Earlier this year I had the pleasure of making a series of illustrations to support the Detroit Institute of Art’s learning resources for educators, supporting the museum’s mission to help grade school teachers use the DIA’s collection to introduce students to world cultures and religion. In college I was a philosophy major with a logic concentration, but my logic advisor’s other specialty was Medieval Tibetan Buddhist philosophy; I spent many late hours as a young student pouring over the meticulously reasoned arguments of Tsongkhapa and Nagarjuna. It was immensely satisfying to dig into those old wells of knowledge and help translate Buddhist visual culture into a form that middle school students can hook into. Thanks so much to Joe Leach and Sade Benjamin for the opportunity to collaborate!
In less happy news, my years making the monthly science comic “Ask Ask” for curious elementary school readers at Ask Magazine has (likely) come to an end! In a story familiar to everyone in publishing, a series of layoffs preceded further “restructuring and hard decisions” and I was asked to pause production on “Ask Ask” following the current issue. Reading the blinking neon sign between the lines: this was a conflict-avoidant, permanent end of my contract.
“Ask Ask” was an unusually consistent and lovely gig while it lasted, and it meant a lot to me over the years. When the body demands of parenting babies kept my sleep-deprived mind muddled and my hands occupied, I was grateful to have this fun, silly project to draw every month after the kids were asleep that kept me connected to cartooning, that gave me the opportunity to improve my digital illustration skills, and, as my kids got older, gave me some “cool mom” cred amongst the elementary school crowds. I would love it if my reading of the situation is wrong, but the timing of this chapter closing works well for me: the intellectually engaging & schedule-filling demands of teaching and a renewed energy for my own comic work is already filling all of my daytime hours beyond capacity.
Above is the last comic I made for them: what a ridiculous joy to say farewell with a rabbit poop-sicle! Thanks so much to science writer Ellen Braaf, art directors over the years Jacqui Whitehouse, Erin Hookana, and Anna Lender, and genius editor Liz Hyuck for being the best team a poop-sicle drawing gal could ask for.
Below are some of my favorite Ask Ask comics from the last year or so.
Have a great weekend!
xox marn
The wheel of life image is spectacular!