Pop-Up Lovings Preview

It's officially 2015. Where did the last year go? Sean and I began 2014 finishing the art for The Case for Loving and then we jumped right into doing 3 rounds of sketches for our next joint project (also with Scholastic): Two Friends; Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass and the Fight for Rights. Once final sketches on this second book were approved we began painting, all while developing other book projects and working on other deadlines. As if this wasn't excitement enough, on top of raising two firecracker kids, we decided to adopt a pair of kittens! And I wonder why I drink so much coffee . . .

Before this year gets too far in, I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon a lovely evening this past December. Sean and I put together a preview of process work for our book, The Case for Loving (pub: Jan 27) at a special one-night-only exhibition. Open Source Gallery together with Inspire Corps, a non-profit arts organization, invited us to pin up sketches and reference photographs used and created for the art in our book. The evening was sort of pop-up exhibit / soup kitchen, serving up butternut squash pure, wine and a sneak peak into our collaborative artistic process.

I have to say it was really cool for me to revisit the process of making our book. It was such a unique project; my first venture into writing non-fiction. The book required much research and also, because the topic was so personal, much soul searching. Working together on the art tested the power of our marriage–– and we made it through. Two books, two kids and two kittens later we are still married. Hooray!

Here's a glimpse of that magical evening December 18, 2014: