A Spider's Education

Here are new drawings for American Educator magazine. They accompany an article by the Vermont Writing Collaborative, about a new approach to teaching writing. It's based on the idea of gaining a deep understanding and knowledge of your subject matter. An example of this is displayed by a character in E.B. White's classic book, Charlotte's Web. The spider Charlotte has a deep understanding of (and affection for) Wilbur the pig. In order to save him from a fate at the slaughterhouse,  she spells out words in her web to describe Wilbur's terrific attributes. Spelling out the truth about Wilbur saved his life. It was fun to mimic the spirit of this beloved story in these drawings.

This is the opener art for this story.

Here's a detail to the opener art

Practice, practice, practice (makes perfect)

A special thanks to art director, Jennifer Chang, for this fantastic assignment.

You can check out my new website here!

Emergency Funds

This piece from today's Wall Street Journal addresses where you should stash your emergency funds.  Financial experts recommend that you keep three to six months worth of savings on hand in case of a catastrophic event. One new study suggests that you may be better off investing this money, as opposed to holding it as cash. The article, which you can read here, looks at the pros and cons of using emergency funds in this manner.  Thanks to Orlie Kraus and Sheryl Dermawan for another fun assignment (which I was very bullish on).

I always try to supply the Wall Street Journal editors with a variety of solutions....

Thanks for viewing. You can see
more fun Wall Street Journal projects here, here, here, and here.