Cover Reveal: The Best of TLD, 2014-2015

Tada!  Isn't it gorgeous?

Next month I look forward to celebrating the publication of this beauty, which contains 75 poems by 55 DMC poets. But today I'd like to focus on Michelle Kogan, who designed such a charming cottage garden cover.

MICHELLE KOGAN

Michelle Kogan is a painter, instructor, illustrator, and writer creating colorful figure, flora and fauna paintings, and children’s illustrations. The paintings often include urban settings and have a sensitivity to endangered species and the environment. She is an instructor at the Evanston Art Center, where she teaches figure drawing and painting, 2-D drawing classes, and plein air watercolor. She also offers plein air workshops at nature venues in the Chicago area, including the Lincoln Park Conservatory, Lurie Gardens in Millennium Park, and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Michelle is no stranger to the Ditty of the Month Club. She contributes regularly to DMC challenges with poetry, and sometimes with art, as well.  Her poem "Toady" will be included in The Best of Today's Little Ditty, 2014-2015. Michelle first came to Today's Little Ditty with the deeper wisdom challenge in January 2015. She wooed me with watercolor (an illustrated tanka) a couple of months after that. Inspired to visit her Etsy shop where she sells archival prints, paintings, greeting cards, journals and sketchbooks, I became irrevocably smitten.

I've asked Michelle if she wouldn't mind answering a few questions so that you, too, can get to know her and her artistry.

moreart4all.wordpress.com

Tell us about your artistic background. Were you walking around with a sketchbook as a child?

I’ve always been creating art.  I grew up with art around me. My mother is an artist and has always encouraged my art pursuits. As a young child, I was curious about everything, and sometimes I would take things apart to figure out how they worked. I had so many ideas and questions, my mom often asked me where they all came from. By high school I packed in as much art as I could and was drawing constantly in all sizes of sketchbooks. I had a hankering to find out more about art and artists, and began visiting Chicago museums and galleries with friends and on my own. The question of what do I want to be never entered my mind—I knew from the time I was a teenager I had to be an artist. My passion became my career when I studied art in college. Beginning at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and finishing with my MFA in painting from Northern Illinois University.


What turns you on, artistically speaking?

Drawing–painting and playing with color takes me to another realm. I’ve always been keen on nature, critters, flora, and our human relationship with them. I was a big reader as a child, and a storyteller early on, too. When I recognized these core interests, critters, flora, concerns for our environment, and story, my art took on its own visual voice.

Wildlife Comes to Lake Shore Drive, endangered species — © Michelle Kogan

You often combine painting with poetry. What, for you, is the relationship between the two? Which comes first—the art or the words? 

My art and poetry are inspired by each other, along with nature, and walks I take. If you went on a walk with me, we’d walk for a while and then something would catch my eye and I’d want to stop and sketch or write . . . and sometimes both. Way back, maybe ten years ago, I revisited writing children’s stories. Then I thought, why aren’t I writing poetry? I was always fond of it. I began with haiku, writing them constantly, but that wasn’t enough.  I sought more genres and blogs that featured poetry, and now I’m challenged with balancing the writing with art because I’m writing all the time.

Gourdian Finch and Gourds, endangered species

an autumn breath waits,
beneath airy earth tones, and
begs you to linger . . . 

© 2016 Michelle Kogan

Michelle Kogan, painting en plein air

As a teacher, what is the main thing you would like students to take away from your classes?

I want students to catch the art bug—to be so drawn and inspired by art and art-making that they can’t get enough of creating it and taking it in.


Tell us where we can see more of your work.

There are a handful of places you can view my art:  Studio b. gallery, in Three Oaks, MI, the book City Creatures, Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness, and online at my website www.michellekogan.com, my blog www.moreartforall.wordpress.com, my Etsy Shop www.MichelleKoganFineArt.etsy.com, and on Facebook and Instagram (mkogancreate).


Thanks so much, Michelle. It's an honor to have your art on the cover of The Best of Today's Little Ditty, 2014-2015.

Kenn Nesbitt's DMC challenge this month is to write poems for our mothers. This week's daily ditties included work by Keri Collins Lewis, B.J. Lee, Mindy Gars Dolandis, and yours truly. Make your mom proud and post yours on our October padlet, then come back next week for our end-of-month celebration!

Another great place to find poetry challenges is at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Thanks to Tricia Stohr-Hunt for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup.