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By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 6/1/2012
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I realize belatedly that the link in my previous post doesn't work to take you to my other blog, where I am posting from Africa. The Internet connection where I am is frail so I daren't mess with it. I'm going to write it out the old school way: www.sophieblackall.blogspot.com
See you over there!
X
One snowy morning in early February, I was sitting on a runway in Cincinnati, Ohio, waiting for the plane to be de-iced before take off, checking emails on my phone. Amongst the mundane messages one leapt out: from Christine McNab of the Measles and Rubella Initiative, the subject line read, "Proposal to travel to the DR Congo/ Illustrate." Through this small device in my hand, I was whisked from the icy Mid-West to Africa, to communities devastated by measles, to children dying in the thousands from this preventable disease. The proposal was very compelling, to visit these communities to talk with families and the immunization workers who travel across the country, often on foot, to distribute the vaccine. And then to draw. To create posters and maybe a book and a video, to communicate the toll of measles and show the ways we can prevent deaths and eliminate this disease.
I could barely wait to get back to New York so that I could say yes. In spite of reading terrible news every day from Central Africa, and in spite of my father's thoughtful links to reports of Congolese plane crashes, there were three insistent reasons to go: 1. I have never been to Africa. 2. I can hear all the news and all the statistics about measles, I can read that 380 children die a day, and yet, as I wave my own healthy children off to school in the morning, I can't possibly imagine the truth of this until I see it. 3. I love my work. I love making pictures that encourage children to turn pages or that cheer up subway commuters, but I've never worked on pictures which might conceivably save lives.
Throughout the past months of conversation and planning, Christine has sent me updates on her work with the Measles Initiative. She has told me about health workers in Nepal who climb mountains to reach remote villages, and immunization campaigns in Myanmar, where the children sit patiently in the shade with circles of bark paste on their faces to cool the skin. Inspired by her beautiful photographs, and because I was itching to get started on this project, I painted this image of a newly vaccinated family.
8 Comments on Africa!, last added: 6/1/2012
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 4/3/2012
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I illustrated some chocolate bar postcards a while ago, based on stories of people finding one another. These images are now available as prints. Clicking on individual images above will take you to the
Etsy store.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 2/7/2012
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By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 1/20/2012
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I was thrilled recently to be invited to create a poster for the New York MTA Arts for Transit program. Thrilled is something of an understatement. Every year, two different artists create subway related posters which hang in all the new trains in the city. My friend, the wonderful
R. Gregory Christie has designed the other one, so I am in excellent company. Thousands of our posters will be in circulation, so if you are traveling under or over Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx any time in 2012, you can't miss them. The first one has been spotted on the M train just this morning, other trains to follow.
10 Comments on Missed Connections on the New York Subway, last added: 1/23/2012
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 1/16/2012
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From now until Valentine's Day, buy any three prints in the
store and receive a free, signed copy of the book,
Missed Connections, Love Lost and Found!
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 12/30/2011
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Workman is offering a bunch of great e-books (including
Missed Connections!) for only $1.99 for a limited time.
Quick! Click
here!
And Happy New Year!
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 11/15/2011
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The winning Missed Connections story came from Cat Hughes, from Dublin. The painting is above, and here is the original message: (printed in last week's Time Out New York magazine)
You were wearing an average office suit with an admirably messy haircut. I was the girl with brown curly hair and a blouse with horses on it. We did that awkward back-and-forth shuffle of two strangers trying to pass each other on the street; then you grabbed me and gently swirled me in a mini waltz in the middle of the lunchtime shoppers and angry passersby. I would understand that moment if it happened now – two people sharing a delicate second in a day that hadn't gone to plan. But no, when it happened I was in my awkward early-twenties, so I just frowned, trudged away and hoped no one had noticed. Thanks for making my day.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 10/26/2011
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-w4m
You admired my wooden legs and caught me in your sticky wings. Wish I'd stayed a bit longer.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 9/28/2011
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A while ago I promised you a fun, collaborative competition. Well here it is!
Time Out New York is seeking your Missed Connections and I am going to illustrate one of them. From the magazine:
"In conjunction with the publication of Sophie Blackall’s sweetly whimsical book of illustrated Craigslist ads titled
Missed Connections: Love, Lost and Found (Workman Publishing, $14),
TONY is seeking readers’ stories of blown opportunities ala Craigslist. The winner will have his or her story illustrated by Blackall and will receive a signed copy of the illustration, as well as a signed copy of the book. Two runners-up will also receive a signed copy of
Missed Connections."
To enter, click
here.
