A Challenging Project for The Writer's Chronicle

I recently had the pleasure of illustrating the cover story for The Writer's Chronicle for an article called "You Are Making Me Now" by Joy Ladin. It was particularly challenging because it began as a study of the presence of God in American poetry but evolved into a discussion of the author's transgenderism and how that affected her relationship to God in her own poetry. I wanted to touch upon all these points that were not only interesting but integral to the article and I thought a sort of Byzantine religious icon might be effective since figures from stained glass windows and mosaics of that period tended to be not only generalized but androgynous as well. I added in a book and pen to represent the poetry and really enjoyed creating illuminated manuscript-like pages centered around the masculine and feminine symbols.

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The inside illustration was for a different story entitled "The True Story" by Viola van de Sandt which was about how biographers deal with missing information in their subject's life. Virginia Woolf's biographies were used as an example so I decided to do a series of cameo brooches of her arranged as if in a display case with one space left blank as if a brooch had been there leaving only the shadow on the faded fabric. I am very fond of Virginia Woolf's writing and thought the delicacy of the carved cameos would an effective way of portraying her.

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As always it was a pleasure to work with Supriya Bhatnagar who I can always count on to provide challenging and fascinating material to illustrate!

The Writer's Chronicle

I am so pleased with the new issue of The Writer's Chronicle which features an illustration by yours truly. It was such a pleasure to work on and I couldn't be happier with the layout and the beautiful script they chose for the cover story title.

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The title essay explores all the ways the image of the window has been used in nonfiction beginning with Forster's Room With a View, one of my favorites up to the present. It was a challenge to illustrate and initially I thought using an actual window would be too predictable. My love of repeating patterns however kept drawing me back to the possibilities presented by a curtain and wallpaper if a window was viewed from the inside out.  As I sketched out different ideas  I kept coming back to my original thought of using a lace curtain as a sort of veil between the inside and the outside. The essay mentions captivity vs. freedom as one of the concepts a window could represent and I thought incorporating the motif of keys and locks into the lace could be a subtle and graceful way of portraying that.

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The second essay was even more abstract. It explored all the different elements a writer must consider in creating a character's identity in a story. I decided to continue the theme of a repeating pattern that I had used for the cover and incorporate some of those elements including location, religion, home life, occupation etc. This was an engaging project and the art directors were a dream to work with. I am so excited to be part of this issue of the magazine!

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