Julie Lonneman Studio

I just saw the movie Julie and Julia last night and it's inspired me to start blogging again. Things have gotten quite slow in the illustation business in the last year so there hasn't been much to write about. However, Liturgy Training Publication's 2011 Year of Grace giant poster/calendar that I illustrated so long ago has finally been published. Actually it's been out since the beginning of Advent, when the liturgical year begins. It's exciting to have contributed to a project that is so widely used and appreciated. One of LTP's past calendars that I keep hanging on my studio wall was illustrated by Tommy di Paolo, an artist whose faith and artistry have always inspired me. The image above is the center portion of my calendar. You can see the entire calendar (and order one) here . My favorite portion is the shepherd, sheep and truck located in the lower left of the calendar. A scan from the orginal art is shown below.

Each Lent, the Church of the Nativity in Cincinnati hosts the Laetare Art Series. This image of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman is one of the five works I will be contributing to the show. All were originally commissioned by the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, for Lent 2009. I look forward to the opening this Saturday, March 13, especially to seeing the work by the other contributing artists Bill Feinberg, Fr. Jim Hasse, Nicholas Markell and Paula Wiggins. The Adagio Trio will perform with vocalist Teresa DeZarn Jackson. All are welcome; Please visit http://www.nativity-cincinnati.org/ for additional information.

I'll be hanging my show at NVision tonight, a series of two-color relief prints inspired by the street in Northside where my studio is located. I learned so much doing this project and I'm grateful to the City of Cincinnati Individual Artists Grant program for the funding. The show will run through December 6. The opening reception is on Friday, November 6, from 6 to 10 pm. Visit http://www.nvisionshop.com/ for location and hours. (Image copyright 2009 by Julie Lonneman)

The two prints in the post below, plus two others from that series, will be featured in the show "Collective Ink", opening November 1, 2009, at Massillon Museum. The exhibition will focus on contemporary women printmakers producing art as part of four printmaking cooperatives in Ohio. The show runs until January 3, 2010. For more information and directions, visit http://www.massillonmuseum.org/ . If you are in the Massillon area, please drop in for the opening on Sunday, November 1, from 2 to 5 pm.

This past August I took a week-long course in alternative printmaking at Ox-Bow, a school of art and artists’ residency, founded in 1910 on the shores of Lake Michigan near Saugatuck. It is affiliated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Holly Greenburg, an extraordinary printmaker, taught the class, and I learned a lot from my fellow students as well. Here are a couple of the my prints from the class. The plates are matboard upon which textures are created, then sealed, inked and printed in a technique very much like printing an etching. (Images copyright 2009 by Julie Lonneman)

I just received my copy of "A Painful Gift", a book by Christopher Goodchild. It's the harrowing, yet ultimately hopeful autobiography of a man with Asperger's syndrome. Darton, Longman + Todd, the London publishers, did a beautiful job, and I'm so pleased to have my illustrations a part of this project. Chris contacted me last year, out of the blue, because he had seen what is now the cover illustration in The Catholic Worker and really connected with it. He wanted to know if I would allow him to use it in the book that he was writing. I thought, "That's nice," and gave him permission, little realizing that ultimately it would turn into such a wonderful opportunity. Christopher had also seen my Way of the Cross illustrations and found great personal meaning in them. The publisher agreed that they fit his story well. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a first-hand account of growing up as child with autism.

Today I completed this portrait of Dorothy Day, drawing it with a Wacom tablet in Photoshop. It's very unusual for me to create something completely digital from start to finish. In general I prefer to work manually, but using the computer seemed the best way to deal with the complexity of this illustration. (Image copyright 2009 by Julie Lonneman)