Portraits Project!

Here is a link to an article about my current (Jan 2024) show at Curtis Memorial Library. I feel so fortunate to have the women inhabiting the space.

Artist’s Statement:

Each of these women was inspired by a detail. The look in someone’s eye, a certain curtain of hair, maybe a nose.

Most of these women are utter fiction. Some are based on real people (maybe you?). Sometimes, they are from memory. If I see a photo that inspires me, I look at it for a while, then do the drawing without looking at it. When I paint them (so quickly, in India Ink) the women come alive for me. I feel I know them;

I say “Aha, it’s YOU!”

When I was a child, I used to think that we were all the same person. I was the ME version, and you the YOU. This project brings me back to that feeling.

I hope these women will inspire you to ask them questions.
Which one has a secret? Which one is your fourth cousin? Who is angry? Who is tired? Who is full of joy? Talk to them. They may answer.

If you are so moved, please tell me what they told you, in the Guest Book. You can identify the women by section, or keep them anonymous (or give them a name!). There are no wrong answers. Just conversation.

I’m not sure why I did a project based on humans who identify as women. I am so glad that we now recognize that humans may identify in so many ways, along a spectrum as beautiful as the one we might dream up for flowers, for example, or stars.

Here’s to all our communality and to what makes each of us unique.

Charlotte Agell January 2024

My Top Three Books of 2023

It’s very silly to ask a book lover for their top books. I have MANY, even from this year. But Shepherd Books is a cool way to find out what authors and mega-readers are reading, and have opinions about. Here’s my take! My TOP THREE BOOKS of 2023 - ta da

Stories That Move Us, an MWPA event to Remember

Last night was an evening to remember, Stories that Move Me. An evening of connecting and reconnecting. Maine Writers & Publishers means so much to me. I remember being a very young writer with my first 14 page contract. How could I even read it? I went up to MWPA, then in Brunswick, and they had the resources. It felt especially sweet to provide an illustrations for Richard Russo's chapbook for this current event, as it took me back to the early days of ... more chapbooks. As a former board member, teacher, course-taker, appreciator, huge shout out to our local and far-reaching organization! MWPA!
P.S. The chapbook is still available and heartbreaking

STORIES THAT MOVE ME

Bath Book Bash!

What an amazing day at the Bath Book Bash! There were over 35 author/illustrators and so many kids and families. Geek Mom caught the day so well in her post. Read it HERE.

Lockdown Drills and Poetry - From Under a Desk

Reflections on teaching in an assault rifle ridden country.

Opinion Piece in the Maine Sunday Telegram, June 19, 2022

Welcome New Americans

I had the great good fortune to be invited to speak to 66 new Americans, at the INS ceremony hosted by Yarmouth High School’s Civil Rights Team. Why I was asked was an alphabetical coincidence of minor importance (listen and find out). It was such a great feeling to welcome these new Americans from so many countries, AND to have my mother in the audience. We missed each other’s ceremonies.

My friend Arnie filmed this (surprising me!). Here it is: https://youtu.be/n3cWK5mKm6U

The end cuts off.

Here’s what I said in the last moments: But something I didn’t realize until I read a book recently, is that the Statue of Liberty is not standing there, like some kind of statue.

Her right foot is in motion, the heel is raised up.

She is walking. Her foot is in mid-stride.

The author of the book I read, Dave Eggars, makes the point that she is walking because she still has work to do.

To quote him:

If the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom, if the Statue of Liberty has welcomed millions of immigrants to the United States, how then how can she stand still?
 Liberty and freedom from oppression are not things you get or grant by standing around.

They require action. Courage. An unwillingness to rest.

The Statue of Liberty, like many of us in this room today, is also an immigrant. She did, after all, come from France. She welcomes us all to this nation. She is not at rest.

The United States of America’s story is about all of us. It’s one we are still writing.

And that’s what makes us so strong. Let’s listen to each others’ stories.

This is a conversation called The United States of America.Welcome. We are so glad you are here.

