Mary Jane Begin's Blog

 Come one come all to a slide show and book talk on my latest book, My Little Pony, The Dragons on Dazzle Island Island! I’ll talk about color, light and the influence of luminaries (aka my art heroes!) I’ll  show my process, the step by step, answer questions and sign copies of my books.  The start time is 1:30pm on Saturday, August 26th.

 

The fight or flight response is a physical reaction built deep in our bodies and brains, helping us to react to a perceived harmful event or threat to survival. A rush of adrenalin courses through our veins, inducing us to grab a weapon or run like the wind.  When diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2013, my fear, and desire to fight or flee the unseen foe inside me, grew day by day.  But I could neither do battle with a physical enemy, nor run away from it. Fighting cancer meant continuing on with my life as normal: overseeing my family, filming an online course, starting a new book, and carrying on holidays with a brave and cheerful face. But as a RISD professor on sabbatical, I made it my primary goal to fight back with knowledge. I started researching this new “project”… as there’s no clear roadmap when battling breast cancer. With all the information that I could learn, and with the support of my partner, friends and family, I chose to have a double mastectomy followed by radiation. By April of 2014, my bout with breast cancer was, I hoped, behind me. I’d fought the enemy and all I wanted to do was to close the door, put my feelings in a box and move on.

 

I couldn’t.

 

As an artist and storyteller, images of my psychological and emotional journey tumbled in to my head. Creating charcoal drawings that explored my experience and told my story helped me to understand the complexity of dealing with life after breast cancer. I began to transform the idea of fighting and flying from a fear based physical reaction, to a metaphor of change. Birds in the drawings symbolize what I lost because of breast cancer, and what I gained as well. Each drawing helped me to move closer to healing, and to “flying” with my new colors, once more.

 

As a very private person, I had no intention of sharing these stark, personal images. I had made them as a way to heal, not for public display.   But when I showed them to a few close friends and saw their reaction, I started to think differently. In talking to other survivors, I’ve realized that my feelings are not mine alone; I share them with a Sisterhood of women who’ve felt what I’ve felt. One survivor told me that she thought these drawings might help, not only other women with breast cancer, but also family and friends wanting to understand what’s happening in our hearts and minds as we navigate our way with both fight and flight.

 

Mary Jane

 

The drawings have been made into oversized prints and will be on display at URI Feinstein Providence Campus Arts and Culture Program with Providence Art Windows for the ART AND HEALING Exhibition. A multimedia exhibit of healing artists – fine artists, art therapists and rehabilitative artists, expressive artists – representing the use of art in healing, inspiring, transforming and overcoming illnesses.   My images will be in the windows of the library all along Washington Street from November 3- December 12.

Art and Healing Round Table November 13th at 7pm in the Paff Auditorium

Gallery Reception November 20th from 5-9pm with Performances by:  Tenderloin Opera, along with music, dance, inspired words, a group of Prayer Shawl knitters, and interactive expressive arts activities.

 

With a small bag packed, I’m jumping on the blog bus for a quick writing tour, joining one of my favorite friends and traveling companions (we took SCBWI in NYC by storm!) the charming and incredibly delightful author Anika Denise. Her latest book baby, Baking Day at Grandma’s, is due out Fall 2014. You can find out more about her writing process and read her insightful post here 

And if you were wondering…

What am I working on?

Rainbow Dash greets the not-so-friendly mermare, Electra.

It’s a bit top secret, but I’ll share what I can: I’m working on the follow-up to my last picture book, My Little Pony Under the Sparkling Sea, a tale produced in collaboration with Hasbro, published by Little Brown. The tricky part about working with an existing intellectual property like My Little Pony, is that so much is kept under wraps in development…making it harder to share my process- either writing or illustrating. But this is amongst friends, right? So I’ll share a little: This latest venture/adventure may involve wintery wonders, jungle ponies and some seriously shimmery objects. I’ll be creating some new pony characters too and a not-so-pony creature…but that’s all for now! At the same time, I’m working on a story of a very different type, a modern-day myth about fear, using  Grimm charcoal and deep pencil overtones. The two stories are day and night, but for me, contrast is essential in writing, art and life.

Running from Fear.

 

With a wildly different writing cap, I’m working on scripts for a new course on composition for  Lynda.com. This demands a kind of writing brain that challenges me to write like I speak. I know that if  it sounds strange when I read the script aloud…it’ll trip even more clumsily off my tongue when I’m on camera. Developing my writing in this way has helped me to be more aware of my voice when writing picture books, especially character dialogue.

