St. Seraphim

We spent last weekend on retreat up at the monastery that we love: St. Andrew's Abbey.  While we were there, I told someone about my plan for a book about saints and animals, and she said, "Well, there's Saint Seraphim and the bear..."  So when I got home I looked him up.
Saint Seraphim was a Russian monk who lived in a monastery, but in order to spend more time alone in prayer, took to staying in a small hut in the forest near his monastery.   He died in 1833, so he began going to the forest about the same time that Russia was at war with Napoleon.  Now Bob and I are reading WAR AND PEACE, and the War in this case is that war with Napoleon.  The Peace in the novel is a story of the social comings and goings, loves and trials of some fictional  Russian aristocrats.  For me there is something of a cognitive dissonance in the realization that this peaceable, prayerful man is the historical person, and the scheming, hoping, worrying, planning, good and bad motives and activities of the Bolkonskis, Rostovs, and Bezukhovs is fiction.   Tsar Alexander (who makes several appearances in the novel) was one of the people who visited St. Seraphim at his forest retreat.
The account of the bear is not really a story; it is just that while St. Seraphim lived in his hut in the forest, he was visited by many forest creatures whom he welcomed, as he welcomed all beings created by God.  An abbess from a nearby convent came to visit him one time and was terrified to see a huge bear with him.  But Seraphim told her not to worry, the bear wouldn't hurt her.  The bear was seen with him on various occasions.  He fed the bear with his bread, and was brought gifts of honey from the bear as well.

This little picture is a 5"x 7" card that I painted to send to Tofu, to tell him about this lovely, holy man.  His feast day, it turns out, is today, January 2.

Hiking by a stream

In the interests of helping Tofu read English (his Japanese reading is super, but he has much less opportunity to practice English), I have been sending him little stories, with pictures to go with them.  This picture is for a story about a boy named Tofu and his fictional canine friend Jonny, spending a cool Saturday morning floating dandelions down a stream to see which ones go the fastest (incidentally a surprisingly fun and unpredictable game).

When I was younger and thought I was a pretty good artist, I was concerned almost exclusively with how realistic my figures were.  That is still an issue, and I still have a long way to go, especially in drawing from my imagination rather than from life.  Nevertheless, it is not everything in a picture.  I must aim for the whole to be harmonious: form and color and the movement need to come together in a way that could be called beautiful.  Even in a picture such as this one, whose purpose is to accompany a reading lesson, if it is put together carelessly, it would be better to ditch it as not worth showing to anyone, much less sending to someone I love in a faraway place.  Everything I do is worth the time.  It's all for God and from God, who made every insect, every leaf, every molecule beautiful.  

Postcard from under the sea

Spanish Shawl

The sea is full of mysteries.  I walk on the beach almost every morning, when the sky is grey, and what we see of the sea is grey as well.  Now, during the summer, the shorebirds that inhabit the shoreline have gone somewhere else, and only seagulls and pelicans are consistently around.

But underneath the surface are wonders that are utterly hidden from us.  Occasionally you can see the dorsal fins of dolphins just beyond the waves, as they surface and dive.  But even that is mysterious.
The people who know what is there are the divers who have discovered a way to stay underneath, explore, and even photograph the suboceanic topography and life. 

Some years ago I discovered the glorious underwater photographs of Kawika Chetron .  This is a guy who loved the world of cold water.  He was happiest when he was under the sea, exploring, photographing, finding Life among the creatures that live there, especially along the coast of California.  Recently I found that Kawika, like Seth, had died as he was stretching the boundaries of what he could do, in his continuing effort to be truly alive.  He was a little younger than Seth, and died about a year later, in March of 2007.

This postcard of a little man riding the gorgeously colorful Spanish Shawl nudibranch was inspired by Kawika's photographs and Seth's delight in all things.     

The stuffed animals try some gymnastics

Another postcard for Tofu


Japanese schools have a wonderful event in the fall called the undoukai, or Sports Day.  In it, all the students and many of the parents, friends, and neighbors participate in various relay races, games, contests, and performances.  The older children (Sixth grade) do acrobatic manoeuvers like pyramids, and other feats of skill that in the US we reserve for cheerleaders and gymnasts. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Japan for the undoukai at Tofu's school in September, and so I got to take part in the games.  We have some photos of Sixth graders making pyramids, which Big Dog (lower left) thought looked very fun.  He got together some of the other animals and together they made a pyramid.  But after two rows, the ones on the bottom started to get quite tired.  Who could they find to be on top, who would not make the pile too heavy? 

I saw a squirrel the other day under the pomegranate tree by our driveway, but he scooted out through the gate to the back yard.  Now, you have to know that squirrels are rare around here.  I think we have one individual that comes to visit us, and so we enjoy his visits and encourage them.
Well then, I peeked at the pomegranates to see if he had been eating them.  Nope.  All intact.  Hmmm.  What was he doing?

Later I went out in back, and lo and behold, I found a half-eaten apple, one from our small apple tree in front.  So THAT's what the squirrel had been doing.  He must have found the apple in front, but then taken it all the way around to the back to eat it. 
I left the apple there, and it took Mr Squirrel three days to finish it. 

This is the postcard I am sending to Tofu with this anecdote.

Promo postcard, take two

It really helps to have some critique from a friend you can trust, someone with a good eye who knows what good illustration can be, and doesn't let you get away with doing less than the best you can do. 

Using the same basic idea (and some of the same books), I redid the postcard.  I am much more satisfied with this one.  Besides that, I won't have to put any information on the back: it's all on the front.

Three little cats and a hawk feather

Three little cats (two kitties and a very small leopard) found a nice striped feather one day.  They took it to Grandma, who looked it up, and said it was a tail feather from a Cooper's Hawk.  The little cats thought the hawk might need his feather, and decided to give it back to him.  So they sat outside holding it up for him, and waited.  But when the hawk came by, he had that "little cats might be good to eat" look on his face, and the cats hid under Big Dog. 
In the end, it seems the hawk didn't want his feather back at all, so the cats sent it off to Tofu in Japan.  Maybe Tofu would like it, because we think there are no Cooper's Hawks in Japan. 

New Promotional postcard

Here is a postcard I put together to send to publishers.

I'll sit with it for a while and see if it needs some help first.
When it seems ready, and I am armed with names & addresses from Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Market 2012, I'll send it out.

Critique is welcome.