Drawing Life with Illustrators from Norman Rockwell’s Studio

Wonder. Storytelling. Human Connection. From a converted carriage barn on South Street in Stockbridge, MA, Norman Rockwell painted his way into the hearts and lives of people around the world. In this Studio—his last and “best yet”—Rockwell’s imaginative artistry established a legacy of creativity that continues to inspire artists and visitors alike. Today, illustration art is everywhere: books and graphic novels, editorials and advertising, video games and the metaverse, posters, comics, clothing, and tattoos.

This monthly series of online and on-demand programs features leading illustrators from across the United States demonstrating their craft and discussing ways in which published illustration reflects and shapes society and advances social good.

Episodes released once a month, year round.

On View Now:

September 15, 2022: Loveis Wise
My name is Loveis Wise and I’m an Illustrator, Artist, and Capricorn drawing reimagined futures and playfulness in Los Angeles. I’ve had the joy of working with some amazing folks like: The New Yorker, Google, Harper Collins, Disney Hyperion, Adobe, Instagram, Dr.Marten, Birchbox, Mural Arts Philadelphia, L’Oreal, The New York Times, REI, Target, Cartoon Network and Apple to name a few. Visit Loveiswise.com for additional information.

October 20, 2022: Shadra Strickland
Shadra Strickland studied, design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University and later went on to complete her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picturebook, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Strickland co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. Visit jumpin.shadrastrickland.com for additional information.

November 17, 2022: Louis Henry Mitchell
As Creative Director of Character Design, Louis Henry Mitchell directs and oversees most aspects of character art for Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street. From designing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons and floats to directing Sesame Street Muppet photo shoots, Mitchell has been at Sesame Workshop, full-time, since 2000. Prior to that, Mitchell freelanced for the organization beginning in 1992. Mitchell designed the character Julia, the first Sesame Street character on the autism spectrum.

December 15, 2022: Noa Denmon
Noa Denmon is an award winning illustrator who has worked with clients such as The New York Times, Google, Penguin and Macmillan Publishers. She won a Caldecott Honor Award in 2020 for her debut children’s book A Place Inside of Me which tells the story of a boy who reckons with his identity as a black child in a world of pain. She loves to uplift and depict the stories of the underrepresented, and hopes to create work that displays humanity in all of its differences. Visit noadenmon.com for additional information.

January 19, 2023: Liza Donnelly
Liza Donnelly is an award-winning cartoonist and writer for The New Yorker Magazine and is a contributor to The NY Times, Washington Post, Medium, CNN, and CBS News.  Author of 18 books for adults and children, Women On Men was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Her most recent book is a history, Very Funny Ladies, The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists, 1925-2021, with a foreword  by David Remnick and Emma Allen, is a respected resource for historians. Visit lizadonnelly.com for additional information.

February 16, 2023: Victor Juhasz
Victor Juhasz was born in Newark, New Jersey. He exhibited an interest in drawing early in life but needed the prodding of his high school art teacher to abandon a fantasy of becoming a cross-country truck driver (in retrospect, a really awful idea) and recognize his calling to be an illustrator. A graduate of the Parsons School of Design in New York City, 1975, Victor began illustrating in 1974 for THE NEW YORK TIMES while still a student. Visit juhaszillustration.com for additional information.

March 16, 2023: Shawn Fields
Shawn Fields’ interest in drawing began early. Pursuing that interest, he received a BFA in illustration degree at the School of Visual Arts, studied anatomy at the Arts Student’s League in New York, and received an MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art. His work has been exhibited at ArtBasel Miami, Forbes Gallery NYC, Arcadia NYC, and is collected worldwide. Currently represented by Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland Maine, Shawn lives in Mill River, Massachusetts. Visit shawnfields.com for additional information.

April 20, 2022: Elize McKelvey
Elize McKelvey graduated in 2012 with her BFA in illustration, but to understand how she ended up an artist in the Marine Corps, we need to rewind a few years to where that origin story begins. Elize assumed she would graduate college and join the art industry as a concept artist, as one does. She was attending a class called “the history of illustration,” and for a brief moment, the professor mentioned something called combat art. Visit Elize McKelvey for additional information.

May 18, 2023: Abigail Lashbrook
I studied illustration at the famed Academy of Art in San Francisco, and afterward moved to New York City. Although I still love being in the countryside, I’ve also become fascinated with city life. I love to study the architecture and drama of the city and I love to go out sketching in it. The collision of modern life and past history that you can find in NYC is endlessly fascinating to me. Many of the paintings on my ‘New York City’ page are on-location sketches from city hikes or meetups with my local Urban Sketcher group. I completed my first children’s book, Starlee the Sanibel Sea Turtle, last year. Visit AbigailLashbrook.com for additional information.

June 15, 2023: Amanda Calatzis
Amanda (Moeckel) Calatzis is a children’s book author and illustrator. Her book, Mister Rogers’ Gift of Music (Written by Donna Cangelosi, Page Street Kids, 2022), received a starred review from Booklist, as well as recognition from School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly. It is featured in the Society of Illustrators’ Original Art Show of 2022. Her debut book was Khalida and the Most Beautiful Song (Page Street Kids, 2018). She studied Painting at American University, and received an M.F.A. in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts. She balances book-making with mothering two young children and painting portraits of peoples’ pets via her website, MyAnimalArt.com. She works in her home studio in the Hudson Valley of NY. Visit AmandaCalatzis.com for additional information.

July 20, 2023: Nora Krug
Nora Krug is a German-American author and illustrator whose drawings and visual narratives have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde diplomatique and A Public Space, and in anthologies published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon and Schuster and Chronicle Books. Krug is a recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Maurice Sendak Foundation, and others. Her books are included in the Library of Congress and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University. Visit Nora-Krug.com for additional information.

August 17, 2023: Marc Rosenthal
Marc Rosenthal is an editorial illustrator and the New York Times best-selling illustrator of many children’s books, including All You Need is Love written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the Small Walt series written by Elizabeth Verdick, the Bobo series written by Eileen Rosenthal. He has also published two books as author and illustrator, Phooey and Archie and The Pirates. He has worked for most major publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Time and Fortune Magazine, The Atlantic and The New Yorker. He was the sole illustrator for National Geographic’s Smithsonian traveling exhibition, Where On Earth. Visit Marc Rosenthal for additional information.

September 21, 2023: Elwood Smith
Elwood is an award-winning, internationally known illustrator whose work has graced the pages and covers of TIME, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, American Heritage, Forbes and Fortune among other publications. It has been featured in advertising campaigns for SONY, Inglenook Wine, Land’s End, The Wisconsin Humane Society, TGI Fridays and many others. Elwood has written children’s books and two musicals for children with his late wife, creative partner & representative, Maggie Pickard. He has illustrated numerous children’s books for Viking, Puffin (Penguin), Klutz Press, McElderry Books and the Creative Company. Visit Elwood Smith for additional information.

October 19, 2023: Tony DiTerlizzi
#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Tony DiTerlizzi, has been creating children’s books for twenty years. From fanciful picture books like The Broken Ornament and The Spider & The Fly (a Caldecott Honor book), to chapter books like Kenny and The Dragon and The Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold over 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and translated in over thirty countries. He teamed up with Lucasfilm to retell the original Star Wars trilogy as a picture book and his collaboration with celebrated author Mo Willems created the bestseller The Story of Diva & Flea. Visit Tony DiTerlizzi for additional information.