I met my friend Sam for lunch last week. We caught up on work and life. Then he told me that walking into his living room and seeing the Watches Pillow I made for him was like receiving a little jolt of Wes Anderson. I’ll take that! The things you learn about your designs from […]
Who knew?
Originally published in November 2019 in Blog, Graphic Recorder, Graphic Visualizer, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
The future
Originally published in September 2019 in Blog, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
Photo and Illustration by Alison Garwood-Jones Josh is in the fifth grade. He likes history and basketball. Photo and Illustration by Alison Garwood-Jones Adelaide likes hearts and story time. Today, I joined forces again as a portrait artist with my wonderful partners at @JamiiEsplanade. It was their 10th year organizing @culturedays and the program, […]
Meeting my customers
Originally published in August 2019 in Blog, Custom Portraits, Enamel Pins, Jane Jacobs Enamel Pin, Pen Jar Productions, Profile,, Toronto Illustrators
The best part of owning and operating Pen Jar Productions, my online store, is creating the product and meeting my customers. Here is my interview with Fernanda van der Laan, proud owner of my Jane Jacobs enamel pin. This summer my Jane Jacobs pin (circled in blue) entered a special collection of over 300 pins, […]
Hi Tomato
Originally published in July 2019 in Blog, Comic, Doodling, Graphic Facilitator, Graphic Recorder, Graphic Visualizer, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
Live illustration in Toronto
Originally published in July 2019 in Blog, Graphic Facilitator, Graphic Recorder, Graphic Visualizer, Toronto Illustrators, Visual Storytelling
It’s always my goal to work with good people. Teaching provides me with that in spades thanks to the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies where I teach the ever-morphing topic of Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media. In essence, this course is about storytelling and the best way to digitally distribute your stories, […]
Originally published in April 2019 in Blog, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
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 […]
Brassieres
Originally published in April 2019 in Blog, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
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 […]