The Beauty Of A Flawed Human

If the most interesting and fascinating story characters are flawed in some way, then why can it sometimes be so hard to reveal our fears, anxieties and struggles?

This is why we need books, songs, comedy, illustration, theatre, and poetry. What would we as humans do without that form of catharsis?

When looking for picture books to read to my young daughter, I am struck most by the stories that combine some kind of struggle with hope. The books that  she and I read where everything is lovely and wonderful and characters are saccharinely sweet are not compelling in the least. Most of us, especially young children, have experienced or will experience big, complicated emotions. Why should picture book characters show them an unrealistic world?

It is inspiring to see a character who is struggling to overcome something. Who is both lonely and magical. Who lives with anxiety but can find joy. Who has suffered but still is able to experience gratitude.



 

Lie In The Grass For Just A Little While

It's okay to lie in the grass for a little while feeling listless, uninspired, and invisible. However, do not stay there too long. Gather yourself up and keep moving. There are magical things to find, but they do not just step out of the clouds and present themselves. They need to be searched for, excavated out of the ground and held tightly. 

She Wondered About Particles

 

Clouds

I marvel at the cloud's shifting, mysterious shapes. How they can expand across the horizon, scatter delicately, or envelope the sun in shades of color.

Clouds are like life experiences; fleeting, constantly moving, changing, sometimes ordinary yet always unique.

I wonder how many people are staring at the clouds right now, taking a photograph of a sky in hopes of sharing it with someone else as if to say “Look at how lucky I was in this moment.”

Sometimes, I’ve photographed the clouds and then time passes and I notice that the clouds look even more marvelous, so I take another photograph. And I wonder what will I do with all of these photographs of the sky?

Perhaps I will make a little book to one day show my daughter how much her mom loved the sky. To make something...anything... to express that achingly beautiful feeling of seeing clouds travel across the sky.

Drawing

One of the most fascinating things is to see what your hand will draw when you simply start without weighing your mind down with any sort of plan of how it will turn out.

Moving the pencil along the paper. Inventing a the rules as you go. Drawing can thrive with uninhibited mark making.

And sometimes I wake from dreams, wondering how on earth my mind concocted those images. Such idiosyncratic feelings and subtle, particular events.

One reason that I make pictures is because I have a wild imagination. If it is not focused and reigned in, the scenarios my mind will cause me all sorts of stress and anxiety. To purposely create poetic stories is empowering.

 

 

Beaming Magic

That Spot In The Library

Oh, libraries. The expected quietness, people reading, studying, learning, thinking. That kind of world is so important for us human beings. 

I used to love going to the library as a kid. At school I felt anxiety but in libraries I felt peace. There was something magical about reading in a seemingly large chair near rows and rows of books.