Lupine 2019 and 2020

Such a bad blogger am I. Hello to my two visitors? Anyway, I wanted to upload this sweet photo. It’s of HAPPY ME, receiving my actual Lupine Honor Award PLATE in amazing company, a year late and in the rain, but with such happiness. Thank you, Maine LIBRARIANS.

I was in amazing company! Listed Below

2019: The Katahdin Award, a lifetime achievement award, was given to Kevin Hawkes, author and/or illustrator of such books as Velma Gratch & the Way Cool Butterfly, Library Lion, and The Wicked Big Toddlah.

The Lupine Award, honored the works of several creators who were either residents of Maine or whose work focused on Maine. The 2019 picture book winner was Going Down Home with Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons and illustrated by Daniel Minter. The picture book honor was Maybe Tomorrow? by Charlotte Agell and illustrated by Ana Ramirez Gonzalez. The 2019 juvenile/young adult winner was Searching for Lottie by Susan Ross. The honor book was American Trailblazers: 50 Remarkable People who Shaped U.S. History by Lisa Trusiani and illustrated by Pau Morgan, Toby Newsome, and Cecilia Puglesi.

2020:

Katahdin Award: Rodman Philbrick

Lupine Award: Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon, illus by Kaylana Juanita

Lupine Honor: Chowder Rules by Anna Crowley Redding and Vita Lane

YA Award: Abdi Nor Iften for Call Me American

YA Honor: Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

photo below by Aurora Hooper

Such Fortune!

Librarians are some of my heroes. And oh how exciting to win the Lupine Honor this spring of 2020, for Maybe Tomorrow? Then, Ana Ramirez Gonzalez and my book won the Maine Literary Award for a Children’s Book, just weeks later. This from a jury of my Maine writer peers. I feel so grateful for these honors here in Maine, the adopted home of my whole adult life. Here’s an interview I did with Maine Writers and Publishers, home of the Maine Literary Awards.

Daydreaming and Boredom are KEY

What feeds the imagination? Sometimes….NOTHING. Here’s a Letter to the Editor I wrote, printed (wheee!) in the Sunday edition of the NYTimes this past spring. It was in response to an article by Pamela Paul:

To the Editor:

Re “Let Children Get Bored Again” (Sunday Review, Feb. 3):

Thank you to Pamela Paul for her piece on the importance of boredom. One of the few constants on my middle-school classroom bulletin board over the years has been Maira Kalman’s New Yorker cover featuring the Institute for Advanced Study of Daydreaming. The sage advice of Lorraine Hansberry has remained above my whiteboard for almost two decades now: “Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.”

Life rushes us too much, yet so much of value is born of the interstitial pause. It’s become almost sacred to me. There’s a reason I stave off a smartphone. I fear it would assert itself, like a tour director, over the flights of fancy born of the nonspecifically occupied mind. If you sit with your own thoughts for a while, you never know where you may end up. And that’s a good thing, for all of us.

Pinch Me!

At ALA Midwinter, wedged between icons!

Librarians are Super Heroes!

I'll be giving truly short remarks before a panel discussion at the 2019 ALA Midwinter (in Seattle!). I love librarians. This sketch is a depiction of an early Town of Mount Royal, PQ memory...I remember being so glad to have a baby sister, Anna, since we could pile even MORE books in her pram. Learning English in part through picture books with my mom really defined me. Thanks, libraries and librarians everywhere!

August is for ART!

Any season of the year, Maine is such an inspiration! Some cards from August....

Elba - an Origin Story

The galleys for Maybe Tomorrow? arrived!

I am so thrilled with Ana Ramirez's art work. This book has its origins in a question a student asked me (explored elsewhere on this site) but also in a simple ceramic rhinoceros, bought at Indrani's here in Brunswick. She sat on my desk for a while, looking dour.

In my original dummy, Norris was a croc and Elba was a rhino.

I love how Ana rendered Elba - hippo with Moomintroll undertones? Here is a progression of Elbas!

Playing

My mother, Margareta McDonald, is an artist. When I was growing up, I was surrounded by art supplies. How fortunate I was to be able to think in paint and pencil! In this photo, I'm with my sister and my cousin, clearly thinking very painty thoughts.