People People People!

I love People. Most of the real ones, but I'm talking about drawing here! All my life, I've drawn little People (and robots, but that's a different story and goes without saying, I mean, who doesn't like drawing robots?!) and followed their little adventures. Maybe it comes from a childhood spent moving around alot and always feeling like the new kid. Maybe it has a tiny bit to do with my giant, rowdy family of brothers and sisters, but I generally feel like all people everywhere are up to something interesting possibly all of the time. By that, I mean, more interesting than me. So, I draw People. Usually smiling or a little blank (so that the rare frowners really stand out!), basically looking around at other things. I like putting them next to eachother so they look at eachother sometimes... Or away from eachother if that is more interesting. Drama! Awkwardness! People are mysterious and wonderful.

I love to draw People. Made up ones are the best because they can't say "Hey! I don't look like that!" They just DO look like that. A few years ago, I started drawing People holding hands and really liked the experience of switching them out so they held hands in a random chain. It was comforting, and a little unsettling at the same time. This is a combination which I super like times a thousand. Comfort and Nervousness. That's what you feel when you hold a stranger's hand. Or even a friend's hand for the first time. A comfort in the connection, a nervousness in the vulnerability and realization that they feel like you do. That skin is skin and warmth is warmth. Holding hands is powerful stuff.

So, I started drawing that alot. I sent those drawings to my friend and publishing mentor, Andrea, at Chronicle Books. She liked them enough to contact me later and say, "Hey! Why don't we make a big floor puzzle out of this! You know, for kids!"

I got to spend a few months drawing People from "Around the World". Some of them in folk costume for visual flair, some of them dressed for the everyday life of that country. Its impossible to "represent" something as diverse and complex as an entire nation so I didn't really try. I just drew People. People that came to mind as I looked at pictures of local People. Or read articles about countries that are so beyond my personal experience that they can't help but feel like magical places. Of course, they are not fairytale realms but honest locales made of dirt and stone and concrete and glass. Places that are in some cases harsh. Places that are the depositories of some of this world's great cultural masterpieces. Places where People live real lives and do everyday things.

People that have skin and warmth and whose hands feel exactly the same as mine.

Chronicle and I went back and forth and really collaborated on what would become the final project which was an amazing experience for someone as green as me to the whole publishing world.

Well, they just sent me the results of that process in the mail and I'm so excited. I've never made anything that I'm so proud of in my whole life.  I just absolutely love it. Thank you thank you to Andrea, Naomi, Amy and Aimee. Your work and skill paid off masterfully and it looks beautiful.

This is the first time I've ever had my name on the front cover of anything, which is perfect because its about People that don't know eachother holding hands like friends. That is my super most favorite thing times a thousand.

Getting That Feeling

He fell into the black. Lights drifting amongst the great shapes that hid in the perilous deep. He fell until he rested on the soft mattress of death and refuse at the ocean floor. For a long time, he didn't move at all.

Daydream Sunbeam

The name of this blog comes from a story about a robot that was shot to earth out of a cannon. At the moment it fell into our atmosphere, in the midst of a glorious sunset, an old man happened to be asking himself a very important question. The fires of entry around that small intergalactic visitor gave one beam streaking from the sun the appearance of wandering askew from its brothers and sisters. The old man had his answer and shed a tear for loves gone by.

"Goodnight, my Daydream Sunbeam."