Boris Lee's REMEMBER

Boris and I studied together in the MFA in Illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh. I have such fond memories of watching Boris work. This first picture of him is how I think of him, covered in pastels. It seemed an unusual choice of media at the time, but as Boris grew into it, I realized the pure genius of his work. So, I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to help him celebrate the publication of his first picture book, REMEMBER. It's not yet available in the USA, but I still wanted to share. All the way from Taiwan, Boris stopped by to tell us about his work and new book.
     PS: Fun factoid: Boris was the model for the father in my book, CROW NOT CROW!
     Take it away, Boris!

REMEMBER
第一本書
by Boris Lee
     When I was a little kid, I liked to be alone. I wasn’t interested in playing with other kids. Instead, wandering around the house and exploring the surroundings were the activities I liked to do. Day by day, I developed the habit of constantly observing the world and imagining the possibilities of life. Later, I expanded my imagination by reading books. I gained so much comfort and strength and excitement in stories. Therefore, I decided to become a story creator, since I wanted to inspire other people and share happiness as other authors did to me. After years of studying, I changed my career goal from a pure writer to a picturebook author & illustrator. In the beginning, I was intrigued by the image-text relationship, then I fell in love with the potential comforting effect of picturebooks. Hence, I made a decision to study Illustration MFA in Scotland.

Before my student days in Edinburgh, I thought being creative was to create works that were mysterious and enigmatic to the viewers, even though sometimes it meant the viewers couldn’t easily understand the works. However, my idea of creativity has had been changed in Edinburgh. Upon my arrival at Edinburgh College of Art, the city, the master programme and the people I met offered me a unique life experience. Meanwhile, I chose oil pastel to be my main material for executing creativity and imagination. I started to see and think things from new perspectives, as well as to express my ideas in a simpler and more direct way.

Now, in my opinion, being a creative person means being an inspirational person. To be inspirational, I believe it is less important to be a skilful artist to present visually detailed illustrations but to touch people with sincerity. In other words, I want to make people feel life, feel the emotions, feel themselves. In my picturebook Remember, I drew landscapes and the process of journeying with thick and heavy brushstrokes to convey the feelings, especially the feelings of loneliness and being left. The colours play another role in conveying the emotions and the meaning of the story. The text is short, as I want the readers to feel the story in illustrations. Although I did put some symbols and used metaphors in the book, not knowing them won’t stop the readers from understanding the book. It is the feeling that matters. Once I feel something, I start to be curious and to have questions, then I would imagine the answers, which would become stories. All stories and inventions are begun with a tiny feeling. A feeling will become an inspiration, and inspiration will lead to creativity, this is my belief. From e: There he is, still at it! :)

SUPER-Show at Winthrop Galleries!

Recently, we had an enormous event at Winthrop University - three art show openings on the same night! There was the "A Dream Deferred" show (based on the Langston Hughes poem, the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, and a Faculty Show. They were displayed in the Lewandowski Gallery, the Rutledge Gallery, and the Elizabeth Dunlap Patrick Gallery respectively. Charlotte artist (responsible for the "Black Lives Matter" street mural) Dammit Wesley curated the Dream Deferred show and acted as DJ for the evening. Here he is with Prof. Jesse Weser.The crowd was BIG - this photo doesn't do it justice.Here are the awards being handed out at the Juried Exhibit.And it was a BIG DEAL. Lots of artists and art lovers came all the way from Charlotte. There was even a proposal! (Thank goodness she said, "yes"!)Here is the new fiancé, Afton Brown, with her piece, "Diversity Hire." (She had a good night!)I also loved this piece by Shadae Tompkins.One of our students, Ethan H., played an enormous part in putting this show together and helping to hang it. Here he is with his favorite piece "TrapMental"..."TrapMental" is by Charlotte muralist Abel Jackson, who, it turns out, is the Godfather to another students, Marquila W. Here they are in front of his piece. There was so much amazing work, it was a truly spectacular evening. We need to combine openings like this more often. It was so much fun! If you're in the area, I do hope you'll get a chance to come by and see them. The shows will be open through March 7, 2022 at Winthrop University in McLaurin Hall and Rutledge. #ArtsWinthrop

Heidi Stemple's ADRIFT

We are all trying to find our individual peace and sanity in the midst of this pandemic. Heidi Stemple writes books, of course. Her latest picture book speaks directly to this feeling of separation that we've all been experiencing. She stops by to talk about it. Welcome, Heidi!

