Updates from my desk
I have begun a series of studies based on journal entries and dreams I have had. The theme is a meditation on some family-of-origin relationships and history that I have begun to unpack these past few years. I longed to write a book about it all but don’t consider myself an effective writer. When I asked myself how I might process all the complicated feelings and beliefs I have, I landed on what comes naturally, painting.
I am a trained grief counselor and am well aware of the power of telling your story, your way. My truth matters. It’s something I often have to remind myself as the middle-kid, bandaid sibling who has always seen my role as the peacekeeper, the one who was responsible for bringing everyone together even if it meant I had to hide my truth and my feelings in the process. My parents are deceased and the remainder of my family have essentially abandoned me for a deranged story they have conjured about me that apparently makes them feel less shame, less embarrassment for their own perceived shortcomings and abuse. It’s one of the most complicated and painful grief experiences I have had to grapple with and I have experienced quite a bit of loss. Mental illness can destroy families and the souls of those who are fighting to preserve what is good in a family.
I hope this series will evolve slowly and thoughtfully for me. My intention is to take my time and allow the imagery and feelings to spill out in their own way and time. I want to respect this process in order to honor my parents who worked so hard to create a family based on shared memories, some roads that had no road maps and love. It will be an intensely private process and outcome but I hope the imagery that emerges will have some universal messages for people as well.
Some studies from my sketchbooks:
This past Christmas as I watched my three adult children and their partners take in traditional items that mean ALOT to me didn’t seem to hit them in the same way. It got me thinking, what will their traditions be? What sorts of things will they collect to refelct this season? Their partners have different traditions of course as well as religious traditions. What imagery will they want to surround themselves with (if any)?
I asked them some questions about this - even asked about the traditional red and green color palette and if that was important to them. Their answers were informative and inspiring to me.
I’ve been developing ideas for Christmas tree toppers for the 25 - 35 audience. They are shaking up our ideas of the old world order and their future trditions and imagery/color palette choices will reflect this.
Here are some of my ideas I’ve been creating with paper maches and acrylic gouache. They are prototypes but the bug will go to my son Parker and the owl to my son Simon. I made my daughter and her husband a felt Santa developed from an illustration I did as part of my 50 figures series.
An ode to ignored emails…
Does anyone else get emails on a daily that they do not unsubscribe to because they think they’ll get to them at some point but actually rarely do?
For me, one of these is Word Daily. I want to have better vocabulary. I thought I would play with some lettering and spot illustrations/doodles from my sketchbooks for a bit. The lettering is not fussy, just helps me learn the word.
I am pleased to announce that the newly expanded Worcester Art and Frame Gallery in West Brookfield, MA is now showing my work ! I have my Beasts II (Heritage Breeds and Heirloom Seeds) series hanging now in addition to some smaller works on paper and cards, also available. There will be a grand opening reception on March 11 if you're local and want to stop by to say hello to some local artists.
"Arapawa Goat" Beasts II series 24" square. Mixed media and hand embroidery on wood.
I'm the featured artist on Rise, Design and Shine this week ! I answered some questions about my work, my process and my dream jobs. Check it out.
http://www.risedesignandshine.com/blog/2017/1/23/designer-spotlight-jane-moore-houghton
Hello good people ! Whew! Haven't posted here since November ?! Shame on me ! December always gets away from me. Here's the new year upon us already. I have been emerging from the fog of activity related to the holidays as well as to my middle son starting college. I am just starting to get my footing with my new schedule of driving him back and forth to classes and carving out my studio time. Oh! And we added a new little four legged life to our family. "Jimmy" is a little ball of puppy energy and a real tricky one to train. I've taken on a new teaching position at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens and will be starting with a "Monet's Garden" class with young school age students in the spring. Really looking forward to teaching children again. I taught children ages 3-13 for 11 years in my private art school out of my home. I stopped teaching to get ready for a solo show back in 2011 and really miss being with young artists. Their enthusiasm and strong instincts were the things that got me painting again in 2006 and it's a missing piece in my life.
I'm working on a big project that unfortunately I can't share here or anywhere else until I get the thumbs up from the client. In the meantime I've been warming up in the studio by doing little concept pieces and throwing them on Instagram.
I've been inspired by a Emily Gould's journaling class on Skillshare, where she asked us to write daily by being sparked by the opening sentence, "today I noticed.."
I also played with some images that suggested to me a particular word. I worked with images first and then thought about what words came to mind when I thought about the composition. I've been working on hand lettering with all these ideas.
and finally ... I created a little piece for M.L.K. Jr. Day. I love W.E.B. Dubois's words...so much richness in his thoughts and writings.
