{"id":3247,"date":"2013-11-03T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T06:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3247"},"modified":"2013-11-03T09:29:36","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T15:29:36","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-355-featuringup-and-coming-illustrator-dasha-tolstikova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3247","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #355: Featuring
Up-and-Coming Illustrator Dasha Tolstikova"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Guess what I did in October? <\/p>\n

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  1. I bungee jumped from the skid of a helicopter into the caldera of a raging volcano, coming within over 500 feet of a pool of molten lava.<\/li>\n
  2. I decided to take the month off from blogging, and all the posts you saw here were really composed by my clone, ’cause I’m like THAT with a super smart clone scientist.<\/li>\n
  3. I completely forgot about my 7-Imp first-of-the-month student illustrator feature and just skipped October altogether.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Yep, it’s the third one, though I didn’t even make the first one up.<\/a><\/strong> (You can evidently pay over $10,000 to do that in Chil\u00e9.) <\/p>\n

    So, on the first Sunday of each month here at 7-Imp, I feature either student illustrators or illustrators brand-spankin’-new to the field, and I just completely blanked on the first Sunday of October — though, to be sure, it was a treat to see the work of Ingrid Godon<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

    But guess what else? I am more than making up for it today with the work of Dasha Tolstikova<\/a><\/strong>, who graduated just last year from the School of Visual Art’s<\/a><\/strong> Master’s program in illustration. Here she is — and with lots more of her art. I thank her for visiting. <\/p>\n

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    * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

    Dasha<\/font><\/strong>: Before I became an illustrator, I was a photographer, a reporter, a newswire translator, a sales clerk, a cargo van driver, a film producer, and a decorative painter — not necessarily in that order. But the whole time I was doing all of those things, I was thinking about making books.<\/p>\n


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    I started making books before I knew how to write. My mom would sew these little books for me, and I would write stories and draw pictures in them. I would \u201cwrite\u201d the text by drawing scribbly lines and then tell everybody that it was a foreign language. A trick I use to this day \u2013- you\u2019d be surprised how many people don\u2019t know what Russian looks like.<\/p>\n

    I always drew pictures, but I grew up around artists and it seemed like such a serious endeavor and what I was doing—scribbling and doodling—did not seem really all that serious. So, it took me a long time to figure out that this was actually the only thing I would be happy doing.<\/p>\n


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    Thanksgiving postcard<\/em><\/center>
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    \nWhen it became clearer to me, I went to graduate school. I know it\u2019s a bit controversial whether one should go to school to learn to make art, but the program I went to, the     SVA<\/a><\/strong> MFA illustration program, was the perfect place for me. It was the first time in my life that I felt surrounded by people who cared about exactly the same things I did \u2013- stories and pencils. Also I learned to a) draw everyday and b) to trust myself, which I think are just really important life skills.<\/p>\n


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    Enchanted Lion cover and endpapers<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

    Since graduating, I\u2019ve been doing a few different things -\u2013 some editorial illustration, some book work (I just did my first book cover for Enchanted Lion Books!), some personal stuff (including A Fox Diary tumblr \u2013 which is my favorite side project), and also shopping various books around. It looks like I\u2019ll be continuing working on my thesis project—A Year Without Mom<\/em>, a semi-autobiographical picture book novel for the 9-12 set—with Groundwood Books, which I could not be more thrilled about.<\/p>\n


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    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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    I work in a studio in Bushwick with some other alums from SVA. I love having the support of my studio mates. I drew at home for the first six months after I got out of school and found it very isolating. Also, I need the discipline of going outside of my house to work. Otherwise, I would just re-organize my books all day and take naps.<\/p>\n


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    Illustrations from the Fox Diary tumblr<\/em><\/center>
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    \nJust recently, I\u2019ve been figuring out a new way of working, which is a little terrifying, but mostly exciting. Am getting back into using more color and pencils and various paints after being on the computer a lot, and it feels fun.
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    From sketchbooks …<\/em><\/center>
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    \nA few of the people (out of HUNDREDS!) I look at for inspiration are:     Isabelle Arsenault<\/a><\/strong>, Laura Carlin<\/a><\/strong>, Anne Herbauts<\/a><\/strong>, Beatrice Alemagna<\/a><\/strong>, Alice Provensen<\/a><\/strong>, and always Edward Gorey<\/a><\/strong> [see image immediately below].<\/p>\n


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    \nAll images used with permission of Dasha Tolstikova.<\/em><\/p>\n

    * * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

    Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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

    My kicks are all wrapped up in this, as I type this here on Saturday night: A day of reading stories to a group of children (which is what I miss the most about school librarianship), great Autumn weather, visiting the park with good friends, and some good, warm cocoa. <\/p>\n

    Oh, and I’m really grateful for thoughtful surprises that came in the mail this week from thoughtful people. <\/p>\n

    And oh again! One more thing: Today, I got to meet in person Camille Powell of BookMoot<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. Now, she has one of the oldest children’s lit blogs. It’s nearly ten years old, according to this ’08 interview I did with her<\/a><\/strong>. Camille also joined me and Adrienne Furness<\/a><\/strong> in doing these fun Jack-Gantos-for-Ambassador posts<\/a><\/strong>. It was great to meet Camille face-to-face. <\/p>\n

    Sorry to the number seven for not enumerating these kicks, but I’m pleasantly tired from a good day, which is a good kick overall to have. <\/p>\n

    What about you? What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Guess what I did in October? I bungee jumped from the skid of a helicopter into the caldera of a raging volcano, coming within over 500 feet of a pool of molten lava. I decided to take the month off from blogging, and all the posts you saw here were really composed by my clone, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247","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=3247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}