For the first studio tour of 2009, I visited the workspace of artist and illustrator, Lora Jost. I first met Lora when we worked together on a poster for the River City Reading Festival and I was so amazed by her illustration that I asked if I could visit her studio to see her workspace and more of her beautiful art. Lora uses several unique techniques in creating her work including scratchboard, ceramic mosaic, and collage. Her pieces draw from personal experiences and collected stories which are depicted with elements of beauty, whimsy, darkness, and joy. From her artist statement:

“I am drawn to experiences that are mundane, whimsical, and socially urgent. I like to mix these themes, and find how they link in spirit. I hope that viewers will identify with the stories my pictures tell. I hope that my art, in some small way, deepens our collective appreciation and compassion for each other and for life itself.”

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I was asked back again this year to do the graphic design for the Second Annual River City Reading Festival, an annual event that promotes reading to the Lawrence and surrounding communities. I was very excited to get to work with Lawrence-based artist/illustrator Lora Jost on a poster and series of bookmarks that advertised the event. The image above is the poster that Lora and I came up with for the event that happened last weekend.
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On October 14, I was able to see the results of several months work come together for a Lawrence-based event called the River City Reading Festival. This project was very exciting for me because I was able to work with Tad Carpenter, a friend of mine who is an award-winning illustrator, graphic designer, and all around great guy. I’ve been a big fan of his work ever since we went to school together and I had been hoping for a project to come along that we could collaborate on for some time. Tad did all of the illustration for this project and I did all of the design and layout and was very pleased with the final result.

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