Winter days
happy holidays!
Friends, the last season of 2024 is upon us! And I’m here to hold your hand as you say:“wow, December flew by.”
I think 2024 was quite a weird year, and I’m hoping you all made it to this winter somewhat unscathed and in good spirits. Winter can be a joyous season, but it can also be a deeply melancholic time of the year. I hope you’re having a good one. I hope you’re warm and have something delicious to eat.
I’m in Mexico right now. I’m home for the holidays, going through old family pictures, eating all of my favorite comfort foods, and painting lots of gouache (you can see some of those on my visual post #2). There are wonderful things in the horizon next year: some beautiful books I worked on are making their way into the world (see “upcoming releases” below!), there are some projects in the pipeline I am super excited to be working on, and some events I am thrilled to be doing (see “on the calendar”)!
A gift guide (of free things) for your illustrator friend
It’s December and the internet is littered with gift guides.
It is only natural (at least, for someone who spends so much time online like me) that all of the online noise would infiltrate my brain and come out of my pen eventually, and so, I present to you:
In all seriousness, I do think intention is what counts the most when it comes to gift-giving. I love the effort it takes to create something special for a loved one. It’s easy to get lost in all of the things to buy this time of year, but the best gifts are definitely the ones that come from the heart.
The UPDATES department
A few years ago I had the incredible opportunity to be a background lead on an Animated 2D short film a friend of mine was working on with the Pixar Co-Op Program. That little short film is called AMPED, and it finally made its debut at the end of October this year.
I’m incredibly proud to have worked on it alongside so many amazing artists (and friends!), and it’s been amazing to see it all come together so beautifully! The short film has been accepted on a few festivals and it’s currently showing there. You can follow the official instagram page for updates. It also recently took the Award for Best Comedy Duo at the Los Angeles Animation Festival!
Another great thing I got to do this year was being a speaker at the Illuma Fest in Puebla last November. Iluma Fest is an Animation Festival in Mexico that has some amazing guest speakers talking art, animation and video games!
I was super glad to be able to talk about what I do as a book illustrator, meet amazing artists and animators, and to have a little art exhibit at the venue! I am extremely thankful to the Iluma Fest team for having me and for making the experience so unforgettable!
And lastly, in case you missed it, we witnessed the end of an era (but the start of an age?), as MYTHICS 4: Ember and the Phoenix came out earlier this month!
Book 4 marks the end of the Mythics series, a wonderful middle grade series written by Lauren Magaziner and illustrated by me. Lauren and I have been working on these books together since 2020! We are thrilled for the work we put out and we are so excited for kids everywhere to finish this final chapter alongside these perfectly imperfect heroes and their mythical creatures.
Upcoming releases!
We are so close to the release of Mamiachi & Me! A heartfelt story about a girl finding her voice by performing for the first time in her mom’s all female Mariachi Band. Mamiachi & Me is a picture book written by mother and son duo Jolene and Dakota Guitérrez, and illustrated by me. It’s a lyrical read that includes an amazing back matter with lots of facts about Mariachi women.
And… I have another book coming out in the spring! I Am, Yo Soy is coming out on March 25th. It’s a bilingual picture book written by Gabriela Orozco Belt and illustrated by me! And it got a lovely review here.
I loved working on this lyrical picture book about the beauty and the joys of being part of two cultures!! Something that makes this book so special as an artist is that there is no single protagonist, instead, it is an ode to many Hispanic American childhoods in the US. I love how diverse the Latinx/e community is and I am super honored to have been able to bring pictures to this heartwarming story!
On the calendar
You are cordially invited to a little art exhibit of some of my traditional work at the Long Beach Public Library on January 9th! I’m extremely excited for this, there will be snacks and I’ll be doing an art demo! I hope you can make it!
I’ll also be doing some virtual and in person school visits in the new year. This 2024 I was so lucky to have been invited to some amazing schools, and I have really loved getting to read, teach and learn from little students!
If you’d like to have me at your school for school visits, check out my speaker profile at Authors Out Loud!
Tabs I haven’t been able to close
📚 I recently got a beautiful Mary Blair book: “The colors of Mary Blair”. It’s a book created for an art show she had in Japan. It’s BEAUTIFUL and I can’t stop looking at it.
📺 A Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favorite books of all time. It recently got a show on Netflix, I haven’t been able to watch but I am excited too!
🎥 If you’re looking for a cozy (and solid!) Christmas movie to watch, I can’t recommend you “Last Holiday” (2006) enough! One of my all time favorite Christmas movies, and a classic in my eyes.
🎥 If you’re looking for a beautiful film to get a little existential with, I recommend “After Life” (1998) - I watched it recently and wow, just wow.
🎶 I’m loving the new Laufey Christmas music and music videos!
💰The internet has me convinced a Louise Carmen journal would fix all of my problems. Should I find out?
🎵 The song stuck in my head…
P.S.
I can’t believe this little Newsletter is about to be 2 years old. Thank you so much for reading! I love coming up with ideas to share here, and I also deeply appreciate to be able to have this space to promote my books and events! As an author-illustrator, it can be so hard to help audiences find our little books in a sea of fantastic releases all year round. I’m truly thankful for everyone’s support of my work over the years, thank you so so much!!!
omg Mirelle! The gift-guide has me in stitches! (#7 especially!) Will definitely be watching "After Life" :)