Sunday, April 22, 2012

Mondays with Mira - Firefighters in the Dark and a little creative heaven

I had an amazing but exhausting weekend in creative heaven. First off was a truly fabulous Society of Children's Picture Book Writers and Illustrators conference on Saturday thanks to our awesome regional advisers Patricia Newman and Erin Dealey who happen to be super talented themselves, super smart and organized assistant RA Catherine Felt, my co-illustration coordinator Kris Aro McLeod, the many lovely volunteers and the fantastic speakers. Kudos to all (especially the leadership). I managed to film two of the editors (who I also fell in love with) asking penetrating and hopefully super helpful questions for my upcoming courses at the Picture Book Academy, and they were both super insightful and very generous : )

Then today I went to San Francisco with one of my students from the last Hero's Art Journey course and we took a class with Maya Gonzalez. Maya contributed to the Hero's Art Journey course and will also be featured in the Picture Book Academy. I did my first Mondays with Mira on her one of her books, My Colors My World, and absolutely adore her and her brilliance. Maya is also putting on what will be a fantastic mini conference on radical self-publishing May 12th in San Francisco and she even has some scholarships. Here are the links www.reflectionpress.com/conference and www.reflectionpress.com/scholarships

I've known and worked with Maya for over 20 years and everything she does is extraordinary.

I also want to give a shout out to folks about our upcoming Northern California Central Society of Children's Picture Book Writers and Illustrators Day in Rancho Cordova (near Sacramento). All I can say for now is it will be incredible and intimate. Here is the link http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e5iax92k36da453f&llr=bvqcu5dab do check it out.

The class Karen and I took with Maya was on Ink and brush as teacher. It was intense and brilliant taking both of us places we didn't expect to go. We spent the day drawing and painting hands but connecting them somatically to the rest of our bodies using inks, which are kind of challenging as are hands. We meditated and painted and discussed and if I have time, I'll post my pictures and tell you about the process later this week. Of course I'm super pooped but I wanted to get this up and out for your viewing and listening pleasure first thing on Monday.

So it's onward and upward to Mondays with Mira, First Seduction then Deconstruction - Pleasurable Picture Book Reviews!!!!
Today we're going to take a quick peek at Postmodernism in Picture Books with the delightful book Firefighters in the Dark, written by Dashka Slater and illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli. So settle down and have a watch, learn a little about Postmodernism and be prepared to go where you don't expect to go. You can find out more about Dashka at www.dashkaslater.com



I hope you enjoyed Firefighters in the Dark as much as I did and do check out the Hero's Art Journey half-off special here www.herosartjourney.com and let your friends know : )

2 comments:

Elizabeth Stevens Omlor said...

I love this place! I learn so much! What an amazingly imaginative book. It was truly delightful. I am very curious about post modernism. Can't wait to learn more about it next week. Thanks so much Mira for another marvelous Monday.

Dashka Slater said...

Thanks so much for all your kind and thoughtful remarks about FIREFIGHTERS IN THE DARK, Mira! It's a marvelous and humbling experience to be educated about one's own book, but I truly feel I was. Many thanks.