Heidi E.Y. Stemple
ADRIFT, illustrated by Anastasia Suvorova
Crocodile/Interlink Books
©2021

A few months ago, my significant other said to me, “I don’t get how you can drive for hours with no music on.” I had never had to put into words how a creative brain works before, so explaining it to him was revealing, even to me. A writer’s brain, I told him, is never still. It’s always working things out. Plotting, untangling, creating new… I need the quiet to allow my thoughts the space to wander in and out of, around, and through a story. It never feels that I am in control of the process. It feels more like I am observing my own creativity—watching, listening, taking mental notes.

I feel pretty lucky that I grew up in a family that valued creative thinking. Even as kids, my parents (author Jane Yolen and computer professor/birder David Stemple) encouraged us to be out in nature observing then writing and drawing about those observations. We often created field guides of real and fantastical creatures living on our 15-acre farm. So, for me, creativity and creative thinking has just always been part of how I move through the world. I didn’t start out writing as a job, but I have always written. During the pandemic, especially the early parts, it’s my impression that writers could be categorized into one of two camps: those who felt completely creatively blocked, and those who wrote like covid magically opened some flood gates and words just flowed out. There are lots of factors as to which camp people fell into, but I fell pretty solidly into the latter. I wrote a ton. I wrote for myself and I wrote manuscripts, some of which are, now, on their way to publication. I think this is partly because of something I say to friends who find themselves in various difficult situations (divorces, sicknesses, teenagers, pandemics, to name a few) and are worried about trying to write. Something I truly believe: the work will save you. Creativity (in my case writing, but this translates to all types of creativity) can be a life raft. It can be an escape hatch or a hiding place. I’m not saying you should be writing the great American novel if that’s not your thing. I mean allow the fears and sadness out onto the page. For me, that’s my ideal therapy. One of the things I wrote early in the pandemic was ADRIFT. It is now a gorgeous picture book illustrated by Anastasia Suvarova and published by Crocodile/Interlink Books. But, in the beginning, I wrote it because I needed to feel less alone. I needed someone to hear my fear and share it. I needed hope. And because I was taught at an early age to be fearless about creativity, I didn’t think too much about it -- I just wrote. This is not to say the words on the pages of the book are the words that I wrote in the first draft. We all know that’s not true. But, when I first let the words fall from my brain into my fingers and onto the keys of my computer, I didn’t do so with expectations and a marketing plan. I just allowed it. There is a certain freedom and pureness to that type of creative thought that I don’t think you have if you get too bound up right away in thoughts of publication. But, if you are in the habit of this free creativity—if you cultivate it and remain open to it, even if you are writing for an assignment (as I am now for a new book) your creative brain will take over and not allow you to overthink. How can you use this in your own creative life? First, don’t worry if you aren’t writing. The muse is never gone. She is patiently waiting for you to be ready. Be open. Offer yourself grace. Shut off your inner editor and critic. Write something just for you. Write a list poem. Turn your grocery list into a song. Enlist your kids or your friends to write something with you—pass it back and forth forwarding the plot. Make a field guide of real or fantastical creatures outside your home. If you are reading this, you are likely like me. Creativity is what keeps you sane—what gets you out of bed and walking forward. Even in hard times. Even when things feel dark or scary. I talk about quitting writing as a job at least once a week. I mean, it’s not exactly a regular paycheck (having just sold my 40-42nd books, you’d think I could rely on some income, but no…I’ll keep my day job as a literary assistant, thank you very much) and the constant rejection can beat you down. But, my brain isn’t wired to not create. I’ve got stories brewing that will eventually beg to be on the page. It’s who I am. It’s what I do. For now, if you need me, I’ll be sitting in the quiet, listening to the characters in my head.

Coloring Page Tuesday - Blue Footed Boobies in Love

     I love sharing cute animals in love for Valentine's Day, but I wanted to share unusual animals this year. Look them up before you color them—the Blue Footed Booby is a remarkably beautiful bird—especially when in love!
CLICK HERE for more Valentine's Day-themed coloring pages.
     Remember, I create my coloring pages to draw your attention to my books! For instance, my board book Merbaby's Lullaby!
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Just Thinking: January

Something to celebrate: Several pieces of lost art where found in 2021!

