She Sure is {Wondering} In Times Like These...

I woke up to see my twittersphere aghast at the passing of our darling Mr. Sendak. My twitter feed is alight with children's authors galore, NPR listeners in droves, and elementary school librarians en masse, so when your idol dies, of course you hear about it, but... what do you say?

The Christmas of 1987 my gift haul was about as tall as I was. There were toys to play with and crafts to glue and a million things that needed my attention. However there were also a set of two delicious books entitled, "What do you do dear?" and "What do you say dear?"  I specifically remember laying across my parent's gigantic bed, basking in the sunlight while they read them to me and reread them to me and then PUHGLEEESE read them again! The thing is, I don't think they really minded that very much, because these books are absolutely brilliant. They made me double over with laughter. They made me scream with delight. How many memories can you say you specifically recall in sharp detail from when you were four?

These illustrations do that for me. They give me that moment back, when I am very small and in a HUMONGOUS queen sized bed and laughing with my family until I vaguely want to puke. 

Two years ago my mother and I had an epic difference of opinion that spanned three long months of stoney silence. My mom and I are best friends unless we wish we'd never met. One late night, missing her and desperately needing a loving conversation, but not enough to fight it out over the phone in the inevitable brawl before the calm, I crawled out of bed in my Brooklyn apartment, and grabbed this from the place of honor it holds on my bookshelf:

Little bear, that's me. Let's be honest, it's probably you too. When I turn its worn and grubby pages, I can hear my mother's voice. I can have the nicest conversation with her. We talk about trips to the moon and birthday soup and things I have always loved. How many permanent ties to the love you felt as a small child do you really have in this world?

Little bear was the beginning of Maurice Sendak's career, he and Else Holmemund Minarik created a beautiful collection of I Can Read books, way before anyone thought a child could ever be left behind. I know that as a child the words of course mattered, they always matter, but OH the PICTURES. I'd lay on my stomach on our 80s shag rug and study them for hours. You can just catch the humor in Mother Bear's eye as she cradles her little bear fresh from a moon landing. I know that in my life I've focused all the better on perfecting my ability as a line artist, because Maurice Sendak could say so much with a pen and two colors.

He has given me more than words can say, so let's move on, shall we? In times like these, at the passing of an idol, I ask....

I say the best we can do is remember him fondly, share him with the littles in our life, delight in the details or our lives and try to see the world as a child would want it shown to them. We can push ourselves to create things that will make a difference, but I think the greatest thing we can do to remember him is simply live our art. 

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.” ― Maurice Sendak

and as As @sjaejones said so perfectly this morning in my twitter feed.
RIP Mr. Sendak, Let the Wild Rumpus Begin, wherever you are...

She Sure is {Serious About Children's Books} - There are Cats in this Book

Buy it Here OR If you are NYC based, make the trip to Books of Wonder (in Manhattan on 18th street between 5th and 6th) where it's $3 cheaper and where you're supporting the best children's bookstore in the tri-state area.
see....

Review: A Penguin Story

There are two times that I remember crying in elementary school. One time was in kindergarten. After watching a half an hour documentary on the migration of humpback whales, they warned us that if we didn't take care of the Ocean whales might become extinct. Our own children would never be able to see humpbacks.

Overcome with grief for the ignorance of my children and tormented that they'd have to live in a world without whales I excused myself to the bathroom. In true 'Lifetime movie' fashion I slinked down the wall. I remained there on the floor sobbing uncontrollably until my savior Mrs. Benton came to find me. I often think of her during the holidays. Next to my family, she was the first adult I'd come across who didn't talk down to children. She never insulted our intelligence. At five I truly appreciated her candor.

In the first grade we had to choose three crayons.These would be the only colors we would use for an entire quarter. THIS was too much. I did not want to live in a world with only three colors. It was another moment of heart-deadening pain. The tears flowed freely. I made sure to pick the color blue, so I could draw my tears.

The perfect meet in the middle for these two childhood experiences is Antoinette Portis' beautiful book "A Penguin Story"


I asked for this book last Christmas after spotting it at the Original Art. Rereading it last night reminded me of being very small and wanting more in life than just three colors. My love of the ocean is one of my strongest ties to my character, so I think it's totally rad that Portis intertwines the vastness of the sea into the pages of this story.

One of the things I like best about the books that she writes and draws is that she speaks to children, exactly as they would want to be spoken to. She leaves space for a conversation between adult and child, and doesn't give you all the answers.

