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Thinking of Maya Angelou today. The one word that really comes to my mind about her is inspirational.
Rest in peace Maya.
The quote on my drawing is from this poem:
Human Family I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.
I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.
I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.
Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.
We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.
We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.
I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
by Maya Angelou
Wow, you guys, I'm going to be a published author! I am SO thrilled! Spring 2016 seems quite a long way off but I'm sure I'll get used to the pace of publishing soon enough. Hip hip hooray!
Read more about this project
here.
Hope you had a lovely Valentine's weekend. My man and I had our traditional celebration of take-out and Muppet movies. It was pretty great.
I've been blessed to have savvy local businesswoman Margo Wendorf mentoring me for over a year now. I had spent many years working on honing my art-making skills but had neglected to study the skills it takes to run a business. We connected through an organization called Micromentor. MicroMentor's website describes itself as "a free business mentor service for entrepreneurs and a rewarding volunteer opportunity for business professionals. Our mission is to help small businesses grow faster, generate more revenue, and employ more people."
Margo has been invaluable in helping me to learn how to run my small business and I can't thank her enough! Micromentor recently featured our story on their website:
The Business of Art
Entrepreneur Kate Berube expands her work as an illustrator of children's books with help from mentor, business owner, and tourism marketing expert Margo Wendorf.
Andy Warhol said that “good business is the best art.” For the artist entrepreneur, leveraging the connections between art and business is invaluable, but finding those connections can be challenging.
“I think you can be an artist and not be concerned with making it your career. You’re still an artist, and that’s perfectly acceptable,” says Portland, OR-based author and illustrator
Kate Berube. “But if you are trying to make money off of it, you have to learn about business. That’s not something I was taught in school.”
Instead, Kate’s education was built on canvases in thick layers of oil and acrylic paints. She learned her craft by creating what she calls “painterly paintings”—work that provided her with a wealth of experience and a strong appreciation for art. However, while Kate’s fine art studies proved instructional, she would find her true calling in writing and illustrating children’s books.
“It’s the story that really draws me to kids’ books—to be able to have a narrative,” she says. “The more I learned about it, the more I realized that it was exactly what I was looking for.”
Even so, there was learning left to do. A lifelong reader, Kate admits that writing seemed daunting but that “like anything, you do it a lot and you get there eventually.” This is a lesson that she would encounter again when she decided to turn her artistic passion into an entrepreneurial career.
Kate participated in the
Business Foundations Course at Mercy Corps Northwest and thereby discovered MicroMentor, where she connected with mentor
Margo Wendorf. “Once I met Kate, I immediately saw the talent. She knew where she was and where she wanted to be, but not how to arrive,” says Margo, whose years of experience in business ownership proved useful in her work with Kate. “What most people are looking for is organizational assistance, business skills. They have a beautiful idea, but they haven’t figured out all the things they don’t know.”
Margo spent much of her career planning, organizing, and marketing international events within a field of tourism known as MICE—short for “meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions.” She also started a travel agency and an environmental training company, as well as a custom woodworking company with her husband.
Children’s illustrations are not Margo’s area of expertise. In fact, she says that her personal tastes lean toward the more traditional, fine art that Kate left behind. But, those differences didn’t matter when it came to discussing the business side of Kate’s art.
“Margo’s a really confident businesswoman,” Kate says. “She’s run businesses, and she has a lot of experience. It didn’t really matter to me what the businesses were, just that she’s had a successful career as an entrepreneur and she had a lot of good advice for me.”
Making Something Out of Nothing
One of the tricky things about mixing art and business is that art is so often internal and personal, while business requires marketing, networking, and a hefty dose of confidence. “You’re making something out of nothing, and then you’re not really sure how people will perceive it,” Kate says.
Finding her confidence meant practicing her business skills—just as she practices her writing skills—by committing part of each work day to “not creative time” and acknowledging that it is an important part of her work. Kate notes that it’s easy to get swamped by the uncomfortable business side of things and retreat to the more familiar work of painting, but she recalls Margo’s advice to “make smart decisions, be confident, and not just sit at home and draw all the time and not put stuff out there.”
Margo helped Kate to organize her workday so that she could accomplish the requirements of both sides of her career, the business and the art. By dedicating a few hours each day on organizational needs, Kate can then focus on her art without distractions.
Moving Further, Faster
Unlike Kate, Margo started and grew her own businesses without the guidance of a mentor. “Now that I think about it, it might’ve been nice,” she says. “The thing for Kate is that she may move further, faster than we did.”
As a mentor, Margo volunteers her own time to help small business owners get ahead of the curve. Margo calls mentoring a “no-brainer” method of giving back to her community, because “there wasn’t much preparation to do. It was really just listening and pulling from past experience. We spent a lot of hours just talking over coffee. I think that the mentor really has to be willing to put in the time.”