Hearts to the Best Comics of 2021!

Fun to see that Rock Hill, South Carolina is #12 in the country of "Boom Towns" according to the New York Times!

My friends at Cold Nose College have a new website and online dog training options! (They're awesome and world-renowned, so I highly recommend them!)

I love the New York Times' "The Year in Illustration" - the most memorable of the year. There are some really interesting pieces in there!

I love this quote: “Don’t forget, a human’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone operated on the basis of this awareness.

I think this definition of humor by George Saunders is clever: "Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to."

Check out this cool map at Atlas Obscura of all the crazy and wonderful things in the world.

I happen to think that Graffitti is one of the most underappreciated art forms; so I was happy to see this post from Atlas Obscura sharing stories of communities that were changed for the better by graffitti.

LOVED seeing a fellow University of Edinburgh classmate doing something so cool for the community with her art!

IAIA Gallery Show!

I'm thrilled to have been invited as a founding member of the newly formed International Association of Illustration Academics, the IAIA. To celebrate our launch into the world, we put together a gallery show... a virtual gallery show, framed around the importance of speculative research in all fields, including illustration. The show was put together by professors at the University of Newcastle Australia.It's a hog of a program to run (works best in Chrome), but it's worth your time to experience a very cool show in this innovative new way. There are two halls, one based on Practice-based work, and the other based on Speculative and Practice-led Research. A quick cover page shows you how everything works.Keyboard buttons help you navigate through the spaces. It really does look like a real gallery space...with a few differences. For intstance, you can look at artwork like you do in a gallery. Here is work by Ellen Weinstein. When you zoom closer, the artist's name pops up and you can click on it to read more information about the artist and the work. Some panels appear black at first glance, but when you zoom in closely on those, they are videos. Of course, being a virtual show opens up a world of possibilities. This shiny, glowing orb (on the right) is representative of an atom. On the far wall are pieces by my dear friend M.J. Begin's picture book, Ping Meets Pang. One over, I shared my protest poster turned children's book, My First Protest.These are just a few peeks at the amazing and important works in the show—There is so much more! CLICK HERE to experience your own "walk through" of this incredible show!

P.S. Some of the illustrators participated in a virtual discussion for the launch. Check it out on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/PhC1SN46kDU .

Video: Bad Seeds

This Best Animated Short by Claude Coutier is masterfully done and will make you think! Click the image to watch on Youtube:

Today in SOUTH CAROLINA!

Whaaaaaat!? Such a lovely surprise to awaken to snow today! Well, it's actually more ice than snow, and freezing rain. Not something to play in, but still pretty. And Stan spotted what has to be the state's only snowplow earlier! Wow.

Rebekah Lowell's THE ROAD TO AFTER

Rebekah was a student of mine at Hollins University and I'm thrilled to share that she is now publishing like crazy. I get to help share the love for her debut novel, called THE ROAD TO AFTER. She stopped by to tell us more about this important and personal story.

Creative Healing
by Rebekah Lowell
Living creatively is an act of bravery. It asks you to look at something differently than your first glance. It asks you to ask questions and look again, to look closer, to look deeper—to see if there is another way to see. Another way to think. Another way to feel.

As a child, I carried a sketchbook around and drew plants from the surrounding fields and gardens, then later, would ID them in my Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, and write their names next to their drawings. I spent more time in the woods, and in books, than any other place. I drew the landscape, its flora and fauna, and wrote stories in my head. When I arrived at RiSD years later, I found myself sketching those same stories out, about a girl near the river. The only time I thought I would do anything else other than become an artist and writer was when I considered being a horticulturist. Now I feel like I’ve combined my love of nature with my love of art and the written word, and I get to do the best of everything! (If I had been a horticulturist, I would have painted the plants, too.) I realize now, that when I began this story at Hollins University in 2016, I was not only finding a way to process my own trauma (ten years of captivity and domestic abuse), but that girl at the river of my childhood was trying to find her way onto a page. She wanted her story told. She was here with me at the water again, only now she was at a creek in Virginia—Tinker Creek, and she paid attention the way water finds its way around the jagged edges. Water is creative and she knew this. She showed me this. She also showed me seeds are creative, as well as birds, storms, and skies. To live creatively is to live bravely, to live resiliently. She knew this and she needed to share it with others. In The Road to After, Lacey is met with the challenge of resiliency straight on as she and her family rebuild their lives after trauma. Living with PTSD is not easy for her, and in this new world her creativity is stretched as she tries to move forward. She leans into nature to help her heal because nature is a gentle teacher. Lacey looks at a cicada and relates to the parallel of the insect shedding their exoskeleton. This way of seeing helps in her healing process and she wonders if she can become a new creature too, just like the cicada. She learns to look at things differently than her first reaction to them. Healing from trauma is a creative process because it’s different for everyone who walks the road to recovery. No one path will fit another. For Lacey, nature and her nature journal were her healing grounds to process her past, and healing is ongoing. For me, writing this book was part of my path and healing is also, still ongoing. I wander outside and ask nature how to heal, how to live creatively, and there on a path of wildflowers near a winding river, I find answers.

