Now that summer is almost here, it is time for a warm weather tour.  Thanks to my  friend, Susan Kouguell, I have been invited to participate in a writing process blog tour. Susan and I became close friends when our studios were next to each other at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. We even shared an apartment in NYC years ago when we were both poor, starving artists. Here is a brief bio about Susan, so you can get to know her better:

Susan Kouguell's internationally award-winning short films are in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection and archives and were included in the Whitney Musuem's Biennial. Awards include top prizes at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival, Marburg International Film Festival, Bucks County Festival, Berline Interilm International Festival and the Baltimore International Film Festival.  

She has worked on over a dozen feature films including Mariel Hemingway’s The Suicide Club and voice-over narrations for Miramax Film Corp (assigned by Harvey Weinstein). Kouguell is the recipient of many grants and fellowships, including the MacDowell Colony, Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS) and Edward Albee Foundation.

In addition, Kouguell has taught screenwriting at Tufts University for fourteen years, at Prague Film School, Harvard University Extension School, Antioch University, School of Visual Arts, at Screenwriters Online and is a regular contributor to many screenplay and film publications.  

Find out more about Susan here: http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog/

And now for the tour! The writer's process blog tour consists of answering four questions about what I am currently working on in my world of children's books. At the end of the tour,  I will introduce  three new writers. Here we go:

1. What am I working on?
I am currently working on four picture book manuscripts. Two tell the stories of artists I admire, so I am researching as I go. One is about a cat and another is about a house. It is not unusual for me to have several stories going at once... but more on that below. When I am not writing my summers are spent painting sets at Circus Juventas for their summer show, Neverland. And when I can’t paint because the performers are practicing their circus acts, I am back in the studio, just beginning early sketches for Yellow Time, a picture book  that will be published in fall 2016 by Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. 

Here are some early sketches from Yellow Time and a view of the circus sets for Neverland in process:

2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
My illustrations and stories for children's picture books are narratives inspired from my experiences, my memories, my imagination, my research. I suppose that is what makes them different from others in the genre of children's picture books. However, I am inspired by so many writers and artists working today and in the past, that I suspect there are many similarities to be found as well. 

When I write, I love rhythm and rhyme, but only if I can find my own rhythm, skipping a few beats here or there, then speeding up or slowing down the pace of the narrative depending on the idea or image being conveyed.

3. Why do I write what I do?
I write and draw for two reasons. First, because I have to. I have things to say, thoughts to share, images to paint and draw. Second is for the adventure found in the process of writing and illustrating. I may start out with a strong idea of what it is I am going to write or paint, but before long it morphs and changes as I become more deeply involved. Then it usually becomes something I could never have imagined. The feeling of adventure in this kind of writing/painting is an experience like no other and fills my heart and soul. Children are always discovering something new about the world--each day another adventure. I suppose this is why I love to paint and draw for children.

And books— I love books. All kinds of books. When I read a great one, I am inspired. I want to make a great book too!

4. How does your writing process work?
As I said above, I usually have several stories going at once that seem to leap in and out of files. All of my stories have lived long lives in files. I pull them out, work on them for a few days, then if they get stuck or don’t seem to beckon me further, I slip them back into their file. My recent book, When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, lived in and out of its file for nearly 8 years before becoming a book. A lot of life happens in-between and this can often be the key to finishing a story. Sometimes I think the time away from a story is just as important as the time working on the story.

On a day-to-day basis, I work best in the morning. Rising before the rest of my family I read during breakfast. After a walk, I enter my studio and write. I may begin with my daily journal, writing freely whatever comes into my head. Sometimes I know exactly what I need to say and jump right into the story where I left off the day before. Sometimes I write for only an hour, sometimes four. Then it is time for a break. When I return to the studio, I am refreshed and ready to work on storyboards and sketches for Yellow Time. 


And now, let me introduce you to three writers whose work I greatly admire and who I have invited to join this tour. They will be posting on Monday, June 16th:

Anne Ylvisaker writes historic middle grade fiction in a tiny cottage in the green belt ravine behind her Monterey, California home. Originally from Minnesota, her novels Dear Papa, named in Booklist's Top Ten Novels for Youth, and LIttle Klein, winner of the Midwest Bookseller's Choice Award and the 2005 McKnight Foundation Fellowship, are set in urban and small town Minnesota. A move to Iowa inspired her trio of novels about the comically unlucky Button family, The Luck of the Buttons, Button Down, and this fall's The Curse of the Buttons. Read more about her books and life at www.anneylvisaker.com.

Matthew S. Smith studied painting, music, and writing at Oberlin College, graduating with a BA in Fine Arts. From 1972-1999 he painted and exhibited in galleries in Washington DC, New York, and Minneapolis. Shifting his career to classical music composition in 2000, he earned a Mcknight Composer Fellowship, and a Bush Artist Fellowship, as well as publishing a CD of his symphonies (ARCHAIC, Innova Recordings). Since 2009 his creative focus has turned exclusively to the writing of fiction. An excerpt of his second novel, After Jane, will be published in The Great River Review in the fall of 2014. He is currently finishing his third novel, The Caretaker, as well as beginning a fourth, Mrs. Henderson. He can’t stop writing.