One specific way in which Margo helped Kate was by sponsoring her participation in
Kiva Zip, a crowdfunding program for small businesses, through which Kate was able to purchase new equipment. “She was really helpful in helping me see that if I get a bunch of work, which is what I’m envisioning, then I need to have the equipment in place to be able to do the work,” Kate says.
“The application process, getting the loan, and paying it back was good business practice to learn,” Margo adds. “I think, too, that it was encouraging for her to see all these people willing to invest in her.”
The Art of Business
“There’s this perception when someone makes a painting that they know what it’s going to look like at the end and they take the steps to get there,” Kate says. “But, really, it’s always the finding. You start making stuff, and then you make decisions, and you’re finding what you’re trying to make along the way.”
Perhaps it’s this creative approach that led Andy Warhol to connect making art with making business. After all, running a business often involves getting started, making decisions, and finding what you’re trying to make along the way.
Since beginning her mentoring relationship with Margo, Kate has connected with an agent, who is helping her further develop her career as an illustrator. She also operates an
Etsy shop, where she offers prints and gift cards featuring her art. Her recommendation to other creative entrepreneurs is to network, whether it’s through mentoring, taking business classes, or even social media channels. “I think that really makes you feel connected to the world, and there’s so much to learn from other people.”
You can find the article and read more about Micromentor here:
http://www.micromentor.org/mentor/stories/business-art
I've been having loads of fun coming up with new card ideas this week. I have a few more in the works but have jury duty tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get out early and can get them ready to put my shop in time for Valentine's day.
Happy New Year you all! I forgot to mention that I have a new issue of Tater Totter available now:
This issue is really pretty great. I've gathered together work from some of my best illustrator pals.
Abigail Marble and Susan Boase are my critique group friends and live here in Portland. We've been getting together, drinking wine and talking all things kid book every month or two for a couple of years now and generally have a pretty great time at it. Abbey has illustrated several lovely kids' books and you can find her work at
www.abigailmarble.com. Susan has illustrated (and even written) some wonderful kids' books and also makes beautiful things out of clay. Her website is
www.susanboase.com.
Dasha Tolstikova and I have been best friends since we were barely old enough to vote! We met at a children's book writing class and it may be true that I did not quite like her at first. But we sorted that out and have been cackling and scheming ever since. Sadly, she lives in Brooklyn, not Portland. She draws for both kids and adults (just yesterday she had a fantastic drawing in the New York Times!) You can find her work at:
www.dashatolstikova.com .
AND I have work from my 88 year old grandmother (who is still as sassy as you can be, even while recovering from a hip fracture!) and my 6 year old niece (who has declared that the drawings she made for this issue a couple of months ago are "old work" and NOT as good as what she could do now.)
So, as you can see this issue is pretty darn special.
Now I'm off to get my new year started right - a little drawing before dinner. My resolution is to draw every day, what's yours?!
Not only do I get to work at the wonderful Powell's Books, but I also get to be a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union by working there. I'm really pleased to have a union to protect my rights and support me. Today I received an extra special honor and was invited to display my work in the Powell's union office's window on Burnside Ave. in downtown Portland. The sun was set by the time I finished my display so my picture is less than ideal. But here's what I put together today:
(I'll snap another if I'm downtown soon. Or do send me yours if you happen to walk by the window - it's at SW 9th and Burnside.)
Thanks ILWU Local 5!
I'm busy, busy, busy working on Tater Totter #3. And I'm really excited about the awesome pieces from my contributors! Can't wait to share it with you. Here's a little preview of what I've made for this issue:
I made this painting as a wedding gift for my lovely friends, Sara and Mark. The wedding was last weekend and was one of the best weddings ever. Southern Oregon is an amazingly beautiful place and there were so many wonderful folks there. So much fun!
I took some pictures of the painting at various stages along the way as I worked.
It was really a fabulous wedding AND to top it off we got to sleep in a treehouse! It was the best. My new goal in life is to have a treehouse painting studio with a cozy reading nook. So dreamy.
I'm thrilled to announce that I've enlisted Lori Kilkelly at Rodeen Literary Management as my agent! She put together a great bio and portfolio on the Rodeen Literary Faceboo page. Check it out here:
Wow! I'm super thrilled to be featured on one of the best blogs out there about children's books and illustration: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
What an honor!
For a few years now I've been making collage drawings as a way to warm up in the morning or for something to do when I'm feeling stuck in the studio. Just filled up a 7th sketchbook with these things! Here are some of my favorites from this book:
(full disclosure - the bird in this one is a copy of a Tomi Ungerer bird)
You can find my first post about this project
here and 2011's
here and last year's post about it
here
Well, I'm excited to announce that my loan is fully funded and I've begun purchasing the new equipment! I'm thrilled it all happened so fast and so smoothly!
