| Lisa Desimini November 8, 2008 |
About Lisa Desimini
Lisa Desimini graduated from The School of Visual Arts in 1986. Since then, she
has written and illustrated over thirty books for children. Her book My House
was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. I Am Running
Away Today won an honorable mention at the Bologna Book Fair in a
category judged by children. Love Letters by Arnold Adoff was a Publisher’s
Weekly Best Picture Book of the Year, a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book and a School
Library Journal Best Book of the Year. A video adaptation of Dot the Fire
Dog was produced by Weston Woods.
Her work has also graced the covers of many book jackets, including Barbara
Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, Pigs In Heaven, and Animal Dreams, the
John Nichols trilogy, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech and the new
Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.
Lisa is known for exploring new mediums. She has worked with oil paints,
acrylic, collage, photography and sculpture. Sometimes she combines all of
these techniques on the computer; scanning paper, fabric, fresh fruit, her hair,
wigs, marbles, her paintings and photos, pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, dish
towels, coconuts, and just about anything else she can think of. Then with a
Wacom tablet and Photoshop, she can draw and paint, change size and
shape and color, create shadows…there’s no limit!
Lisa loves to visit schools and universities to talk about her books and
techniques. She lives with her husband Matt Mahurin, who is an artist and
filmmaker. They are working on their second collaboration. My Beautiful
Child was their first book. They divide their time between NYC and Northport.
Visit her website at: www.lisadesimini.com
Lisa Desimini graduated from The School of Visual Arts in 1986. Since then, she
has written and illustrated over thirty books for children. Her book My House
was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. I Am Running
Away Today won an honorable mention at the Bologna Book Fair in a
category judged by children. Love Letters by Arnold Adoff was a Publisher’s
Weekly Best Picture Book of the Year, a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book and a School
Library Journal Best Book of the Year. A video adaptation of Dot the Fire
Dog was produced by Weston Woods.
Her work has also graced the covers of many book jackets, including Barbara
Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, Pigs In Heaven, and Animal Dreams, the
John Nichols trilogy, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech and the new
Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.
Lisa is known for exploring new mediums. She has worked with oil paints,
acrylic, collage, photography and sculpture. Sometimes she combines all of
these techniques on the computer; scanning paper, fabric, fresh fruit, her hair,
wigs, marbles, her paintings and photos, pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, dish
towels, coconuts, and just about anything else she can think of. Then with a
Wacom tablet and Photoshop, she can draw and paint, change size and
shape and color, create shadows…there’s no limit!
Lisa loves to visit schools and universities to talk about her books and
techniques. She lives with her husband Matt Mahurin, who is an artist and
filmmaker. They are working on their second collaboration. My Beautiful
Child was their first book. They divide their time between NYC and Northport.
Visit her website at: www.lisadesimini.com
Post Activity Recap
Whispers From Beyond opened with yours truly Steve Spinosa reading a
chapter from the late Michael Crichton's enviormental thriller State of Fear,
followed by Kate Landis reading Fritz Lieber's short story The Girl with The
Hungry Eyes (which was made into a Night Gallery episode in 1972). We took
a five-minute break, then I introduced Lisa Desimini to the group, who
enjoyed speaking to us about her work. Reading and Drawing have both
been her lifelong passions since childhood. She went to the same school of
arts as OUR Mike Piazza (3 years behind him) then began shopping her
portfolio of drawings to various publishers (some said she should do
magazines, and some said she should do book covers, but SHE wanted to do
both). Her artwork was first published in the New Yorker, then she eventually
moved on to book covers. She has enjoyed reading the Sookie Stackhouse
vampire series, and said she was looking for more series to read, because
they're so addictive...lol. Immediately group members responded with enough
reading suggestions to set her up thru 2009! She explained that she does
most of her artwork on the computer, creating backgrounds & scanning in
images, then sending the works as JPG images via email. Publishers also email
her titles of books that her work would be perfect for, then she asks for the
manuscripts via email. She says that the best thing about her profession is that
she can stay in her pajamas all day, either reading the manuscripts in bed or
creating the covers on the computer. And since her husband is also a
free-lance artist, he understands when she needs to be alone to do her work.
Plenty of questions were asked and we wrapped up by about 9:30 giving her
plenty of time to sign books for folks before taking the train home. The
evening continued at the Stateline Diner for most of our group. Join us next
month for our 3rd annual Holiday Party featuring our Paranormal Panel
starring Sandy Schlosser & The NJ Devil Hunters!!! (Steve)
The SFSNNJ met at the Ramsey Borders (at the store manager's request) for
Whispers From Beyond and Face The Fiction. Our guest speaker, in
our attempt to keep things interesting and everchanging, was artist, illustrator,
and author Lisa Desimini. Lisa is the artist responsible for those amazing
covers on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire books -- among many other
covers. Visit her website at www.lisadesmini.com.
For me, my night started at the Mahwah train station where I picked up our
guest. In the approximately 3 minute drive from there to the store, Lisa and I
talked about her very intriguing style as an artist. We discovered we were both
huge fans of Ms Harris' Sookie books and I also found out Lisa knows
SFSNNJ friend and former guest (twice if you count that she was on a panel
in October 2007 and then came back for Suspense Central to discuss her book
Hell's Belles with us), author Jackie Kessler. When we got to the store, Lisa had
about 20 minutes or so to decompress from her train ride and get settled in to
talk to us about her work with Charlaine Harris, Cynthia Rylant, Arnold Adoff,
J. Patrick Lewis and many others.
I commented in the car how her art often looks like collages made out of felt,
cut up paper, all kids of things and seemed to have a 3 dimensional quality to
it. Lisa described her process of scanning all kinds of things, paper, fabric, her
own hair, etc into the computer for use in her artwork. She then uses a
Wacom tablet to create her art on the computer. She also loves painting with
oil paints, something she and Mike P (a fellow graduate of the School of Visual
Arts) agree on!
