Our THREADS artist

This year's Summer Reading Club comes to a close this week. We had a busy summer full of programs, story times and special events. Ravel, our THREADS mascot has travelled all over Nova Scotia (and beyond), and ballots for prizes have been flooding in. 

Before we draw names and hand out the big prizes, we wanted to send out a big thank you to Lauren Soloy, the local artist/illustrator behind our THREADS mascots and other SRC related art.  She was nice enough to take the time to answer a few of our questions and talk about her creative process and how much reading and books mean to her.

1. What was your process for the THREADS SRC art? What was your inspiration?

The fist thing I did was brainstorm different ideas.  I sketched up a few of them and brought them to a meeting with AVRL staff.  They liked the drawing I had done of a little girl surrounded by imaginary characters, but we decided to use one of the imaginary creatures - a blobby guy - as the central character, instead. 

I sketched that up and it was approved.  From there, I started experimenting with colours and materials until I got it just how I liked it :)

2. What are some of your favourite kid's books growing up and now?

When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Enid Blyton’s stories - especially the Wishing Chair series.  I don’t remember having many picture books around the house, but I do remember the books that our school librarian read to us - things like Tikki Tikki Tembo, and The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash.  Nowadays I feel like Picture Books have really come into their own as an art form, and I have almost too many favourites to name!  Oliver Jeffers, Jon Klassen, and Christian Robinson are some of the favourites around our house, though.

3. What are you working on now?

I always have many things on the go!  Right now I am writing and illustrating a graphic novel of Emily Carr’s life, based on her books - which are excellent reading, if you’ve never ready any of them!  I’m also working on developing a picture book portfolio, with the hopes of one day becoming a published author/illustrator!

4. What are you reading?

I’m currently reading “Emily Carr as I Knew Her,” by Carol Pearson.  I only have a few pages left of that one, though, so next in line is a middle grade novel called, “Beyond the Laughing Sky” written by Michelle Cuevas with pictures by Julie Morstad.  

5. Where can we see more of your work? What else are you up to?

I’m hoping to have a web-site up in the next couple of months, but in the meantime, you can find me on Instagram at LaurenSoloy!  I post lots of work on there - mostly pictures of gnomes, at the moment!

When I’m not drawing pictures, I am a photographer (www.laurenkayephotography.com), a Mom, a knitter, a gardener, and a beekeeper!