Creative Playdate Episode 15: Interview with Jessica Abel - Season Finale!

Photo by Lauréne DuCrocq

I can't believe I've done 15 episodes of Creative Playdate! This episode is the last one for Season One and I will be back with Season Two in a couple of months.

This week's episode features the incredibly talented Jessica Abel. Her list of accomplishments is far too long for these show notes but you may know her from her graphic novels, like La Perdida or Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, her textbook Drawing Words & Writing Pictures (written with husband, Matt Madden) or she may even be your teacher. Somehow she's been able to do all of these things all while raising two children.

We talk about moving her family to Angoulême, France for four years and the adjustments they've had to make when their children started school in the U.S. Parenting is always unexpected in different ways and it has been no different for Jessica. For those of us who find it hard to maintain our creativity while our lives swirl around us, Jessica has a book for that, Growing Gills: How to find creative focus when you're drowning in your daily life.

I suppose I say this every episode (and I don't know how else to say it), but thank you so very much for listening and sharing the show. I love getting to have these conversations and I've already got a great lineup started for Season Two.

You can follow me on Twitter @MissIllustrator and Instagram @mkondrich and you can see my illustration at www.michellekondrich.com.

The show is syndicated on Illustration Age and our theme music was created by Thomas James and Jason Ritz.

Don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts! 

Creative Playdate Episode 10: Interview with Britt Wilson

Today's episode was a supper fun, casual conversation with illustrator, comic artist and hand letterer, Britt Wilson. We have children who are almost the same age and we are at similar stages in our lives and careers. We jump right into the conversation with little preamble, so if you like to commiserate with other toddler parents and listen to their crazy stories you will LOVE this episode!

Britt is super open and honest about her experience becoming a mother and the financial and emotional toll that it can take. Like most of us, she had some... maybe... unrealistic expectations of what working at home with an infant would be like. I'm starting to think that there's no such thing as a child who will hang out in a play pen alone for more than 2 minutes.

Britt's work is colorful and honest and fun and you should definitely check out her books like Britt Wilson's Greatest Book on Earth. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram @britterson. Her Instagram stories of her daughter are definitely worth the follow - and so are her plants. 

Thanks for listening and don't forget to share with a friend!

Illustration Age is our wonderful syndicate and the theme music was created by Thomas James and Jason Ritz (who have a new podcast, by the way).

Creative Playdate Episode 1: Interview with Lucy Knisley

Creative Playdate is here! 

I've been sitting on this and hinting about it and talking about it and now it is live in the world. Thank you to everyone who has supported the show so far and thank you for listening. If you enjoy it, please be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. The show is also being syndicated at Workbook.com/blog.

Episode 1 is an interview with the incredibly talented Lucy Knisley. She is a New York Times Bestselling author, not to mention a prolific cartoonist. Her insightful comics can be found on her website. Together we discuss her use of comics as a way to process the world and, now, to process motherhood and about how difficult it can be to work in the same house as a small child.

©Lucy Knisley

I can honestly say that I highly recommend ALL of her books and I can't wait for the new ones to come. My personal favorite is Relish, but check them all out here.

A million thanks to Thomas James, who created the theme music to the show (co-written by Jason Ritz).