Now that the the Children's Book Illustration course is over and all the Thanksgiving left overs are eaten, I am ready to take on the holiday season! I'm gearing up to participate in an art show this Saturday at the UUCW church and have just announced that I will be hosting an open studio the weekend of December 17-18.
I am offering my newest card design: a Hanukkah themed card !
Hanukkah cards will be available in my shop December 1st.
I decided to enter the competition to win a free space in the next round of the Children's Book Illustration course.
The assignment was to design the front cover of the imaginary book titled, "The Sugar Plum Fairy's Adventure". I truly had so much fun with this assignment! I really tried to relax and have fun and give myself plenty of time to see it with fresh eyes to fine tune and make this the most solid submission to date.
cover art for MATS Children's Book Illustration course
AND...its a wrap ! Last submission to the Make Art That Sells Professional Children's Book Illustration course with Lilla Rogers and Zoe Tucker.
A few things I have learned about myself and the industry:
It's staring out plainer than ever
Brighter than all the fool's gold that gleams
It's simply now or never
Putting flesh on the bones of my dreams
- David Gray, "Flesh"
Any chance I get to use David Gray's lyrics to illustrate a post is a good day for me !
I've been a bit quiet here the last few weeks but I apologize... I couldn't find my computer keyboard under the flotsam and jetsam that accumulates when I am chin deep into a project. And I have indeed been chin deep into the Make Art That Sells course, Children's Book Illustration course with Lilla Rogers and Zoe Tucker these past four weeks ! What a wonderful experience it has been for me. Some tears, as there are always tears when I take Lilla's courses. All my buttons get pushed and my ego tries to bully me. However, I am getting much better at pushing right back. I've been reflecting at how very far my work and my knowledge has come in the past three years (since taking the first MATS A course Lilla offered) and really, that's an opportunity to celebrate not fill tissues with tears!
I'd like to indulge you, if it's ok for just a bit, and share the lifespan of this dream I have of creating beautiful picture books for children.
That's me in the fashion forward dress
Drawing, coloring, painting on the wall of my second grade classroom (shhhh...) have always been my activity of choice. My first studio was in my bedroom where I set up a private space in an unused large closet to research, draw and paint. I would collect my favorite picture books and study them intently in that little closet lit by one bulb hanging from the ceiling. I recently purchased a second copy of one such book that I was intrigued by: "Debbie's Dollhouse" illustrated by Pat Paris.
"Debbie's Dollhouse" was a Hallmark book. The author (Barbara Kunz Loots) and illustrator's names weren't even included on the front cover.
Other illustrators that I was intrigued by were Holly Hobbie, Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak, Jan Brett and 1930's illustration in general. The blocks in the photo above were my mother's. Her mother, my grandmother, whom I never knew wanted to be a children's book author/illustrator. I am told I look just like her and we have quite a bit in common leading many to believe I am her reincarnated spirit. It is eery how much we have in common but that's a story for another day...
In college I bounced around a bit within my studio art major at Skidmore College but always held up the intention to be a children's book illustrator. One of my drawing professors was married to illustrator, Lorinda Bryan Cauley. Pat and Lorinda invited us into their home where we could view her studio and ask her questions, etc.. I remember being tongue tied because this life of illustrating stories while raising small children was the very dream I had imagined for most of my life. I think it scared me to view this glimpse into the very life I wanted so closely. It doesn't make sense now but that's what I felt.
During the summer of my junior and senior years in college I was fortunate enough to work at The Main Street Gallery in Nantucket, MA. The gallery showed Jan Brett originals and I would stand transfixed in front of her work, studying every detail just as I had as a little girl in my studio closet. I was thrilled to meet her and to talk to her about my dream of developing my portfolio to approach publishers after graduation. She was so encouraging and even said I reminded her of herself at my age. Again, I felt more fear than encouragement at her open and kind spirit.
So, for reasons I can't really nail down, other than a lack of confidence in my own voice, I lost my way after college on the path to pursuing that dream. I won't go in to all the twists and a turns my career took since 1987 (including an advanced degree in a non-art field) but to suffice it to say, "what a long strange trip it's been!" Along the way, I met another one of my illustration heroes, Maurice Sendak , when I embarrassed myself by kneeling in front of him to ask for his advice. His response? "First, stand up". I think that's pretty telling. Yea Jane, stand up and take your place in the world would you for crying out loud !?
