I’ve been a subscriber to Quill & Quire for a number of years now. So was delighted when AD Adrian Doran asked if I would illustrate the cover for the October KidLit Special.

A bit about the cover:

I took a little deep dive into the authors that were going to be featured in this issue, and in the process I was deeply moved and motivated by what I'd found. (The NFB film "Now is the Time" (a 50th anniversary retrospect on Robert Davidson's pole raising), and Khodi Dill's recent interview with Annick Press (where he compared a cypher to a building stormcloud), both really influenced the outcome of this piece.)

I wanted the cover to have a lot of movement, to convey that flow state we all get when we're fully absorbed in an activity. The hardest part was narrowing down the colour scheme, and placing just the right hits of punchy colours in "just so" places. The art was cut from paper and assembled with tape and gluestick. I slid pieces of cardboard under the areas I wanted to raise, which pronounces their shadow when it comes to scanning or photographing the artwork. Some details were made with pencil crayon, and the patterned papers were hand-printed using acrylics. The only part added digitally was the eagle's eye.

I'm pretty sure I entered the flow state while making this piece, and I'm really happy with how everything turned out.

The 3 books that inspired this piece:

‘Lessons in Fusion’ by Primrose Madayag Knazan

‘Welcome to the Cypher’ by Khodi Dill, art by Awuradwoa Afful

‘Jigging for Halibut with Tsinii ‘ by Robert Davidson and Sara Florence Davidson, art by Janine Gibbons