Land of Opportunity

Here are more pieces I illustrated for a an English textbook geared towards giving 5th graders more courage to write, They accompany a narrative essay by African-American writer, Bertie Bowman,  who grew up on a rural South Carolina farm in the 1930's. At age 13, he ran away from home.  Working as a porter on a train, he found his way north to a true land of opportunity, Washington DC. Once there, he never looking back, finding jobs on Capital Hill. He worked all the way up the ranks to become a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Life on the farm consisted of slopping pigs.

You can view my drawings accompanying an essay by the great Rosa Parks, here.

A special thanks to art director, Carmela Stricklett, 

at Amplify for this really fun opportunity.

American Educator

American Educator is published by one of our largest teachers unions, the AFT. These drawings accompanied a story about the highly rated Finnish School system. They attribute their success to being a negotiation society - allowing government, municipalities, employers and unions to all have voice at the table. These party's strive for equality when educating Finnish youth - from the wealthiest to the poorest students. This cooperative attitude leads to a quality education for close to 100% of their students. It's impressive what can be accomplished when everyone is on the same 'track'.

Concerning education, everyone is on the same track.

Various pillars of society lend support to the education system.

Cooperation helps education stay on track.

The editors requested an "on the same track" theme for this story.  So here was my 'train' of thought when submitting ideas:

a few opener illustration ideas

some of the accompanying spot illustration ideas

A special thanks to art director Jennifer Chang, 
who's been assigning me fun projects for years. 

Here are selected illustrations from past issues:

For a story about the harmonious nature of community schools

For an issue about Community Schools.

For an article titled "Filling the Void" - about community schools

For 'The Thinker' column - about the education inequality between wealthier and poorer students.

For 'The Thinker' column - about the education inequality between wealthier and poorer students.

For an article about community schools

Poster for the AFT.

You can view my new illustration website here!

 { A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. }
~ Henry Brooks Adams