:o The New York Times Book Review

 

First time ever working with The Times, thanks so much Nicholas Blechman!

Sweet Home

On humid nights

I’d sneak to the lakeshore,

And wade on the sandbar

To the acolyte island,

A lightning bug sanctuary.

I’d leave my marks

And hide my treasure

Of silky rocks and snake sheds

And sing laments of never lost loves.

I’d find my faith

While dozing under the sprawling branches

Of the great Live Oak.

And one day the doze

Slipped into a dream.

A wading siren called to me

To wake up quick to defend from

The cicada and salamander spirits

Who came to take my soul.

I was too hot and lazy,

Let them take it, I said.

But she wouldn’t let them have it,

So she took it for herself.

And into the great oak

All my memories flowed,

With all my heart ache,

And all my ambitions.

She said she’d wished I could wander

But that I was now promised

To her and the island.

I would never leave,

I would never try.

And her image broke,

And I woke up to a hot morning.

Inside me grew a knot,

And I never wanted to leave

This place was no longer my cage, I thought

While I sat in my warm resting place.

Ramblings of a Brazilian folktale

Lured and Swallowed

This is the tale of a young fiddler who wandered from his path into the depths of a wild wood. While playing his instrument she stumbled upon a coiled snake that threatened him. Fearing to startle it further, he began to serenade the creature as he retraced his steps backwards. Uncoiling, the snake grew into a beautiful woman. She thanked him for playing so sweetly and asked him to escort her home to her father in the swamp. He offered her his arm and the young fiddler followed her through the deepest parts of the swamp. Slowly, she lured him deeper and deeper into the water till he was thoroughly mired. Without warning, she flung her arms around him and pulled him deep, down through water, salt and mud. Moments later he found himself gasping for air above the surface and watched as she arose from the water with his fiddle. She told him that she would allow him to leave the swamp if he promised never to play the song he’d played for her again. A song he loved. Shaken, he agreed and retrieved his fiddle from her dripping hands. He made haste through dangling limbs and thick brush to the road from which he'd wandered. There he noticed the trees looked older, the dirt road looked less traveled. To calm his nerves he tucked his fiddle under his chin and played a few songs. Soon he found himself playing into the forbidden tune. Dismissing her words of warning, he played it like it was the only cure to his unease. But with the vigor of his playing came a terrible, waxing weakness. His fingers could no longer pluck and the bones of his legs could no longer carry his body. He grew a long, grey beard and his skin withered. He was flooded by memories of a life he’d lived, a life worth a hundred years down in the depths of that swamp. He had made a home with her below the water, and a life full of children and music. But like most men who wander into wild woods he'd begun to regret the loss of his dry land life. So she let him keep his youth but bound him to an impossible promise. A promise she must have known he could not keep. And so condemned, the fiddler lay down on the hot, red dirt road and shriveled into old age.

Hey! So, finally, here's the first story of my thesis. It's just a little book of myths and folktales from around the world that I rewrote to fit into Southern tropes. They're pretty simple, written to parallel the way I heard similar stories growing up in the piedmont and foothills of North Carolina.

This story is based on the Japanese folktale Urashima Taro

Bells and Whistles

Recently worked with wonderful Art Director SooJin Buzelli for my first forreal-forreal editorial job, the piece just printed so I can finally show it! :)) For the Bells and Whistles section in PLANSPONSOR magazine

^that lil guy's is mah fave

Wildberries and Oak

This is from a project I've been working on since January and I'm really excited to finally be able to share it! Every few days I'm going to post one of the five short stories with the illustrations- but for now here's the title page and back of my little book. I already unveiled all of the inside illustrations on my website this morning but I'll post them with all the accompanying stories here first! I know I said I probably wasn't going to post all of it online.. but who am I kidding that's not going to happen- i'm too excited to share this. Stories in full coming soon!

Monsoon Wedding

A quick project I did for a Liberal Arts class a few nights ago on the movie Monsoon Wedding. It addresses one of the many troubling topics in the film, the Indian caste system.

LA Times

I was in the LA Times over the weekend in the LA Affairs section!
Here's the full article online. Thanks Wes!

