{"id":2194,"date":"2011-08-28T00:01:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-28T06:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2194"},"modified":"2011-09-02T21:51:52","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T03:51:52","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-234-featuring-joyce-wan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2194","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #234: Featuring Joyce Wan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every now and then, the 7-Imp portion of my brain realizes that I don’t spend enough time focusing on board book illustrations, art for the wee’est of humans. <\/p>\n

Well, today I’m gonna.<\/p>\n

This morning I shine the spotlight on Joyce Wan<\/a><\/strong>, whose art, she tells me, is inspired by Asian traditional and popular culture. She also comes from an architectural design background and loves creating those books for wee ones that are tactile or contain interactive elements. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In August, Joyce released, via Scholastic\/Cartwheel, You Are My Cupcake<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, a tribute to all the endearments that come flying from our mouths when we see children (“cupcake,” “peanut,” “pumpkin,” “sweet pea,” etc.) Publishers Weekly<\/em> wrote about this one: “Embossed for a satisfying tactile effect, Wan’s digitized characters, reminiscent of Japanese animation, have chocolate-brown eyes and rosy cheeks.” But, best of all, they added that “no actual cupcakes were harmed in the making of this crowd-pleasing plum.” Um, as far as we know. I should have asked Joyce about that. (AND about honey-roasted peanuts.)<\/p>\n

In September, Joyce followed that book with We Belong Together<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (also Scholastic\/Cartwheel), just selected for entry into the Society of Illustrators’ 2011 Original Art show. This one’s an ode to pairs, because peanut butter and jelly and hot cocoa and marshmallows are good, but parent plus baby is much better. <\/p>\n

These are vivid, densely-colored illustrations, many with pleasing patterns for the wee eye, and as you can see, there’s a lot of pizzazz here. These are short books with embossed illustrations, which baby will want to reach out and touch. <\/p>\n

Joyce, pictured left, also happens to have her own stationery and gift design studio. For those wanting to see more, Wanart is here<\/a><\/strong> in cyberspace. You will also see at that site that she teaches courses on the business of greeting card design and art licensing at New York’s School of Visual Arts<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here’s a peek at some of the art, and I thank Joyce for sharing this morning … <\/p>\n


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(Photo showing the embossing on the pages of <\/em>You Are My Cupcake<\/center>
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(Cover of Wan’s 2009 debut title,<\/em> Greetings from Kiwi and Pear<\/a><\/strong>)<\/center><\/p>\n

All art is copyright \u00a9 2011 by Joyce Wan and used with her permission.<\/em><\/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

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

Manuscript deadline. Manuscript deadline. Manuscript deadline. And apparently all I can do is mutter in short, tiny sentences. Still typing. Still noting references. Still slammed. <\/p>\n

But just for now. It will all get turned in this week. <\/p>\n

So, back to work. Oh, except to say that I hope all of you on the East Coast are a-okay, given the wrath of Hurricane Irene. <\/p>\n

Please do tell me your kicks. I will enjoy the break, reading them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every now and then, the 7-Imp portion of my brain realizes that I don’t spend enough time focusing on board book illustrations, art for the wee’est of humans. Well, today I’m gonna. This morning I shine the spotlight on Joyce Wan, whose art, she tells me, is inspired by Asian traditional and popular culture. She […]<\/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-2194","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\/2194","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=2194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}