SCBWI Malaysia

I finally connected with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in Malaysia!

They put up a booth at the Kuala Lumpur Book Fair that I attended several weeks ago (I went knowing they would be there). The top photo is of the SCBWI booth, the next two are random pictures from the book fair.

I chatted for quite a while there with the wife of a renown Malaysian Illustrator, Yosof Gajah (fun fact: Gajah means elephant in Bahasa Malayu, the Malaysian language). Yosof's wife, Zakiah, is an artist in her own right and offers batik classes. It was lovely to chat with her. Hopefully I'll get to try one of her classes out while I live here.

 

Then, last Monday, the chapter had a special get-together (they are just starting to organize regular meetings and haven't officially started having them yet) to greet Steve Mooser, one of the co-founders of SCBWI!

It was a fun get together and I'm happy to have mingled with some other artists and writers from KL as well as Steve and Sally.

Thanks to Linda T. Lingard, the local Regional Advisor, for organizing.

Cheers to SCBWI!

The School Of Hard Knocks

My sister and her husband have been visiting us the last few weeks.

 They just left yesterday. We had a super fun few weeks together.

When Kelli and I get together we tend to make crafty stuff.

So it isn't surprising that we had a few crafty adventures while she was here.

Like visiting the Royal Selangor Pewter visitor center (touristy? YES!).

We took a tour and watched craftspeople work away at making pewter objects.

Then we participated in something called "Whack and Snack" at the "School for Hard Knocks."

We got to fashion our own pewter bowls by hammering on a flat round sheet of plain pewter.

Too bad I didn't have any pent up anger to hammer out or anything -- this would have been the perfect place to do so.

I pounded my bowl into a nice partial orb and then opted to ornament the bowl with...

A knock knock joke.

Cheesy touristy goodness at it's finest, especially when you get to share the whole experience with your sister!

Oh, and kudos to whoever came up with the idea of decorating the walls with pewter hand prints of all people who work for Royal Selangor. I loved those walls.

FYI: the snack part of "Whack and Snack" involved tea with croissants. Yummy.

The Songkran festival in Bangkok

 Our recent long-weekend trip to Bangkok happened to overlap with Thailand's famous Songkran festival.

 It's a festival to celebrate the Thai new year. 

But it's also a festival where everyone and everybody throws water on each other in the streets for several days on end. 

I think the tradition originated in people trying to symbolically cleanse themselves for the new year.

But it's kind of evolved into a big nation-wide water fight in the streets. 

 

People get drenched, but mostly it's all in good fun.

We avoided the most popular areas to celebrate (figuring it was a bit much for Oscar, our 4-year-old son).

 Instead we joined in on some water play with the neighborhood kids near our hotel (luckily located in a residential area).

 My son had the time of his life.

 He even got the hotel staff in on the act.

 They got me drenched too.

 But I steered clear when they brought out the "powder water." I think it's just dish soap, but ummm... yuk? Does that mean I'm getting old?

 Hey, at least I took one for the team and blocked my whole family from being sprayed with a hose while we rode a tuk-tuk. Of course this meant that I was the one soaked by the hose right before dinner.

Don't these trees look like cheerleaders?

Maybe you don't see it.

Picture a cheerleader holding a pom-pom high.

And here's a cheer -- HOORAH! -- for any who need one.

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and the time that the tide will turn." --Harriet Beecher Stowe

Batik factory visit in the North

Painting detail by Yusoff Abdullah, a Malaysian artist

During my recent trip to Kota Barhu my family and I also visited a batik factory.

I've watched Batik being done before,

and have even tried it myself.

But this was a neat experience because the Batik being made at the factory I visited is the kind that I often see local women wearing.

It's not made for the tourist market, in other words.

It's fun to watch how fast these women paint.

And how fast they draw with the wax tool. I tried that, it's not an easy thing to draw with.

I love these open spaces where the women work, even if it was really hot in there. It was fun to watch my son's surprising interest in the whole process, too.

I gotta say it, I love traveling with a kid.

Kite Maker or Collage Artist?

Last week my family took a short trip north to an area of Malaysia called Kelantan.

Many artists around one of the main cities of Kelantan, Kota Bharu, are especially known for practicing several traditional Malaysian handicrafts. The painting above and detail of it below, done by a Malaysian artist named Yusoff Abdullah, hung in the airport at Kota Bharu. The painting depicts many of the local handicraft traditions*.

One of my favorites of these traditions is known as Wau, or kite making.

Kite makers use large wooden frames that they bend out of thin sticks:

And the patterns on most traditional kites are intricately cut out of colorful papers and layered over one another.

