Triathlete Links on Life

Oh goodness. It has been over a month, a month? since I’ve posted and I’m so sorry. That means I’ve done NO book review Wednesdays for a month. Ack. (And I thought those would keep me blogging.) March has been a month of deadlines and to excuse my absence I quickly fill you in on some of the deadlines that I’ve been meeting and working towards. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve probably see a lot of this already so my apologies.

March 1: Final illustrations for the book Fufu and Fresh Strawberries You can see some of those illustrations here.
Forum assignment for my Picture Book Certification Semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA)

March 15: Final egg paintings for the Great Goose Egg Auction. You can see the eggs here.

March 17: My 2nd packet was due for VCFA

March 22: Forum assignment for my Picture Book Certification Semester at VCFA

March 23: I did my first multisport event. An indoor triathlon at the Naval Air Station Brunswick. The event was a 1000 meter row on an ergometer, a 5 mile bike on a stationary lifefitness cycle, and a 1.5 mile treadmill run. You can see pictures of me and Mike (the gentleman paired with me) in the event and read more about it in the captions here. I used this indoor triathlon to train for an event that I am doing in May, The Tri for the Casco Bay Y. If you’d like to donate a small bit to the scholarship funds and to my team the MIghty Mamas, please take a look at our fund raising page where you can donate online. I’ll be swimming and cycling and my friend Rachel will tag off to do the 5K run.

This past week I’ve been revising and polishing the first 10 pages of my novel, working on the synopsis and query letter for the deadlines associated with the New England SCBWI spring conference critiques and quick queries. While the Friday and Saturday registration is full, there are still spots for Sunday so check it out.

I also just got back from the post office, where I was sending a picture book to for the April 1st scholarship deadline at VCFA and a trip to the library where I was stocking up with a new load of 25 picture books for VCFA Packet 3!

All of this with my husband out of state for the first three weeks of March and two kids who need me.

So you see, I’ve been an extremely busy Writer/Mom/Triathlete but we’ll see if April, with its extended sunshine hours, allows me to find more time to blog. Happy Passover to all who celebrate. Look for my Wednesday review of the book: The Matzoh That Papa Brought Home.

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Five on Friday

1. We are wrapping up "Banned Book Week" but the challenges continue. Challenges often ramp up at the beginning of each school year. See for more info on books under attack. I’ve ordered 100 of these buttons…

from the ABFFE (American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression) and I’m itching to hand them out at PTO meetings, potluck dinners and the like.
2. In the same vein, has a wonderful collection of haikus over in the comment section of her blog this week in support of free expression. Take a look. Here are my contributions.

a.
rooted deep in fear
censors dictate their one truth
micro-manage youth

b.
If all books portray
people who link and think the
same as me? Boring

3. I have completed my sketches for the book I’m illustrating for The Telling Room, in Portland and turned them in yesterday. Yea, me! The project, Fufu & Fresh Strawberries, seems much more real now. The pub date is May of 2010. Would you like a sneaky peaky? Okay, you talked me into it. Here are a couple of sketches…

4. So now I’m going to go work on an oil painting for a harvest show that is calling for entries.
5. Then I need to buckle down and write my critical essays for my MFA, packet number 3, the over the hump packet! Have a great weekend!
(By the way, no one has left any comments in the last three posts, so for my piece of mind, could someone just say "hello" so I know these are posting? Thanks.)

Five on Friday

1. My husband and I were talking about Banned Books and commenting that if a child/teen really wants to get their hands on information they want or need they will do it with or without their parent’s permission. I think my job as a parent is to make the information and myself accessible at the same time. This way I am available to discuss my children’s questions when they arise. Looking at the banned book list on the ALA website (use the sidebar to navigate these lists) I’m surprised by how many of the books are nonfiction books about puberty and sexuality written for children and teens. As an educator, I know that this is information vital. Along with the information, though, they need the support of their parents to help them learn about responsible and respectful relationships.

