We didn’t sink!

What a wonderful day it was at the Queens Museum Children’s Book Celebration this past Saturday. We bookmakers were set up in the main atrium—a gorgeous open space, filled with natural light—where kids and parents filed through, pausing for conversation, art-making, reading, you name it...and a general good time.

If you’re unfamiliar with this area of Queens, there’s great history behind the space too. The museum is located in the New York City Building, which once housed the New York City Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair. It’s the building next to the iconic Unisphere, a 12-story globe surrounded by a fountain, or what I like to call the best sprinkler in the world.

I was paired up with the Discovery Team from the Queens Children’s Library who created a great program for kids to test their theories of sinking and floating, using some of the experiments from Things That Float and Things That Don’t.

Not only were some of my pals in the New York City kids’ book community there, but I got to meet several authors and illustrators whose work I’ve been admiring from afar. Fingers crossed for this to become an annual event.

NY Comics and Picture-Story Symposium

I’ll be giving a talk this Monday evening, August 4th, 7pm at Dixon Place on the Lower East Side as part of the New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium. My pal, the fabulous Sophia Wiedeman will also be speaking about her process creating comics. For more information, click here.

bugs at BEA and other news...

It’s a busy week! 

If you work in publishing, you’d have to be a bug under a rock not to be aware that Book Expo is currently taking place at the Javitts Center here in NYC. This was the first year I participated in the children’s book art auction to benefit the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, and was very pleased that piece Buggy Too, pictured above, fetched a pretty penny in addition to a nice home. 

This weekend, I’ll be dropping off some stuff for the “Picture This!” show at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Mass. If you find yourself in New England this summer, stop by for this juried exhibition of picture book illustration. Three of my pieces from World Rat Day, by J. Patrick Lewis will be on display.

And on my way home, I’ll be stopping off at my alma mater, Connecticut College, for an Alumni Author (and Illustrator!) book event. Any camels out there planning on attending Reunion Weekend? Come to the campus bookstore this Saturday, June 1st at 3pm for a signed copy of World Rat Day and/or Sylvia’s Spinach. 

Rizzoli, Rats and Raffs

On the heels of the big World Rat Day event at Rizzoli, I did a little traveling, so this post is over a week late. Still, I wanted to share a few photos—it was a fantastic turnout! Thanks to everyone who was there, bought books, and helped celebrate Poetry Month. And special thanks to the great people at Rizzoli—especially publicist Meg Parsont—and Candlewick for providing the bubbly and the big poster for the store window! Boy was my hand tired by the end, but in a really good way.

MoCCA Arts Festival 2013 - April 6th & 7th

April is the busiest month ~ This weekend (April 6th and 7th) is the annual MoCCA Arts Fest at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street—open both days from 11am to 6pm.

Stop by table D97 where I’ll be selling a new, limited edition, hand-bound book featuring art from my bird image blog Ornithoblogical, called What the Duck? (You may remember earlier this year, I devoted an entire week on to ducks.)

My other MoCCA offerings will include a new set of hand-painted children’s t-shirts;  Ornithoblogical magnets, buttons, and prints; and a new line of notebooks featuring hand-painted tip-on images of robots and martians. And of course, I’ll be selling and signing copies of World Rat Day and Sylvia’s Spinach.

Once again, the lovely Sophia Wiedeman and I will be sharing a table. What table, was that again? Table D97. And just to make it easier on you, here a map. See you there!...

it’s a book!

My advance copy of World Rat Day arrived the other day and in my excitement, I might have jumped up and down a few times. I guess it’s no secret that I really loved working on this book. (The official publication date is March 12th.)

Meanwhile, I’ve been finishing up illustrations for a book with Holiday House due out next fall, in addition to working on the trailer for World Rat Day. Somewhere in there, I need to find time to redesign my website. Oh yeah, and it’s Christmas...

In case you haven’t already seen it, here’s a link to my holiday card. Best wishes for a peaceful holiday season!

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On the afternoon of Saturday, April 13th, there will be a World Rat Day book party (and signing) at the Rizzoli Bookstore here in Manhattan. Details to come.

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a very worthy cause

I finished a painting today that I’m really happy with...and guess what? It could be yours.

For the third year in a row, I am participating in “Postcards from the Edge,” a show and sale of original postcard-sized art to benefit Visual AIDS. Emerging and established artists contribute works on paper, all priced at $85, that are hung in an egalitarian exhibition at a Chelsea gallery. Each work is signed on the back. Meaning: buyers—if they know what they’re looking for—could walk away with an original piece by the likes of William Wegman, Kara Walker, Yoko Ono, or [*a-hem*] Anna Raff. (No spoilers here, sorry; you’ll have to guess about my imagery. Hint: it’s not a bird.)

The Preview Party is Friday, January 6, 2012. For more information, visit the “Postcards from the Edge” website.

big night

Last night I had the privilege of attending two great Illustration Week events in NYC. Chair of the Masters in Illustration Department at the School of Visual Arts, artist, mentor, saxophone player, and my occasional boss, Marshall Arisman was one of the honorees at the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame Gala. Just being in the same room with luminaries of the design and illustration worlds, such as Viktor Koen, Steven Heller, Louise Fili, Massimo Vignelli and Paul Davis, to name a few, was a thrill.

Next, doing my best impression of a jet-setting New Yorker, I jumped into a cab to head over to “The Party,” which marks the publication of American Illustration 30, and to hobnob with my fellow illustrators and celebrate our inclusion in this years annual. Needless to say, I’m a little weary today. 

