ABFFE Silent Auction 2014

Once again I'm very happy to participate in this year's ABFFE Silent Auction event at BookExpo America. Here is one of two pieces that I've donated...

I'll be at the auction Wednesday night and will be in NYC for the rest of the week for various events including signing lithos of my upcoming picture book DRUTHERS (more on that later this week).

BLUFFTON: The BEA Schedule!

Folks outside of my immediate family will finally get a chance to see BLUFFTON (well, at least a b/w advance reading copy of it) this week at BookExpo America. I couldn't be more excited about this book getting out there, so I'm going to be spending the week in New York talking to anyone who will listen about Buster Keaton. Here's my official schedule of events:

Wednesday, 5/29

School Library Journal Day of Dialog

I'll be on the Visual Storytelling panel along with Lizzie Boyd, Oliver Jeffers, Chris Raschka, and David Wiesner. Not too shabby, huh?

ABFFE Silent Auction

I'll be mingling, bidding, and casting sideways glances to see how my donation is faring.

Friday, 5/31

9:30 am   Signing arcs of BLUFFTON at the Candlewick Booth (#1575)!!!

12:15 pm   ABC/CBC Speed Dating!

In addition to those events, I'll be wandering the floor and socializing and stuff. Say howdy if you see me!

Buster at BEA

This rather bookish portrait of the young Buster Keaton will be auctioned off on May 29th as part of the annual ABC/ABFFE Silent Auction at BEA (the gargantuan book expo). I'll also be at the auction bidding on other works of art which you can see HERE.

Earlier that day, I will be speaking on the Visual Storytelling panel at School Library Journal's Day of Dialog symposium.

And then I'll be doing a bunch of other things at BEA, including signing advance reading copies of BLUFFTON and Speed Dating!

Whew! And speaking of BLUFFTON (which, honestly, I'll be doing A LOT in the coming months), here's a swell Q&A PDF created by my friends at Candlewick.

Wells Library Fundraiser

On October 22nd, the Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid is hosting a fundraising event for the Hurricane Irene-devastated Wells Memorial Library. There will be a silent auction of more than 50 items, including this pencil & watercolor sketch I drew for the occasion. Event details are HERE.

If you are in the area, please stop by and help out a great cause. Thanks to author Kate Messner for spreading the word and helping to organize the event.

Oh No! An Auction!!!

Uber-talented illustrator Dan Santat sent out a challenge to a bunch of fellow illustrators: Create an illustration inspired by his new book Oh No! (written by Mac Barnett). The idea was to come up with an image that would take place within in the story but still be separate from the events in Dan and Mac's book. So I added this little moment after the end of the book... the giant robot has been booted into the bay by the giant frog (really, check out this book) and this little boat comes across it.

Although a fun experiment, the REAL reason behind this project is that ALL of the original art will be auctioned off this week. All proceeds benefit the non-profit writing center, 826LA.

Here's the poster with details of Auction #1 (which is where my painting will be):

For more details, go HERE! Happy bidding!

UPDATE: THE AUCTION IS ON!!!!!

Ripple Blog on Wednesday!

This is my donated drawing for Kelly Light's fantastic Ripple blog. The idea is simple and great: illustrators donate original art dealing with the oil spill disaster, Kelly auctions them off, and ALL proceeds go to help the bird and marine life of the area. This month is Great American Illustrator month and she's already sold some amazing cards from folks like Mo Willems, Frank Dormer, and Jarrett Krosoczka.

My card goes up for auction this Wednesday, July 21 at 6:30 PM EST.

Above is a slightly enlarged view. The actual card is ink on 2.5 x 3.5" watercolor paper. It's called A Day at the Beach. For details on how the bidding works, go to the Ripple blog and look at the right side column.