I’ve been a member (consistently inconsistently) of SCBWI since college. When I joined, I felt that I belonged to a community of other picture book makers throughout the world. Moving back to Atlanta away from my college art community, The Bulletin was an invaluable resource for me. Through the years I met other members of the SCBWI community online and saw their work and book deal news through The Bulletin, which was always inspiring. Imagine how thrilled I was to be asked to create an illustration for the cover of the fall bulletin. I chose to illustrate a young African American boy casually and innocently holding a kite in direct response to the reality that black lives do matter. He could be my son if I had one, but he is certainly representative of my cousins, my uncles, my brothers, my congressmen, my president, my doctors, my teachers, my friends…
As I mentioned on my fb page, I typically don’t make work with any agenda, but this time, I felt compelled to use the work to speak to something greater. So, without further ado, check out my cover and the original painting without cropping. Viva fall!!! Viva SCBWI!!
Many thanks to Sarah Baker for the invitation!