 

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I think, like my incredible colleague Chris Denise, that I too look back to the Golden Age of illustration when luminaries like Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle and Jessie Wilcox Smith graced the pages of books and magazines. Check out some of Chris’s work here to see what I mean. I love the depth of color, the quality of light and the level of detail that was part of the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau. It all seeped sensually into illustration at the turn of the century, and I’m completely wooed by it. I’ve visited many times, as well as exhibited, at the National Museum of Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island. The collection of Golden Age  illustration at the museum is astounding… I can’t get enough of it and highly recommend a visit to visual storytellers and artists alike. In fact, the originals from My Little Pony, Under the Sparkling Sea are on display there right now.

Why do I write what I do?

 I write stories that speak to my heart. If I can only think up words and images, but not feel the mood or feelings behind the story…it feels a bit too mechanical. I have plenty of stories that will NEVER see the light of day, because I couldn’t feel the character’s emotions, or imagine why they’d behave in a particular way. I’m drawn to characters and their motivation more than anything else, and can start to envision a story from their point of view if I understand why they might do this or that. Once the character and world is articulated in writing and then in illustration- the world becomes real for me, and I can see story and image past the page’s edge.

How does my individual writing process work?

I tend to write stories in my head while driving, trying to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night, waking from a nap or resting quietly in a beautiful place. There are so many distractions in a day that it’s essential to let my mind wander to the dusty corners, tiny hidden doorways and funky secret passages that are easy to miss when I’m busy. I remember having a dream that felt like the perfect metaphor for creation: As I wandered around my house, I discovered new rooms filled with treasures, with large windows and doorways to other new rooms. I often feel that I’ve come upon a story like a found treasure, as though someone else wrote it and I’m just picking it up, dusting it off and fine-tuning the details. I should write on the cover of my books- “Co-authored with my Muse” I think she does the hardest part! Once I have the story arced out in my mind, I’ll type it out, ruminate on it, then let it simmer for a bit. I can rarely resist the temptation to do a few thumbnail sketches, as the illustrator side of me is bossy and has a mind of her own. Once I satisfy the sense that it’s coming together, I’ll share it… but I am ALWAYS thinking, “ Is this any good?” I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in this thought as either writer or illustrator.

 

And now to the dazzling Elizabeth Dulemba and the dashing Matt Faulkner! 

Elizabeth O. Dulemba is an award-winning children’s book author/illustrator with two dozen titles to her credit. She is Illustrator Coordinator for the SCBWI Southern region, a Board Member for the Georgia Center for the Book, and a Visiting Associate Professor at Hollins University in the MFA in Children’s Book Writing and Illustrating program. A BIRD ON WATER STREET is her first novel (Spring 2014, Little Pickle Press) and has already won three awards. Learn more about Elizabeth here  

 

 

 

 

Matt Faulkner is an award winning children’s book author and illustrator and has  illustrated twenty-nine books and written and illustrated seven since he began his career back in 1985. He enjoys working on projects of both historical and fantastical natures (and he concentrates very hard not to get them confused). His author/illustrated book A Taste of Colored Water (Simon and Schuster) was recently chosen by the School Library Journal as a significant book for sharing concepts of diversity with kids. And the San Francisco Chronicle calls his recently released graphic novel, “Gaijin: American Prisoner of War” (Disney/Hyperion) “superb”! Matt is married to author, national speaker on early literacy and librarian Kris Remenar and lives with their children in the lower right hand corner of Michigan. Learn more about Matt here 

 

Library of the Early Mind: A documentary film exploring children’s literature

Ihad a fantastic time recently during my visit to the Sollar Wellness Center, a day habilitation site for developmentally delayed adults, in Pembroke MA. I recently did a presentation for them at their Day Enrichment Picnic, and they were a fabulous audience..they showed real interest in the process of visual storytelling and laughed at my jokes :). At the end, we played the Scribble Game, and created a playful and sassy critter together whose story was just beginning here to unfold here…

While I was working on My Little Pony Under the Sparkling Sea, I was asked by Hasbro if they could document my painting process. I said “sure!”

I had no idea that it would become for me… a kind of watchful eye, paying attention to how fast, how long and how efficiently I worked. Although the time lapse video is very quick, the camera was on for 5 days while I made this painting ( 2 days of final touches were made off camera at the end). I was aware that something over my shoulder was documenting my every move; how often I popped up for a snack, a cat nap or a bathroom break…but the cool thing about it, was it made me paint faster and for longer periods then ever before! Lesson for me? Maybe I should always paint with a camera hovering