Here's an artist at work cutting a pattern using an exacto blade on a folded sheet of foil.

I watched him use a blade sharpener. It made me pause because most paper artists I know back home throw out their blades rather than sharpening them. (I personally most often use a scissors, FYI).

Here's a close detail to give you an idea of the layers of paper. Every color below is a different colored paper, glued on top of one another.

Inspiring!

* The signature here is from the painting at the top of this post. I mentioned that the artist's name was Yusoff Abdullah, a Malaysian artist who I could find little information on, which is why the uncertainty and the lack of links. Please accept my sincere apologies if I've given credit wrong! Also, please correct me, if someone out there knows better, I'd prefer to properly give credit and links if they exist.

Malaysia National Craft Day

I live just down the street from Kuala Lumpur's craft complex, called Kompleks Kraf Kuala Lumpur (basically that means Kuala Lumpur Craft Complex in the local Bahasa language). 

Recently they had a big festival full of artists and craftspeople from all over Malaysia, selling their wares and also offering demonstrations.

 

I only took pictures in the demo area, but my favorite tent to walk through was the tent full of colorful batik clothing.

Picture an entire gymnasium crowded with booths of swirling bright colors and floral water-color like patterns.

Many of the artists offering demos weren't around when I took these photos, but I was able to go back and watch others later in the day.

I especially liked the kite maker, who cut impossibly intricate designs out of foiled paper and layered the designs onto paper stretched over a frame.

Hmmm... it just occurred to me that it might be fun to make an illustration sample with one of those kites included.

Did I get that idea from the craft complex or by blogging about it? Either way, I'm grateful. It's fun to be inspired to make an illustration sample that's a perfect match for your medium and your current adventure.

The Crafty Lady vs. Ms. Snobby

One of my many Crafty Cousins (I’m talking real cousins here, I come from a very crafty family) recently put a blog post up wondering if she could call herself an artist. She likes making stuff (mighty fun stuff, I might add) and yet she was wondering if what she made was original enough to call Art. She asked how other people who make stuff come to call themselves artists or their work art. I like how vulnerable and real her post was. She got me to thinking in one of those raw, sincere ways that you’d share with your best friend, but might hesitate to share with your rough and tumble inner critic.

I was thinking, specifically, about this famous art critic person I heard speak in Chicago when I lived there, let’s refer to her as Ms. Snobby. Ms. Snobby claimed there only a few dozen true artists in the world at any given time in history and right now they were all living and working in New York City – because that is the “salon” of the current times.

I remember the amused, playful thoughts I had during this woman’s lecture. My first thought was, dude, this woman is full of herself! And not only has she discredited her own city and most of her country’s artists, she’s discredited entire other cultures and countries and traditions. What a freaking’ joke! Who died and made her the matriarch (although she sounded patronizing, not matronizing) of ALL ART OF OUR TIMES.

The feelings I had then could be compared with the feelings I have now when I hear a wing-nut politico speak wing-nuttery. I felt kind of aghast but at the same time amused at the sheer ridiculousness.

Anyway, when I left the lecture, I realized most others did not take the lecture the same way I took it. I remember fellow art student friends looking rather bummed out. They were commiserating in frustration, expressing gloom and doom. Like it was impossible to be an artist. Nothing they could do mattered.

This is my apron.

My eye-brows knitted. I couldn’t believe what a different take-away I was getting from Ms. Snobby. I felt light-hearted almost. She had somehow in one hour’s time given me complete permission to write off super high-brow snobbery forever. Because, really? Who made her the judge? She could go ahead and have fun with her obviously and impossibly narrow view over in her stuffy academic office while I left her stuffy lecture to check out an interesting drawing show at the coffee house down the street, not giving a hoot whether she thought those drawings were REAL ART or not. She could be the expert dressed in black, while I continued to be the “non-artist” enjoying other “non-artist’s work” all the while with my apron soaked in color.

And I guess that moment was somehow a switching point for me. I knew then that I was an artist, and it didn’t matter what any Ms. Snobby thought. It’s not that rejection doesn’t suck. Believe me (if you don't already know it yourself), rejection sucks. But grand sweeping rejection of entire swaths of artists and their work is flat out ridiculous. And from that day on I knew that no matter what rejection came my way, it wouldn’t change the fact that I’m an artist.

Why?

The floor of my studio the day I wrote this post.

Because,

Artists make art.

It's as simple as that.

And there's no way I'd ever stop making art.

Critics can try to make some kind of exclusive club for what’s art or not art or what’s good art or bad art while the rest of us can go on “loving what the soft animal of our body loves”  (to quote Mary Oliver in an out of context sort of way).

