Book Day at the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum

Recently I was a guest author at Boekday (Dutch for "Book Day") at the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum!  I talked about my process, shared my original art, made some new friends (the other authors were great!) and sold some books. And it was a gorgeous day!

The farmhouse and grounds themselves are really lovely, such a nice little historical gem out in Carnasie. It's New York's oldest historic house/ first official landmark, which I found particularly interesting because my parents have been doing a lot of geneological research in recent years and among their discoveries they found a Dutch tangent in the family tree. My 8th great grandmother Sarah Joris De Rapalje was born in New York back in 1625, and lived only a few blocks from where I currently live in Brooklyn! Crazy.

Back there is Melanie Hope Greenberg presenting her book "Mermaids on Parade"....

 

And here is Hillary Davidson reading from her book "The Next to Fall."

 And here's me!

 

Interior of the house...

**THIS WEEKEND IS BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS!  Come see art.**

Currently Reading: Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth...by Chris Ware

Upcoming Event: Boekdag!

Next Weekend...

*BOEKDAG at the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum*

I'm going to be a guest author at Boekdag ("Book Day" in Dutch) at New York's oldest historic house/ first official landmark! More details below...

Boekdag at the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum (ca. 1652)
Saturday May 19th 11:00am-4:00pm 
5816 Clarendon Road, Brooklyn 
FREE 

This year we will have a book swap, where participants who bring a book can freely exchange it for another. Brooklyn based children's author and illustrator, Melanie Hope Greenberg will read her latest book "Mermaids on Parade." Graphic novelist, artist and educator Laura Lee Gulledge will talk about her young adult graphic novel "Page by Paige" which follows her own journey to as an artist and writer moving to New York City. Eliot Glazer, blogger, comedian and author of "My Parents Were Awesome" and crime novelist Hilary Davidson will address the adult audience. Make a mini book or mermaid tail at the craft table, snap a photo at the book cover inspired photo booth or grab some tacos and sliders from Mike & Willie's food truck.

MoCCA Fest Recap

How was my MoCCA? It was GREAT!

 

I started out at the Drink & Draw Like a Lady event at 192 Books, hosted by Raina Telgemeier. It was GIRLS ONLY!  I feel lucky to go to events like this, where you see so much female comic talent in one room, because they make you forget that women creators are such a minority in comics as a whole. (Women such as Jennifer Hayden, with me below.)

 

 *Pic by Marion Vitus

Page by Paige debuted last year at MoCCA, but this year was my first time behind my very own table. I had a bunch of new awesome folks and sent lots of books and ART to good new homes. (including my editor Maggie Lehrman) Thank you, everyone who came by my table, I felt so very loved!

*Photo by Andrea Sparacio

 

*Photo by Seth Kushner

Jugs & Capes represent!

*Pic by Andrea Sparacio

I was also super excited about having stuff to trade with other exhibitors, like Shannon Wheeler and Casey Girard...

 The afterparty (featuring a performance by Daniel Johnston and launch of the Harvey Pekar's Cleveland) was utterly PACKED.  So many fun nerds in one room! I had fun getting into trouble with the Brooklyn and Trip City kids.

*Photo by Jeff Newelt 

Currently Listening: The Civil Wars...Barton Hollow

Bushcraft: Shrinky Dinks!

Just like my comic alter ego, I love hanging out with my creative friends. And after having way too many conversations with people saying that "we should hang out and make stuff just for fun sometime," my friend Bishop and I decided to start a little monthly artsy gathering at his studio in Bushwick.

Hence the birth of...BUSHCRAFT!

For our kick-off adventure, we decided to make shrinky dinks. Because we're grown ups.
First we drew out/traced our images onto the shrinky dinks with markers and colored pencils...
Just to show you how small it gets, here's how big the shrinky dink was before...
...and how big it is after baking!
They curl up in the oven all crazy-like before flattening back out.
It's very suspenseful and exciting watching them in the oven. See? Just look at Alyson's face!
Here's most of the shrinky dinks we made as a group...And this is my favorite of the ones I made. I'm gonna make it into a necklace...
Oh, and we were also celebrating BIRTHDAYS! Kurt, Bishop, and myself all have birthdays this same week. Yay cupcakes!
Back at home...Rory wasn't sure about another ginger cat in the house, but he's adjusting!If you'd like to try this at home, I highly recommend it! You can buy refill packs online and it costs about $5 for a pack of 6 blank sheets.

Sound Waves: Longo's music pick!

I thought It'd be fun to share new fun music that corresponds with the musical tastes of the different characters in Page by Paige. And this week it's Longo's turn!


