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Alice indeed was a curious girl
Who fell rather far through a hole in the world
She followed a clock-watching rabbit, you see,
To a land full of wonder…and madness…and tea.<\/em>
(Click to enlarge image — and all artwork in this post.)<\/center><\/p>\n
You’d think I’d timed today’s post to join in all the Alice<\/a><\/strong><\/em> mania right now, what with a new film adaptation out this week. But, nope, I’m not that<\/em> organized. Here’s what happened instead: Last November, I visited an East-Nashville art gallery, the wonderful Art & Invention Gallery<\/strong><\/a>, which showed up in my kicks<\/strong><\/a> last Fall, and I took in an exhibit of works, called “Proto Pulp: Classic Books of the Future,” all created by local, aspiring children’s-book illustrators. It was there I saw the work of Janet Lee<\/a><\/strong>, whose Alice<\/em> illustrations were hanging on the wall of the gallery that day and which are being featured at 7-Imp today. I’ve been wanting to have Janet visit the 7-Imp cyber-salon since then, but sometimes I’m just slow. Here she is today to tell us a bit about the her Alice<\/em> art, as well as share some more illustrations from her other work-in-progress. So, without further ado, here’s Ms. Lee. (As mentioned above, all Janet’s illustrations here are hyperlinked to take you to larger versions, and I highly recommend rampant clicking-on-images, since her art is so texturized and beautiful up close.) <\/p>\n “<\/font>It\u2019s exciting (and a bit intimidating!) to actually be on <\/em>Seven Impossible Things, rather than just reading it. My name is Janet Lee; you won\u2019t have heard of me… at least not yet! By day, I work as a Book Buyer for a large national wholesaler. By night and in every extra moment I can scrape together, I work as an artist\/illustrator.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last year, an amazing thing happened: I got a contract for my first book, a graphic novel called <\/em>Return of the Dapper Men<\/a><\/strong>, which is coming out in October 2010 from Archaia Studios Press<\/a><\/strong>. And, in the process, I ended up illustrating a second book, <\/em>Alice\u2019s ABCs, which is in the hands of my agent now. There\u2019s a story in that.<\/em> <\/p>\n Nashville has a surprisingly vibrant art community. We know each other well; we talk. We realized that a number of us had half-started books or plans to illustrate books — but had never done so. We formed a plan for a gallery show of book illustration artwork.<\/em><\/p>\n Jim McCann<\/a><\/strong> and I were already working on <\/em>Return of the Dapper Men — he on the script and I on the concept art. Jim, who works for Marvel Comics, posted on an industry blog that he was working on an original graphic novel, posted links to my website, and much to our surprise and delight, Archaia asked us to pitch our book to them. Jim did, and suddenly we were under contract. Under contract with the publisher of some of my favorite comics of all time: <\/em>Mouse Guard<\/strong><\/a> and <\/em>Artesia<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n But that threw a wrench in my plans for the illustration art show. I couldn\u2019t show or sell the artwork for <\/em>Return of the Dapper Men until after the book was published, so I had to change plans. I\u2019ve always, always been fascinated with <\/em>Alice in Wonderland and had made a series of pictures inspired by Alice\u2019s adventures, which were quite popular. On a drive home from Atlanta, inspiration struck: I\u2019d do an ABC book, filled with items from Wonderland. I called my dear friend, Alethea Kontis<\/strong><\/a> (author of <\/em>AlphaOops), and asked her to write verses for each of the letters.<\/em><\/p>\n {Quick Ed. Note: Alethea is the author, as Janet mentions, of the picture book AlphaOops! : The Day Z Went First<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, illustrated by Bob Kolar<\/a><\/strong>. This summer, we’ll see AlphaOops! : H is for Halloween<\/strong><\/a><\/em> from Alethea and Bob. Alethea is also an editor<\/a><\/strong>, short fiction author and poet<\/a><\/strong>, and co-founder of the small press speculative fiction publisher Nyx Books — or, as she puts it at her site, “Author, Editor, Interviewer, Genre Chick, Fairy Princess, Geek.” She lives a hop, skip, and a jump from me (as in, a neighboring town), and I’ve had the good fortune of meeting her once before, as noted here<\/a><\/strong> in this very old 7-Imp post during the Era In Which Images Were Tragically Small and Mostly Just Eisha and I Left Comments for One Another Or, Actually, I Just Talked to Myself a Lot. Now back to Janet…}<\/p>\n For <\/em>Alice\u2019s ABCs, I based the designs for the letters on art nouveau patterns and finally put down the characters from my favorite books the way I\u2019ve always imagined them. Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them!