On a cloudy Thursday morning, the skies opened up, and I promise you, the corn lifted its leafy arms to the heavens and said, “Thank you!” Here’s a picture of the happiest ear of corn I’ve ever seen. I know you’re asking yourself, “what does this have to do with art from children’s picture books?” Well, I […]
It’s midweek at the Mazza Museum! So, let’s not waste a moment getting to the highlights of this event-packed day. The morning began with a delightful keynote address given by Florence Minor. While her previous Mazza appearances have been as her illustrator/husband’s sidekick, today Florence addressed an audience eager to learn more about her life and […]
Just in case you’ve been sleeping … I’ve been in Findlay, Ohio this week attending the 2012 Mazza Summer Institute. And just in case you’ve had your head in a hole in the ground, Mazza is the world’s largest collection of art from children’s literature. And the funnest place on the planet. Especially this week. […]
Well, the first day of the 2012 Mazza Summer Institute has come and gone. And what a Monday! The first keynote speaker? Carmen Bernier-Grand, three-time winner of the Pura Belpre Award and a tiny powerhouse of encouragement and inspiration. As a child, Carmen was scolded by her older sister for staring at people, but Carmen […]
Imagine a place where everyone in the room adores books the way you do. A place where illustrations from children’s books, classic to modern, line the walls, and the chatter around you buzzes with words like “artist,” “create,” and “literature.” Are you dreaming? Probably not. You’re likely in Findlay, Ohio. Now you probably think I’m […]
It all started on my birthday last month. Okay, that’s not true. It started a few years ago when my in-laws purchased some neighboring farmland with a sweet, little red brick one-room schoolhouse on it. Actually, not then. It started 22 1/2 years ago when I moved to the country and into a white house just down the […]
I hung clothes on the line this week. To some, this may sound like a mundane chore. But, for me, hanging clothes out on the clothesline is much more. And the reasons are as varied as the colors on the line. First, there’s that smell. That fresh, crisp, clean smell of sheets or towels or […]
It’s a big stretch, I know. From cattle to gnomes. But my current work-in-progress has me reading and studying all about our wee friends in pointy hats. I’m developing a particular fondness for woodland gnomes. So, on a recent hiking trip in the Hocking Hills, my daughters, my nieces and I were on the lookout […]
Ohio has had a rough winter by today’s standards. It seems that we just don’t have the kind of winters I remember as a child in the 1970s. These days the snow comes and goes. Three or four inches of the fluffy white stuff falls, stays a few days, then melts away as quickly as […]
I may be more like the cattle on my farm than I dare to admit. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to ruminate and digest all that I took in at the 2010 SCBWI Confernce in Los Angeles. I’m at a disadvantage to my bovine friends, as I possess only one stomach. And, unfortunately, […]
