Chicago Community Mural

I'm excited to travel this June to Chicago to paint this mural with children and families at the intersection of Addison and Avondale. Please click on this short video I created for the National Museum of Mexican Art who have organized the project to explain the mural symbolism and imagery.

New Children's Mural

Please click on the mural image above to enlarge it.

I had the wonderful opportunity to create this new mural for Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Inspired by the courage of children and their families I wanted to use vivid hues that celebrated the brightness of their future. Hoping a healthy dose of color and light will speed healing.

Illustration Voice

Sharing this excerpt from a recent article in Illustration Voice along with my thanks to Editor and amiga Anne Telford.

Many years ago I was fortunate to travel to México with Rafael to research and conduct interviews for an article on contemporary Mexican graphic design for Communication Arts magazine. We flew to México City and stayed with his Auntie Lucho, driving around the world’s most populous city in the car he drove while attending Art Center many years before. In addition to his drawing and painting skills, the man can navigate the most hellish traffic with a cool that brings to mind Steve McQueen in Bullet. Visiting the Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán and the National Museum of Art gave me an inside glimpse into his artistic influences.

Bird's Eye View

This morning over coffee I watched a couple of sparrows splashing around in the fountain. Each year many birds return to build nests in the creeping ivy that thickly covers the wall of our back patio in downtown San Diego. Mankind's fascination with birds is the stuff of legends and in Greek mythology the sparrow was attributed to the goddess Aphrodite.

Like my parents before me, I tell my son that the voices of birds are a sign that Spring is approaching and remind us of hope and renewal of life.

Im excited to be working with Environment for the Americas as this year's International Migratory Bird Day artist. My passion for birds goes way back to my childhood and as a young boy I remember listening to a nightingale who always helped me fall asleep. Because they are connected to the sky many cultures believe birds link heaven and earth. The song of the nightingale is considered a positive omen by poets, writers and artists around the world.

Birds appear often in many of the illustrations I create for children's books. This painting from My Name is Celia features a soaring red bird that evokes the spirit of Celia Cruz's incomparable music.

For Our California I hoped to capture the magic as swallow scouts, messengers of the air arrive at the old stone church. Even though this chapel is the most ornate of any of the missions it's humble destiny is linked by nature to housing the mud nests of birds

cherished by St. Francis.

A boy with blue-black hair scatters berries from his basket on the back of a bright bluebird in this scene from !Yum, Mmmm Que Rico!

The migration of birds is nothing short of magic. These navigators use the sun, the stars, the earth's magnetic field and visual landmarks to travel thousands of miles to the same spot each year. In this painting for the Delaware Book Festival a bird guides the reader true North.

I have used birds in my work to symbolize positive thinking, hope and inspiration.

In this mural the bird represents the energy and spirit of community.

Birds can express the hidden nature of spirituality and beauty.

I made this painting to celebrate the renaissance of visual and performing artists in Tijuana who overcome adversity with the power of their creativity.

An interior figure appears inside a bird for this Latino Film Festival poster to represent the freedom of a filmmaker's imagination.

The flight of a bird reminds us of the essence of freedom and liberation.

So here's a personal bird story. There was a wonderful, large tree in downtown San Diego and each Spring the voices of hundreds of birds could be heard hidden in it's thick foilage. When that magnificent tree was cut down to make way for a high-rise all the birds returning to that spot to nest were confused with no where to go. We then had the idea to build an urban bird park in the heart of the city and talked about this dream with some of our friends.

We connected to Jerry Selby who worked with Centre City Development Corporation and convinced him to secure a small plot of city land that was not being used to build the park. Our good friends Amy and MaeLin Levine with Joel Sotelo at Visual Asylum coined the name Tweet Street and designed the park with impressive environmental graphics to sell the city on the idea.

Working with the American Institute of Graphic Arts, San Diego chapter the call went out for artfully designed nesting boxes that really worked. In 2007, two strips of overgrown land near the Interstate-5 freeway perched high on Cortez Hill were transformed into an urban oasis of colorful birdhouses. Thanks to the vision of the creative community this once undesirable piece of earth is now a whimsical landing strip for birds.

There are also plenty of families with kids who stop by just to hear the birds sing.