If you are into electro-pop music like Longo is, then you should check out French Horn Rebellion. It's a Brooklyn based brother duo, David and Robert Perlick-Molinari. (Yes, one brother plays the french horn. I do love fellow former band nerds!) I saw them live recently with Kurt at Glasslands here in Brooklyn and had a blast, we danced our butts off! The brother David actually produced MGMT’s Time To Pretend, so you can see some stylistic similarities.


Their music videos are simple-silly-fun in case you feel like checking out more on their Youtube channel.

WORD drawings @ WORD Books

This weekend I held my last scheduled workshop for the summer, at WORD Books! (I'll be lining up more events in the Fall) In the spirit of the space I decided it would be appropriate to make drawings out of WORDS.


It was a very art therapy sort of lesson, and since we were a small group we were able to get more personal which was nice. First I shared different ways that I've used text in my artwork and in "Page by Paige," especially as a way to articulate inner fears.

Then we shared the negative things that we each tell ourselves, named the underlying fears, and decided what positive phrase we could ingrain in our head to override the original negative one. Then we made drawings out of the new words, because drawing it/writing it can help new ideas stick in our head.





Since these were all pretty personal I'll just share mine rather than everyone's! My inner fear was that I am a fraud, that people will discover that I'm not that cool or talented or clever and that my graphic novel was a fluke. So the positive phrase I need to "reprogram" in my head is that "I have something to offer."


And congrats Daniel and Annie for winning a copy of my "Be a Revelationary" poster!

Mirror Portraits @ BookCourt

This Sunday I held a signing and workshop at BookCourt here in Brooklyn! I talked about my artwork and invited folks to make mirror self portraits, which was an activity based on my introspective style of art-making portrayed in Page by Paige.


People drew what/who they saw when they looked in the mirror using china markers...


And here is a sampling of the finished ones! People drew themselves as a pirate, an artist, a princess, a baby, etc.




How about me? Well, I drew myself under construction...

Thank you everyone who braved the non-running-subway-schedule and came out on Sunday! And you folks at BookCourt for being supper supportive of the event. You can see more pics from this in my Flicker gallery.

Workshop SUNDAY at BookCourt!

Come to BOOKCOURT this weekend where I will be signing copies of my debut YA graphic novel "Page by Paige," sharing fun freebies, bringing original sketchbooks for you to flip through, and leading a short workshop!

When: Sunday, May 22nd 11:00am - 2:00pm
Where: 163 Court Street (between Pacific & Dean) Brooklyn, NY 11201
Closest subways: Bergen St. FG, Hoyt-Schermerhorn ACG, MNRW2345 Court St./Borough Hall
Here's the Facebok Event.



Mirror Self Portraits Workshop:
Who do you REALLY see when you look in the mirror? Perhaps you have a secret identity, hide behind a mask, or imagine yourself living out your dreams?... In this workshop, Laura Lee helps you reveal you true self by drawing on ACTUAL MIRRORS with wax pencils. No special artistic skills are necessary!


This is a new lesson I've created and I can't wait to try it out! It should be a lot of fun, so if you were not able to make it to the recent launch party then I hope you can swing by on Sunday!

Currently Reading: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

"Page by Paige" Book Launch Party!

Here are some photos from the "Page by Paige" launch party at Powerhouse Arena last weekend! (You can check out all the pics on Flickr and on Facebook.)


We had a great turnout! I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such supportive people...




I did a live reading of a section from the book...


I brought my original sketchbooks for people to flip through...

I debuted a new short motion comic trailer by filmmaker Nathan Luppino...

Jules-like musician Alyson Greenfield performed on keyboard, guitar, and glockenspiel...

I raffled off signed copies of the book, signed zines, copies of the book soundtrack, and an original drawing from the book (which was set in DUMBO where the party was)...

Guests got goody bags containing one of my smiley plastic easter eggs, an artistic license, fun permission slip, business card, sticker, candy, and list of upcoming events...

I signed A LOT of books...

And people had their cartoon-voice-bubble portrait taken, using a handmade whiteboard sign that my dad helped me make! Here are a just a few...



This pretty much sums up how I felt about seeing my book finally make its debut...

Thanks for coming, everyone! And extra thanks to Kurt Christenson, Diana Arge, Reid Harris Cooper, and Robert Feliciano for taking great photos...


On a final note...I haveNEWS!
"Page by Paige" has been nominated for YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens list! (YALSA stands for Young Adult Library Services Association) This is such an honor! OMG indeed!