In 1967, she was thinking: air hostess (for the glamour), nurse and office girl with oodles of charm and personality. In 2019, she is thinking of algorithms, black holes, oncology, Odyssey translations, and true crime. She is still being instructed to improve her hair, her voice, her figure, her walk, but the joy of applying […]
Hand Drawings
Originally published in April 2019 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
The push and pull of being vs doing. To me, hands are the ultimate doers, storytellers, get-shit-done human power tools. Not so for the copywriters at Elle magazine in 1967. Boy is it fun and weird leafing through back issues. Women’s magazines are the supreme handbooks on how to be, not do. There are times […]
When your students draw you
Originally published in April 2019 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Process Junkie
Originally published in March 2019 in Blog, Surface Design, Toronto Illustrators
7 things my customers taught me in 2018
Originally published in December 2018 in Blog, Gift Ideas, Illustration, Pen Jar Productions, Toronto Illustrators
Last summer, the initial delight I felt in seeing my sketchbook drawings on a digital pillow template inspired a new design business in 2018 called Pen Jar Productions. Now my quirky line drawings are on totes, tees, scarves, and, coming next month, enamel pins! (In these politically-charged times, more of us are wearing our values […]
The human race
Originally published in October 2018 in Blog, Graphic Recorder, Graphic Visualizer, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
Creative Entrepreneurs: a mutual support society
Originally published in June 2018 in Blog
The nice thing about being a creative entrepreneur, other than the creative freedom, the distance from office politics, and the casual wardrobe (I also like to randomly drop and do sit-ups, which I wouldn’t do in an office setting) is the sense of camaraderie with fellow freelancers. We hire each other, and pay with cash […]
Celebrity Body Parts
Originally published in May 2018 in Blog, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
Why I draw
Originally published in April 2018 in Blog, Cartoons, Doodling, Royal Art Lodge, Toronto Illustrators
Back in 2012, when I was leafing through the book, More Things Like This, an anthology about the intersection of art, writing and humour, I didn’t expect to find a painting of me scattered amongst the works of Art Spiegelman, Andy Warhol, Shel Silverstein, Kurt Vonnegut, and Leanne Shapton. I later found out my likeness […]