Here's the nesting box I designed that was installed in the urban bird park. If you ever get to San Diego there are many fantastic, functional birdhouses worth checking out.

Gracias!

I was asked to make a short video for the American Library Association: Youth Media Awards expressing my reaction to the good news about The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred winning a Pura Belpré Honor. It's all about drawing and thanks for checking it out here.

Who is Pura Belpré?

When I was a child growing up in Mexico City I remember my first experience traveling alone. Taking a rickety train to the metro station past colorful vendors who sold everything from comics and chicklets to medicinal herbs to cure a broken heart. Moving through an ocean of people I took the hour train ride to Zocalo station. Leaving the metro was like stepping back into another time, surrounded by Neo-Classical buildings on my way to the Hemeroteca, the city’s central library. Among the stacks there were ancient, sometimes dusty, heavy leather bound books. More than just words and pictures it was the grain of the paper, the smell and feel of the way a book ages that awakened my curiosity. On weekends my parents would take me to the Lagunilla flea market. I held my father's hand tightly as we searched for treasure. On these expeditions we got lost in our quest for old relics and discovered the magic of collecting books that other people left behind.

This morning I am once again reminded of my childhood passion for books as the American Library Association announces the 2012 Caldecott, Newberry, Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpré Awards for children's literature. Chasing down incredible picture books is something I do all year long and those early experiences in Mexico have left me most curious about Latino writers and illustrators. Over the years I've learned who to look for and I've been so fortunate to become friends with extraordinary and inspiring authors and artists.

Pura Belpré was a writer who re-interpreted Puerto Rican folk tales and was a gifted storyteller. She was the first Puerto Rican librarian in the New York Public Library system who was genuinely effective in her efforts to reach out to the Puerto Rican community. Through her dedication the New York Public Library decided to acquire culturally relevant materials and connect to the Spanish speaking community.

In 2010 I got the gift of a lifetime by winning the Pura Belpré medal for illustration with Book Fiesta! written by Pat Mora. It's difficult to express what a defining moment the Pura Belpré was in my life. My mother Pillo flew from Mexico to Washington D.C. for the 2010 Pura Belpré ceremony and I will never forget the look on her face. Growing up she had taught me to believe in my dreams of becoming an artist. I realize how important it is to communicate the important message to children that their aspirations can become reality. The incredible works of gifted artists and writers who make children's books affirm and celebrate that anything is possible. My thanks goes out to the librarians, teachers, parents and volunteers who day in and day out turn the pages of books and help make the words and pictures come to life.

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. The 2012 Author Award went to Guadalupe Garcia McCall for her mesmerizing book Under the Mesquite. The story recounts the experience of 14 year old Lupita, growing up in a bicultural community in Texas while dealing with her mother's terminal cancer.

Bravo to the 2012 Author Honor books: Hurricane Dancers: The First Carribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle and Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller by Xavier Garza.

The 2012 Pura Belpré for illustration went to Duncan Tonatiuh for his amazing book Diego Rivera: His World and Ours. Using artful digital collage his illustrations have elements of Mayan art and juxtapose the past with contemporary Mexican time. Duncan also lives part time in my other hometown, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Way to go Duncan, I'm sure the fireworks are going off over the parroquia tonight.

The 2012 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Books include Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match written by my friend Monica Brown with playful mixed media illustrations by Sara Palacios.

I'm thrilled to report that our book The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred written by the kind and clever Samantha Vamos picked up the other illustration honor. I can't imagine a more wonderful team then working with Samantha and our insightful friends at Charlesbridge, Susan Sherman, Donna Spurlock, Lily DeSisto, Yolanda Scott and Lili Cohen. My warm thanks to the Pura Belpré Committee for these generous words describing Cazuela.

Nothing is better than a delicious bowl of arroz con leche unless, of course, a host of farm animals have a hand in the preparation! Lopez's blazing illustrations for the rhythmic, rollicking cumulative tale, "The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred" radiate a cheerful exuberance and are peppered with Latino cultural details that extend Vamos' perky narrative.

Thanks to all those who believed in and supported The Cazuela especially the kids who wrote to let me know they plan to grow up to be an artist one day. The color that comes to mind when I think of your letters is vibrant, radiant yellow. Your drawings and words help me preserve the spirit of my own childhood, reminding me to live a life full of wonder.