Carson Ellis

Last year Dana Dart-McLean and I taught a free 12 session drawing workshop for teenagers at the Portland Art Museum. It was super fun so we’re doing it again this fall. We’ll meet Tuesdays from 4:00 – 6:00 starting on September 28th. The application deadline is September 14th and class size is very limited. For more info visit our page on the PAM website.

our collaborative, commemorative shirt from last last year

And here’s a nice video of interviews with last year’s students that the museum put together.

I’m extra proud of this recent book collaboration with Florence Parry Heide and excited to be showing some of the original illustrations from it at Nationale in September.  Here are the details:

CARSON ELLIS
Dillweed’s Revenge

September 8 – October 3, 2010
Opening Reception Friday, September 10th, 6 pm – 8 pm
Artist’s talk and book signing Sunday, September 19th, 6 pm

at NATIONALE
811 E. Burnside
Portland, OR
www.thenewnationale.com

And a bit about the book:

Florence wrote Dillweed’s Revenge in the seventies with help from her daughter, Roxanne, brother, David, and his wife, Jeanne.  It tells the tale of a boy, Dillweed, and the revenge he exacts, with the aid of magical runes and his pet and only friend, Skorped, on his negligent parents and two cruel servants charged with his care.  It’s totally dark, as picture books go, but also sardonic and charming as Florence’s books tend to be.

Originally it was written for Edward Gorey to illustrate (he illustrated her Treehorn Trilogy which I loved as a kid) but controversy over Dillweed’s grim ending (and reputedly Gorey’s refusal to work on the book if the ending was changed) caused the project to be shelved.  Enter my terrific agent, Steve Malk, who resurrected the manuscript a few years ago and managed to sell it to Harcourt as is.

This was an especially fun book to work on. The illustrations were done in ink and gouache, a new medium for me.  And at the suggestion of Dillweed’s editor, Sam McFerrin, I hand-lettered every stitch of writing in the book, down to the numbers on the barcode.  I’m happy to say it was recently awarded a silver medal by The Society of Illustrators, my first illustration award.  Like I said, I’m extra proud of it.  I’ll be talking more about the book – and about book illustration in general – at Nationale on September 19th.

If you like music and making art and you’re in the Seattle neighborhood, you might like a poster making workshop I’m teaching up there in the end of August.  It’s at Kirkland Art Center Friday, August 20th and Saturday August 21st and it’s open to ages 13 – 18.  Each participant will choose a favorite band or two and we’ll spend our time making black and white illustrated flyers for real or imagined upcoming shows.  I’ll bring some poster books and we’ll talk about the relationship between art and music, text and images, black and white, etc.  I think it’ll be fun. I’ll also be giving a free lecture there on Friday night.  More info here.

And here’s an old flyer of mine.  I think it may be the first Decemberists poster.

It may be summer in the rest of the country but it’s still raining here in Oregon, as it has been for months.  I’m celebrating by sitting in bed in my pajamas reading Nietzsche Family Circus, a randomized webpage that pairs Family Circus cartoons with Nietzsche quotes.