As Steve mentioned in his recap, Lisa told us about how she became the artist
she is today. You will see a little bit of that in the YouTube video as soon as I
download it from my camera!
I special ordered a children's book written and illustrated by Lisa, which she
very obligingly read to us, called Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet!
After we exhausted her with our questions, we gave her suggestions for
books to read, AND she signed book covers for us (she also signed my copy
of Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet! for me), we disbanded so I could take
her to the train. Unfortunately, we were enjoying our conversation in the car
so much that by the time Lisa got up to the platform, the train was already
pulling away! Not a problem since I had planned to take her back into NYC
since I didn't know how the train schedule ran on Saturday nights from
Ramsey.
Please note next month's Face The Fiction is also our 3rd Annual Holiday
Party with the Paranormal Panel (as Steve noted), but our location has
been moved to The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Ramsey, NJ.
Tell all your friends! (Jo)
Whispers From Beyond opened with yours truly Steve Spinosa reading a
chapter from the late Michael Crichton's enviormental thriller State of Fear,
followed by Kate Landis reading Fritz Lieber's short story The Girl with The
Hungry Eyes (which was made into a Night Gallery episode in 1972). We took
a five-minute break, then I introduced Lisa Desimini to the group, who
enjoyed speaking to us about her work. Reading and Drawing have both
been her lifelong passions since childhood. She went to the same school of
arts as OUR Mike Piazza (3 years behind him) then began shopping her
portfolio of drawings to various publishers (some said she should do
magazines, and some said she should do book covers, but SHE wanted to do
both). Her artwork was first published in the New Yorker, then she eventually
moved on to book covers. She has enjoyed reading the Sookie Stackhouse
vampire series, and said she was looking for more series to read, because
they're so addictive...lol. Immediately group members responded with enough
reading suggestions to set her up thru 2009! She explained that she does
most of her artwork on the computer, creating backgrounds & scanning in
images, then sending the works as JPG images via email. Publishers also email
her titles of books that her work would be perfect for, then she asks for the
manuscripts via email. She says that the best thing about her profession is that
she can stay in her pajamas all day, either reading the manuscripts in bed or
creating the covers on the computer. And since her husband is also a
free-lance artist, he understands when she needs to be alone to do her work.
Plenty of questions were asked and we wrapped up by about 9:30 giving her
plenty of time to sign books for folks before taking the train home. The
evening continued at the Stateline Diner for most of our group. Join us next
month for our 3rd annual Holiday Party featuring our Paranormal Panel
starring Sandy Schlosser & The NJ Devil Hunters!!! (Steve)
The SFSNNJ met at the Ramsey Borders (at the store manager's request) for
Whispers From Beyond and Face The Fiction. Our guest speaker, in
our attempt to keep things interesting and everchanging, was artist, illustrator,
and author Lisa Desimini. Lisa is the artist responsible for those amazing
covers on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire books -- among many other
covers. Visit her website at www.lisadesmini.com.
For me, my night started at the Mahwah train station where I picked up our
guest. In the approximately 3 minute drive from there to the store, Lisa and I
talked about her very intriguing style as an artist. We discovered we were both
huge fans of Ms Harris' Sookie books and I also found out Lisa knows
SFSNNJ friend and former guest (twice if you count that she was on a panel
in October 2007 and then came back for Suspense Central to discuss her book
Hell's Belles with us), author Jackie Kessler. When we got to the store, Lisa had
about 20 minutes or so to decompress from her train ride and get settled in to
talk to us about her work with Charlaine Harris, Cynthia Rylant, Arnold Adoff,
J. Patrick Lewis and many others.
I commented in the car how her art often looks like collages made out of felt,
cut up paper, all kids of things and seemed to have a 3 dimensional quality to
it. Lisa described her process of scanning all kinds of things, paper, fabric, her
own hair, etc into the computer for use in her artwork. She then uses a
Wacom tablet to create her art on the computer. She also loves painting with
oil paints, something she and Mike P (a fellow graduate of the School of Visual
Arts) agree on!
As Steve mentioned in his recap, Lisa told us about how she became the artist
she is today. You will see a little bit of that in the YouTube video as soon as I
download it from my camera!
I special ordered a children's book written and illustrated by Lisa, which she
very obligingly read to us, called Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet!
After we exhausted her with our questions, we gave her suggestions for
books to read, AND she signed book covers for us (she also signed my copy
of Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet! for me), we disbanded so I could take
her to the train. Unfortunately, we were enjoying our conversation in the car
so much that by the time Lisa got up to the platform, the train was already
pulling away! Not a problem since I had planned to take her back into NYC
since I didn't know how the train schedule ran on Saturday nights from
Ramsey.
Please note next month's Face The Fiction is also our 3rd Annual Holiday
Party with the Paranormal Panel (as Steve noted), but our location has
been moved to The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Ramsey, NJ.
Tell all your friends! (Jo)
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