Art Break Wednesday – Decatur Book Festival Street Market Wrap-up

 

A R T booth decor DBF 2013Whew!  The streets have no doubt been swept after The Decatur Book Festival last weekend (the nation’s largest independent book festival, with 70-80,000 of your closest friends), and I’m still catching my breath.  It was strange being there as a vendor this year rather than as an author, but much fun all around, and I’d have to say a successful weekend.

The Kids' Parades are always a highlight at the Decatur Book Festival!

The Kids’ Parades are always a highlight at the Decatur Book Festival!

Here are a few pictures of my booth:

artsyletters booth 2 DBF 2013.jpg reduced

 

 

 

 

 

Robyn artsyletters booth DBF 2013 crop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

artsyletters booth DBF 2013 interior

 

 

 

 

 

 

table artsyletters booth DBF 2013small banner artsyletters DBFartsyletters booth interior DBF 2013

 

Couldn't have done it without the help of my wonderful hubby, Jeff...

Couldn’t have done it without the help of my wonderful hubby, Jeff…

 

 

leighanne and robyn DBF 2013

 

 

 

 

 

We had terrific weather on Saturday (albeit hot), but the rains blew in off and on on Sunday. Not enough to dampen spirits. I still caught up with some good writer/illustrator buds.

Fellow art critique group member Leighanne Schneider had her gorgeous art on display directly across from my booth – she’s a regular at DBF with her Doublefly Designs.

 

 

Then Leighanne and I went with Elizabeth Dulemba to go cheer on Jo Kittinger, who was presented with a community volunteer award on Sunday afternoon for her fantastic book, THE HOUSE ON DIRTY THIRD STREET, illustrated by Thomas Gonzales.

LeighanneRobynJoMe

Caught having a good time! Leighanne, Robyn, Jo, and Elizabeth. (Photo by Elizabeth’s wonderful hubby, Stan.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t believe I neglected to get a picture with the amazing Kirby Larson, but she kept coming by to brighten my day.  And buy more artsyletters merchandise to boot!   I was thrilled to meet so many new customers.  Teachers, students, poets, historians, writers, artists, calligraphers, printmakers, journalists – you all make my heart sing.

Finally, huge thanks to my daughter, Morgan Black, for getting all my inventory loaded on my Square account the night before the festival.  Everyone needs a college student on hand to help with the technology… :0)

It was a fabulous, fun weekend, and I look forward to Art in the Square here in Gainesville in just a couple of weeks!  Come on out if you’re around.

Happy Almost-Fall….

Art Break Wednesday – Dreams Great and Small

In Unity’s “Daily Word” devotional booklet entry today, there’s a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:  “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

As we celebrate sweeping, life-affirming dreams for humanity today, I’m also thankful for smaller, individual ones.  My kids are both starting a new year in college, and my husband has just begun new, fulfilling work.  And I’m pondering that artsyletters is almost a year old! thoreau angle with c

While my business won’t fund those college educations, I feel blessed with the feedback I’ve gotten from customers this past year.  I’ve sold work to college professors, history teachers, librarians, writers & poets, artists, high school students, mothers and grandmothers and husbands – folks from across the country and even across the ocean.  And I’ve only just begun!

This weekend I’ll have a booth at the fabulous, crowded, lively Decatur Book Festival   

BOOKZILLA interpreted by Dan Santat

BOOKZILLA interpreted by Dan Santat

in Atlanta. (Not too far from the children’s stage – come on by if you’re there.)  I’ve enjoyed participating as an author before, but this will be my first time as a solo vendor.So my desk/work area pretty much looks like this:

messy desk

Multiply that, and you can imagine what my studio (and the rest of the house) looks like this week.

I will not have all the inventory I’ve imagined in my mind – so many projects, so little time!  But I won’t run out of ideas for future shows, either.  Here are some 5 X 7 pieces made with those new letterpress blocks I raved about before: dressed up letterpress A

matted letterpress letter art

 

 

 

I’ve hand-stamped the blocks with oil-based printing ink, then decorated with a dip pen and India ink (and some gold on the smaller ones) .

And because I just found a wonderful complete set of typewriter keys on Etsy, I’ve assembled a few more earrings:

typewriter key earrings

 

I’ve just sold three collages out of the blue, so I’m hoping to finish up a few more framed pieces to add to the mix.  And I need to get back to blinging up some bookmarks, packaging notecards, putting together  magnets, sprucing up booth decor…  Who needs sleep?

Wishing you a moment to pause today and think about dreams big and small, with gratitude for those who have risked their own lives to make life better for others.  And I wish you an outlet for your own creative dreams, no matter the size!

Art Break Wednesday – Hyewon Yum

with Hyewon Yum and Ladybug 2013 kaigler crop

Robyn with Hyewon Yum at the 2013 Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival

Waving howdy from the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival in Hattiesburg, MS!

I’m on a poetry panel here with Irene Latham and April Halprin Wayland, as we present a workshop called “Take 5 – Create Fun with the Poetry Friday Anthology.” (I mentioned on my author blog here.)

Also on my author blog a few months ago, I featured an illustration from Hyewon Yum.  I was thrilled because she illustrated a poem of mine in the Nov./Dec. 2012 issue of Ladybug.  (Here’s my post about all that.) Yum is an acclaimed author/illustrator of many books including: MOM, IT’S MY FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN (2012), THE TWINS’ BLANKET (2011), THERE ARE NO SCARY WOLVES (2010), and LAST NIGHT (2008) all from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. More books are soon to hit the shelves, which she either illustrated or wrote and illustrated.

I was extra-thrilled to discover last month that she won the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, presented at this festival!  Here’s her blog post about that.

She kindly permitted me to post her artwork for my poem in December, so I’d like to share it here with you to day as I’m wishing her hearty congratulations on her new award.

fox-final and LADYBUG collage

This is a linoleum cut print, and, being a print fanatic, I just love it.

Many thanks to Hyewon for sharing her artwork, and to The LADYBUG/Carus folks for granting permission to share my poem online.

GRAY FOX

by Robyn Hood Black

At the edge of winter,
at the edge of the wood,
at the edge of the brush,
a gray fox stood.

I took a small step,
I took a breath in –
then nothing was there
where the gray fox had been.

© 2012 by Carus Publishing

If you’re an educator, click here for a link to the LADYBUG Teacher’s Guide for this issue.

The future of children’s book illustration looks to be in good hands!