{"id":1916,"date":"2010-04-04T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-04T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2010-04-04T08:40:45","modified_gmt":"2010-04-04T14:40:45","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-161-featuring-up-and-coming-illustrator-adam-gudeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1916","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #161: Featuring Up-and-Coming Illustrator, Adam Gudeon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well now, what a beautiful day it is in my world, and I fervently hope it’s beautiful in yours, too. No matter how you celebrate it, happy Easter to my dear, sweet readers. (Yes, I mean that “sweet” business. I can say without reservation that no one’s ever been mean here at 7-Imp Camp and that you all are not only mighty well-behaved, but also collectively one classy bunch.) And happy Spring, too. Do you see here in the illustration to the left that we’re all having some pancakes for breakfast this morning? Did you bring your forks?<\/p>\n

I do hope that at least a few of you take a break from egg-hunting today to come see the work of brand-new author\/illustrator Adam Gudeon<\/a><\/strong>, whose first picture book is scheduled for release in Fall 2011. That’s right: It’s the first Sunday of the month—and BOY HOWDY, HOWDY BOY I never thought March would end, what with Tennessee’s freaky-long, freaky-cold (for us) winter, but I digress—and it’s on these first Sundays that I shine the spotlight on a student illustrator or someone otherwise new to the field. Adam is brand-spankin’<\/em>-new to the field, and it looks like the field will benefit from it. He’s here to show us some art work, tell us what he’s up to, and tell us how he got to that place. I thank him for stopping by. (Oh, and I thank him truly and madly and deeply for the kind comments on 7-Imp below. We can’t move forward till I express that gratitude. Okay. Done. Now Adam gets the floor.)<\/p>\n

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“<\/font>As a devout follower of <\/em>Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, I\u2019m so pleased to be contributing here. The best blogs can be a source of much inspiration and information, and 7-Imp has been all that and more for me as I began my quest to get my first picture book published.<\/p>\n

Beginning last winter, after an enormously prolonged deferral, it was time to make haste in pursuit of my longstanding desire to write and illustrate books for children. Preparation included a self-designed and -administered master\u2019s degree program of reading thousands of books to my children Ezra and Iris, since they were born 10 and 6 years ago. Ezra and Iris, in turn, serve as my mentors and advisors. Their art is a primary influence on mine. Daily, Ezra\u2019s creative output ranges from the absurd to the sublime or some combination thereof. Iris\u2019s drawings have a lightness and charm that I aspire to. <\/p>\n

My sister Karla<\/a><\/strong>, having landed book deals, showed me up-close and personal that it can in fact be done. Karla and I are now a long distance two-person critique group.<\/em> {Quick Editor’s Note: Karla has been featured at 7-Imp previously. See here<\/a><\/strong>. I had no idea they were siblings. Pretty cool, huh? Okay. Onwards and upwards then. Back to Adam…} <\/p>\n

As I began to make images of a girl and her cat using the patinaed papers from used tea bags, ink, and gouache, I learned of a workshop called Children\u2019s Book Boot Camp. CBBC is given by the wonderful author, illustrator, teacher, and advocate, Pat Cummings (patcummings.com<\/a><\/strong> — Pat\u2019s site is a great resource for children\u2019s book-related events). When I sent Pat my images, she informed me that I would need a viable book project to join the program. I wrote <\/em>Me and Meow immediately, sent it to Pat within a couple days, and was accepted into the workshop. CBBC took place over three Saturdays. As part of the first Saturday, Pat and peers critiqued our dummys. For the second and third Saturdays, an art director and editor from major publishing houses visited and critiqued. My dummy was brought back to both publishing houses, and <\/em>Me and Meow was bought by HarperCollins. Now I am privileged to be working on finals with the amazing editor Maria Modugno and art director Martha Rago. <\/p>\n


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During and following my relatively short trajectory to publication, I am so enjoying meeting my colleagues and the many aspects and challenges of creating picture books. I am keeping one statement pinned to my board from Jane Yolen\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> talk at the SCBWI winter conference. It may not be the most profound item on her long list of sage advise to authors and illustrators but it is certainly to the point. It was ‘#5 B.I.C. (Butt in Chair) H.O.P. (Heart on Page).’“<\/font><\/font><\/em><\/p>\n