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh.

Or, as I suggested to my cousin, if one really can’t handle the baggage that comes along with the word, "Artist," just don’t worry about the label and go on making stuff. Make what you feel like making. If you must give yourself a label, consider the label “CRAFTER,” or, my personal favorite, “CRAFTY LADY.” Because crafters craft. And that even includes doilies. Which is awesome.

Truth be told, even though I do consider myself an artist, I have a shirt that says “CRAFTY LADY,” and I’d rather wear it than one that said artist, any day of the week.

But either way, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m someone who makes stuff and attempts to bring a bit more color and heart into the world by doing so. No matter what any Ms. Snobby calls me.

Serendipity

This is one of my favorite pictures I took in Sri Lanka, just because it caught such a serendipitous moment of color -- the kind of serendipitous moment of color I'm constantly on the look out for and love to find. I just love the stripes of the guys shirt with the stripes of the tree and the red hat and the shorts that match the tuk-tuk perfectly. It may not be fine art or whatever, but it was a happy color moment.

My wish for you today? To dwell upon any happy accidents -- fortunate accidents. They happen more often than we notice. Or maybe someone who needs it most can have a little happy accident today. Is that a strange thing to hope for? No one hopes for accidents. But what about happy ones? Those surprises in life that are unplanned. If we never had happy accidents, we might never fall in love. So I hope for a little happy accident for someone who would appreciate it today. A good one. A moment of serendipity.

"Serendipity is putting a quarter in the gumball machine and having 3 pieces come rattling out instead of one -- all red" ~ Peter H. Reynolds.

Paper made from Elephant Dung

Did you know paper can be made from elephant dung?

 Indeed it can. 

I learned all about it earlier this month at the Pinnawala Elephant Dung Paper Products center in Sri Lanka.

 Elephants apparently have very inefficient digestive systems. 

 They eat tons of plant material (literally), but much of it goes straight through them. That is, after being chewed and pulverized in their stomachs (essentially beaten like one beats paper in a paper beater or blender). So paper-makers gather elephant dung, boil out the "impurities,"rinse the fibers, 

 beat the fibers (as I mentioned, the elephant got this process started in its stomach) using traditional paper-making beater machines, 

dye the fibers, 

 and strain them through moulds just like I do with my handmade paper.

 The paper-makers let the paper dry on the mould and then, depending on the desired texture, either leave the paper as is (rough) or ring it through a paper press.

 Then craftswomen and men make the paper into all sorts of handmade goodies: journals, stationary, picture frames, etc.

Who knew that *waste* could be so useful, interesting and lead to such crafty goodness?

So there's a *fresh* perspective on recycling for you.

(Note: did I really just write that and leave it for the world to see?)

Back to cleaner subjects next post.

New Art: Malaysian Tea Party

From sketch...

To finished art:

Tea time!

Going on a Whale Watch

I have a couple of fun posts about our trip to Sri Lanka coming up. Thought I'd try something different for this one. Enjoy!

Kjersten (as Mommy) and her son Oscar (age 3) present:

A story we made about whale watching in Sri Lanka! 

Written mostly by Oscar after a song Mommy was making up on the boat.
Please note that some illustrations have been replaced with pictures for the purposes of this blog.
Also, for those who aren't in the know -- this is DEFINITELY not the sort of thing you want to submit to publishers. But, all the same, I do recommend trying this at home.

(kinda sometimes sung to the tune of this song, but not perfectly so by a long stretch):

We saw the Indian Ocean and it was more rough than it should be! 

[don't try too hard to fit that into the melody, I'm telling you it won't work no matter how hard you try, but I digress]

We saw the sea.

Until...

[here's where we kinda loose the song for awhile]

Footnote for those interested: Blue Whales are the big attraction off the coast of Sri Lanka. But we didn't see a Blue Whale (even though they are usually spotted nearly daily at this time of year). We saw a Bryde's whale. Maybe not as big as a Blue Whale, but pretty thrilling anyway. Maybe only slightly more thrilling than your kid telling you he wants to make a story about the experience later that afternoon.

Sri Lanka

 We just returned from Sri Lanka!

 In Sri Lanka we spent time doing tons of stuff Oscar loved (we loved it too),
like whale-watching (we saw a Bryde's whale),

taking tuk-tuk rides,

 playing in the ocean,

seeing elephants and peacocks in the wild (along with a whole host of other animals),

 reading on balconies with pretty views (yes, Oscar liked these times because he liked down time to play with his train),

  and best of all, riding on LOTS and LOTS of trains!

