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Last year I illustrated a picture book titled, A Caring Deed For Becky for Featherweight Press. It was written by Susan Wigden.

I've spelled her name "Widgen" incorrectly at least a thousand times, but that's neither here nor there.

In any case, Susan is currently making the rounds with the book and I thought I'd post a video of a school reading she did earlier this year.

 Want a copy? Of course you do.

Get it through Amazon HERE and Barnes and Noble HERE.

I read the stories of Sophie and Emmy, one beautiful word at a time, savoring the words and images evoked by the poetry Beth Kephart brings to us.  Eager to turn the page but yet reluctant to let it go, I read on into the night knowing I needed sleep.  How can I turn out the light when Emmy and Sophie yearn for what they can’t have?  How can I leave them when they are trapped and alone?

"Oh I wish I could Fly" or an adaptation of "Are You My Mother?" See steps of layering...

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alittle late for the the deadline...but I thought I'd share.
My art students and I enjoy creating well-known logos and recreating famous artworks in Mike-n-Ikes...and of course eating as many as we work!!
http://susan-whimsicalities.blogspot.com/

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I am currently illustrating my first Little Golden Book, which is quite exciting :)
I can show you the cover because it is now available for pre-order on Amazon:


Sketches are all finished for the interior and now the painting begins!

Megan Branch, Intern

The Oxford Dictionary of Education edited by Susan Wallace, covers educational terms and concepts from the UK, the US, South Africa, Australia and Canada. Some of the words, like “Big Brother Syndrome” are unique to the 21st century while others—“regius professor”—have been around for hundreds of years. The Dictionary is UK-focused, so I thought it would be interesting to look at some terms that we don’t hear very often in the US. Below, I’ve excerpted some of the words from the “A”, “B”, “C” and “R”, “S”, “T” sections.

Active vocabulary: The range of words which an individual is able to use accurately in their speech (active spoken vocabulary), or their writing (active written vocabulary), or both of these. The active vocabulary does not include words which are only recognized and understood, either by reading or hearing, but not actually used. At most stages of learning of a language, the learner’s active vocabulary will be more limited than their comprehension. In other words, their understanding will outstrip their ability to express themselves.

Big Brother Syndrome: A growing tendency among younger learners to voice an ambition for celebrity without notable achievement. Derived from a reality television programme of the same name, the term is now in widespread use by teachers and other professionals involved in work with young people. It expresses a concern not only about values, but also about the difficulties of motivating learners toward academic achievement or useful qualifications which learners themselves may dismiss as irrelevant to their goal of being thrust into a celebrity lifestyle, since their Big Brother role models often make a virtue of having achieved fame despite having little or no academic success at school.

Controlled schools: A specific kind of school in Northern Ireland, owned and funded by the *Education and Library Boards. Boards of governors are now taking more control. These are mainly Protestant schools and the Church is represented on the board of governors.

Regius professor:*Professorships (or chairs) at the *universities of Oxford and Cambridge and some Scottish universities, which were funded, or endowed, by the Crown and for which the Crown retains the right to nominate appointees. In practice, candidates are chosen on the advice of senior government ministers. The first such chair to be founded was that of Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University in the 15th century.

Summative assessment: *Assessment which takes place at the end of a course of study and provides the final judgment on, or ‘sums up,’ the candidate’s performance. The most common form of summative assessment is the end examination.

Tripos: A course of study leading to an *honours degree at Cambridge University, where the student is required to pass two tripos examinations in order to be awarded their *Bachelor of Arts. The name refers to the three-legged stool on which, in medieval times, graduates sat to deliver a satirical speech at their degree ceremony.

Susan J. Epstein, MS, MEd, is the Program Coordinator at the Jacobs Neurological Institute. In her new book The Life Program For MS: Lifestyle, Independence, Fitness, and Energy, she addresses the limitations imposed by Multiple Sclerosis which results in patients becoming sedentary, gaining excess weight and developing poor eating and exercise habits.  Epstein provides a user-friendly teaching tool that helps sufferers to incorporate new behaviors into their daily routines.  In the original article below Epstein looks at the role of vitamin D in MS.

A deficiency in vitamin D is currently one of the most studied environmental risk factors for MS and is potentially the most promising in terms of new clinical implications. In particular, this vitamin could alter the immune response taking a positive role in the central nervous system. There are two main types of risk factors for MS: genetic and environmental. In today’s world many genetic predispositions for various conditions have been discovered, and the various environmental triggers identified; making this an exciting time for learning specific ways to change behavior to improve or protect health.

The following environmental factors influence the risk of MS:
1. latitude
2. past exposure to sun
3. serum level of vitamin D

Worldwide, latitude has an undeniable effect on the prevalence of MS which occurs with much greater frequency in areas further away from the equator. Lower incidence of the disease is found in tropical regions where the high degree of sunlight is recognized as the correlate. Latitude has an overall influence on the amount of sunlight in a given region making geographical location advantageous. So if we know that the level of exposure to sunlight directly affects the level of vitamin D in our bodies and this vitamin is known as the “sunshine vitamin” where does that leave those of us who live in the northern hemisphere? Does this suggest people even without disease are deficient in vitamin D? Also, the western diet lacks this crucial vitamin providing less than 100 IU a day, falling far below the daily requirement of 2,000 IU/d. It is thought that vitamin D is most likely involved in a number of regulatory activities besides just bone health, and could have a dramatic effect on immune function. Such low average levels of vitamin D raise serious public health issues and there is an urgent need for national health institutes to take preventative measures. With this knowledge should come behavior change, not only for the MS patient but also the general population.