Kyo Maclear is a self-professed spork — her father is British and her mother is Japanese. She was born in England, but moved to Canada at a young age. Kyo now resides in Toronto where she shares a home with two children, a cat, a musician and a lot of books.

Spork, the story of a mixed kitchen utensil and Kyo’s debut book for children, was originally conceived with her husband to celebrate the birth of their first child.Virginia Wolf, her second collaboration with Isabelle Arsenault, is loosely based on the relationship between Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa. It was written for those with occasional-sadness and for those who love them. Mr. Flux, a collaboration with Matte Stephens, is a playful celebration of change, unlikely friendships and even-unlikelier art. Julia, Child—her latest book and first (exciting!) collaboration with Julie Morstad—is a friendship story and an homage to the spirit of Julia Child. It was partly inspired by her first job working at a French pâtisserie and also by her two (slow-moving) sons, who both love gâteaux and stories in which children are shown to be infinitely wiser than the befuddled grown-ups raising them.

For information about Kyo's writing for children, please visit: 
www.kyomaclearkids.com

Kyo is also a novelist and widely published essayist. She is represented by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists.For more information about her writing for grownups, please visit:
www.kyomaclear.com

Last week I received the kind of fan mail that brings a smile to my face and warmth to my heart:

"Hi,
My three year old is in love with your book about Stravinsky & Najinsky! He's memorized 90% of it. Thank you so much!"

Then two days later, she sent me a link to this video of her son reading from When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky. I love his enthusiasm! And I also love that this family did not shy away from sharing a picture book about "two artists, their ballet, and an extraordinary riot" with their three-year-old.  For those who think it is a subject that would not interest a small child, take heed and take a look at the video! 

In just a few weeks, the Minnesota Orchestra will be performing The Rite of Spring, for eight school and young people's concerts and two friends and family concerts. The concerts will begin with me reading aloud from the book accompanied by a pianist, as the illustrations are projected onto a large screen. In the materials online, they suggest 9+ years for enjoyment of the concert- however, after watching Henry above, I think certain three year olds might enjoy it! 

I am just back from spending most of Valentine's Day doing one of the things I love with my sweetheart. We visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art, better known as the MIA. We saw this powerful show. Then after a long Valentine's lunch, we visited some of our favorite paintings. A museum guard gave us two red paper hearts to place under the paintings or sculptures we loved the best. That was the hardest thing to do--how to choose just one love? Matthew chose this one and I chose this one. (I was in a yellow mood.) But then we saw this painting...

and Matthew changed his mind, ran back to the Bonnard, and placed his heart beneath this beautiful still life painted by Alfred Maurer in Paris, sometime before 1914. This photo I snapped of it with my phone is missing some essential colors, but you can see how much Picasso's cubism and Matisse's color had already influenced this American artist. 

We were going to visit one of our favorite bookstores next, but both of us realized we wanted to go home to our favorite places- our studios. Looking at art is always inspiring!

Here's a short list of other things I love in honor of Valentine's Day:

• I love travel. I love good food. I love this blog! (and the blogger too!)
• I love music and I love watching my son and his girlfriend act in this music video.   
• I love books. I love cats. I love this.
• I love fairytales and myth and the stories and art that go with them. I love reading this blog and its offshoots.
• Just finished reading this book, and my entire book club loved it as much as I did.

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I was young and home sick from school I used to love sitting propped in bed with a small table covering my lap on which sat a box of 64 Crayola crayons and plain sheets of manila paper just waiting for pictures to be drawn. I had books too- usually a Nancy Drew mystery or two, and a glass of ginger ale on my bedside table. If I was too sick, none of these props were of any use, except maybe the ginger ale, but as my health recovered my days were filled with creative pursuits all emanating from my studio-bed.

I have been conducting much of my life in 2014 from my bed so far, while still recovering from pneumonia. Not really my choice of how to begin the new year, but here I am. And maybe a studio-bed is not such a bad thing? My usual procrastination techniques are unable to take over. I have been in no condition to call friends and meet for coffee. Picking up the house is out of the question. Outside, it is much too cold to run errands or even take a walk, so adapting to my current physical state is the best thing. I read this article and loved how she transformed the six weeks before her surgery and the recovery time afterwards into a revelatory time for creation that might not have been possible had she been able to get around as usual. 

"His body was frail but not his spirit", writes Jeannette Winter in the author's note of her beautiful new picture book, Henri's Scissors, which chronicles the life of the great artist, Henri Matisse. Late in life he was confined to his bed and a wheel chair due to a serious illness, but this did not stop his creative spirit-- in fact he began a "second life" as an artist, cutting out large colorful paper cutouts. I don't have studio assistants, like Matisse, to paint paper for me and or a piece of charcoal on a long stick to draw upon the walls, but I do have a cat or two to visit and keep me company. Piles of books to read, drawing pencils, paint brushes, writing tools and paper surround me. I am ready for new stories, new drawings, new ideas and all from the comfort of my studio-bed.

