Art For Me

Lately I have been thinking a lot about making art for myself. I know that sounds weird, but I really feel that if I, as an illustrator don't give myself time to just be creative without a deadline or any other kind of restrictions, I get a little nutty! It is important to make time for those projects that aren't necessarily going to make me money or have anything to do with work. Those are the projects that make me a better artist. Being creative for the sake of being creative. Now I know that sounds totally artsy fartsy, but it's so true.

Between juggling my career as a children's book writer/illustrator and my invitation business it gets really difficult to carve out time for myself. I tend to be one of those people who gets really overwhelmed with everything on my plate to the point where when I do sit down to do something that isn't related to work I feel incredibly guilty. I keep thinking about what I should be working on. It has occurred to me that this is absurd. All creative work no matter what I'm doing is practice and gets me to relax...all good things. Drawing is extremely relaxing when approached correctly.

I'm so type-A that I actually have thought about scheduling time for myself in the calendar on my phone, so that I could be reminded to do it. I can picture the alert now: "Make Time for Self From 1-3 p.m." If only it was that easy! But of all the things I have learned since I started working on picture books this is the most important. Putting off creative projects you want to do before you start a new work-related project is just plain mean to do to yourself. Because then you will resent work. And that is never a good thing.

I can honestly say that I love my job. Every part of it. Even the millions (it feels like sometimes) of revisions I have to do, because we all know how much editors love their revisions! (And I say that with the utmost love for my editor who has made me much better by requesting many revisions). But it is a lot of work and can be incredibly stressful at times. As a perfectionist I live in this constant fear of what I like to call "permanent publication," which is essentially my fear of not being able to change anything after the illustrations have been published. In my mind published is synonymous with forever. I better make it perfect because once it is being printed somewhere in China that's it! It's done, finished! Ready for the masses to tear apart! As you can see I have a very calm attitude about this.

So to not become a crazy person, I must paint or draw for myself. My own version of art therapy. Especially since I never know what that time I spend doing so will lead to. Sometimes taking a few hours for myself gets rid of any tension I'm having with another project. Or leads to trying a new medium I have been wanting to experiment with, which finds its way into a book later on. I just never know. But the key is to keep doing it.

I have always been envious of those artists who constantly draw in notebooks filled with sketches upon sketches. Sure I could do that, let me rephrase that, I SHOULD do that. But usually when I am out and about I don't want to draw the people or the setting, I want to meet the people, eat the food, experience the place. This is probably the same reason I always forget to take pictures. But then I see people's sketch books and think I would love to have a visual journal like that. I do keep a sketchbook with me most of the time, but it's the pulling it out of my bag and actually using it part that keeps managing to slip past me. I like the idea that it's there, but I have stopped feeling bad about being an artist that just doesn't regularly keep up a sketchbook. There are worse crimes I suppose. I guess the important thing is making time for myself as an artist that works best for me, regardless if it is the norm for other artists.

I think I will go paint some mini landscapes this afternoon, seeing as I have been itching to do so. Maybe it's the abnormal 50 degree weather we are experiencing here in Ohio today...

When Blue Met Egg Get an Editor's Choice Award!

Happy Monday everyone! I know it's not Wednesday yet, but I just received an email letting me know that When Blue Met Egg has received an Editor's Choice award from the lovely people over at Childrensbooksguide.com! Check out the review below:

http://childrensbooksguide.com/reviews/when-blue-met-egg

Thank you to everyone at childrensbooksguide.com who had a hand in selecting my book! Blue and I are thrilled!

The Learned Owl This Saturday!

Good Morning! Just a quick announcement this lovely Leap Day: Blue, Egg, and I will be at The Learned Owl this Saturday in Hudson Ohio at 11:00 a.m. for story hour and an art activity. We hope to see you there!

http://www.learnedowl.com/event/childrens-storytime-activity-lindsay-ward-march-3

The Learned Owl
204 North Main Street
Hudson, Ohio

Back From the Big Apple!

Frank, Blue, Egg, and I are back from our big trip to the big apple...and it was awesome! We all had so much fun in New York City!! We stayed in Gramercy with my lovely friend Maura and spent the entire weekend eating, shopping, meeting all the lovely people who helped me make Blue over at Dial, and running around lower Manhattan, even a trip to Brooklyn! Check out all the places we stopped:

We arrived Thursday night and met my friend and host for the weekend Maura at this restaurant called The Smith. Very cool atmosphere inside, with tasty bacon wrapped apricots that I was a huge fan of!

The next morning, on Friday, we ventured down to Chelsea Market and had some of the most amazing smoked salmon and oysters at a place called The Lobster Place! So tasty! This is a great way to have really good and fresh seafood in the city without the crazy cost of restaurants. Here is Frank enjoying his oysters:





The best smoked salmon I have ever had!!

After eating a bunch of seafood, we decided to walk it off on The High Line in the west village. It reminded me a lot of Peter Brown's The Curious Garden.



Later that day we had a lunch date with my wonderful Editor Nancy Conescu at Penguin. Of course I had to bring Magnolia cupcakes...after all it is the polite thing to do (note the missing cupcake from the box was already in my belly by the time I took this photo!)



It was so amazing to finally get to meet Nancy, Mina Chung (my book designer), Katie Kurtzman (my publicist), and Lily Malcomb (my art director). They are all such wonderful women! After we hung out at Penguin (and snagged a free galley!) Nancy took us out to lunch to a restaurant called City Winery. Really good pizza (which they called flat bread...but it is essentially a fancy name for thin crust pizza at this place) And the wine was fabulous!