MoCCA Festival 2011 - April 9th & 10th

Come on down to MoCCA Fest 2011 this weekend! (Table #i-13)

I’ll be launching three limited-edition, hand-bound books featuring art from Ornithoblogical: Bird Food, Jail Birds, and Bird House. Each includes nine full-color illustrations, and an original stab-stitch binding I’m fondly calling “bird feet.”

Also on offer will be flocks of signed bird prints, in addition to perennial book favorites such as The R. U. Fauna Department Store Catalog, and Ornithoblogical: Volume 1. And never fear—if you had your eye on a set of Gazers at last year’s festival, I have a few pairs left. Who knows? If all goes well, you might even get your hands on a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted tee. 

As in past years, I’ll be sharing a table with the fabulous Sophia Weideman, who will be launching her latest comic, the next installment of The Lettuce Girl.

MoCCA Fest 2011 

(benefiting the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art)

Saturday, April 9th and Sunday, April 10th

11 AM – 6 PM

@ the Lexington Avenue Armory

between 25th & 26th Streets

New York City

postcards from the edge

I am pleased to be among the artists who have anonymously donated work to the 13th Annual Postcards from the Edge benefit for Visual AIDS, on view this weekend and hosted by the CRG Gallery. Beginning Friday with the Preview Party, buyers can view the over 1400 postcards on display. It’s an excellent chance to get your hands on original works of art by established and emerging artists. See if you can pick mine out of the crowd. You might even see me nearby, plotting a purchase of my own. Click here for more details.

some “designy” stuff (on wheels)

The resumés of Vibrant Design principals Christopher Landy and Ellen Waggett—full of lighting and art direction assignments for TV shows and concerts—will make your head spin. These days, Ellen is the Production Designer for “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” while Chris recently finished work on several episodes of “The Marriage Ref.” So it was a great pleasure to design the identity for Vibrant a few years back.

This year they’ve created GreenGripGear.org, a leasing service for environmentally-friendly lighting equipment. Best of all, they acquired some wheels to make it mobile. Here is their “trucklette” in its nature environment of Dumbo, Brooklyn, sporting yet another one of my logos.

not just for the birds...

By the look of this blog over the last month or so, you’d think all I’ve been up to was corralling a loony menagerie of birds. Today, I’m happy to share several recent projects that involved nary a winged creature.

My work for Kiwi Magazine continues. Pictured above is the essay piece for their October-November issue about an unreligious family who find value in saying grace, and below, two spots from their Cooking Class section which I turned into a cookie crust construction site. (Yes, the workers are building a pie crust out the pieces of their brethren.)

This month I designed my first app—a game developed by Little, Brown and Company to promote a young adult novel they will be publishing this winter. More details to come once the app is released.

I was also hired by my pals at Vibrant Design to create a logo for their new offshoot company, GreenGripGear.com, promoting more environmentally-friendly, theatrical lighting equipment. I’m hoping to score some pretty photos of their shiny, black “trucklette” sporting both the GreenGripGear and Vibrant logos soon. As far as I recall, my work has never before appeared on a moving vehicle.

And last but not least, my newest client is Lake Isle Press, “Publishers of Books for Cooks.” They will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary at the Rubin Museum of Art here in New York City in November, so I was thrilled to be asked to illustrate and design their invitation to the big event, a detail of which is seen above.

That’s all for now. Happy Halloween!

connecticut college magazine

Back in March, fellow Connecticut College alumna Arielle Shipper interviewed me for a profile in the current issue of CC Magazine. We met in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel over tea (my suggestion, of course—very old school), while I reminisced about my experience at Conn and beyond. 

I’m not sure why there is no complete version of the magazine available online, but a few of the highlights are quotes from Marshall Arisman, chair of the MFA Illustration Department at the School of Visual Arts (my other alma mater), and one of my clients. 

“Among her assets,” Arisman says, “Anna is a born leader...My admiration for her is that she did this at a time when many people would worry about...where this would go. It's a success story.”

I'm still blushing...

subtraction.com by khoi vinh

The birds at Ornithoblogical are all a-flutter with their write up on Subtraction.com yesterday, May 22nd. Subtraction is the blog of nytimes.com Design Director Khoi Vinh. Here’s a direct quote from the three-star rating:

“Every day this year, illustrator Anna Raff is posting a completely charming illustration of a bird to this blog. It’s 22 May already, so there a 144 drawings for you to peruse right now.”

Tweet!

mocca art festival 2010 - table G13

Come on down to the MoCCA Art Festival this weekend!

Saturday, April 10th and Sunday, April 11th, 11 AM—6 PM

69th Regiment Armory at Lexington and 26th St.

Table #G13

Every year comics lovers and creators converge at MoCCA to show their latest work. Once again this year, I’ll be sharing a table with the fabulous Sophia Wiedeman (featuring her latest comic, The Lettuce Girl—her best one yet, I think) and the extraordinary Dunja Jankovic. 

As for me, I’ve got a few new offerings. Hot off the presses (see above) is a book of selections from my daily bird image blog “Ornithoblogical” along with old favorites like The R. U. Fauna Department Store Catalog, Alphabetic Ballyhoos, and lots of handmade stationery, and more! And come pick up your official Ornithoblogical button. I hope to see you there!

illustration friday: subterranean

This week’s subject for Illustration Friday is “subterranean” which made me wonder: if there weren’t so many rats beneath NYC, would galactic worms stand more of a chance? Hmmmm...it has been a long week.

world headquarters