I'm Officially an Art Therapist! ✨🎓

The mountain of work and long hours of reading have paid off! (I actually developed an eye twitch at some point!) So happy and proud to say that I recently completed the post graduate diploma program at the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute (VATI) and am now officially an Art Therapist! 

The field of art therapy is so exciting and full of possibilities to me. Unfortunately it is also completely underutilized in our current healthcare system. I look forward to changing this later part by contributing meaningful work in the field and helping to bring this creative and therapeutic modality into the current landscape of mental/healthcare and holistic wellbeing. The other good news is there is nothing better for an art therapist than to have a thriving creative practice/projects of their own in addition to running their art therapy sessions. Which is to say that I have NO plans of stopping my personal creative practice, but rather that it will now also serve to inform my new private practice as art therapist. Who says you can’t have it all!? 🙌 

Newly fledged art therapist selfie! 🌷💐

Blog Post for Shepherd.com - 5 Picture Books Destined to be Classics!

I was asked to write a blog post for shepherd.com about 5 picture books that I think are destined to become classics! I really enjoyed choosing my list and writing the short summaries for each of the books. If you love picture books, please have a look because I really think they are very special! You can find the post here. Shepherd is a great site for book recommendations! So if you’re a book lover - definitely have a look! You can easily find recommendations based on other books you love, or on subject matter you love to nerd out about! And it automatically gives you a link to purchase the book from either amazon, or bookshop.org! Very cool!

Little U Magazine #3 Featured Illustrator

So excited to be the featured illustrator in the new edition of Little U mag! If you’ve never checked out this awesome publication by Uppercase Magazine’s Janine Vangool, I highly recommend it! I loved the last two issues and feel super honoured to have such a good interview and showcase of my work featured. I also collabo’d on the illustrations and divider patterns throughout the mag with Janine and it came out looking great! Gold stars and party hats all around!

I'm now represented by Transatlantic Agency!

This happy news already transpired in September, but I’m just adding it to my news page now in late December, because that my friends, is how 2020 works! But I don’t want to be too mad at this year, after all - it’s brought me my cool new agent, Elizabeth Bennet at the Transatlantic Agency!

I am very excited to have Elizabeth on my team so I can continue to pursue my passion of drawing, writing and creating stories. Thank you to Transatlantic and Elizabeth for believing in my vision! I am proud to be part of your awesome and diverse roster of talented creators! Excited for what’s to come in the new year!

I read, You And Me Both

Since our new book launched while everyone here was on lockdown, we did some readings of You And Me Both. You And Me Both is written by Mahtab Narsimhan and published by Owl KIds. We’d love for you to buy a copy at your local independent bookstore! Enjoy & Stay safe!

Click on the video still below to view the video on youtube!

Starred Kirkus Review for Cooking with Bear!

Super cool newz! I just got my advanced copy of Cooking with Bear in the mail… and extra bonus … it already received a starred review from Kirkus! (Kinda a big deal in Kid-lit-land) So… Whoooot! Pretty great start to the near year! Cooking with Bear will be on shelves in Spring 2019 but is already available for preorder on amazon.

Me with my advanced copy of Cooking with Bear. Don’t you want to cook something now and just toss all the ingredients up in the air?

I made cool silkscreened tea towels!

I had been itching to revisit my art school days and make some silkscreens. So I did! I made a batch of silkscreened tea towels for Draw Me A Lion and they came out soooo fun! I definitely am looking forward to creating more work specifically for fabric!

The New Clara Humble Book is out!

Hooray! The third and final book in the middle grade series Clara Humble by Anna Humphrey is out in stores! So happy to have been able to illustrate this super fun series! I love drawing funny things and this was kind of a dream project! Have fun reading! And don’t forget the comics! ;)

The authors daughter is thrilled;)