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Smelling Sunshine: book release!
Smelling Sunshine: book release!
Smelling Sunshine, the picture book that I wrote and illustrated, published by Star Bright Books, has just been released! Smelling Sunshine is a story that creates a path through various cultures by describing one world doing an ordinary chore of hanging laundry that becomes extraordinary in its personal nighttime comfort. Kirkus Review said, “…when it comes to domestic chores, hanging laundry is about as universal as it gets, and the activity is presented here as an intimate, positive experience for parent and child to share.“
So check it out! And think about supporting your independent bookstore; indie bookstores build community in your community http://www.indiebound.org/ You can also order from the publisher http://www.starbrightbooks.org/details.php?id=411or from amazon http://amzn.com/1595726365
Find out more about how Smelling Sunshine was made by clicking on The Next Thing Blog Tour, here on this blog page.
If you live in the Bay Area, join me:
· Saturday, November 9th, 12:00 PM at Depot Bookstore in Mill Valley, 415-383-2665 for a booksigning http://www.depotbookstore.com/
Saturday, February 1st, 11:00 AM at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore in Berkeley, 510- 740-8222 http://www.mrsdalloways.com/for a presentation and book signing.
Discover the difference between a rough sketch and a finished illustration, and find out more about how a picture book is made. Listen to a reading of Smelling Sunshine and pick up a free bookmark!
Hope to see you soon. Happy reading.
,
The Cats Are Here!
I recently asked subscribers to my newsletter to draw a cat, suggested the line and shape method of drawing for those who mistakenly think they can’t draw, and promised to post the cats on my blog. 
So here are those fantastic cats. Some people used the line and shape approach shown on my Fun Stuff page, and others made up their own. Herding cats has never been so much fun!
Family Cat portrait; Robin, Bryan, and Erik Anderson.
Manar Hassan drew her “Grumpy Cat” on her IPad.
Tristan Volpe’s cool cats.
Kieren Dutcher’s cat by moonlight.
Judy Wall’s friendly cats.
What is Kathy Wills’ cat thinking?
My cat running amuck.
Thanks to everyone for tangling with your inner cat(s) and showing us your wonderful drawing skill!
You can find information on the following cat owners who are artists/writers: Kieren Dutcher, cat in moonlight kierendutcher.com, Kathy Wills, the thinker kwillspaint.com and Judy Clement Wall, friendly cats www.judyclementwall.com
Drawing Performance
Drawing is a performance –
It is one time then and there
Of the moment
As an act of creation is.
Beatrice Darwin*
charcoal gesture drawing
Charcoal is a medium I’ve used for years, but never with such abandon until recently. I draw with willow and vine as well as compressed charcoals in stick and pencil form. Last year I picked up compressed chunky charcoal measuring 3” by 5/8”. That’s when the fun started.
from left, 4 chunky charcoals, willow charcoal, vine charcoal
All of the charcoals have varied tonal ranges, allow for a variety of line, and feel like an extension of my arm. This is especially true of the chunky charcoal which, because of its size, insists on grand sweeping gesture. I find myself drawing with my whole body. It feels like a dance when I draw this way.
Using various sides of the chunky charcoal, I make marks that express the movement or gesture of the subject I am drawing. Gesture drawings are done quickly without attention to detail. Precision is not the nature of gesture drawing. Capturing movement is.
Many finished drawings start as gesture drawings. The two charcoal drawings in my last blog ( Aimless Love, The Wideness and Wonder of The World) each began as a gesture drawing.
gesture drawings with restatements
Leaving a track of the act of drawing is a story in itself; the stops, starts, and restatements (draw overs) add energy to a drawing. Whether musical or otherwise, performance is one time, then and there, of the moment*. So begin your performance: find a subject, some chunky charcoal, and make your mark.
Check out the performances of the musicians that I drew here at: www.stringmetal.com.
The epiphany of the everyday: chunky charcoal.
All drawings: © Constance Anderson
Aimless Love, The Wideness and Wonder of the World
The title of my blog, Epiphany of the Everyday, refers to some wonder I see and fall in love with daily. The poet Billy Collins talks about this in his poem Aimless Love, which starts:
This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.
In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.
Collins writes about his loves. I draw mine. These charcoal drawings show the tulip I fell for,
the last one left in the vase that over a series of days stretched and moved until its petals fell away,
and for the small pine cone that our resident squirrel had eaten down to its core.
Billy Collins continues:
But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.
After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,
so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.
