7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #572: Featuring Shreya Gupta
February 4th, 2018 by jules
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— From Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities
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It’s a pleasure to have a visit today from New York-based illustrator Shreya Gupta. As you will read below, she is has done a great deal of editorial illustration but is also currently working on her first children’s book.
I’m going to hand 7-Imp over to her so that she can share more of her art and tell us more about herself.
I thank her for visiting. . . .
Shreya: I am an illustrator, originally from India and currently based in New York. I make illustrations for publications, websites, and packaging. I also work with galleries.
India’s first practicing female doctor
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I came to the United States to pursue a career in illustration. When I applied to art schools, I got accepted into the MFA Illustration as a Visual Essay program at the School of Visual Arts. The program encourages an individual to develop his or her own voice but with a focus in storytelling. So, back when I was a student, the program helped in laying down the foundation of storytelling in my work. But even now I am constantly pushing it to see in how many different ways can an illustration tell a story.
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I love to create detailed work with patterns and textures. My work often tends to be whimsical.
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I really enjoy what others say when they look at my work, sometimes interpreting it as it is meant to be — but even when they have their own interpretations. It’s a very happy feeling to know what I made is being enjoyed by someone else.
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When I first began illustrating, I drew illustrations that told a story in a single image. Hence, I got very interested in editorial [illustrations]. I also have always been interested in fiction and created a series of illustrations for short stories from the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino [picture above].
But when I came across Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, I rediscovered my fascination for children’s books, which I had as a kid. After that, I started collecting children books that I felt were in some way meaningful to me and which I would have loved to read as a kid, too.
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At the same time that I was wondering if I should reach out to a literary agent so that I could create my own books, I was contacted by one. So I signed, and we have started working on my first children’s book.
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It’s in a very early stage right now, and I am doing research. But I do know that I want to tell the story as an interactive book and will share more as it moves forward.
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All illustrations reproduced by permission of Shreya Gupta.
Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.
1) A warm house in cold weather.
2) Lunchbox letters from my daughters.
3) For World Read Aloud Day this week, Jacqueline Woodson read one of my very favorite picture books:
Happy #NationalReadAloudDay. Here I am reading my book, Each Kindness. https://t.co/H7e1kmVpiL
— Jacqueline Woodson (@JackieWoodson) February 1, 2018
4) A rare Mary Margaret O’Hara sighting.
5) Slow but steady progress.
6) Words of encouragement.
7) Teamwork.
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Good morning. Thanks for sharing the lush illustrations of Shreya Gupta.
Jules, the lunchbox letters are the best. And Jacqueline Woodson’s reading is beautiful.
My kicks:
1. Time alone. Chuck is visiting his nephew put of town. It’s like a silent retreat.
2. Buying books fir students for my “It’s Summertime and the Reading is Great.” My plan is ti gift each student with 3 books im Jone.
3. Discovering family secrets.
4. Reading.
5. Lengthening days.
6. Participating in February poetry challenges.
7. Dinner with a former student.
Have a great week.
Jone, silent retreats are good. Safe travels to Chuck. I LOVE YOUR SECOND KICK!
Good morning, Imps!
Hello, Shreya! Thank you for sharing your eye-catching art and stories. The Google Doodle and the wings are especially grand.
Jules: Aww, they put letters in your lunchbox? How sweet!
Jone: How fantastic of you to give your students books!
My kicks from the past week:
1) Start
2) Continue
3) Refresh
4) Keep going
5) Effort
6) True
7) Breathe
I have pretty good weeks but looking back I find it hard to find my kicks. I need to exercise my gratitude muscle. Let’s see:
1. OH! My daughter has started drawing Skeletor from He-Man in the margins of her homework and I am loving this unexpected new obsession of hers. If she’s going to develop a bad boy crush, I’m glad it’s on Skeletor and not some brooding vampire.
2. I have this one fourth grade class come through my classroom each Wednesday and each Wednesday I consider banning them. This Wednesday was a typical rough week for them AND for me but at the very end, one kid who tried his hardest and saw his project to the end was rightfully proud of himself. That made the hour of shouting, yelling and wrestling feel worth it.
3. I bought some tupperware bins and organized a small portion of my classroom’s supplies into them. I even labelled them with a label maker.
4. I nearly caught the swimmer ahead of me in a 25m staggered sprint at swimming.
5. Cleaning my work space and finding a story draft I had started last year and lost.
6. Having an Afghan-American kid share the smell of her lunch with me and seeing her be pleased when I guessed the ingredients (mostly) correctly.
7. Though I’m not down with social media that much these days, a certain tech giant keeps surprising me with “this day in photos” notifications with photos of my kids as four and two year olds and now that I’m typing it out I realize that they must know this is my one Achilles’ Heel and they’re just trying to reel me back in. Nice try! Better luck next time, G**gle!
Little Willow, yes! It is a day-brightening kind of thing.
I like “refresh.”
Jerrold: I have seen these Skeletor drawings on Instagram, and I love them so! Also, that’s some impressive swimming — and all-around kicky kicks.
What beautiful drawings and such an interesting description from Shreya. I look forward to the picture book and more art from her.
Always nice to see the kicks from others.
Jacqueline Woodson!!!!!!!
My Kicks:
1. picture books and more picture books
2. final reads with grades K-5 for our Caldecott reading program before our mock Caldecott voting this coming week.
3. voting in the Calling Caldecott blog’s mock Caldecott vote
4. planning my Tiny’s 5th (?!!) birthday party later this month. She is moving from Tiny to Little. Any my Little is growing towards adolescence.
5. The Eagles won the Super Bowl
6. the brilliance of composer Matthew Levine – I got to spend some time with him today and appreciate his genius and his kindness
7. whipped cream instead of icing on the birthday cake of my Little’s friend.
Happy Week.
Allison, ooh! I can’t wait to hear what your mock results are. Exciting! Happy early birthday to Tiny!
Super late this week but checking in. That last illustration of The City of Unexpected — Hypatia is incredibly gorgeous and haunting.
Jules – a warm house in cold weather is indeed a kick, and love your daughters lunchbox notes to you.
Jone – time alone and reading are wonderful.
LW – really love kicks 1-4.
Jerrold – love the Skeletor-drawing obsession, and really love kick 2 so much.
Allison – yay for whipped cream and birthday parties. And super hooray for the Eagles winning the Super Bowl.
My quick kicks:
1) Eagles winning the SuperBowl & the incredible trick play right before half-time. Very exciting and fun game to watch.
2) Sunshine in the middle of gray rainy days.
3) A Happy Hour meetup with friends.
4) Another incredibly busy and productive work week.
5) A night of binge-watching and Daisy snuggles.
6) Making plans for a short vacation.
7) Exercise.
7.5) A surge of interest to correct and end a racist-based jury verdict system in my community. Excited to help see it come to fruition.
Have a wonderful week Imps!
Rachel, I like kick #7.5. Also, I’m not a big sports person, but most of my relatives are from near Philly, so that’s exciting to hear. … Happy binge-watching and hugs to Daisy.