Finger Puppet Workshops

In 2016 and 2019, I partnered with Chicago Public Libraries to lead interactive finger puppet-making workshops.

The first class was geared towards adults and teens and took place at the Maker Lab at Harold Washington Library. The event happened to be held on the day David Bowie passed away and students spontaneously decided to each create puppets representing an era of Bowie’s career.

Four finger puppets created by students to represent various phases of David Bowie's career

In 2019, I was invited to lead workshops celebrating Women’s History Month in March and Disability Pride month in July. For these workshops, I researched various well-known people who could be recreated in a simple puppet design. The process involved simplifying some of my existing designs—Frida Kahlo, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Angela Davis—as well as creating new designs celebrating Beyonce, Malala Yousafzai, Yayoi Kusama, and others. The class, geared towards adults, introduced the pre-made puppet designs and also allowed participants to use those techniques to create their own design as well. One favorite was a Sojourner Truth puppet created by one of the students.

For Disability Pride Month in July, I created a set of puppets representing famous disabled people including Stephen Hawking, Temple Grandin, Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, and more. This class was presented at two different libraries over the course of the month and attended by mostly youth. To ensure that the process was accessible to people with as many different ability levels as possible, I created not only the cut-out worksheets, but also some kits with pre-cut felt pieces that could be glued together by the participant.

 

 

 

Juneteenth Fundraising Event

I worked with Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative to art direct their first-ever Juneteenth Celebration fundraiser. The organization, which supports music training for talented young students of color, needed a look that spoke to the energy of the organization’s fellows, while also conveying to potential donors that this new program was trustworthy and worth supporting. I was honored to be able to create a logo and branding elements for the event, in addition to social media graphics and slides to run as part of the event video stream.

I created the event branding to play off of existing geometric branding elements to give a celebratory feel.

 

CMPI needed a sponsorship packet to educate potential donors about their program and convey their impact. We also created images for partner organizations to share on social media to promote the fundraiser.

 

Building on this content, I created slides to run in between performance videos during the event presentation itself. The slides were meant to inspire giving and add context to the performances that viewers were seeing.

Skyline Centerpieces

I created skyline-themed centerpieces for Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ 2018 West Side Story-themed gala. Echoing imagery used in the event invitation, I designed a geometric skyline illustration that was printed and die-cut in styrene. The centerpieces were  assembled and lit from the inside for the event. The blue interior created a contrast to the red and black color-scheme of the rest of the event decor.

 

33 of 100

It’s hard to believe, but I’m not over 1/3 of the way there on the 100 Day Project. The daily drawings have given me a chance to play with different subjects and styles, from single characters, to collections, to patterns, and experiment combining hand drawn and digital illustration. Not to mention that it’s been an opportunity to get up close and personal with a sketchbook, something that I haven’t done in years. Here are a few favorites from the past couple of weeks.

Bearguys

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TigerBlueLady

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Printable Valentines for Dog Lovers

Last year, I created a Valentine’s Day tribute to the creatures who know unconditional love better than just about anyone else: dogs. I designed this set of six printable Valentines based on my life as as the human to two slobbery canines.

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Big thanks to my dopey foxhound, Ivy, model for the hound at the bottom right, and our scruffy mutt Murf, inspiration for the top left, who lived up to his illustration just this afternoon by spreading trash all over the house. Good thing they’re cute!

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Download the Valentines here!