I’m completely thrilled to be able to announce that I’ll be May Gibbs Creative Time Residential Fellow (or MGCTRF) in 2017!
What this means is that I get to luxuriate in 4 weeks alone time in the Trust’s illustrator’s studio in Adelaide. The whole purpose is to immerse in writing and illustrating picture books.
It almost sounds too good to be true.
Ever since I started writing and illustrating picture books, I’ve had so many ideas for books burning holes in my notebook. But, given my schedule (including still working full-time as a software designer), I’ve found it virtually impossible to progress these ideas beyond one or two sentences. This creative time provided by the Trust gives me a whole month (!) to focus on progressing these ideas that would otherwise probably never see the light of day.
I have a passion for telling Australian stories. My aim in this time will be to walk away with at least 4 picture book storyboards that tell some unique contemporary Australian stories. If I can get more than 4 out, even better. I’ve never had the opportunity to spend so much uninterrupted time on this picture book art form so I’m not even sure how productive I can or will be.
In order to track how I go during this time, I’ll be aiming to keep (and update) a daily diary for myself. I’ll no doubt be posting to social media along the way too so if you’d like to follow along. You can do that on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
I’m not sure when this will happen yet except for that it will be after April 2017 and probably before September 2017.
My sincerest thanks goes to the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust for giving me this opportunity. To find out more about the fellowship and the other participants, see the Trust’s announcement on their website.