I finished illustrating the book for the Canadian Constitution Foundation! The publisher “loved the work and is excited.” Slotted to come out this Autumn, more on that later.
In the meantime I’ve decided it’s time I write and illustrate my own children’s book. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and everyone thinks I’d be good at, but also something I’ve never done before.
At the moment I’ve narrowed down my 5 ideas to 2 stories and edited them both down to 700 to 800 words each.
I had a mega talk about rejection with my therapist yesterday. I tend to squirrel projects away, giving up on them long before they get made.
So I’m putting together the Lisa Ng Art Picture Book Pitch Packet. The average publisher takes 4 to 6 weeks for a response, some 6 months. So I’m going to share my pitch packet NOW, while I finish the book and wait for a response, and if I don’t hear anything by then, then I can consider self publishing.
It’s a different way of working I’m not used to, having to fill the time while waiting for a response. The good news is I have a Pandora’s box of ideas, so I can just keep cooking up more projects while I wait.
All I need is to find 13 publishers that might respond. I chose 13 because that’s how many Harry Potter took, the first 12 didn’t think there was any money in children’s books, they were wrong.
The Lisa Ng Art Picture Book Pitch Packet will contain:
Gordon Ghons acrylic on canvas 16 x 20 inches Sold but prints available.
I’m not gonna pretend I understand what’s going on with the American Tariffs but we’ve always known it’s best to buy Canadian, buy local. Re-introducing Canada’s solution to buying local, is my portrait of Gordon Ghons! Canadian cousin and brother from another mother to America’s most beloved contemporary Artist Jasper Johns! Half majority and half minority, born citizen of Canada, decked out in Canadian colours, show your support and like this post! Eh!
If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
Indoor Chameleon In Blue acrylic on canvas 12 x 9 x 1.5 inches $400 CAD
Let me start by saying I have 0 pets, but I got 2 toddlers who are just as messy! In the midst of the screaming, crying chaos, all I want them to know when things get crazy is that I love them, I am in no way the perfect mommy, but I am absolutely trying my best. I hope that they will always know that well into their adult lives when they begin to unravel where I messed up, and all parents mess up one way or another -builds character! I also hope that despite any expectations I may or may not have of them, I hope they live happy, fulfilling lives as good people, and that in whatever they do, whether they succeed or fail, I hope that they appreciate the journey, try their best, and I will be proud. #mommy #babyshower
Star Nosed Mole In A Tutu acrylic on canvas 9 x 12 x 1.5 inches $400 CAD
Nobody ever talks about the importance of fun, but I can’t paint enough of it. Don’t underestimate the importance of Fun. It helps you learn, it makes things enjoyable, and it helps all of us to get along. I grew up under strict conditions, fun was not to be had on the schedule. So much of fun is being able to express yourself, dabble in the activities you enjoy, and sharing that joy with others! It is the golden ticket to a good life. If you are having fun, you are winning at life. Everybody knows I paint for fun but did you know these 5 additional hidden hobbies of mine as outlined by the 5 Ugly Animals In Cute Outfits paintings below:
Dancing: I love dancing! I remember prancing around as a kid giggling my face off and being told to REIGN IT IN all the time. My parents enrolled me in ballet, most likely to correct my posture and put some structure and discipline into it, 2 very not fun things. I dropped out soon after and didn’t dance for along time until I discovered hip hop and breakdancing in my teens. Most people don’t know but I was an avid breaker in my middle school to high school years, and even got into raver culture a bit, had the PHAT pants and everything!
Consuming Content: Which in my day was reading books and watching movies. Now it’s phone scrolling. These days it’s mostly how to parent toddlers, trying to not re-create my husband and I’s crappy childhoods, which maybe is not a true source of fun, but definitely heading into a better direction! but when I have a good chunk of time, I love a good TV binge. At the moment I am getting into Squid Game and watching Parenthood. Timeless classics for me are Wes Anderson films, most notably, The Budapest Hotel, a movie around a painting: Boy With Apple, as cleverly depicted here:
Probocis Monkey In A Suit acrylic on canvas 9 x 12 x 1.5 inches SOLD
Music/Being Naked: Well that goes hand in hand with dancing. I listen to a lot of music painting, at work and driving around for work too. I dabbled in a little piano and guitar as a kid, but these days I mostly just build 100 song playlists on my Spotify under the username Furry Lisa. OK I don’t spend THAT much time being naked, but fun fact: I once did a performance art piece in the nude, back in my art school days. It was probably nerve wrecking and not super fun and yet at the same time, the experience brought me a level a confidence and compassion I never thought I had & that’s just one of the things you can learn whilst having fun in art school.
Naked Mole Rat In A Cardigan acrylic on canvas9 x 12 x 1.5 inches $400 CAD
Swimming: The only exercise I don’t hate. I grew up swimming laps everyday and I still like to if i have the opportunity. I like how I never feel sweaty swimming, and my body feels sore in just the right places. I like to catch my laps first thing in the morning when I can just ride that wave of endorphins the rest of the day.
Wolffish In Fishnet acrylic on canvas 9 x 12 x 1.5 inches SOLD
Playing: As adults I think we forget to play. All our recreational hobbies and interests generally revolve around mastering a skill or interest, which is fine, but it neglects the opportunity, almost expectations for failure like play does. Play means things don’t have to be perfect and so long as you are having fun, you’re doing great! It means you are approaching something new, exploring and discovering. There’s nothing more boring, or un-fun about doing the same thing a million times over when you are already good at it, I think. These days you’ll find me playing with my kids, building awkward snowmen in the backyard, baking ugly cookies and lopsided pizzas, fiddling with crayons, stickers, sticky goo and my favourite, googly eyes, Pom poms, and glitter. #fun #play
Marabous Stork In Fur acrylic on canvas 9 x 12 x 1.5 inches SOLD
Sandy Warhol acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 x 1.5 inches 2016 In private collection.
