings...beasts wild & tame.

Bear Disguise

Bear Disguise    8"x10"x1"     Acrylic on wood

I love how simple and still this ursine girl portrait is. This is another new painting from this series of wild things and mild-mannered things masquerading and creatures who might not be what they seem.

I've been hard at work on this new work for a little while now, and there's a not-unsizeable stack of pictures ready to be shared. More portraits, but scenes, too.

I promise it's not all bears.
(But there are a lot of bears.)

Stay tuned!

Ursa Minor

Ursa Minor     11"x14"x1"     Acrylic on wood

Where have I gone to?

I've been making paintings and being very hermitty and that feels very right in the dark cold of January.

Ursa Minor is part of a series of work that has begun coming together rather organically. It's one of those things that might result in 10 pieces, or 15, or...? There's not much lovelier than when a bunch of pictures swimming in my head start to tell some kind of story together.

This particular story seems to be about the wild and ordinary intermingling, the woods and the domestic all woven together.

I'll take you further & further into the story as the paintings come along!

New Picture Book Peeks

I'm a happy rabbit today. Why?

Because I just finished turning in all the art for my next children's book! And since I can't share the full drawings and paintings just yet, I thought a bunch of snippets would be fun to post in celebration.

These puzzle pieces are little bits of much larger scenes - I wonder what kind of story you might stitch together from only looking at these?

I can't wait to share more of this project! It's been with me for the better part of the past year, and I'm so excited about it. I wanted my first picture book to be a really special project, and I think (I hope!) this one is.

I'll share more as I can - it is slated for release in Fall '13.
So this time, next year, it'll be here. (Hooray!)

I hope you're having a lovely October!

Cartoon Emily / XOXO

I made these little Emily-cartoons to illustrate the short talk I gave this past weekend at the XOXO Conference here in Portland. The day I spoke was all about the stories of creators who had built something on their own terms, and these little drawings served to help me illustrate the beginning of my story.

 

 

Clockwise, we have (briefly):

1.) Fresh out of art school, I assumed I'd have to work in the service industry.

2.) And I did. But I also worked on creating The Black Apple at night.

3.) When, at last, I was working for myself, I was able to wander where my heart desired and make anything my heart desired.

4.) The only problem is, sometimes there are too many things I want to make!

Gathering up all my courage to give the talk to hundreds of XOXO folks was tricky, but I'm happy I did. And giving a lot of thought to how things began and how things have grown and changed since I graduated from art school in 2005 was a nice reminder that I've been doing something with my time, lo, these past seven years!

We spent most of Saturday afternoon at the festival, where ebullience and enthusiasm very nearly shimmered in the air.  People were very kind and excited to be there, and the warmth with which Andy & Andy organized the whole shebang reverberated in everyone's good spirits and up into the rafters of the beautiful old brick building that housed it.

I think all of the talks will be online eventually, and I'll be sure to post when they are. I'm pretty certain the talk went smoothly (I hope it did?). Also pretty certain I'm the only speaker to refer to both Art School Confidential and The Velveteen Rabbit, which will scarcely surprise you.

Foxglove

Foxglove   11"x14"   Acrylic on wood

Here is the final flower-lady in this series - the truest fairy flower, Foxglove. I was re-reading Jane Eyre recently, and there's a part in which she talks about looking for fairies among the Foxgloves, and deciding, since she couldn't find them, they must've left and gone somewhere more wild. Just perfect.

The ones in this painting are a lot like the gigantic apricot variety I grew this year, which I liked, but I'm looking for some dwarf varieties for next year, too. I think it would be really sweet to have some towering five feet high and then have some little ones barely up to your knee.

There are lots of flowers that were left out of these portraits (Hellebore, I couldn't figure you in, somehow!) so perhaps there will be more in the future? I'm sure, by hook or by crook, blooming things will find their way into lots of things I make for the foreseeable future.

Now that all of the portraits have been previewed, the shop update with the originals will take place soon. I have gotten quite a few kind emails asking about when they'd be up for sale - I am thinking about this Friday or next Monday. I'll make up my mind and announce the exact time & date soon!

Happy Monday to you!

Wild Strawberry

Wild Strawberry     11"x14"     Acrylic on wood

Second to last flower girl! I know little white strawberry flowers aren't the showiest, but they gladden my heart every June, so I thought there should be representation with the flower ladies (plus, a twining bunch of little red-gem berries never made anything worse.)

Next up, early next week...Foxglove!

Happy weekend to you!

Wild Rose

Wild Rose    11"x14"x1"     Acrylic on wood

Though I'm not sure Wild Rose really "matches" the other flower girls as far as color, mood, etc., I couldn't imagine her any other way. It's fine - they don't all have to fit together perfectly. She and her bright scarlet blooms and little squirrel friend are company enough.

Although, I have been wondering: if I make a postcard set of these images and edit the designs down, which flower girls will belong there?

There are two more paintings left to share, for now at least. And then all the originals will be released for sale (I will, of course, post the time & date here, in advance.)

I hope your week has been going along nicely!
Back with more, soon.

English Rose

English Rose    11"x14"x1"     Acrylic on wood

Hello there!

This fair-haired miss is one of the two rose-girls that will round out this group of flower paintings. This one (inspired by my favorite roses, David Austin's Carding Mill rose) is very quiet and gentle and so very graceful. The next one is a very different sort of rose. More on that front soon.

I'm excited it's the weekend, even though I usually work straight through them. I think we'll go see Brave tonight or tomorrow. Little rough-and-tumble archeress and bears? How could I resist?

Josiah read a review that said the film was a step back for Pixar, artistically (meaning, it's not as innovative.) But isn't it a not-insignificant step forward that it is their first film in thirteen total that has a female protagonist? I nearly cried when I put that together. They make such clever movies, but they couldn't get it together 'til now to make a clever movie about a girl? So I want to support it for that reason alone.

Well, that and the bears.

Primrose

Primrose    11"x14"x1"     Acrylic on wood

Primrose was very persnickety for me to grow, and so here, too, she is demure and lovely but also (I think) a little persnickety. Their quaint little rainbow blooms are so sweet, but when I had primrose plants, I couldn't find the right conditions to keep them happy.

I'm getting close to wrapping up this little series of work (at least, for now!) There are three or four more paintings in various stages of completion, though, so there's more to see here before the series is up for sale. It's also entirely possible/likely that I will make more like these in the future, after I've had a break.

Summer is officially beginning (or Winter, depending on your whereabouts.) Noontime of the year and there's so much I still want to do! It feels like the seasons are speeding by. I know it's a cliche to ask "Is time moving faster?" but really...I think it is.