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It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I shine the spotlight on an Illustrator of the Future (Future Future Future … That’s me doing a dramatic echo.)<\/p>\n
And boy howdy am I happy to bring you the work of Monica Ramos<\/a><\/strong>, an illustration student at Parsons The New School for Design<\/a><\/strong>, who was born and raised in the Philippines. (I straight up dedicate this post to Tarie<\/a><\/strong>.) Below is the first of two illustrations from a children’s book Monica created, called Forest Girl<\/em>. “She’s wild and brave and loves eating berries,”<\/font> Monica says. “A little deer is her best friend.”<\/font> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “I was born and raised in the magical isles of the Philippines,”<\/font> Monica told me. “My parents gave me a love for outdoors and fed me a steady diet of picture books, especially Dr. Suess<\/a><\/strong>, Maurice Sendak<\/a><\/strong>, and Shel Silverstein<\/a><\/strong>. Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is still one of my favorite books and may have started my obsession with food. <\/p>\n I just want to make beautiful, funny things.<\/p>\n The next couple {images} are are from a story called Lou<\/em>. He’s a boy who loves food more than anything and imagines seeing food everywhere.”<\/font><\/p>\n Mmm. More food. <\/p>\n This is Monica’s bashful Bigfoot. He’s just silly, she says.<\/p>\n Here are several more images I chose from Monica’s site, as she gave me permission to go pull some of my favorites. (I see these, and I envision Monica doing YA covers one day, in particular, don’t you?) There’s a lot more art over there, if you’re so inclined to go look<\/a><\/strong>. And here<\/a><\/strong> is the link to her Etsy store.<\/p>\n Thanks to Monica for visiting, and best of luck to her in her career. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n I’m gonna skip kicks this week and instead post a poem by Marge Piercy<\/a><\/strong>. (And hope I don’t get sent to poetry copyright jail … There’s a good joke to be made here about what poetry prison may be like, but it’s too late as I type this for me to even pretend<\/em> to be quick-witted — not that I ever actually am<\/em> successfully quick-witted at 7-Imp, but now I ramble.) <\/p>\n You’d think I would have posted this at the beginning of June, but I routinely do things in life backwards. So, now I post it as a goodbye to June. <\/p>\n “More Than Enough”<\/p>\n by Marge Piercy (I believe this comes from Colors Passing Through Us<\/a><\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n The first lily of June opens its red mouth. The arrowhead is spreading its creamy new, grass lifting its wheaty seedheads Also, as I’ve been working this weekend on my computer (when not outside being devoured by mosquitoes), I’ve been going through all<\/em> of the many songs at this wonderful link<\/a><\/strong>. (John<\/a><\/strong>, it’s just even more<\/em> for us to keep up with, but it’s so worth it.) So, I share that with fellow music-lovers. <\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I shine the spotlight on an Illustrator of the Future (Future Future Future … That’s me doing a dramatic echo.) And boy howdy am I happy to bring you the work of Monica Ramos, an illustration student at Parsons The New School for Design, who was […]<\/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-2162","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\/2162","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=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/ramos_monca_55_lr1.jpg\")
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\nAll over the sand road where we walk
\nmultiflora rose climbs trees cascading
\nwhite or pink blossoms, simple, intense
\nthe scene drifting like colored mist.<\/p>\n
\nclumps of flower and the blackberries
\nare blooming in the thickets. Season of
\njoy for the bee. The green will never
\nagain be so green, so purely and lushly<\/p>\n
\ninto the wind. Rich fresh wine
\nof June, we stagger into you smeared
\nwith pollen, overcome as the turtle
\nlaying her eggs in roadside sand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n