Best wishes!

I wish you all a very healthy and happy new year!
- May all your wishes come true -

winter

Finally some snow last weekend, taste of winter in Chicagoland...
So late, so weird, so lucky...

Happy Hanukkah!

Illustration from Jeremy’s Dreidel © 2012, available Fall 2012 from Kar-Ben Publishing www.karben.com

sitting on the dock of the bay

(Characters from a story I made up a while ago, friends already :))

Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes

Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home
(O. Redding)

I love this version...

Día de las Librerías

De casualidad he leído que hoy es el Día de las Librerías y me ha destrozado una muffin, que no madalena, de Proust: esos sábados en Barcelona de cafeses, moto y librería, suelo de madera crujiendo...¨a dónde van, a dónde van...Acaso nunca vuelven a ser algo, acaso se van??¨(Silvio Rodríguez...)

Thanksgiving

Have a colorful and happy Thanksgiving!
(Illustration by my one year and half old son)

rainy-windy day

(old sketch for a project)

------------

Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements

Even if it leads nowhere?

Or would it be a waste even if I knew my place

Should I leave it there?

Chasing pavements, Adele

Antonio's birthday fiesta

Finally I've got some samples of Antonio's Birthday Fiesta (Pearson, 2011), a picture book I worked on last winter...And some pieces from the inside...

An apple/kite a day keeps the doctor away

A girl from Patagonia sent me this picture, she saw my below illustration, and it remembered her own childhood picture... Sometimes your own art is like a boomerang, it already existed somewhere and art keeps memories alife. As this girl says in the  work essay in which she shows my illustration paired with her picture, dreams may come true...Dreams are around, what is on your imagination or in your dreams, may be happening, you just have to be aware... It really touched me. What a beautiful picture of a child!

'Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.

So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.' 

Steve Jobs

Jeremy´s Dreidel

Illustrations from my last picture book Jeremy’s Dreidel, forthcoming from Kar-Ben Publishing.

Fall!

First day of Fall, my favorite season! I can't wait to see leaves changing color! Coffee tastes even better!
(people say in the Land of Lincoln Fall is pretty short though...)

Images from the book Le vieil homme et la fée. The publisher just told me it´s going to be published in China soon, sounds great - sounds zai zhong quo!! ;) - Another cup of coffee for the little squirrel!

verano azul, blue Summer

this was one of my pregnancy dreams...

...recently it came true :)

Quiet night thoughts

静夜思 李白

床前明月光，

疑是地上霜。

举头望明月，

低头思故乡。

QUIET NIGHT THOUGHTS
(Li Bai)

Before my bed
there is bright moonlight,
So that it seems
like frost on the ground.

Lifting my head
I watch the bright moon,
lowering my head
I dream that I'm home.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Illustration for the book Hand Songs, review for this great project to engage young kids in reading.

Somewhere

...And I landed...Somewhere...Over the rainbow :)

- Someplace where there isn't any trouble ...
Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or train. It's far, far away... behind the moon... beyond the rain.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

(The Wizard of Oz)

Bye Philly, such great heights (/highs)

Goodbye Philly...Such great highs(/heights)...


They won't see us waving from such great heights,
"Come down now", they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away,
"The postal service", but we'll stay...

I tried my best to leave
This all on your machine
But the persistent beat it sounded thin
Upon listening
And that frankly will not fly
You will hear the shrillest highs
And lowest lows with the windows down
When this is guiding you home

(IRON & WINE, Such great heights)

RIP, my little cat

Tomorrow life is going to speed up, bring news, changes, busy, busy, life blindness...

But today there is this on-hold mood, big hole in my stomach, insanely desatached from everything...Like there is no home anymore...Which is embarrassing at my age, but at the same time I am glad that I can still caress the little kid in me...Guido...

It seems unconceivable that I am not going to see you...Never.

My hands are already missing your shape...

Thank you for your company in this journey...

Guido, someday in May 1999- July the 2nd,2011.

(- Guido? From "La vita e bella"...)

- Have a great weekend!

Aloha!

BEFORE

Where is my mind? Mmm...I can hear ukeleles...
(It must be the heat...)

my kids' Spring...

Have a good weekend guys!

Haha, I've just figured out from where they are coming

ARTIUM, El ARTE de la ilustración infantil

Des del 14 de abril y hasta el 4 de septiembre la Biblioteca y Centro de Documentación de ARTIUM (Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo) ofrece la exposición Cuentos imaginados: el arte de la ilustración infantil.

En la exposición se muestra una amplia selección de libros infantiles y juveniles a partir de los mejores ilustradores de la historia. Además, se acompaña de manuales sobre teoría y técnica de la ilustración, guías de ilustradores, revistas de ilustración y películas inspiradas en los cuentos originales, materiales que forman parte de los fondos de la Biblioteca y Centro de Documentación de ARTIUM.

Muchas gracias a Artium por haberme incluido en el catálogo de ilustradores.

International Day of the Book: Feliç Sant Jordi!

- Feliç Sant Jordi, moltes roses i llibres!

Il·lustració de La fabulosa llegenda de l´assecador màgic

Earth Day

Have a nice and green weekend!

debilidades

-Tengo una debilidad...

La fabulosa historia del secador mágico

¡Esta fabulosa historia en las librerías!

La fabulosa historia del secador mágico, Martín Piñol,Edebé,2011

¨Todas las niñas quieren ser princesas, menos las perezosas, que prefieren ser bellas durmientes. Pero Eva siempre soñó con ser peluquera. Bueno, peluquera y maquilladora. Su mayor ilusión era peinar las cabelleras de las hadas del norte. O poner un poco de color en las mejillas de las reinas de las nieves. O cambiarle el peinado al príncipe, que el pobre salía en todos los cuadros con un estilo muy anticuado, con la raya muy marcada en el lado derecho, y más que un valiente príncipe azul parecía un tonto con una ardilla aplastada en la cabeza.¨

first birthday!

happy first birthday Pau!

(Barceloneta beach, first visit to Spain)

S. Patrick's Day

they are coming...

I can feel them...

.. a powerful green crowd invading the city...

Hey Valentine!

winter, snow, rain, cold, ice

Groundhog Day...Spring coming? I mean...really?