It’s winter and it is soup season. Everybody knows about Andy Warhol’s soup cans but do they know about my alias from 2016, Sandy Warhol who does paintings of soup?
Cream of Class acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 x 1.6 inches 2016 In private collection.
My new favourite soup is Costco chicken noodle where I shred up a Costco chicken and add mushy carrot and celery, chicken broth and macaroni, and if you want to go all out, CORN!!! In my family, corn is the magic ingredient. It goes on anything from pizza, tacos, ramen to spaghetti and most definitely in soup.
What are your favourite go to soups and does anyone want a Costco chicken noodle soup painting commission or other? Maybe one of a secret family soup recipe passed down from generations? It would make a great family heirloom/ family dining room or kitchen area painting! #soup #inspiring
Crocodile Couch acrylic on canvas 12 x 9 x 1.5 inches 2024 $400 CAD
I’ve loved art since I could hold a crayon 🖍️. I had to struggle to be one and I still do, not the art making part, but the career part. As a little girl my parents discouraged it, it’s not very practical for putting food on the table, it’s true, but despite that I insisted, it’s crucial for my psyche. I need art like I need air.
Growing up I looked up to characters like Leonardo Da Vinci, an artist and a scientist, he did it all. I wanted to have my starving artist cake and eat it too. These days I hold 4 jobs. I’m a nurse, a mom to two toddlers, a painter and now illustrating my first children’s book with the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
Maybe we shouldn’t limit ourselves to merely dream jobs but a dream life. Just because we want to be one thing doesn’t mean we can’t also be and achieve other things. Sometimes achieving at the one thing means being able to pick up skills to really do the one thing how you really wanted to do it. #dreamjob #dreamlife
Hoarding Squirrel acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches 2016 in private collection
Where can’t I reduce clutter around me? Clutter is all around me.
At my old apartment whom I used to share with my now husband, we used to have this corner we would pile all our unused clutter in and we termed it, “The Corner.” We even joked about putting Xmas lights on it one year since our place was too small to have a Xmas tree. Another time I suspected a hobo lived in there and one day a stranger would just get out from under the pile, head to the kitchen, grab a snack and walk out our front door. Maybe he’d take some of the stuff with him too.
Our pile of clutter was always in flux, thinned out perhaps every once a year to make room for the seasons’s latest crop of paintings, or pandemic nursing supplies, or the bed bug fiascos of 2006 and 2013, when we toss most of it out. It was a pile of crap that reflected the current moment of our lives. It marked the pivotal happy time in our lives as well, my wedding dress entered the pile in 2016, uncomfortable dress shoes for those important occasions, a degree in fine art- which I later sold for $10 CAD, then a degree in nursing, now irrelevant because the university decided to change it’s name. The corner even marked major political shifts of the current day.
Since moving into our home and effectively de-cluttering, it inevitably piles back up with two kids, a painting career, and a talented husband with multiple hobbies. Clutter corners are all around us, they are in our closets, the counter tops, hidden in between all the nooks and crannies, just overflowing enough to acknowledge, but not enough to have to do anything about. “It’s not jut junk! but the treasures that we carry that tell the stories of our lives.” is what someone with a hoarding problem might say.
Cold winter days bring me back to this cozy duo. Some of my first furniture friends. In another life my mother is a mad scientist and my father, a skilled carpenter. I’ve come to realize every painting could be the start of it’s own series of children’s books and that is overwhelming to know, but exciting too! #childrensbooks #bear #inspiration
To safeguard the realm of freedom of thought and expression, to excel and fascinate, through painting!
A little bit about me..
I am a child of Chinese immigrant parents who came from China and Hong Kong in the 70s. Their past and upbringing was riffed with a hardship they never talk about, but I do know they worked hard to get here to Canada, to enjoy the freedoms that we do.
I grew up in a strict household with a tight schedule of extra homework and logistically practical lessons to build me up for survival, none of them made to be very fun. My parents never wanted to go back to their old life and wanted to be sure my brother and I would be set up with a successful one, I can’t blame them.
Despite all that, Art has always been an outlet for me, a pillar to my being, a way to be true in the world, a place to express myself and have some fun, so when this organization approached me with the project, I couldn’t say no.
Rights and freedoms must be exercised to be protected. These are civil liberties the majority of us don’t think about much on the day to day, but people have died to enjoy these freedoms, and I don’t take them for granted.
It is a children’s story about how naturalized gardens came to be legal in Canada, and how they came to be a protected right to freedom of expression. The story interested me in that I’ve seen naturalized gardens all around my neighbourhood, it wasn’t something I thought was ever illegal. They seem harmless enough, and are likely better for the environment, but individuals had to fight for that right, and in the end they won, under the premise of freedom expression, which really is the search for truth. You can’t seek truth if you don’t protect the freedom to think, act and express. This is how we learn to get along with one another, to solve the world’s biggest problems, by not being afraid, to tackle the unknown head-on, to have the ability to ask those uncomfortable questions.
The book is projected to finish by late February. I invite you to explore the CCF, defending the rights and freedoms of all Canadians, here is their website:
Just witnessing California burn 😢 thinking about the owner of this painting. Hope her and the horned lizard made it out OK and aren’t anywhere near the fires. The horned lizard is resilient, to deter prey, they squirt blood from their eyes. #hornedlizard #california #inspiration