“<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n Big ‘ol thanks to Janet for stopping by and sharing her artwork with us all this morning. I cannot wait to see Return of the Dapper Men<\/em>, and I hope those Alice images, along with Alethea’s text, find a nice, cozy home in a book we can all hold in our hands one day. <\/p>\n P.S. Dear 7-Imp Readers, do you think, if I ask nicely, I could convince Janet to let me put this<\/a><\/strong>, which I fell in love with when I first saw it, in one of the headers on one of the pages at the blog — in my attempt to increase my ever-growing collection of Mad Tea Party images<\/strong><\/a>? <\/p>\n As a reminder, 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. <\/p>\n I’m going to be honest here: During the first part of this week, I was visited by some serious ennui, which I suspect was due, in large part, to the lack of sun around here. I wondered how on this good, green earth I’d ever find seven kicks, but then things turned around, as they’re wont to do. Here are some ways in which they did…<\/p>\n 1). Picking up Rilke’s<\/a><\/strong> writings always help. I am reading this<\/a><\/strong> wonderful tome-like biography, which I’ve had for, ahem, about fifteen years now. Better late than never. <\/p>\n 2). An energetic, as always, note from Andrea of Just One More Book<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em> (and now this<\/strong><\/a>) that she’s within one month of completing her chemotherapy. That really should be kick #1. I continue to wish her the very best. <\/p>\n 4). My week first turned around when I heard from an illustrator friend (a random hello), who knew that my five-year-old was in a magnet school for the arts for kindergarten this year and asked: “Is Piper’s school being kind to her soul?” I love that she asked that. <\/p>\n 5). Author\/illustrator Oliver Jeffers<\/a><\/strong>, who will visit 7-Imp soon, has started a product line of sorts with two other artist friends, and their site<\/a><\/strong> is much fun. I am on the Oliver-Jeffers mailing list or some such thing, got notification of this via email, and promptly sat there and hooted with laughter at this site. There are only about six things for sale now, though these<\/strong><\/a>, the ode-to-Woody-Guthrie<\/a><\/strong> pencils, are new. This<\/a><\/strong> is my kind of diagram and pretty much captures what it sounds like when I try to describe pieces of equipment. <\/p>\n 6). Hearing randomly from an old college friend I think the world of, who also directed me to some good new music in the name of Langhorne Slim<\/a><\/strong>. Me likey. Here’s<\/a><\/strong> where you can hear some Langhorne-tunage. <\/p>\n 7). Looky! The editor of this<\/a><\/strong> wonderful online publication, The Bluegrass Special<\/em>, contacted me to get permission to post excerpts from my 2009 interview with Bonnie Christensen<\/strong><\/a> for their March issue on Django Reinhardt. Here’s<\/a><\/strong> the piece. Neat, huh? (And more 7-Imp stuff might show up there in the future.) I strongly recommend exploration of that issue. In fact, as the editor pointed out to me, if you go to this page<\/a><\/strong> and scroll down to the The Bobby Fuller Four covering “I Fought the Law,” it’ll wake you right up. Many of those folks at The Bluegrass Special<\/em> used to write for Rolling Stone<\/em>, I believe, and they’re all following their bliss, as we bloggers do, donating their time to this wonderful, free publication. <\/p>\n BONUS KICK #1: The Poetry Seven<\/strong><\/a> are at it again<\/a><\/strong>, which is happy news for us readers. <\/p>\n<\/a>
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Red Roses aren’t things to dread \/ Unless they’re white and you are dead. \/ No justice done, no tears to shed \/ The judgment’s in: Off with her head!<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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For all the White Rabbit is the key \/ A hindrance as much as a guide is he \/
A pocket watch decides his fate \/Oh he who is forever late.<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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Mad Hatter, savior, so carefree \/ Turns our water into tea \/ Ever knowing there and thence \/ Much madness is divinest sense.<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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Poor Bill, so helpful and compliant \/ Braved the chimney of a giant \/
With one kick of Alice’s shoe \/ Up and out the flue he flew.<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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Tweedledum and Tweedledee \/ Stood side-by-side beneath a tree \/ Their answers lost ‘twixt thoughts and sighs \/ Were yes, no, and contrarywise.<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/babymouseforp.JPG\")
3). Very thoughtful (and unnecessary but appreciated) thank-you gifts from folks whose work I’ve featured at the blog, including Jeff Newman<\/strong><\/a> and Susan Gal<\/strong><\/a>. Matt & Jenni Holm<\/strong><\/a> sent this, pictured left, to my daughter, since they’re also rockin’-nice. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/mommyandmiri3mosaaa.jpg\")
BONUS KICK #2: My sweet oldest daughter turns six years old this week. SIX, people. It seems like just yesterday I was going into labor. Here’s an old pic of us when she was but a wee babe, since I get all sentimental and dewey-eyed on their birthdays. (See how intense she was? Also hairless.)<\/p>\n