Last night at one of our Dalvero Academy life drawing sessions, I got my first chance to see the book, Understanding Illustration, that I posted about here. The book is beautiful, thank you to authors Jo Davies and Derek Brazell, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. Well written and designed, and featuring many illustrators whose work I’ve long admired. Including, one of my students, Evan Turk! It’s so wonderful to be recognized for our projects, and sometimes it feels even more wonderful when our students are recognized. Evan’s work in the book is his ongoing project on gay rights, and it features his reportage of the Seattle Gay Pride parade that was recently in Varoom magazine. (See the full interview on our Dalvero blog HERE.)

And while I’m bragging about Evan, let me also congratulate him on the release of his first picture book, Grandfather Ghandi. My copy arrived today – what a wonderful debut work! I recommend it to everyone – it’s an emotional, intelligent, and, a very personal look at Ghandi’s non-violent philosophy.

It’s so gratifying as a teacher to see your students rise, and it’s even nicer when you can continue to work with them as they do. This is true not only with Evan but all of the students of the Dalvero Academy, as we have been asked to create another exhibit regarding the 38th Voyage of the whale ship Charles W. Morgan. The work done for the exhibit of the restoration was such meaningful and thoughtful illustration, and I’m looking forward to see how this next phase of the project, which includes a mission of whale conservation, will be interpreted by all of the Dalvero artists. I’ll be posting more on this new endeavor as we begin the work in earnest, in the meantime here is a link to our website from the previous exhibit about the Morgan: DalveroMystic.com

Exciting days indeed!

 The Charles W. Morgan awaits the next step in the process

for her 38th Voyage.