This is one of the newer books in my collection. It is one of the first books I've come across in ages that deserves to be a classic. It is beautifully designed and artistically realized in a way that is pleasing to both children and their reading slaves. Portis' bold use of line is charming. She creates characters that are simple but pensive. This book thrives on minimalism, but still manages to create truly expressive moments. I am so happy to find a new book where each spread could be just as easily be framed and put on a wall as bound in a book.

Edna the penguin, and star of this post's focus is an artist at heart. This book is a great starter for conversations focused on gratitude, appreciation, imagination, faith and diversity. What more could you want to teach your kids?

This is a good one, friends. Really good. Three cheers for Edna.

My Creative Space

I have a meeting lined up this afternoon at Sweet Melissa's where we will discuss the stuff that's currently being drawn here:

I bought new pencils at Utrecht to celebrate this new contract. I love any excuse for new art supplies. Last night on my way out for dinner, a movie (The September Issue) and a party in Clinton Hill I dragged my friend into the art store as we walked by. "Why are you buying this stuff!?" she wailed... "It's going to bulk up your purse!!!"
--"I know!" I answered, pure glee in my voice. She rolled her eyes but deigned to join me. Yay for good friends and new pencils!

P to the S: It's unlikely that you have The September Issue playing in your neighborhood if you're not NYC or major city based, but please reserve it on your Netflix Queue. It gave me such a shot in the arm. It's a raw look at the sacrifices we make to live our best creative lives. There were moments it took my breath away.

I loved 'The Devil Wears Prada' and was pretty sure that it would be the closest I'd ever see to what Anna Wintour was really like, as the movie didn't exactly make me want to run out and sign up to work for Vogue.

I would be hard pressed to explain the importance that Vogue's photographic spreads have had in my personal creative life. The brilliance of Grace Coddington has always driven me to push my own very different work harder. I waited so long to see this film because a was a little afraid. I was worried that I'd come away from it not liking Grace's personality and regretting that I ruined some innocence I had about her work which always, always, stands for itself. Instead I came away from it loving her more that I thought possible.

Grace holds her own so beautifully and fights for the creative good so winningly. It's so easy to identify with her and to see her soul that she so epicallly breathes into her work. I left with a bit of a soft spot for Anna too...but she is hard as nails and you can see how that's important too.

OK. Enough gushing from me. See this movie. Even if you're one of my blog stalkers who isn't a creative. This movie is about sacrifices for a common good even if it is the common good of fashion. It's about relationships and compromises and not giving up too.

So here's your homework: Run to see more great creative space at Kirsty's Space.
Netflix "The September Issue" so you have it when it hits dvd, I know I will.

listening to right this second: "Bleeding Love" -- Leona Lewis

La Boheme

Last night I saw La Bohemme at Lincoln Center it was...um... good. Yeah. Good. I confess I watched it in Mystery Science Theater 3000 mode. Which was bad. Yeah. Bad. But Awesome. In my defense I was only shushed once.

I saw La Bohemme once years and years ago. I remembered loving the voices, adoring the costumes, admiring the sets and yet not liking the play. I decided to go last night because I reasoned I was probably young and uncultured at my last La Bohemme screening. Sadly, in my adolescence I was surely much more respectful and demure about my viewing experience than the girl sitting in my seat last night. I remember thinking in my young state that the plot really, super sucked. I forgot that the plot is to RENT what Emma is to Clueless. I have always, always, hated RENT. Paying it and watching it. Granted, the songs are inspired. However, at the end of a huge Broadway production I should CARE. At the end of RENT I do not. So my child-self was right and La Bohemme's plot is sorely lacking.
Sorry, Puccini, somebody had to say it.

The company in which I screened said opera was divine. I had a fantastic time. Although, I came away feeling a little ashamed of my unspoiled gender, as we are total brats. The women in this Opera sure do come on strong. They may be weak but the come on like a mack truck. They constantly need reassurance "Am I pretty?", "Do you LOVE me?", "Will you be with me forever?" "Do you STILL love me?" "Are you jealous?" Oh my drama! Of course the men aren't much better. "Do you love me?" "Do you still love me?" Dudes, the play is over in four acts -- How many times do you need to to ask these questions?

