THE BEGINNING
I'm an artist and a writer. So when somebody says something that so perfectly and originally captures a universal sentiment, I'm moved to illustrate it. I used to do this in BIG paintings (I'm talking 6-foot stretchers) until more than a few people besides my husband told me these were images somebody would want to share with others. And so -- eureka! -- I made them in to cards.
This was around the same time I gave birth to my kiddo, and it turned out the drawing thing was much better suited to motherhood (whoops, time to feed the baby again) than the painting thing. Luckily, when you're living life, the material is endless. I'm trying to share the stuff that's funny but, you know, serious.
THE PROCESS
You should see the sticky notes I have. On my desk. In notebooks. On the mirror. Sometimes the sentiments come from my head, my great ability to eavesdrop, and usually, conversations with girlfriends. If someone says something good, I write it down. Then it sits there for a while until the accompanying image cozies up to my brain and settles in -- where I wrestle with it on the train to work, at 3 a.m. staring at the ceiling, or in the middle of reading my son a book.
Eventually, it clicks, and on to paper it goes. All my work is printed by Fireball Printing in Philadelphia.
PROCEEDS
5 percent of the proceeds from my parent/mom-themed cards go toward my favorite nonprofit: Thirty Million Words initiative. Its work is based on a world-famous 1995 study that discovered some children heard thirty million fewer words than other children by their 4th birthdays -- directly impacting their vocabulary, their preparation for school, their reading skills. This Chicago-based nonprofit shows parents -- babies' first teachers -- how to enrich their children's language, mostly by just talking to them. There are many organizations that strive to improve school readiness, but I haven't encountered any whose methods are as simple as they are profound: Every word you say builds your baby's brain. (And at funnyserious, we love words and brains.) To learn more about TMW, go to http://thirtymillionwords.org/