Joan is not the first to ponder the arc of civilizations. They peak and then they fall. The Romans, the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Americans. She came of age during a peak. Now she’s observing the fall. Every day, relentless corruption, catastrophe, and systemic failure. The centre isn’t holding. She returns to the very same […]
How I travel
Originally published in February 2022 in Blog
new york, NEW YORK!
Originally published in December 2021 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Hyper-realistic vs. suggestive drawing styles
Originally published in November 2021 in Blog, Toronto Illustrators
Hyper-realistic or suggestive? In high school, I was OBSESSED with drawing objects so accurately that the viewer might mistakenly try and lift them off the page. I liked certainty. This copy of a Clinique eyeliner ad was a case in point. While I was making this, I remember slicing my Staedler eraser […]
Saturday at the AGO
Originally published in January 2020 in Blog, Graphic Recorder, Graphic Visualizer, Illustration, Visual Storytelling
Hi Tomato
Originally published in July 2019 in Blog, Comic, Doodling, Graphic Facilitator, Graphic Recorder, Graphic Visualizer, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
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 […]
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 […]