ParentSmart KidHappy Series still going strong!

I was thrilled to see Dr. Nerissa Bauer is still using the ParentSmart KidHappy book series written by Stacey Kaye, that I illustrated for Free Spirit many years ago: READY FOR THE DAY, READY FOR BED, and READY TO PLAY. She did a video about them - click the image to go have a look on Youtube!

Doris Abernathy R.I.P.

My dear friend Doris Abernathy (on the right) passed away just before the New Year at the age of 94. My novel, A Bird on Water Street is dedicated to her and her sister Grace Postelle (on the left), who sadly passed before the book was published in 2014. I wasn't going to let Doris leave us without reading the story, so when she broke her hip several years ago, I drove to the Blue Ridge Mountains and read the book to her while she healed. I was honored to be one of the few guests she let see her, let alone hang out with her, when she was bed-bound. As I read it and we shared the story, I was reminded how integral she had been to the creation of the book. Truly, her own stories were woven throughout A Bird on Water Street. When the book was finally published, Doris was with me for almost every book signing from Benton to Copperhill. (You can see fun photos here.) She lived an amazing life and I was honored to know her; but it's always sad when our world loses one of its brightest stars.

     Dear Doris, rest in peace, kind soul, and know that you left lots of ripples of love behind you.

     There was a lovely piece written up in the Copperhill Facebook group, written by Harriet Frye (shared with permission):

Doris Quintrell Abernathy, 1927-2021

In the early hours of December 30, 2021, with her son Chip at her bedside, Doris Helen Quintrell Abernathy passed peacefully into the next life. She was 94.

Doris arrived in this life on November 27, 1927, the third child of William Henry Quintrell and Nell Fry. She claimed that it was so cold at the time, her father had to break up the ice on Fightingtown Creek so that they could boil water for washing her diapers. It was a good story, like so many of her stories, and she stuck to it. She always referred to her childhood as “growing up at Number 20,” the inactive copper mine on Fightingtown Creek where her grandfather, John Henry Quintrell, had worked as mine captain in the late 19th century.

By the time she reached her teens, Doris had already become imbued with the sense of civic duty, combined with an unconquerable sense of adventure, that would define the remainder of her life. During World War II, she and her older sister Grace left home to take jobs at the Bell Bomber plant in Marietta, where one of Doris’s duties was to show visiting dignitaries around the site. Yes, she did that, at the age of 16. And she came home with Bob Hope’s autograph to prove it.

On April 15, 1945, with the war winding down, she embarked on a new adventure when she married Carl Otis Abernathy Jr., who would forever be known to his family and local friends as Little Carl to distinguish him from his father, Big Carl. A few years later, she gave birth to their only son, Carl Otis Abernathy III, who would forever be known as Chip – not because he was a chip off the old block, but because the nurses at Kennestone Hospital had dubbed him “Chipper” due to his bright and sunny disposition. In that sense, he actually was a chip off the old block, because “chipper” was also a perfect way to describe his outgoing and ever-optimistic mama.

Not long after Little Carl’s death in 1986, Doris embarked on yet another adventure: She bought the little house on the Toccoa River that had been built by her father in the 1930s and later owned by her in-laws, Carl and Louie Abernathy, and started making plans to sell her longtime Atlanta residence and move back home to McCaysville. When those plans were disrupted by the devastating flood of 1991, which rose more than waist-high inside her newly renovated home, she rolled up her sleeves and got busy renovating it all over again. Her favorite addition was the wide, screened back porch overlooking the river, which was also a favorite with the friends who loved to gather there. And they were many.