There was one shining moment in this play where I thoroughly enjoyed it for all the right reasons as lady Musetta goes on and on about how she is so lovely and people just like to look at her and she likes when people look at her. It was pulled off perfectly. She shamelessly grabbed men's heads and pulled them into her ample bosom. It was perfection.
I thrilled at the many, many lines that begun 'Well I am a true poet."
I'm a Poet. You know it. Wahh wahh? OK
When everything was said there were many reusable lines, my favorite may be:
"Death should come alone and in Winter."

WWSSiSD?

Today we are talking about the best thing on Television: Project Runway, duh.

There was a lot that I had to overcome to enjoy this season of one of the only television shows I will watch. By "watch" I mean rearrange my entire week/drop everything for/take a cab if I am running late/refuse to go on Thursday dates/day dream about all week/tell my friends to shut the "H" up when they are talking too loudly for me to hear my beloved Tim's advice etc. I'm very competitive about my runway watching.

For starters, How could they move my show across the country? Everyone knows all fashion happens NYC side. Sure LA's fashion district is huge but you have to step over a dozen grabby homeless people, in front of gridlocked cars driven by people who have guns and are willing to shoot you if you make them miss their light and under creepy bridged underpasses that seem like they should be guarded by trolls in order to get to said Fashion District. NYC fashion designers would never put up with that crap. I always love seeing my city on my show. This move was kind of unsettling for me. I felt like I boxed up my heart and shipped it to L.A. Sigh. At least I'll always have Ugly Betty the only other show I deign to watch on television.

Secondly,I have prided myself my entire life on never needing to ever, ever watch a Lifetime Original Movie or anything on the "Lifetime" channel. Did I come close when they put up all those sexy Harlequin Romance movie posters featuring all my favorite B list actors in my train station? Of course I did. But who didn't? May she who is guiltless cast the first stone.

That's right. I didn't think so.

The point is I didn't crack. If I need to be entertained by a crazy woman who likes to stalk their neighbors and speculate whether or not that girl at the grocery store, you know the really cute one with the great nails? the Asian one? Is pregnant, I just call my mom.

Now that Project Runway is no longer on Bravo I have no choice but to watch Lifetime. I have been stripped of my agency. I am practically forced to go to www.MyLifetime.com on an almost daily basis. Where's the humanity?!

This week's challenge made me happy. If you're going to be in L.A. you might as well celebrate it. And if they think they have a beach, they should by all means use it. In case you are living under a rock or really don't have your priorities in check, here is a refresher:

Project Runway - Season 6 - Episode 3 Design Challenge 1 -
Design a Fun and Fashionable Beach and Surf look integrating Surf Culture
Challenge 2 - AS A TEAM

After bashing this week's episode with my buddy Christian (I REALLY didn't approve of this week's judging) he said "The whole episode I was so like 'WWSSiSD?" It took me a while to figure out but this simple abbreviation was in essence a thrown gauntlet, "What Would She Sure is Sketchy Do?"

For starters I would have chosen Louise Black as my partner, because she is smart and makes things pretty but with an edge.

I gave myself the same rules. A half hour of sketching with no research. It's not quite fair, because I did watch the episode. I tried to not let it influence me too much. Here's my favorite look that I came up with. Design Challenge 3 - Every team needs second look:
An Avante Garde Design that Corresponds to the previous surf culture
design.

It seems like the contestants on Project Runway may not know that the word avant garde doesn't translate directly into "Crazy Ass Huge Neck Collar". This is what I came up with in my half hour of sketching: In my fantasy I am completely couture trained. I would hand stitch on all the sequins so they were the perfect smattering adding just a hint of surprise.Some of my favorite quotes from this episode:

• "I think in this situation the word frustration is a huge understatement."
• "Only at the beach!"
• "I feel like I have this giant bulls-eye painted directly in the middle of my face."
• "In our relationship, I can't always tell you that you're perfect."
• "Thank you God for neoprene."

Max Azeria - who filled in Michael Kors' stead was maybe my favorite part of this episode. He had this "I have spoken, It is decided," air about him that was absolutely enchanting but side splitting. My favorite quotes from him were:

• "If you are not a team player, you cannot be a designer."
• "This work is not good. Let's put that on the side."
  

Photo: Mike Yarish/ Lifetime Networks 2009

I had lots and lots of opinions on this week's outcomes and attempts, but I don't want to ruin all the fun for you with my spoilers and sour grapes. Find your favorite Project Runway moments in this week's episode here on MyLife....time.......com
Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and type a url without cringing.