Clinically most MS patients have low levels of vitamin D in their blood and are in a state of deficiency compared to the international norm. A recent study found a direct link between the level of vitamin D circulating in the blood and the disease, without factoring in the effect of latitude or sun exposure. Further research trials are necessary before any firm recommendations can be made but in the meantime, physicians can no longer ignore that many MS patients have a lack of vitamin D, which could be detected through systematic blood tests. Vitamin D supplements are appropriate to restore their levels to within normal range. This should be considered a general medical recommendation simply to increase levels in the blood to the current recommended amount of at least 2,000 IU/d. This would mean taking between 1,000 and 3,000 IU of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) on average per day. There are two types of vitamin D: D2 and D3. Vitamin D3 is the healthy kind your body makes when exposed to sunshine. D2 is the synthetic form used in prescriptions and is considered inferior to D3.

Having this knowledge regarding the benefits of vitamin D as well as the current published research indicating the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency; behavioral strategies seem appropriate and can be very safe when discussed with your physician. Since moving to a tropical region is unlikely, the options available are:

safe sun exposure, vitamin supplementation, and a diet with foods rich in vitamin D.

Optimizing sun exposure is a topic in itself and comes with some risk along with conflicting opinions and recommendations from experts in the field though it seems reasonable to get a dose of fresh air and sunshine on days when the weather is in your favor. Some experts recommend exposing your body to sunlight for 15-minutes before applying sunscreen in order to get the benefits from the UV rays which naturally provide the vitamin D needed for good health. Luckily a vitamin D3 supplement can provide the same benefits when given in the appropriate dose to bring blood levels to within normal range.

Before purchasing a supplement you should have a blood test to determine your baseline levels of vitamin D. Your neurologist can then take the results and prescribe the amount of vitamin D3 to bring your levels up to within normal range. MS patients are seen regularly to monitor their disease status and can systematically have blood levels measured. You also may want to search for MS Centers that are running clinical trials to study the effects of Vitamin D on MS and inquire about being a subject.

Vitamin D3 supplements are available in both liquid and capsule form. They can be purchased at any pharmacy for as little as $4.49 for 100 capsules containing 1000.0 IU. Check the label to make sure the primary ingredient is Vitamin D (as cholecalciferol). As mentioned earlier the Western diet is commonly very low in vitamin D but there are good food choices to increase the amount in your diet. Excellent food sources include: oily fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines; vitamin D-fortified milk and cereals; whole eggs, liver, and beef. A combination of the three available sources of vitamin D is optimal, and purely from a medical point of view, supplementation is unavoidable in order to improve the general health of the MS patient. And with clinical research trials underway all over the globe, supplementation may soon be proven to be neurologically beneficial.

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. "

Willie Wonka (aka Ronald Dahl)

http://susan-whimsicalities.blogspot.com/

Enrty for another blog...
"Stone emitted a kind of bark -- ha! -- and showed his teeth again."

entry elsewhere...seed

“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”James Allen quote

John Byrne - self-portrait

I thought it might be fun for us to take turns talking about who or what inspires us. Other artists have always been a constant source of inspiration for me - not necessarily just children's book artists. Saying that, I want to talk about the painter John Byrne and I just read recently that he is illustrating a children's book, so I am pretty excited about that!

John Byrne is a successful Scottish painter and playwright. I first saw his work when I was a student at art college, and I was completely captivated by it. He creates characters with huge personalities that are very finely drawn and beautifully detailed.

John Byrne - The Slab Boys

I worked on one of his set designs as a scenic artist's assistant at the Royal Lyceum Theatre many years ago, and served him coffee on the opening night of his play Cuttin' a Rug (I worked in the Lyceum Bar too!). There we were, just me and John, and I had my chance to tell him how much I had admired his work over the years....and I was speechless, completely tongue-tied. I still kick myself when I think about it.

I was lucky enough to catch an exhibition of his when I was over in Edinburgh at Christmas time. It was called "Me and Them self-portraits and characters studies by John Byrne"

I am not very eloquent when it comes to describing why someone's work affects me so much, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I hope that you enjoy them:
John Byrne - Lucille and Miles, mixed media on paper

John Byrne - mixed media on paper

John Byrne - Phil, mixed media on paper

John Byrne - Me and my Shadow, oil on board

And here is my contribution to our spring promo postcard. It's fun seeing them all together.

The article was quite large to scan, so I hope it is legible. Hopefully when you click on the images, you will get a better view.

This article was written a couple of Saturday's ago. I am in it and I feel that the quote makes me sound a little cranky! I did say some happy things too but there was only so much space for each illustrator, so there was quite a bit of editing.

Still, it was great to be featured with some really amazing illustrators.

Enjoy.

Seventeen year old Jersey Hatch is coming home.  Having spent the better part of the last year of his life in the hospital and then at a rehabilitation center

A bit of an old one, but I like that it is simpler than my usual work. I always get too caught up in details!

Illustration for I Love you the World, published by Reader's Digest
Watercolour
Susan Mitchell

I like cats but for some reason, I don't seem to paint them very often! I have just finished a birthday card design that does have one, so here is a detail:

Had to join in with all the doggie love! This is an old one but still one of my favourites.