Call for Artists

The Georgia Council for the Arts has a call for artists going on right now for "an exhibit that will showcase current work of contemporary artists and hang in the executive offices of the State Capitol. Work is being sought from Georgia artists, ages 18 and up, who currently live in the Cobb, Dekalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett Counties. The deadline to submit entries is June 7, 2013. Selected work will be on display from August through January. Attached is the PDF version of the information.

This is an important way to showcase and raise awareness for the work of contemporary Georgia artists at the Capitol so we here at GCA would like to ask for your help in getting the word out to local artists because we have not had as much of a response as we would expect from the metro area."

Check the website for more details! Cheers,
e
Elizabeth O. Dulemba
http://dulemba.com
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Illustrator Coordinator for the
SCBWI Southern Breeze (AL, GA, FL panhandle)
http://www.southern-breeze.org/
http://sbillustrators.blogspot.com/

2013 SCBWI Southern Breeze Gallery Show!

Friday night was opening night for our 2013 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Southern Breeze (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi) Gallery Show hosted at the Decatur Library by the Georgia Center for the Book during the Decatur Arts Festival opening ArtWalk. We had ten artists showing their work in this year's show: Prescott Hill; Jill Dubin; Yours truly, Elizabeth Dulemba; Laura Freeman; Mark Braught; Laura Knorr (Braught); Bill Mayer; Susan Nees; and Sarah Frances Hardy.
     Many of the artists and their spouses were in attendance for opening night. (Click to see larger.) From the left is: Scott Nees; Susan Nees; Lisa Michaels - wife to Prescott Hill; Laura Freeman; me; Joe Davich of the Georgia Center for the Book; Bill Mayer; Amy Schimler; Lee Mayer, Mark Braught; and my hubbie Stan.

Each art piece was accompanied by its corresponding book title and it came together beautifully...




     Our opening night was a blast, catered by Badda Bing. We did a sketch challenge - each illustrator draws a few lines adding to an illustration that ends up being... well, that's anybody's guess!

When we finished with the challenge, two young attendees decided to do their own challenge... so cute.


I tried to do a better job with photos this year—so here are the illustrators with their work...
Amy Schimler...

Bill Mayer (who apparently always takes photos like this...)
Laura Freeman...

Mark Braught... (Unfortunately, his wife Laura couldn't make it to pose with her pieces...)

Prescott with his wife, Lisa...

Susan, celebrating her first time in the show...

And me, who apparently can't stay still long enough for her picture to be taken...

Not that I was the only goof that night...

     Afterwards we went to Colbeh Persian restaurant for a fun-filled fall apart. What a great time! Peeps, good art, good food, and general mayhem - what could be better?
     The intent of the show is to impart the idea that book art is art and that the children's books you enjoy are indeed works of art—performance art, which is not fully realized until being enjoyed by a reader.
     And while opening night is a blast - the real treasure is after we leave and the show is enjoyed by thousands of library patrons as they wander through. Stan and I went back the next day and were privy to some of the wonderful comments and interest in just the short time we were there.
     We're so grateful to the Decatur Library and the Georgia Center for the Book—the library is the perfect place to host our show!

Illustrator Video Studio Tours

SCBWI picked up on our idea of Video Studio Tours (great ideas seem to float through the universe like that), and they've made some official SCBWI videos I think you'll find educational. They are:

Paul Schmid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxeUr4Nv2Sc&feature=youtu.be

Julie Paschkis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt9V4ZycTRY&feature=youtu.be

Mike Cressy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joxIcMrn3JM

Kathleen Kemly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aNhhOaEN_I

Children's Book Week!

Today kicks of the 94th annual Children's Book Week, May 13-19, hosted by the Children's Book Council. The lovely poster is illustrated by Brian Selznick and is free to schools and libraries. CLICK HERE for more information!