Laurent Linn at Hollins!

Laurent Linn, Art Director at Simon and Schuster was our visiting Art Director this year at Hollins University - what a treat! Laurent and I go way back, so it was lovely to see my friend again. And as usual, he was absolutely wonderful with our students! He gave one-on-one portfolio critiques to the 'seniors' in our Certificate in Children's Book Illustration program and our MFA in Children's Book Writing and Illustrating program. I sat in on the critiques as the scribe and took notes for our students so they wouldn't have to be distracted with that. It was so nice to see the slick portfolios and hear Laurent's valuable feedback.
     In the middle of all that, he gave a behind-the-scenes talk... for his new book, Draw the Line.Lots of people bought a copy, including me. I'll be carrying mine on the plane back to Edinburgh. Can't wait to dive into it!One of our students has been getting signatures of all our visiting dignitaries, so Laurent had to add his John Hancock to it! (I pushed a button on my camera and now I'm getting panoramic photos - not on purpose, but kinda cool!)Another student has everybody sign an apron. Here is Ruth Sanderson, me, and Laurent. I also had the great pleasure of showing Laurent around adorable Roanoke - we had a lovely time! I wish I could hang out with my dear friend more often. For now, I'll relish the time we had!
BONUS MOMENT! At Amanda's last hurrah party (also known as the 'clean out your fridge' party), Tony pulled out his collection of Punch and Judy puppets for Laurent - how AWESOME was that!? We got silly.