I should have a new drawing tablet by Friday and printer sometime next week. There will be a not so exciting period of set up and learning how these things work but soon thereafter I hope to have lots of new stuff to sell!
________________
and I posted a new card to my shop today!
Perhaps you have heard of Kiva? They're a non-profit organization that facilitates small loans to businesses all over the world through internet crowd funding. They've recently launched a lending program in the United States and I was contacted by them through my business mentor, Margo Wendorf, to see if I'd be interested in getting a loan set up in time for their Oregon launch.
I said sure! I've had a wish list of supplies and equipment for quite awhile and not had the means to purchase any of them. So, as of last week I'm live on their website. I'm looking for small loans (as low as $25) from friends and strangers to help me be able to get the the next level in my business.
You can view my loan here:
https://zip.kiva.org/loans/1437(All funds loaned through this link will receive a matching amount from an anonymous donor to Kiva.)
It's such a great program! Be sure to look at all the other interesting businesses and people on the site. I wish I could afford to give loans to all these great projects!
The Oregon launch party was really interesting and it was incredibly inspiring to see all sorts of people taking the first steps in building a small business. (Be sure to find
Cynthia of Maid Aid, she was the sweetest!) First lady of Oregon, Cylvia Hayes, gave a keynote address about the importance of supporting low income folks in starting businesses, which - heck yeah! So, all around a pretty good day.
Thank you in advance if you're able to support me! I really appreciate it!!!
I attended the IPRC print camp this weekend. It was pretty darn fun.
I learned to letterpress:
And got to print a load of really classy business cards.
And I learned to screen print:
and made a bunch of things with my logo on them.
And then I learned how to use the IPRC's Bindfast 5 bookbinding machine and made some cute little journals with my screenprints as the cover.
It was really like summer camp - super fun, crafty and hot as all get out! Now to figure out what to make with my new skills. Perhaps Tater Totter #3 will need to have a screen printed cover....
Read the rest of this post
Some awesome shops now carrying Tater Totter:
Ms Valerie Park Distro
Buy Olympia
The fabulous Martha Grover wrote a great zine review for Tater Totter over here:
http://somnambulistzine.blogspot.com/2013/06/writing-monday-6-10-13.html
AND the folks at
http://totalwomenscycling.com included my lady bicyclist cards in their list of 6 of the best bicycling note cards:
http://totalwomenscycling.com/featured-article/cycle-style-6-of-the-best-bicycle-note-cards-5300/Hooray and thank you Kirsty Medlock and Martha Grover!!
I moved across town about a month ago. I finally feel at home and all settled in so I thought I might share a photo of my new and improved studio.
It's already a mess! I am thrilled to have a nice peaceful view of my backyard (although it is sometimes tempting to go out and pull weeds when I'm supposed to be drawing.)
But the best part is:
I now live with Sugar, the one-eyed-wonder-dog! As you can see, she is the perfect studio companion. She is a wonderful guard for my precious picture book collection. And when one needs a quick pick me up there is nothing better than a furry snuggle with this sweet pooch.
Hip hip hooray!
I'm super duper excited to have some work by the very talented
Ben Clanton in this issue! Just look at the great cover of his next book,
The Table Sets Itself. His work is fabulous, I'm sure you'll agree.
Also included is a piece written by my 88 year old grandmother. She sent me a submission for this issue within days of receiving the first issue. I do believe my creative drive comes in no small part from her genes! She is always making something. Here's a photo of her a couple of months ago (she's holding her newest great-grandchild, my niece Lilyana):
With the help of these awesome contributors Tater Totter #2 is ten times better than the first! I've learned so much and feel quite pleased with it.
If you're interested in subscribing I can take paypal payments. Just be in touch. I have grand plans for issue #3. But I've decided to keep it to two issues a year to give myself time to work on other projects. Issue #3 will be out in November.
I've also been busy moving. I have a lovely new studio and home. I've been pecking away at both of these tasks for the last couple of months and am excited to move on to new projects! I have a story about a dog in the works and a few new greeting cards that will be available on etsy soon.
Happy Spring everyone!
I arrived in Portland ten years ago today! Wow!
The folks on Portlandia call this city "the place where young people go to retire." And that's exactly what I had in mind. I moved here with $6000 and a plan to not get a job until I ran out of cash. I spent a wonderful (if a little lonely) six months painting and drawing. It was a great start. Today I want to sit down for a little bit and write about my favorite city and home.
Although the stereotypes tv's Portlandia portrays are hilarious because they ring true, the show misses the best parts of Portland. (This is fine - funny doesn't generally come from the things that are lovely in life.) I'm a Portland stereotype in more ways than just the moving here to retire. Since 2003 I've continually been un- and under-employed (except for the 2 years I lived on the East Coast where I worked my butt off.) I've taken up dumpster diving, kombucha brewing and sauerkraut fermenting. I have adopted a fad-ish diet. I bike and love yoga and don't own a car or a tv. And, come on, art with birds on it is awesome!