Macro + Micro, Neural Parasites

heeyyy this is my piece for Light Grey Art Lab's Macro + Micro Exhibition in the 'Everything Else' category. That category got pretty freaky guys. The opening reception is this friday so if you guys are in the area you should check it out!
Here's the link to the show and a link to my print in their shop.

Tread Carefully

first thesis piece + first postcard piece + just found out this made it into Best of Ringling, pretty cool.

btw just kidding i'm definitely going to be sharing my thesis up here.. just have to finish it fiiirrstt ayye

temp tats!

Hey guys, did this a few days ago for Light Grey Art Lab's Beautiful Forever benefit tattoo show! Check out all the temporary tats here and if you'd like a few for yourself their shop is here! I went with a classic 'What the heck is in my Garden?' theme. typical.
AB Moore, that campfire is for you.

exercising 101

for n00bs

Güder

Band poster for my old friend Walker Smith from Charlotte and his band Güder! They have a great sound and their lead singer is a chick! AND she owns a beautiful guitar! Instantly hooked. check 'em out! they're young but these guys look like they have a great road ahead of them. Excited to have illustrated something for them :)

intense cravings

are inconvenient when you have no desire to run to publix for one ingredient.

Extra Bitchess

for Wesley Allsbrook's 'Extra Bitches' with words from Milton

Thesis Sneak

Heyyaa sooo I guess it's a better time than ever (since my senior reviews for thesis were today) to tell ya about what i've been staying up 'till 5am for and complaining about through vague tweets...
Im writing and Illustrating a little book for thesis! I'm taking a few myths and folktales from around the world and appropriating them into the American South. Originally I wanted to illustrate strange folktales from remote places, but I kept coming back to stories i'd heard growing up in North Carolina. After 4 years of school in Florida, I'm simply homesick and want to create something I may not have time for after I graduate. So, very inspired by the whimsical storytelling of Miyazaki I've decided to write + illustrate my own Southern stories steeped in nostalgia and based in traditional folktales.

below are a few sneak peeks i've put on instagram and twitter over the past few weeks.. and VERY SHORTLY I will be ready to show the first & only image. I (probably) won't be showing any more since I'll be selling the book at my thesis show but i'll definitely be showing process up until April. I will also for sure have small zines of the individual stories (less$$) if you're interested <??>

here's a few photos of w.i.p!

 

Oh and plus two research photos- went to this great cemetery in South Carolina- the oldest grave was 1750! it was so small, and barely off the main road- it didn't even have an entrance sign. forgotten. 2 beautiful graves (out of many) and i'm sooo curious as to why there was a cross stamped into this stump. maybe it's not even a cross, but from something when it was chopped? too coincidental I think... maybe there's an unmarked body below/nearby. oooo

as always, thanks for visiting
-natalie

Recipe Cards!

I finished these recipe cards along with this for the Gulf Coast Community Foundation's 'Feeding Hungry Families' event with Dr. Andrew Weil that was held yesterday! I brought my Dr. OZ loving mom to the event, tried the recipes cooked and was even able to meet Dr. Weil! SO much thanks to my Art Director Holly and the GCCF for letting me attend such a beautiful luncheon. Fell free to try these recipes yourself! The black lentils were sooo delicioouuus :3

Moses and the Burning Bush

Recently finished this piece for the Annual Judaic Art Competition at Ringling College. It received Honorable Mention! Really enjoyed coming up with this concept and learning more about Judaism and Exodus.

Tampa Bay Times

meant to add this up a while back- but it's my first illustration in print!
*just found out this was accepted into the Society of Illustrators student show!!

Meanwhile...

I am so honored to have been a part of now 2 volumes of Meanwhile! You can find the one I did last year here. Meanwhile is an anthology of many other young illustrators from Ringling College of Art and Design and their own two-page comics. We'll be handing out free editions of this comic in March at Megacon in Orlando, so come find us if you get a chance to go!

Indiana Jones

Doesn't just have a love for archeology...why does he want that ark so badly?

'Regenerating' will be in the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn (opening this friday night!) for the Alternative Ending show in collaboration with Silver Screen Society!