Cricket Magazine

I was recently given an illustration assignment by Cricket Magazine for the mystical story of a Hopi boy in the late 1600s, "The Tomorrow Seeds" by Diane L. Burns, to be published in the September 2012 issue.

It's an honor to be published in this classic children's magazine that has published so many illustrators whose work has been an inspiration to me.

SCBWI-Bologna 2012

What a thrill to have my illustration selected to be in the SCBWI-Bologna 2012 Illustration Display Portfolio. The work will be displayed at the SCBWI Showcase during the 2012 Bologna Children's Book Fair in Bologna, Italy, which runs from March 19th through the 22nd. This is the promotional piece I submitted.

The Hive Gallery: Open Theme Show

The red-purple-gold colors in my previous Illustration Friday post inspired me to use a similar color palette for the piece that I painted for the March Hive Gallery show.


The Hive Gallery opening reception: Saturday, March 3, 2012, 8 p.m.–12:30 a.m. Show runs through March 31st.

Illustration Friday: Popularity

Sometimes you have to turn your back on the crowd and allow yourself to fly away.

The Hive Gallery: Lullabies and Nightmares

“Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight,
Make me a child again just for tonight.”

                             —Elizabeth (Akers) Allen, 1832–1911

These lines were the inspiration for my painting for the “Lullabies and Nightmares” featured exhibit of children’s illustrators at the Hive, which I co-curated with my two talented illustrator friends, Joan Charles and Marci Hersel.

I found the frame in an antique store in Sebastopol, California over the Christmas holiday while visiting my old art school friend, who writes the fabulous Tattered and Lost blog.

The Hive Gallery opening reception: Saturday, February 4, 2012, 8 p.m.–12:30 a.m. Show runs through February 25th.

Los Angeles Times Kids' Reading Room

This is my illustration for the Los Angeles Times Kids' Reading Room for Sunday, January 8th. What to do when you're a princess with very unprincesslike behavior? Read the charming story, "What's Wrong With Winifred?", by Joan Strauss.

The Hive Gallery: Tarot 3

I was invited to contribute a painting for the Tarot custom card deck that the Hive will be printing in conjunction with its third annual Tarot show. The Major Arcana cards were assigned to the artists at random. After the initial shock of seeing "Death" next to my name, I decided to think of the Death Card as the rock star of the deck—the one card that everyone is aware of. And afraid of getting. Of course, the card  is not about a physical death but about transformation and rebirth. Here is my version: the beauty of the spirit emerging from the bare bones of the past.

The Hive Gallery opening reception is Saturday, January 7, 2012, 8-12:30 a.m. Show runs through January 28th.