2. Hubby and I enjoyed a long and lovely bike ride from our home, looping into the farmland near the coast and back to home again. Sometimes it is great to have him at home while I work, but I’m afraid that I take too many breaks when he’s here.

3. Working on inking those sketches for my September 30th illustration deadline.

4. If you live in my area, check out the new Lion’s Pride restaurant. The place has only been open for about two months and is sort of tucked into a mini-mall setting but inside the oversized labels and amazing blow glass tap pulls create a cozy atmosphere. An awesome pub for the over 30 set. Our waiter was incredibly knowledgeable and attentive. I had a great glass of wine and Chris tried a local brew. The food was great (fish and chips, the Philly cheesesteak, the belgian frittes, and the Capitole salad). Portions were huge so sharing is definitely an option.

5. Five, hmmm… time to write!

1.I’m pleased to say that we are safe and sound in Pennsylvania with my parents. We spent most of the last month, and all of last week boxing up our things, sweating in the heat and humidity, packing the trailer and moving from St. Mary’s County, Maryland. This stop at my parent’s home is for the month of July and then we are back to our home in Maine. After reading the blogs of other New England friends it is obvious that they are saturated with rain. I hope things dry out a bit by the time we get back… but even if it doesn’t, we know what we’re getting into.

2. I’m getting very excited about the Vermont College residency that is coming up quickly. I’m doing all my required reading and workshop notes. My bag is packed (as long as I wear the same clothes for the next 10 days) and the financial aid stuff is moving forward. I still have to look at the workshop choices and try to make make some decisions. Even though this seems like a solid step forward in my development as a writer, I still have a little bit of a lost feeling. Is this what I should be doing? Should I just be giving up instead of investing this time and money in something so subjective and unstable?

3. If you didn’t get to see the images from my Art Show and Sale they are up on my facebook page. Here is the link. If it doesn’t work… you may need to have a facebook account.

4. I’m working (pretty much pro bono) on an illustration assignment. The manuscript is a collaboration of two high school students for a Portland non-profit. The experience should be interesting as includes some cultural research. have you heard about an African dish called Fufu?

5. Grandma and Grandpa get to have us for a whole month and are even taking the kids for one week on their own. Unending thanks and gratitude! (I’m really looking forward to a break.)

The Working Artist Show

If you are in the Kennebunk area during the month of July… Please Come.

The WORKING ARTISTS SHOW, organized by some of the artists in the Maine Illustrators' Collective (MEIC),  is  being held in a gallery space, at the Kennebunk Free Library in Kennebunk, ME. Show runs July 2nd-July 31st Artist's Reception is in Hank's Room, Kennebunk Free Library July 8th 4:30-7:30pm The public is welcome. Come to a totally different kind of art show featuring commercial artists and  their art!

Art Show and Sale

Two days until the show… Everyone is invited.
Email me for the specifics. annajboll at gmail dot com

Anna J. Boll

Fine Art & Illustration

Summer Show and Sale

Saturday, June 20^th

4 pm to 8 pm

Leonardtown, Maryland

Hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Please come!

Children Welcomed!

Contact Anna at: annajboll at gmail dot com

Five on Friday

Locked so that my prof doesn’t see this.

1. Thanks to those of you who gave me a little kick in the rear yesterday. While the art history paper is still on my list of things to do, the research is drawing to an end. I’ll work on it next week in the mornings and then turn it in by Wednesday if I’m lucky. The good thing is that because I am who I am, the research is exciting. I love to find out new things, and you never know, perhaps this could be a book or at least an article, some day.

2. Part of the reason it has been so difficult to complete (read: care about doing it) is because the class actually ended last Thursday. For the class, we completed a 3 page essay, a 10 minute class presentation w/power point, a mid-term take home test (with numerous lengthy essays), an in-class midterm (short answers), and a final test (with numerous lengthy (3 page) essays. Which begs the question: How may pieces (and what kind of) assessment does an educator need to have a good understanding of what you know and who you are as a student? Considering there were only six people in this class, and it was an entire semester compressed into three weeks, I’d say that was enough. Never the less, I will prevail and complete the paper.

