www.ruthexpress.com
My art life
I drew all the time.
I still have my first journal.
I still have my first journal.
I threw away most of the art I drew as a kid because I was a perfectionist.
Big mistake. Don't do that.
I still have my first journal.
I still have my first journal.
I still have my first journal.
My first real journal came from my
beloved high school art teacher,
Mrs. Elizabeth McCarthy. I was 15.
I kept on keeping a journal.
I still have my first journal.
I kept on keeping a journal.
I was a normal, angsty teen and I recorded it all in my illustrated journals.
I have hundreds of finished journals today.
I worked as an artist in college.
My first kids' books weren't great.
I worked as an artist in college.
I started working as a professional illustrator and designer in the first month of fall term, freshman year at Michigan State University.
I wrote for fun.
My first kids' books weren't great.
I worked as an artist in college.
I won the grand prize in 5 national essay contests. (also one state prize)
My first kids' books weren't great.
My first kids' books weren't great.
My first kids' books weren't great.
I got a few rejections at first, but I kept trying to improve my work. I'm better at it now.
I met Tomie dePaola.
And Ellie McDoodle was born
I went to the conference.
Tomie looked at my art and said, "Come to New York, to the big SCBWI conference, to learn what you need to get published."
I went to the conference.
And Ellie McDoodle was born
I went to the conference.
I drew everything I saw and learned.
And I put my 180-page NYC sketchbook
on my website. It went VIRAL.
I got 1000 emails from strangers suggesting
I try writing a book in a journal style.
And Ellie McDoodle was born
And Ellie McDoodle was born
And Ellie McDoodle was born
I took their advice. Just 2 weeks after returning home from NYC in Feb 2005, I had 1000 fans, 100 pages of an illustrated manuscript, and interest from an agent.
My friends and relatives cheered me on.
Pages from my first journal, age 16
How my family nurtured my creativity
They bought creative toys
<--- That's 10-year-old me holding Mini Dragons, a fun, creative, and fairly dangerous toy. Mom says she never bought coloring books -- she gave us crayons and paper to draw our own ideas.
When I won art and writing contests they celebrated with me
And they didn't make so big a deal out of winning -- or losing -- that I felt I had to win.
They had creative hobbies
Mom wrote and painted and gave us a full photographic record of family life.
She taught crafts at Scout meetings. And she MADE our couch!
Dad made things from wood -- all kinds of useful stuff for camp.
They took us to museums
I can't count how many times I went to the Detroit Institute of Arts, Greenfield Village, the Detroit Zoo, and the Detroit Historical Museum, before I was 12.
They demonstrated resilience
My parents both endured trauma when they were young, but they were resilient.
They made the best of any bad things life threw at them.
When my dad died at 40, leaving a young widow with 7 kids, Mom didn't give up.
She remarried, giving us 2 wonderful little sisters. Later she went to college.
She taught me to keep trying when things didn't go my way.
Kids: Keep going. The world needs to hear your voice.