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A favorite cousin of mine had this snippet of an e.e. cummings poem tattooed on her backside. It says:

bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

(Read the entire poem here.)

This cousin happens to be funny, sweet and smart as heck. (And cool, too.) She teaches at an alternative high school in Colorado with kids who haven't always been valued by society, and she works passionately to instill the love of words in her students. I'm not sure if she encourages them to tattoo literature on their bodies, but hey, here's to creative teaching methods. (What's next, sweetie? War and Peace??)

So here's a big shout-out to you, K!

Here's a really rough sketch.

When I was a kid I pretty much only drew horses. In elementary school I had a wonderful art teacher who was endlessly patient around my obsession. If we were doing collage, I'd make a horse. Painting? A horse. Working with clay? Why, I'd make a horse, of course. I think my teacher, in his wisdom, let me be creative with my passion rather than squashing it at such a young age.

Thanks, Mr. Fay!

Hi, my name is Kate Hamilton. Jeff found me (or I found him) whilst Twittering one day which led to his eventual invitation to join SFG. Two weeks later... here I am.



So let's see, my name is Kate and I am a visual artist by profession. I'd call myself an "Illustrative designer" but I'm pretty sure someone else has coined that phrase.... Let's just say that I'm a creative. A designer/art director/illustrator dabbling in fine art and snow sports.



I am a former Philadelphia area resident now living in Winter Park, Colorado where there are two seasons: Winter and July. (Joke courtesy Eric Cartman). Seriously, it has snowed 8 inches since Saturday. The ground will remain white until May. Autumn ends in a blink. Luckily I love winter and I'm looking forward to the ski resort opening in a few weeks.

This is my website: Penguinart.com
I first registered that URL ten years ago when I left the U of Arts with lofty goals of illustrating children's books about penguins for the rest of my life. Long before the March of the Penguins made my favorite birds "trendy." It was also long before I ever knew I'd be moving to a ski town with 11 months of winter. I have been paid to draw penguins but not a whole book of them and certainly not enough to cover the rent, so I have adapted. And this month I have been officially 100% self-employed for 2 years and I love it more than anything.



You can see more of my work on my flickr page, and I am a contributor to the Illustration Friday Blog, however infrequently. On Twitter I'm katesnowbird, on Facebook I'm Kate Garchinsky Hamilton, and bah who cares about MySpace. Follow me around the web and you'll soon learn that I am very un-cool, I'm crazy about my two dogs, Maggie and Butters, I enjoy pastimes usually favorited by the elderly such as birdwatching and plein air painting, wine tasting and watching the National Geographic Channel. I think that in a past life I was a British landscape artist in the time of J.M.W. Turner. I find inspiration in the Wyeths, Audubon, Parrish and Pyle.

There. It's nice to meet you!

Thanks for the invite! I'm Claire, and I paint stuff like this:

See more at Absolutely Small.
There's a bunch more at my Flickr page.