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Here below are some of Adam’s sketches from Me and Meow<\/em>. I thank him again for stopping by and bringing pancakes, and I wish him the best of luck. I’m looking forward to his 2011 title. How ’bout you?<\/p>\n


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All images used with permission of Adam Gudeon. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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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. New folks are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

1). Have I ever told you all that you people who come here every week a) make me smarter and b) bring some wicked lovely entertainment to my life, what with your collectively good taste and Sunday recommendations and all? Case-in-point: Weeks ago (at this<\/strong><\/a> kicks-post), author Denise Doyen<\/a><\/strong> recommended the movie, The Fall<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. She linked to the below trailer, and I was immediately interested in watching it. Well, holy wow. Saw it this week, and it is as beautiful and stirring and well-done as she said. Seriously, people. I might just have to watch it again really soon, and there are few movies I’ll do that for. I already thanked Denise, but I thank her again here, ’cause that movie improved my quality of life is what it did. <\/p>\n

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(Note: To see a crystal-clear and all-around much better version of this same trailer, go here<\/a><\/strong> instead — and click on “trailer.”)<\/p>\n

1\u00bd.) The second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony (while we’re on the subject of that wonderful movie — you did<\/em> watch that trailer, right?).<\/p>\n

2). My kindergartener has her first loose tooth. As in—get this—the grown-up tooth is already behind it, bullying it around, poking it in the back, calling it a dork, and telling it to shove off already. And that one valiant baby tooth is still hanging in there. More information than you wanted to know about my daughter’s dental anatomy, but here’s the kick part: I know we all lose our teeth, and I know it once happened to me, but when it’s your first child…I dunno. There’s this whole new sense of wonder and excitement about it. I do have This Thing about loose teeth, though, and when it gets excessively wiggly, I have to leave the room. And when it finally comes out any day now, I’ll have to be on the other side of the house. I am not even exaggerating. Makes me woozy and weak in the knees, it does. <\/p>\n

3). I’m reading The Secret Garden<\/em> to my girls — the Inga-Moore illustrated version. (Candlewick released the paperback version<\/a><\/strong> of this in February.) Yes! You may remember that this is my favorite thing in all the world — reading good books to them. So, pretend this is kick #1. Oh, but The Fall<\/em> was so excellent. Let’s pretend it’s #2 instead. <\/p>\n

4). Just LOOK at the new issue of The Bluegrass Special<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. There’s this huge wonderful feature on Alice<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. And they’ve once again included some of my 7-Imp content<\/a><\/strong>, which is flattering. Very. <\/p>\n

5). My family took good care of me this week when I was sick. I think we’ve taken good care of each other. We all (well, almost all, knock on wood) got the nastiness, you see. It made its rounds at our home. <\/p>\n

6). Seeing an “artists in action” program at my daughter’s magnet school for the arts, in which students of all ages performed in groups in the gym. They opened with middle schoolers playing simple classical guitar pieces. They had dance. They had more classical guitar. They had more dance. They had an eighth grade rock band that played U2’s “New Year’s Day.” I am not even making that part up. Isn’t that freakin’ COOL? It was hard not to get up and dance. <\/p>\n

7). The way the kindergarteners during said assembly—and only the kindergarteners—swayed their arms to the rock music. You know. Kinda like you’re swaying a lighter at a Skynyrd concert? Can you even believe they were doing that? Cracked me UP. How do they KNOW this stuff? Brilliant. <\/p>\n

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What are YOUR<\/font> kicks this week? Anyone around? If you’re eating Easter candy instead, by all means, just come back tomorrow. Mmm. Cadbury creme eggs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well now, what a beautiful day it is in my world, and I fervently hope it’s beautiful in yours, too. No matter how you celebrate it, happy Easter to my dear, sweet readers. (Yes, I mean that “sweet” business. I can say without reservation that no one’s ever been mean here at 7-Imp Camp and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}