To all of you who sent me lovely emails over the past years asking me to draw your own personal Missed Connection, now is your chance! Enter, enter!
ps This drawing is meant to be me, catching your messages.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 9/12/2011
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If you live within a convenient radius of Greenpoint, NY, or even if it's slightly inconvenient, please join me on October 6th at 7pm at
Word for the launch of
Missed Connections, Love Lost & Found! I will be introduced by Brett Fletcher Lauer and Gretchen Scott of
Ships that Pass, and will share the stage with audience members telling their own missed connections stories and some special guests. (If you're interested in telling a story, please email Jenn at
[email protected]. And if you like, you can
RSVP for the event on FacebookI can't wait to meet you.
x
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 8/5/2011
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Small talk about weather w/ awkward blonde in tribal print dress Thursday, August 4, 2011- w4m - 28 You caught me looking at you on the corner of Carmine and Varick and then approached me to make small talk about the weather. I blushed, stuttered, and had a moment of verbal diarrhea that culminated in me asking you what you did. You looked disconcerted, said something about mailing lots of envelopes to LA, after which I got even more awkward, said "good luck with that" and fled. With a face like that, you're probably not single. Even if you are, I'd likely still be shy and tongue-tied.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 7/15/2011
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....and you found your Missed Connection (or they found you) I would love to hear from you. I have something fun in mind...
You can reach me at
[email protected]Thank you!
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 6/21/2011
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The book will be out late September. Click the image for information about pre-ordering.
More new Missed Connections coming soon!
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 6/9/2011
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Congratulations to the winners and thank you EVERYONE for entering and writing such lovely comments. The response was quite overwhelming!
If you are one of the five above, please send your contact info to
[email protected]And stay tuned for something a little interactive and fun, coming soon... x
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 6/2/2011
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To celebrate
Missed Connections at the recent BookExpo America in New York, Workman printed posters of
Polka Dots in the Strand and we have five (signed) to give away! Leave a comment below to enter. Winners will be drawn democratically, using the fool proof chapeau method, and announced next Thursday.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 5/22/2011
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Saturday, May 21, 2011
-m4w
Ack! 'Round 7pm or so... I was browsing the shelves and saw you on the other side. I swear I glimpsed our entire future together in that brief moment. It was beautiful. And then someone asked you for the time. I mean c'mon, who doesn't have a damn time-telling device of some sort these days!
Oh, if only I'd thought of that.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
-m4w
I know you'll never see this but you are so pretty.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 4/3/2011
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Sunday, April 3, 2011
-m4m
I fixed the water outside your apt today, you had a problem with your plumbing. I never asked you your name but I thought you were very attractive. Interested? Reply with where you were going and what you were wearing.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 3/18/2011
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
-m4w - 29 (Lower East Side)
I did a really bad job of trying to introduce myself on the subway. I asked about your white fur hat because I liked it, but then I didn't know what to say afterward . . . it was on the F train, from 2nd Ave to Jay St. Write me if you don't mind guys that fumble over their words when they're nervous.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 3/8/2011
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
-m4w - 29
I saw you for maybe a second or two.
I've read missed-connections before and wondered why people just didn't say something then and there. Now I understand... perhaps it's because the moment is extraordinary; containing a fullness of its own... and the thought that this person across from me is not a part of my everyday life, and at any second will disappear, didn't even occur to me... it seemed that we were in whatever it was together, and that sort of connection rarely, if ever, happens between strangers, so my mind was a little slow on registering that there would be no "some other time" if neither of us asked for the others phone or email.
Now, hours later, the ripples created by those few tender seconds still gently rock something within me...
and I become a missed-connections poster.
Would you be interested in having tea or going on a ride?
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 2/14/2011
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Monday, February 14, 2011
- w4m -28
I see you most mornings, and I think you've seen me too. I know how crazy this will sound, but I know exactly what our baby would look like.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 2/4/2011
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With the Missed Connections book wrapped up and off at the printer, I have the beginnings of a new project to share with you.
For now I'm calling it Drawn From My Father's Adventures.
I have always loved my father's stories, the grim ones from boarding school during the war, the exciting ones from being the son of a spy, the exotic and bizarre and beautiful ones from traveling to unpronounceable places long before there were guide books. These stories formed pictures in my head over the years and I have finally convinced him to write them down so I can get them out of my head and onto the page.
I live in Brooklyn, New York and my father lives in rural Australia, so it's a long distance collaboration. I'm awfully excited. Come and have a look.
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 2/1/2011
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Find your Missed Connection @ the New York Transit Museum on Valentine's Day!
Monday February 14, 6 – 8 pm
New York Transit Museum
Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn Heights
Free
Poems by New York Times Metro writer Alan Feuer
Paintings by Sophie Blackall
Music by Left on Red and Heidi Kole
Refreshments thanks to Brooklyn Brewery and 5th Avenue Chocolatiere
By: SOPHIE BLACKALL,
on 1/23/2011
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From now until Valentine's Day, 20% off all prints with the coupon VALENTINE2011 !! Valentine's Day may not be your favorite day, (my son's teacher once declared it her "third least favorite holiday", a statement I'm still puzzling over), but you've got to love a coupon. Click here to go to the store. Enter the coupon at checkout to apply the discount.
xx
View Next 25 Posts
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Find your Missed Connection @ the New York Transit Museum on Valentine's Day!
Those are impressive. The best ones are the ones where the shape of the hand or the skin texture works for the animal (like the elephant and giraffe). The painting of a cat on the hand seems a bit pointless.
mehndi