The Road to Literacy

This piece  for American Educator accompanies a story about this magazine’s history of supporting literacy research. It was fun to work with a straight-forward  concept, On the Road to Literacy. This is the publication of the AFT, the largest teacher’s union in the Untied States. I have many friends who are public school teachers, including my girlfriend of 8 years. It is nice to know this magazine will be delivered to their mailboxes, and that I can connect with them through my artwork.  Given that we have been living through a pandemic, this has been a very challenging year for educators. Living with a teacher, I see firsthand how dedicated they are, and how hard they work. To all my teacher friends, I salute you. and wish you a relaxing and peaceful summer. You deserve it!

Special thanks to art director, Jennifer Berney, for this super-fun assignment!

Below are sketches I submitted for this assignment:

A Spider's Education

Here are new drawings for American Educator magazine. They accompany an article by the Vermont Writing Collaborative, about a new approach to teaching writing. It's based on the idea of gaining a deep understanding of your subject matter. An example of this is displayed by a character in E.B. White's classic book, Charlotte's Web. The spider Charlotte has a deep understanding of (and affection for) Wilbur the pig. In order to save him from a fate at the slaughterhouse,  she spells out words in her web to describe Wilbur's terrific attributes. Spelling out the truth about Wilbur saved his life. It was fun to mimic the spirit of this beloved story in these drawings. A special thanks to AD Jennifer Chang for this fun assignment.