Monet: The Early Years

I went and saw the show Monet: The Early Years at the Legion of Honor the other day. I don't think of myself as an enormous Monet fan but there was something about this work that I really liked. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it seemed somehow cheerful. You kind of want to just sneak inside all the paintings and go live there. Then a bit of wall text, beside the painting above, of Monet's infant son, caught my eye--it described this particular painting as one of Monet's "most joyful." Joyful! That was the word! That was the feeling these canvases, as a whole, were exuding to me. Joy, both at the thing seen, and the act of painting it. Take a look and see if you agree...

Color Poem #6

to mix paint the
color of my skin

in order to draw my
open hand and fist

you put a lot of white
a good deal of pink
some orange and
a smidgen of blue

Shades of Magic

Last night I finished the third of V. E. Schwab's "Shades of Magic" trilogy, and let me just tell you that theses are some gosh darn fine fantasy books. Those of you casting about for what to read in the absence of a new Patrick Rothfus book any time soon -- or anyone who's recently read Naomi Novik's Uprooted and, while super impressed that she did all that in just one book, still finds oneself feeling bereft that there's not more where that came from -- (and, in case it's not clear, I count myself very firmly in both those camps) ought to turn immediately to these fabulous (not to mention beautifully designed) volumes here.

Label Maker

My dear pal, who is also my boss, bought me this label maker for Christmas. It took me a while to get batteries for it, and then a longer while to get around to putting the batteries in. But the other day we had Spring Cleaning Day (one of my favorite days of the year at the Chronicle Books Offices) I finally put the whole thing together and started making labels for my file folders and, darn, if it wasn't just as nerdily satisfying as you might expect--if not more so! I also labeled some bookshelves. Let's just say that my pal may or may not have created a monster.

Cookie With Grandpa

Here is the one-year-old monkey, wearing a sweater vest and Mardi Gras beads, eating with singular focus while her ethereal sun-drenched Grandpa looks on.

Artists Take Action

Artists Take Action is an amazing project that gathers work from nine incredible artists each month, and auctions it off via Instagram to benefit a different charitable organization that the artists have helped to choose.

March's auction, in which I won the above astonishing Zelma Rose necklace, raised $1670 for Forward Together, a multi-racial organization that works to ensure women, youth, and families have the power and resources they need to reach their full potential.

February's action, in which I picked up the two stunning artworks below by Christine Buckton Tillman and Alicia Dornadic, raised $1795 for 350.org, which helps organize grassroots climate-focused campaigns, projects, and actions in 188 countries.

I hear April's auction is coming pretty soon, so I encourage you to hustle on over and start following @artiststakeaction now! Though the auctions are run through Instagram, which each one disappearing when the new one launches, there's an archive of all the past ones you can peek at over here.

Christine Buckton Tillman

Alicia Dornadic

Color Poem #5

Mabel’s towel is the
red of cherry candy

mine is the pastel
orange of cantaloupe

Bill’s is the navy
blue of sailor pants

S17

It's here! It's here! The day I finally get to show you all the books and products I had the pleasure of editing for Chronicle Books for publication on our Spring 2017 season! Hooray! I just love this moment. And I am honored to get to work with such an amazing array of talented artists and authors, not to mention the smart and creative colleagues who make everything happen around this joint. So, above, you see everything all in one place. So cool! If you want to find out what each of these things is, I'm putting title, author, and link-to-purchase info (you know, just in case you were tempted by anything) below each project's individual photo below.

Go Forth!

Broad Strokes by Bridget Quinn

O Glorious City: A Love Letter to San Francisco by Jeremy Fish

642 Things to Draw: London
642 Things to Draw: San Francisco

642 Things to Draw: 10 Graphite Pencils

PANTONE One Sketch a Day

PANTONE List Ledger (two copies shown)

Susan O'Malley Notebook Collection
Susan O'Malley Notecards 

France: Inspiration du Jour by Rae Dunn

Earth and Space Coloring Book featuring photographs from the archives of NASA

Aging Gracefully: Portraits of People Over 100 by Karsten Thormaehlen


Bonus item if you read down this far! All the previous seasons of books I have edited for Chronicle Books since I've been blogging (watch my photo skills deteriorate as we venture backwards through time! But never fear, the books remain awesome all the way back): F16, S16, F15, S15, F14, S14, F13, S13, F12, S12, F11.