So, here I am. I started painting again professionally in 2006 and ever since I have worked toward developing my voice and honing my skills. I illustrated my first children's book this past year, "Gracie Brave" to be published soon. The authors' hired me privately so it's up to the winds of fate and their efforts to edit and pitch it to the right publisher so, fingers crossed!
So, "enough about me, what do you think of me?" wink wink
Here's some of my progress in the class:
Lilla gives us daily warm-up assignments. This was my "hats" practice.
I did apply some embroidery to the main character in the story...
I used french knots in his beard and hat as well as his coat (not shown). I think the presentation was too small to have such detail show through.
some preliminary pose sketches
full color poses. I'm working on redoing the lower left example.
some supporting characters
a little mood sketch
The true hero of the story: the tiny mouse
The Sea Cucumber Farm: setting for the story I imagine.
The children's book illustration class with Art Agent Lilla Rogers and Scholastic UK Art Director Zoe Tucker started this week ! We had to pick a text from three different choices. Lila developed a quiz method to help us make our choices which was fun. I chose the Russian folk tale, "The Gigantic Turnip", a favorite or mine as a child. I always loved stories that built on itself progressively. I thought I could have fun with all the characters and it just felt right.
First I brainstormed about the characters...
? a farmer at the farmer's market buying seeds from a woman who's truck says, "Ginormous Seeds" or "Monstrous Seeds" or something...
? a scientist-farmer who is experimenting with various fertilizers...the scientific name of turnip is "Brassica Rapa"
? Show growing turnip under the ground with a calendar...looked up the growing season of turnips...
? make the turnip a character in it's own right
And then... I couldn't sleep because I couldn't stop thinking about the characters and the setting of the story. I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea that I fell in love with !
> Set on the seaside...family lives in a lighthouse (considered setting it in Holland but gave that up)...Old man is a fisherman who finds the seeds washed up on the beach in a pirate treasure type box...married to his wife, a mermaid...granddaughter based on photos of my mother's of her as a 2-3 year old in vintage 1930's bathing suit...use vintage 1930'2 color palette. In the back ground is a secondary story: a whale swimming in the ocean getting progressively closer to the shore...when the turnip does finally pop out of the ground it flies into the open mouth of the whale. That's my idea so far.
Here is my final main character submission for the old man:
I like how the embroidered details look on his coat and beard. I also like the color palette and the crab on the watering can. I want him to be an imposing figure built like a big, hefty turnip! I'm really looking forward to allowing the other characters and story to unfold. Working on trusting my instincts and not allowing my insecurities about certain details derail me but rather push through and just keep sketching and brainstorming gently. In the past I push so hard I think I block some of my best work.
I've been spending most of my time preparing for my experience in the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells course: Children's Book Illustration which starts this Monday (!0/3/2016). I've been saving for and looking forward to this class for months and months since I first heard about it. I've cleaned my studio, cleared the air of any sense of regret over the Global Talent Search experience and tried out some new ways of working.
I've been experimenting with incorporating my hand embroidery into my illustrations.
I've also played around with Lilla's warm-up assignments that revolved around a fictitious character named "Minette". We were charged to imagine her as a well rounded character: who were her friends, her pets, her world?
Gracie Brave grand finale ! Marching on to her next adventure...
Rounding down the illustrations for the Gracie Brave project and beginning to ramp up for what's next for me.
I've been thinking a lot about how I might push the quirk factor in my work. The type of children's book illustrator I long to be is someone who shows more of a sense of humor in my work. I'm putting that intention out there and will explore it in the Lilla Roger's Children's Book Illustration class which starts in October.
In preparation for this upcoming course I have been taking a few related classes on Skillshare.
I recently watched Nina Rycroft's courses. I played with some face shapes in her "Explore Character with Nine Shapes" class:
Next I would like to use some of what I gleaned from her insight and apply it to inanimate objects with character.
I spent part of last week in Provincetown, MA with my sister and brother and their families. It was a too-short, much-needed escape for me!
When I returned to the studio from my trip I was feeling a bit burnt-out and confused about the Global Talent Search outcome. I knew I just needed to give myself a few days to dust myself off and get back into the swing and I am happy to say I am back in the world again!
I continue to work towards the last few pages and finishing touches on the Gracie Brave project:
In the evenings when my energy shifts but I still need to work I have been listening to The Jealous Curator podcast and doing fluid, loose gouache and colored pencil florals and seed pod studies in my sketchbook. Not sure where this will lead but might try some larger versions and offer them for sale in my website shop. Stay posted... and be well.