Not a bad beginning to the new year after all.

Beginning the new year with pneumonia is not the ideal way to start, but working from my bed and pondering a madeliene, I have built a new website, reflected on the year ahead in my journal, and read many books. I am not one for resolutions when the new year comes, but I do like to-do lists. I found the image above randomly online when I was researching for the script for Neverland, this summer's show at Circus Juventas. It seemed like the perfect list for the new year. 

According to J. M Barrie  and his character Peter Pan all you need is a little fairy dust and...
“... Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!” 

Barrie also wrote: 
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.” 

This all seems like sound advise for the artist. Positive thinking("happy thoughts") and the right tools for the project (fairy dust), can make magic happen in the studio, but the moment doubt sets in, creativity ceases. 

This year I will have faith that I can fly, or at least learn to fly, and then hopefully, I will fly away. It is all one really needs to be an artist. And I agree with Leonardo Da Vinci:

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” 

A finished manuscript, a finished set of illustrations for a book, or the finished set come to life with the performers stirs a feeling of having taken flight in me. During the process of creation I have grown wings. In the interim time of planning and sensing what is next, I long to return quickly to flight. But it can take awhile, especially with pneumonia. As I cough a little less and even dance a little in the kitchen while making tea, I can feel a fledgling's wings flapping inside. I am beginning to think of happy things… where's the fairy dust?

I welcome winter when it comes. I think I must have bear blood in me, because I like to hibernate in my studio when the flurries fly and the temperatures drop below 0. The sun pours in on sunny days, but mostly it is cloudy gray in Minnesota, which does not beckon me outside my studio-cave until the first signs of spring. I stay inside and paint.

And right now I am painting green. Not just ordinary green. The green that goes with a story by the author Mary Lyn Ray. Her stories are often quiet and soft- evoking a magic found when one communes intimately with the wonders of nature. It took me awhile to find just the right quiet and soft green for this story. At first it was too loud. Colors make sound and it is important to find the right sound for each story. Last winter when I painted When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky I deliberately chose bold bright colors that became louder and louder as the book progressed to the final chords ofThe Rite of Spring-- a very loud piece of music!

But this winter, painting Deer Dancer, I have to be careful with my greens. They are earthy and subdued. More like the green of avocados than limes. Which is louder, avocados or limes?

Winter can be a very quiet time of year, so although it is gray and white outside, I am tuning into the hushed greens of another season and the silence of winter is helping me along the way.

Since this is a day of "love" I want to share two things I love: heart-shaped rocks and small books. Whenever I walk at the edge of a lake on a shore covered with stones, it is not the horizon that holds my attention, but the shapes of stones beneath my feet. I cannot help myself. It is something I learned from my mother at a young age. Looking for the perfect shell on the beach or the perfect rock by the lake. My mother loved driftwood the most. And actually I love perfectly round stones the most, which are very rare, but because today is Valentine's, I am featuring some of my favorite heart-shaped rocks...

And small books. I love books that fit in the palm of my hand or easily in the pocket of my coat. It is like slipping a bit of magic in your pocket-- a story to carry with you everywhere you go. It will be there when you need it. Maybe waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting for the bus. Small books are precious and somehow make me feel like a child again, even though they might not be a children's book. My dad had a small collection of small books. He loved history, so he carried little volumes of history in his coat pocket. And one of my favorite artists, David Hockney, illustrated a tiny volume of Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm with original etchings that measured only 4 1/2" tall by 3" wide. You can see it here. When I look at this tiny book it makes me want to draw tiny drawings with a very fine pen. And that is another thing I love. I love to draw with a fine-tipped pen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I live in a big house with three cats: Lucy, Buster and Indigo. They are my amusing muses and appear in many of my books, especially Buster, as he is likes to pose in my studio. I have always lived with cats, sometimes whole litters of cats, thus, naming my blog: "Artist and 3 Cats" seemed just right.

I met the author, Joan M. Wolf, at a book signing just a few days ago who also has three cats. She calls them her "Literary Cats" and writes extensively about them on her website including lots of wonderful photos. (She has a chicken too, but that is not the name of my blog.) Three seems like a perfect number for cats~ Art has always provided me with answers and reassurances in times of wondering why, so when I came across the painting "Three Cats" by the artist Franz Marc, I felt even more certain of the title for my blog.

Franz Marc has always been one of my favorite artists. His paintings curve and move, explode and soothe with line and vibrant expressive color. He mostly painted animals; blue horses and leaping yellow cows. He was born in Munich in 1880 and died much too young in 1916 in WWI. I always look at the art of other artists to give me ideas-- take me to places I may not even imagine. When I was illustrating my book, Castles, Caves, and Honeycombs,I had pictures of Franz Marc's paintings of animals all over my studio walls.