We also saw a cultural show with drummers and acrobatic dancers (Oscar's smile was infectiously wide),

 and stayed at crazy-interesting hotels, like Helga's folly!

 How much fun could an adventurous family with a kid have?
Well, the temples weren't really a kid thing to see.

  But wow! 

We did have one moment of breath-catching world-stopping fear.

 A train window on a small commuter train (a train window with a mighty sharp edge) slammed down like a guillotine a millimeter from my precious little boy's fingers. For a second I thought my entire world had changed (really, it would have chopped them off). But somehow his little chubby fingers were spared. So strange how a tiny fraction of a second could have changed his whole life (and mine by extension). But instead, thankfully, became nothing more than a mere footnote. Yikes. 

(I couldn't help but hear the naysayers -- the imaginary ones in my head -- saying, "I told you that you shouldn't be traipsing around the world with a little kid! Think of the dangers! Serves you right! What a terrible mommy you are!" Those naysayers sure are a pesky lot for adventure companions).

 Unfortunately for others around us in Sri Lanka, heavy rains were creating many life-changing situations. It was the worst in the cultural triangle, up north.

 

In fact, we never made it to the hotel we were supposed to stay at there -- the roads were flooded!

 I couldn't stop thinking of all the houses and businesses I saw standing in water. 

I thought of all the stories surrounding me and hoped and prayed for their heroes to pull through.

We did see plenty of smiles, by the way, despite the rain, and sweeter because of it.

 We also visited an elephant sanctuary and a elephant dung paper-making factory (yes, elephant dung paper -- crazy, huh? I'll put a separate post up about that next week)

 This trip, more than any other I've taken, seemed to feed me with new ideas for illustrations and also for writing.

 Maybe it was all that time spent indoors during the rain.

  But anyway, I had no distractions when I got home (the Internet wasn't even working) so I dove straight into my new ideas. Yay for diving right in.

Oh dear! I almost forgot to mention the food!

 Sri Lankan food is incredible, and different than anything else I've eaten.

 I'm usually not a savory breakfast sort of girl, but the Sri Lankan savory breakfasts we ate (pictured above) were unforgettably good. Please note that they are Bryce's favorite.

Look at all these curries and chutneys:

I'm so grateful for these rich experiences I'm sharing with my family right now.

I'm also grateful for the moments of clarity I've been having regarding my work -- especially those moments of perspective that come after a difficult battle with a stubborn art piece or a stubborn mental attitude.

 Nothing like dragging yourself away from the familiar to see things in a new way. I suppose that's sort of what this entire time living abroad is shaping up to be: a time for learning to look at life and my work in a new way.

P.S. We also brought a new member of the family home from Sri Lanka, the spiky guy pictured above, name: Rasheedi.

I'm in Sri Lanka as I post this

Thought I'd post these pictures I took from the Seattle Flight Museum over the holidays as a way of saying, "I'm off!" Again.

This time I'm spending a little under two weeks in Sri Lanka with my husband and Son. I'll post a few pictures when I get back in a couple of weeks.

Until then, regular posts should keep coming -- I've scheduled a few things to go up ahead of time (including the Monday Caldecott series I've been doing). Hope you are having adventures, too, wherever this finds you!

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page." -- St. Augustine

Home Sweet Home

I thought that going home to Washington State in the middle of the winter, I'd be a little bummed out about the coldness. Or the darkness. Or maybe the rain.

 But the sunsets over Bellingham Bay are as pretty at 4:30 P.M in early January as they are at 9:30 PM in June.

I know that it's a bit of a pithy cliché, but isn't it kinda true that some of the cloudiest skies make for the prettiest of sunsets?

 And as for the cold: AHH! RELIEF! I got to wear my cozy sweaters! And my funky knitted leg warmers. And I could snuggle up with a down comforter at night.  it was nice to feel cold when I was outside instead of when I'm inside (due to air conditioning).

 And as for the rain...

That swarm of dots in the center of this photo was a flock of birds!

Okay, I confess, I kinda like the Northwest's rain.

There's the flock again, or at least the side of it -- to the left above.

I kinda like the thunderstorms in Kuala Lumpur too, as long as I'm not caught out in one.

Yep, the white clump to the right: birds.

So it was great to have a few weeks back at home.

But, to be honest, it felt good when my plane touched down back at the KL airport too.
I've got a heck of a lot of adventures lined up this coming year.
I've got a heck of a lot of collages to finish in my studio too (can't wait to share some photos -- soon!).

Check out this treehouse I found at a local park recently: it's a covered picnic area!

And anyway, when the plane touched down in KL, I noticed that it was raining. Or rather, drizzling -- just like it does in my other home, sweet home.