Today, “my heart propped up in a field on its tripod”, I fell for another pine cone, much larger, half eaten. It’s on the shelf in my studio. I have charcoal in hand waiting to draw it, to say something about “the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it”.*
* Georgia O’Keefe, Viking Press http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/
For the entire poem, Aimless Love, visit http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Aimless_Love.html
For information on poet Billy Collins, visit http://www.billy-collins.com/
All drawings: © Constance Anderson
The Next Big Thing Blog Tour
I was asked by artist illustrator Sara Kahn to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Tour, which highlights authors and/or illustrators and their latest books. You can see Sara’s luminous watercolor illustrations and read her interesting blog tour post from May 16, here. My blog will answer questions asked of all the participants in the blog tour and tell you something about my book, Smelling Sunshine, which will be published in September, 2013. So here we go!
What is the title of your soon to be published book?
The title is Smelling Sunshine. The laundry lines on the book cover give a hint of the subject.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The book draws upon my experience as a child hanging laundry in my backyard with my mom and siblings. 
What genre is your book?
Smelling Sunshine is a picture book for young children. However, I know adults who enjoy reading the book because it recalls a fond experience in their childhood.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Smelling Sunshine would have a cast of international actors since it is a multi-cultural story.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Smelling Sunshine is a story that creates a path through various cultures by describing one world doing an ordinary chore of hanging laundry that becomes extraordinary in its personal nighttime comfort.
Who is publishing your book?
How long did it take you to write your book? And how long did it take to complete the illustrations?
The idea was percolating for several years before I wrote the first draft which took a month. Then it went through many edits, all with the encouragement of my illustrator/ writer’s group. As the author and illustrator of Smelling Sunshine, I found it helpful to illustrate and write simultaneously, and as a result I made hundreds of charcoal drawings. The final paintings took about six months.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Because Smelling Sunshine does not have a protagonist, I would compare its narrative style to The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
We tend to think of ourselves, our lives, as separate from others. I wanted to show a connection among people from diverse backgrounds. Hanging laundry with someone you love is a simple, shared task everywhere. Compassionate understanding can start with something this elemental.
What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
Finding out what the smell of sunshine is and how it is recalled at the end of the day is at the heart of the book. My illustration technique may also be of interest; I use paint and paper in the illustrations that I call collage paintings. I make my own papers and use found materials.
Who is participating next on The Next Big Thing Blog Tour?
A week from today, May 30, the blog tour features Daniel San Souci, illustrator of the beautifully illustrated picture book, Yosemite’s Songster, One Coyote’s Story, and the author, Ginger Wadsworth. Ginger wraps up the factual information about coyotes in a great story. It’s a wonderful book. You can find Daniel at www.danielsansouci.com and Ginger at www.gingerwadsworth.com
Thanks for stopping by The Next Big Thing Blog Tour.
Corita Kent and the purpose of art
“Our purpose of art is to alert people to things they may have missed.” Corita Kent
Every day, I see some wonder, some epiphany in the arts and in nature that makes me want to clap my hands, jump up and down, shout ‘oh la la’, and do something about it like draw, paint or write. Corita Kent thought that “Our purpose of art is to alert people to things they may have missed.” Kent was a visual artist but her thoughts apply to all the arts. John Cage alerted us to silence, Alvin Ailey and Lucinda Childs to the possibilities of expressive movement, Marcel Marceau to the quiet conversation, Alice Walker to the word as social action.
My interest in the interaction of word and picture comes from the influence of Corita Kent, who as a graphic artist transformed word, color, and image into visuals that were the graphical equivalent of artist Robert Rauschenberg’s layered textural collages.
When I first encountered Corita Kent as a sixth grade student she was Sister Mary Corita, a nun 
teaching at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. I tagged along with my older sister to a class that taught us how to make stamps using the amen alphabet. Created by Corita, the amen alphabet capitalizes all letters except for a, m, e, and n.
Corita was the most imaginative and serious of teachers, as well as the most playful and thoughtful. I recently came upon a list of “rules” that she wrote. Here are a few of them:
- Find a place you trust and try trusting it for a while.
- General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
- General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.
- Consider everything an experiment.
- Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and fail. There’s only make.
- The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all the work all the time who eventually catch onto things.
- Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes.
- There should be new rules next week.
Corita Kent, the artist activist involved in speaking out about civil rights and the Vietnam war, eventually left the convent. She had a voice and a view which were far reaching. She invited seeing rather than merely looking. For a young girl voyaging into the world, I could not have asked for a better role model.
More information on Corita Kent: https://www.corita.org/