3. When I’m procrastinating, I’m busy packing our house into boxes for our move back to Maine. We are really excited to go back to OUR home. I’m also excited to sketch and paint the view from my windows. There is so much texture in the Maine landscape.

4. I’ve been applying for what seems like a kagillion jobs and hope to get interview calls any day now. If I’m lucky, I’ll end up with tons of offers, but I think the reality is that luck would be AN interview or A job.

5. My show invitation…

The Mythology of Epiphanies

I’m working on my final project for my drawing class. Last Tuesday we picked pieces of paper from two cups: a phrase and a word. I ended up with "The mythology of…" and "epiphanies."

The funny thing is that this phrase is very meaningful to me. and I have been corresponding about "doing the work" necessary to create a book that is honest, and authentic from its dialogue to theme, to emotions. A work of fiction or art is never born fully formed as Athena from Zeus’s head. It is built little by little, year after year upon the backs of the previous drafts and thumbnails, research and revision.

My journey to this realization has taken a while. I’m still thrilled when I learn a new trick of the trade, or an interesting bit of wisdom on revision but the fact is that nothing creative comes easy. Even for those who are wonderfully talented.

I was unsure of the image I would create for this final project. I’ve been drafting thoughts and listing words that come to me. Birth of ideas, the story behind the story, tales of success, fish stories, tales, eureka, lightbulbs… Using words in the image seemed like a cop out, using a symbol or iconic image seemed too cliche’. Then I got to thinking of the work I’ve done. The images for portfolios that got ripped apart by well-meaning art directors. I decided to rip them apart myself.

I took out my old work and portfolios and started tearing. It felt great. I made piles of color and created a mosaic type, collage, background of blue gradient from all the skies I’ve tried to do in my paintings. Then I started to think of these as the scaffolding, the girders that allow me to climb higher in my understanding of illustration and design. I immediately thought of the photos by Hine in the ’30’s of the workers building the Empire State Building.

Look at those amazing lines! What an epiphany! I immediately started sketching thumbnails. Tomorrow, I’ll draw on top of my mosaic sky to recreate an abstract version of the girders in the building. It is due on Wednesday. Hopefully I’ll have a picture to post by then.

My Life. So similar to yours I’m sure.

When I wake up in the morning (around 6ish) my brain kicks into overdrive. With my eyes closed, illustration ideas play for me like a slide show. Sometimes I squeeze them harder trying to make out the details, the colors, the gestures, space, composition… Without fail they fade as I open my eyes.

I take this time to plan too. "Today," I think, "I will jump right up, do some research for my class paper, write the "one-month-left" letter to faculty of the conference, revise Regular Bus, I need to dummy up First Came the Deer"… and on and on until I’m so overwhelmed that the warmth of my husband and the bed lull me to inaction for another half-hour.

Then it’s up and at ’em. Unload the dishwasher, get up the boys, make lunches. Has everyone has breakfast? Get your lunch box, shoes on, shoes on, homework packed. Mom did you sign my… Shoes on! Let’s go. Run, run, let’s not miss the bus…

Then quiet. Clean the kitchen or check email? Check email.

Oh no, I’m late. Shoes on. Get to class.

Did I mention one month left. I’m so excited for the conference but part of me wishes it was April 27th. Maybe then I’ll get to that 6 am list.

HI ART! Who’s Art?

It is a sun, sun, sunny day and pretty warm here in Southern Maryland. This in combination with a day away from my house, in class and creating art boosted my spirits. I’m excited to post a new image here.

Moscow nights. We have been looking at framing in my drawing class and the professor created a great assignment. She split the class in two and we created and wrote down one of those silly stories when one person starts and then passes it around the group. Then we had to create a 5 frame comic to show the story. Here is mine. I can’t figure out how to get a bigger image when you click it, sorry. Any help would be appreciated.

I’d hoped to scan in a collage I’m working on too but that will have to wait. Maybe tomorrow. Suffice it to say that I’m happy doing my art and working on many projects (all be it for free) that I enjoy.

More later.