Doris hadn’t come home to retire. She had come home to be an active – and activist – part of the community she loved. As a great-granddaughter of one of the first Cornish emigrants to the mines of the Ducktown district in the early 1850s, she had a deep love of local history and a passionate determination to make her own contribution to the positive continuation of that history.

In 1991, she and her sister Grace were instrumental in helping visiting senator Al Gore understand the reasons why federal flood relief, which had been granted to the afflicted parts of McCaysville, Georgia, should also be granted to the equally afflicted parts of the adjoining town of Copperhill, Tennessee. The state line, they pointed out, was a concept that needed to be discarded in this instance. The same year, she and her friend Ann Williams almost singlehandedly organized a parade in honor of the returning troops from Operation Desert Storm – complete with paratroopers, a helicopter, and a special appearance by local hero Major General Edison “Eddie” Scholes, who had been in command of the first troops on the ground.

When whitewater teams from around the world began converging on the Copper Basin in preparation for the 1996 Olympics, Doris became a one-woman booking agent, opening her own doors to provide lodging and encouragement to the young athletes and prevailing on her friends and family members to do the same. Some of those athletes became her lifelong friends. So did several of the Hicks babies, who were taken lovingly under her wing when they arrived in town the following year in search of answers.

Doris was a lifelong Republican who cherished her friends of every political or philosophical persuasion. She was a true Southern lady, kind and gracious, but she was also a no-nonsense country girl with her roots planted firmly in the Appalachian soil. As her many friends could attest, she was fiercely independent; when she “took a notion” to do something, she did it. If she wasn’t in the mood, she didn’t.

Doris lived in her little house by the river until April 2021, when she moved into a little apartment at Blue Ridge Assisted Living. She loved it there, always praising the quality of the food and the kindness of the staff. But, then, she always loved being wherever she was. Which, in fact, is an almost perfect definition of who she was.

Doris was preceded in death by her parents; her husband and the love of her life, Carl Abernathy Jr.; her brothers John, Tommy, and Roy Quintrell; and her sister Grace Postelle. She is survived by her son Chip and his wife Margie; her grandchildren Sam and Callie; her great-grandson, Sam’s son Lakota; her sister, Sandra Finch; her brother-in-law, Lowry Abernathy; numerous nieces and nephews and their families; and the countless friends made throughout her lifetime who were always treated like family, too. (In this regard, if we failed to mention Dr. Stephen Treon, who was her trusted physician and friend for the last two decades of her life, she would almost certainly come back to haunt us.)

Due to current concerns about Covid-19, a memorial service for Doris is planned for sometime later in the year. The family has asked that donations in her memory be made to the charity of your choice. Rumors that she celebrated New Year’s Eve with Betty White cannot be confirmed. But it would surprise nobody if she had.

12 Days of Christmas in Georgia still bringing smiles!

A friend recently sent me a lovely heads up. My book, The 12 Days of Christmas in Georgia (written by Susan Rosson Spain) was on display at The Ball of Georgia for the holiday. So nice to see that the book is still going strong in my home state!

Teacup! Shhhhhh.....

Look what just arrived! It's my latest picture book, Teacup! Woohoo!!! But wait, who is Bae Broughton? Well, that's why I say, "shhhhh!" Broughton is the street we lived on in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is now my pseudonym too. Why the secrecy? Well, Teacup was one of the first picture books I ever created - over twenty years ago. The artwork was done, but the story was never quite right. It took me all this time to get the story right (hope you agree!). But the artwork looks very different from who I am now as a creator. Hence, the pseudonym. It doesn't keep me from being proud and excited though! I do hope you'll check out Teacup for all the tiny adventurers in your life. Here's the write-up:

A tiny doggie gets lost in a big world. Little ones will relate to a little pup who just wants to explore. When Teacup jumps away from her owner, she's faced with a great big world that's a little bit scary. New friends are not far away and Teacup discovers that even a little dog can have a big adventure. Bright and bold illustrations are sure to captivate both kids and parents alike. For lovers of tiny dogs, big dreams, and fun stories, Teacup is a treat.

Click on the images to purchase the printed book from your local independent bookseller; or purchase a digital copy of the book through EpicReads.com!