On the Road Again!

I have been on the road a bit lately. I visited the Gates Foundation in Seattle to open the exhibit, Let Every Child Have a Name, and was at the Western Washington SCBWI conference in Redmond to talk to - and draw with - children's book authors and illustrators, and to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, to speak about measles during World Immunization Week. The first day home I visited the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn and shared pictures and stories with first, second and third graders.
I have been fed and feted, seen such sights as the gum wall in Seattle and the Emergency Control Room at the CDC, spent time with esteemed Lions and Mac Barnett, and admired the drawings of artists aged 5 to... well... it wouldn't have been polite to ask.

And now, tomorrow I am off to India. My daughter, Olive and I will be accompanying the Measles and Rubella Initiative and Unicef on a mission to Uttar Pradesh to observe routine immunizations.
I have never been to India, but have wanted to go for ever. Mark Twain called it,
India! the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition... the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined. 
I can't imagine all the things we'll see, but we'll be documenting with camera and pencils, and I'll try to post some of it here, (and on facebook and twitter.)

Downtown Literary Festival

 

I'm delighted to be part of the inaugural Downtown Literary Festival, presented by McNally Jackson and Housing Works Bookstore. Click on the poster above for event details. I'll be telling some stories from the subway and signing copies of Missed Connections around 4pm this Sunday, April 14. Hope to see you there. Oh, and if you are one of the people who emailed asking if I might ever be in a place where they might also be, and if one of us (you) had the subway poster and the other (me) had a pen, if I might sign the said poster, then Yes! This could well be one of those times. 

It would be my pleasure.

Grand Central, part 2

 

 There's a Missed Connections Valentine's Day Party at Grand Central this year! Details above. I'm going to be there to talk a bit about the subway poster (and sign posters too) and Alan Feuer will read his very funny Missed Connections poems, and there will be refreshments suited to the occasion. And then hopefully we'll all gather our books and head out to the main concourse at 8pm for a great big spontaneous missed connection en masse. Or an en masse unmissed connection. Hope to see you there!

Grand Central, You and Me

I haven't illustrated a Missed Connection in a while, but I couldn't resist the following:

Grand Central, You and Me
Friday evening I was racing through the Main Concourse and you were there standing still, staring up at the stars. You had a book in your hand. You were lovely. Time stood still for a second while I fell in love, then I had to catch my train. Then I thought, Damn. Then I thought of a Plan. So here’s my ridiculously romantic plan: Meet me under the stars on Valentine’s Day. 8pm. Bring your book.

So, here’s my ridiculously romantic plan: Let’s all crash this Missed Connection. Let’s all meet under the stars on Valentine’s Day at 8pm.
Bring a book so we know it’s you.

(I'm quite serious about this. Grand Central on February 14th. Save the date! I'll be posting more details soon.)

McNally Jackson Holiday Window

I really like glitter. It's not even a guilty pleasure, I have no guilt where glitter is concerned. I also love a Northern Hemisphere glittery, snowy Christmas, (much as I miss the beach and bush and frangipani and mangoes of an Australian Christmas). Doing a store window display was a childhood fantasy come true and I thank McNally Jackson for letting me loose behind their glass. It's a celebration of Missed Connections (spot our bear?), the most recent Ivy and Bean book, of books in general, of the holiday season in New York and of glitter. I even snuck Ahab in there.

Free and Open to the Public!

This Thursday, November 15, from 6:30 - 8:30pm, I will be speaking at FIT in NYC. (I probably won't be speaking that whole time. I'll make you do some of the talking too. If you come.)

This is a reprise of the (sold out! – except it was free) presentation I gave at the Met earlier in the year. With a few twists and addenda and flights of fancy. And I can't guarantee refreshments, 

although we can live in hope. 

Please come.



Thursday, November 15, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
FIT
Fred D. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, Room D211
Seventh Avenue at 27th Street

Whales and Hurricanes

Thank you all for your kind emails and comments about the whales on my other blog. Since then a hurricane has come and gone in my neck of the coast, leaving thousands of people sifting through sludge, and relying on bottled water and huddling under borrowed blankets. A week later this usually resilient city is still reeling.
I have just made an edition of 50 numbered, signed prints of the 50 whales, ships and icebergs for sale in my Etsy shop. 50% of the proceeds of each print will go directly to hurricane relief through the American Red Cross.
Prints are 14" x 22" on Arches aquarelle archival paper, and are a steal at $100! Print number 1 will be auctioned at the Housing Works Bookstore as part of their Moby Dick marathon next weekend. More on that later.
And thank you!

92Y

Just a quick note to say I will be speaking today on a panel at the 92StY in NYC as part of the Social Good Summit.

"Held during UN Week, the Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges. This September, we want YOU to join the conversation with leaders and citizens from around the globe. The most innovative technologists, influential minds and passionate activists will come together with one shared goal: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place, and then to translate that potential into action."

All sorts of creative thinkers will be speaking over the next three days, and I'm very excited to be part of it. Events will be streamed live here, and you can find out more about it here.

And then tomorrow, Sunday September 23rd, I will be at the 92StY Street Fair. I will have the posters from the measles project on display and will be doing a bit of drawing with whoever stops by and hopefully that will be you. And people have asked if I'll sign their subway posters and I say YES!, I'll sign your elbow if you like, and if you donate $1 to immunize a child against measles I'll sign your other elbow too!

Hope to see you there! 

Saturday, July 28th at the Metropolitan Museum of Art