On our way back from lunch, we stopped at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square so I could sign a couple copies of Blue:



After walking all around the city, we decided it was necessary to buy new shoes...BLUE ones of course!



That night we stopped at McSorley's, the oldest bar in the country. I love this place. It has wood shavings all over the floor and you have two choices for your beer: light or dark. You gotta love McSorley's for their simplicity. After we headed over to Spice for a yummy bowl of Thai food. Duck noodles, yes please!

The next morning, I had a date with Greenlight Books in Brooklyn! But not before grabbing a delicious Everything bagel with chive cream cheese from Ess-a-Bagel. This bagel was seriously amazing!! I think I devoured it in like to seconds!



I finally got to drive across the Brooklyn Bridge on the way to my book event, which was simply perfect since I have the gatefold of it in the book. I would have taken a picture...but I was too busy looking up to remember to snap a shot of it. Finally, we arrived at Greenlight Books, which is probably one of the coolest book stores I have ever been in. Look at these awesome chairs they have:



I definitely need to find someone who can make me some sweet shovel chairs like these! Greenlight books was so much fun, all the kids really seem to love When Blue Met Egg. They even drew pictures of Blue and Egg with me!









Thank you to everyone who attended the event and Greenlight Books for hosting me and Blue! After out bookstore adventure we went to the Brooklyn Flea Market, which is filled with really cool antiques, jewelry, prints, ephemera, and FOOD! Here are just a few of the things we ate: blood orange donut (my personal favorite for the weekend), brisket sandwich, porchetta sandwich, ethiopian spicy lentils, and a hot dog with Asian inspired toppings. YUM! Brooklyn and I got along quite well in case you couldn't tell. We took the subway on our way back, stopping at just a few places such as Craft Bar and Pete's Tavern.

Before meeting some friends for dinner we stopped at Bar Jamon (Frank and I are big fans of Jamon, which is spanish cured ham...so tasty!) where we had some of the thinnest shaved Jamon I have ever have. But the chorizo and pickled peppers stole the show...AMAZING! As if I haven't used that word enough in this entry...but it is so true. Both plates were finished rather quickly...



Next, we stopped at Schiller's for some dinner with a few old friends, Lindsey and Josh.






Sadly, we had reached our last full day in the city...but we definitely went out with a bang with a book event at Books of Wonder.. The staff was so great, and I got to see some old and new friends!









With my fabulous editor Nancy Conescu:



It was quite the whirlwind trip! We went all over the place, reading books and eating lots and lots of food! It was so much fun! I can't wait till we get to visit again...

The New York Times Reviews Blue!

So yesterday, after my usual Wednesday post I received some amazing news from my editor: THE NEW YORK TIMES REVIEWED WHEN BLUE MET EGG....AND THEY LOVED IT! I'm still a bit speechless! But very excited. Check out the review below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/books/when-blue-met-egg-and-and-then-its-spring.html

Thank you New York Times Book Review!!

Blue and I Are Packing Our Bags for NYC!

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday, spending it with the people you love!

Tomorrow afternoon, Blue, Frank, and I are packing our bags for New York. I haven't been back since I lived there a few months for a summer internship during college. I'm looking forward to so many things...the food, the cupcakes (oh Magnolia how I have missed you), the paper (Kate's Paperie...where all my paper fetishes began), seeing old friends with foodie obsessions just like me (it's been to long Maura McGreevy!), grouchy bar tenders at McSorley's, the art (oh Guggenheim, how I have missed your curving walls), and all the other fabulous things in between. Needless to say, I'm very excited! And it is Frank's first time to NYC, which is even better. I think between Blue and I we should be able to show him a good time. I will be doing two book events in NYC this weekend, so if you are around...

Saturday, February 18th at 11 a.m.
Greenlight Books
686 Fulton Street (at South Portland)
Brooklyn, New York
http://greenlightbookstore.com/event/story-time-lindsay-ward

Sunday, February 19th from 1-3 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, New York
http://www.booksofwonder.com/events021912.asp

Blue and I hope to see you there!

Blue's Party!

Thank you to everyone who came out last Friday night for Blue's Book Launch Party!! I had so much fun and I know Blue did too! A special thanks to Room Service Cleveland for hosting. Here are some of my favorites from the night:





I love that the cupcakes matched Blue perfectly! Thank you Main Street Cupcakes!



Deviled Eggs in honor of Egg. At the party they were served on a blue platter...Blue and Egg. Seriously that wasn't planned!



Signing my first copy of Blue for the night!!



Beautiful lights made by Jennie Doran from Room Service Cleveland, they look to me like they just popped off the pages of a Dr. Seuss book.



My BFF/favorite redhead Kellie and I :)



My friend Christina's son Evan coloring in pictures of Blue :)



Kellie's daughter Maura, thankfully she never noticed the 5 hour energy right next to her plate!



My wonderful boyfriend Frank, who I could not have done any of this without. Don't you love his snazzy tuxedo shirt?! You can't see them in the picture but he also had on Blue shoes!



Frank with our friends Devin and Travis who travelled from NY and PA to be there for Blue's launch! (Note the Blue shoes on Frank's feet!)



With my lovely friends Jamie and Sara!



Me and Blue!