Twenty Twenty Two

New Year, new pattern. And once I finished this, I couldn’t resist doing a mockup. All of the pattern elements are parts of this clipart collection.

So 2021. Was. A. Year:
I finished final artwork for Anne’s Tragical Tea Party, had a few weeks off during the summer to spend with family, then jumped into final art for a 2023 picture book that I’m just about ready to turn in. I did some editorial work, designed neckties, got back into block printing and did a handful of virtual events. I dragged out the manuscript that’s sat on my laptop for eons and slowly started adding pages throughout the year (bargaining with myself that I could go out for coffee weekly, but only if I’d write). And Itzhak being selected as a Schneider Family Book Award honor book was a delight.

I wasn’t particularly adventurous when it came to books, music or movies, rather wanting to just curl up under the comfort of something familiar. I rewatched The Detectorists, which left me listening to large quantities of Johnny Flynn. New episodes of Death in Ice Valley were very much enjoyed. And I time travelled to the 90’s and returned to reading John Bellairs and C.S Lewis.

But enough about 2021. 2022?

I’m turning in the aforementioned 2023 book, then have a bit of space before starting sketches for another installment in the Anne of Green Gables series. I have a goal of expanding prints in my shop, provided that I can strike a balance with work. I’m planning to create an online sketchbook workshop. And I’ve started working through Stephen Bauman’s drawing lessons on Patreon.

I’m already daydreaming about my vegetable garden, I’ve got loads of books on my to read list and just bought the yarn to knit Caitlin Hunter’s Ghost Horses sweater. And maybe, just maybe, if the year ahead cooperates, I’d like to host an honest to goodness in person party. The further along in life I get, the more I realize that while I can “plan” the year ahead, it will invariably take whatever meandering, unexpected paths it wants to. But I love the line from Douglas Adams’s Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul where detective Dirk Gently remarks, “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

I should probably tattoo that on my arm.

Happy New Year!

Pattern Making Memories

I painted the bits of this in my sketchbook last year and decided to turn it into a repeating pattern. I based the design on a visit I made to The Huntington with my sister, back when she was living in Los Angeles. It was a glorious Saturday in September and I could have stayed days instead of hours, poking through all the gardens and exhibits. We ate oodles of scones in the tea room. I remember being obsessed with the Bonsai. And when it was all done, we left happy and tired, blaring the radio as we barreled down the freeway. Whenever I hear T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer,” I still think of that day.

Fields and Forests

Photo: Annie Buchholz

Last year, I had the good fortune to collaborate on a batch of mugs with the very talented Annie Buchholz, who runs Sunshine Design. I created the repeating pattern, which Annie added to her beautifully made pieces. The illustration was inspired by the area around Sandwich, New Hampshire, which piqued my curiosity driving up to teach at Squam in 2019. It’s hard not to get sucked into the story of a town that has a massive wall topped with an enormous statue of Niobe.