My number one reason for loving Portland is the flora. We get to have exciting urban living AND plants everywhere. See?! Even the police cars have flowers on them!
Here is how this has affected me:
A painting of mine after 5 years of living in Chicago.
(2001 maybe?)
A painting of mine after 2 years in Portland. (2005)
My number 2 reason- The books! Portland loves to read. The
Multnomah County Library is AMAZING! I seriously believe this is the best library system ever. And of course there's
Powell's Books (my current part-time employer - thanks Powell's, love ya!) AND Beverly freakin' Cleary grew up here. You can live on Klickitat Street!
This lovely print is by Etsy genius and Portlander,
Number 3- Authenticity. I've found that people here are very interested in being real. It was intimidating at first - this East Coaster was used to a lot of pretense. But now I love it. (Maybe this should be number 1? I think it's that vague, hard to explain thing that makes Portland Portland.) At parties I'd much rather talk to you about the chickens you're raising in your backyard than the impressive people you know. Wouldn't you?!
This guy lives in the courtyard of my boyfriend's old apartment building.
Some other reasons:
The food and drink- it's true, we eat good here, like insanely good.
The artists - we have some really great ones! I mean, really, the people in general. So many good people live here!
The mountains and the ocean are both only about an hour away.
And "the river." That's what people say in the summer - "let's go to the river." There are about five different rivers they could have in mind. It doesn't really matter though, they're all lovely.
The Sandy River last summer.
Did I mention the trees?
So, happy anniversary Portland! Me and you make a great couple!
(Perhaps this post was also meant to inspire friends and family to come visit. You should come! I will have a guest room for you starting May 1st! We'll take pictures of trees and eat from food carts and read books and have so much fun you'll with you lived here too!)
I've been thinking a lot about gender inequality lately. I was raised by a highly intelligent, high powered, feminist single mother. I grew up thinking, sure things were bad before but hey, it's the nineties, our moms figured all that stuff out for us! I am constantly surprised at how very wrong I was. I see inequality everywhere I look.
Of course there's the VIDA count which came out a few weeks ago and showed that most magazines are publishing women writers at a rate of about 30% or less of the total.
Oh beloved New Yorker how sad you make me!
(As an illustrator, I'm desperately curious about how these numbers would look for my field. I'm pretty sure the percentages of female illustrators represented is even lower. Does anyone know of any studies on this?)
Yesterday I was watching and enjoying TED talks and noticed an upsetting discrepancy between search terms. If you compare these two photos you'll see that when I searched using the term "ingenious" of the 16 videos shown only one was a talk by a woman and when I searched using "beautiful" of the 16 videos shown eleven were talks by women. WTF?! Even in smarty pants TED world the paradigm holds that women are given recognition for beauty over intelligence. Sad.
Or there's the "Storytellers 2013" calendar put out by
Balladier Press that pushed me over the edge today and inspired this post.
3 out of the 12 featured authors are female. If it had been 4 or 5 out of 12 I might have said to myself - one can't expect exact balance of genders in things, sometimes there's bound to be more of one sex than the other. But 25% is just too small a representation to be anything other than discrimination (perhaps unintentional discrimination, but discrimination all the same.) Really sad. (Although, yay Kate DiCamillo! I love everything she does.)
Watch this Sheryl Sandberg video to see how poorly women are faring in the worlds of business and politics. She points out that likability fosters success but women are disliked for being successful. Sad and impossible. (But she also gives some interesting ideas on what individuals can do to move us in the right direction.)
And lastly, LEGOS!!! I adore LEGOS. I had loads of LEGOS as a kid. I was basically this girl.
Watch this video to see Anita Sarkeesian lay down exactly what has gone so wrong with the LEGO brand since the 1980's and why their new LEGO FRIENDS for girls is so wrongheaded. (Be sure to watch Part 2 as well!)
There are less and less things for kids that aren't gendered. I see this all the time at the bookstore I work in. Both in what is sold and what shoppers are looking for. Very sad indeed.
Oh world, we can do so much better than this! Perhaps if we all start (or continue) noticing and pointing out these inequalities when we see them our collective tolerance for it will be lowered and changes will happen. I hope so anyway.
Now I have to get back to work creating female characters that are successful and likable and live in books that both boys and girls are meant to read!
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Life is good.
Great Post! I'm a newby in Tigard from TO, Honolulu & BC ...Love it here too!
Lovely Kate! Agreed!
Life IS good Sue! Maybe you and Donald will wander this way for a visit someday?!
Murray - thanks! Welcome!
Made me fall in love with Portland all over again. you are MOVING??? or how else did you wrangle a guest bedroom? do tell...
Thanks for the reminders of all the goodness we have here. How lucky are we? I'll be sure toi remind you next time you mutter about moving back east...