NEW BOOK! Moving Words About a Flower

Excited to share that MOVING WORDS ABOUT A FLOWER (my 6th illustrated book!) is NOW available in shops and retailers.

Review from School Library Journal

Growing in the crack of a sidewalk, a little dandelion sets seeds sailing to a new meadow home. Following the seeds’ journey from the concrete jungle to a lush summer field, readers will learn all about the little plant’s life cycle and versatile habits. The clever integration of text, color, and imagery has the words dancing across the pages in the style of shape or concrete poetry. When a rainbow appears, the multi-hued words arc across the scene. As the dandelion seeds lie dormant through the winter, stolid lines of chunky text evoke the oppressive weight of heavily falling snow. Deer nibbling the tasty flower petals leave the letters looking decidedly worse for wear. Readers will enjoy following the frolicking text, excited to see where it goes at the next turn of the page, culminating in the familiar pleasure of blowing on a dandelion puff. The city scenes depict a diverse and vibrant urban community, creating a pleasurable contrast to the green, animal-filled meadow. Back matter includes additional information about a dandelion’s life cycle, enhancing the book’s potential for integration into lessons of plants, life cycles, and seasons.

VERDICT Perfect for spring, this lively celebration of the humble dandelion adds flair to all collections.

custom illustration

Inspired by buildings & houses - my latest topic for my daily art project (where I create are around a specific a topic, 16 days in a row in 2016) #16in16art - I have decided to offer a new service on my website... I have called it: I will draw something just for you. It can be your house, a special object, or even your grandma's recipe for chocolate cake!

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Below are some of the recent house "portraits" which inspired me to offer this service. (I also recently did a recipe commission, which came out really fun + I included that as well.) I like adding little subtle details that make the pieces unique. 

In the first photo below, you will find a portrait of my childhood home in Oceanside, New York. My brother reminded me that most of the year we had an electric menorah in our window. (Even though Hanukkah only lasts 8 days.) We also had a lovely alarm sign in the lawn... though I'm fairly certain we did not have an alarm for most of my childhood.

I will add the family name and anything else you would like to have on your houee/item portrait. You can choose from the various styles and looks shown below. 

Find out more details about this new service by visiting my online shop here

july updates!

happy summer! I have been so busy working on illustrating a fabulously written series of 4 (bible) story books and doing my daily #16in16art project on instagram, that I've let my blog/news update go a bit quiet. 

I wanted to mention a new project. I live near an awesome town named Ardmore, PA. It was just mentioned in an article this week. My dear friend Carrie who has the most amazing gift shop (pucciManuli) is giving the street where her shop is located some well deserved love. It's an adorable street. And now this adorable street has a brand new fancy logo (inspired by local street signage) and website and lots of fun events to come!

Cricket Pops is a brand new event. The first one is - THIS SATURDAY - July 16 from 9AM-2PM! There will be ice cream, kids crafts, live music. 20+ vendors and more. (Get add. info here.) I will be participating in the July as well as the September Cricket Pops market.

Hope to see you - if you're in the neighborhood!!

Paint Lab for kids!

How did I forget to post this??? My painting/collage  was recently featured in a fabulous new art book, written and designed by the lovely and ÜBER talented Stephanie Corfee. The book is called Paint Lab for Kids  and it's now available at Amazon, B&N and local book shops (which are SO important to support!)

It has 52 fab art projects and also shows "Inspiring Artist" examples from many artists I know and admire such as Tracy English, Jennifer Orkin Lewis & Anne Bollman. I had so much fun creating this piece for the book - from start to finish - without ANY use of the computer! :)

You can preview some of the pages here. And below is a close up of my piece. 

Collage + Painting by Barb Chotiner

I also offer a limited edition mounted print of this image. You can see that here in my shop

I had fun creating some of the art projects with my 5 & 7 year olds a few weeks ago when we first got our copy off the book... I don't typically put photos of them up here,  but they are concentrating so intensely on their paintings so I thought I'd share. 

art planters // spring sneak peek

I'm very (VERY) excited to finally be able to show these planter designs I created for studio-m, which will be available in shops this spring. You can find them on their website here & also you can find a retailer near you right here

((( March 2016 - UPDATE - I'll be selling a handful of the planters and mats locally. You can purchase them in my shop here. )))

Also - if you want to see the art in full (360 degrees) - here it is below. 

holiday houses

My Kindred Art Collective just made some lovely downloadable + printable holiday houses. They really are a lovely set! View them all here. 

Here is my winter woods inspired house. Feel free to print, cut out, fold, fill with a treat or hang.

Shown below is my in progress house - made quickly with regular paper... The graphic designer in me just HAD to do this...

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cricket cringle - 2015

This past weekend I participated in the 2nd Annual Cricket Cringle - a holiday pop-up outdoor market in Ardmore, PA. There were over 30 merchants and the event was held on a Friday night (5-9) and the following day (10-6). I do not sell at many art/craft shows, but i can say this one was so much FUN to be a participant in. (And to help plan.) I do wish I had been able to walk around a bit more. There were many entertainment options, food trucks, restaurant samples (mmm... pumpkin beer), kids crafts, and even Santa popped by. 

At the market, I sold prints, cards, mugs, tote bags and even a few pillows. I will be adding inventory to my online shop and you can also find my things at Pucci Manuli

Aliza of Aliza Schlabach Photography took some AMAZING photos of my booth at the event. You can see more of the event photos at the Cricket Cringle event page

pumpkins galore!

Working on something for next week. Sometimes getting off the computer is VERY therapeutic. Especially after an intense week of working on the computer till 2am - multiple nights!

first friday on saturday

In September I participated in a local event called First Friday on Saturday, in Ardmore, PA. It was a beautiful day outside where the community had the opportunity to meet 6 local artists and learn some techniques. I also did the poster design for the event (shown in the gallery below.)