Illustration career
I’d always drawn pictures and fantasized about illustrating children’s books, but by the time I attended OCA in the early 1980s, I had many artistic interests and was yet unsure of my direction. Under the mentorship and encouragement of working professionals, I attended Society of Illustrators events in NY, visiting studios and meeting art directors, etc, which inspired me to choose editorial illustration. (It paid well, too!)
My scratchy, pen and ink style actually began as an adverse reaction to working in animation, in the late 1980s. I sent some of these drawings to art directors in the US and Canada and to my surprise they liked it. That a female could draw with a sharp, often dark, satyrical sensibility was likely a plus, there still very few of us in editorial. From the late 1980s to early 2000s, my work appeared in hundreds of magazines and newspapers and on numerous book covers, most notably the Angela Carter and Flannery O’Connor series (still being re-published) and received various awards.
As everything went digital, magazines folded while smaller book publishers collapsed or were swallowed. The Walrus and VR Magazines were my last editorial hurrah. I feel fortunate to have been active during a time when advertisers didn’t rule, New York art directors would see you in person (sometimes over drinks or lunch) and we sent original work by Fed Ex (eek – maybe not that last one!).
More recently, I’ve illustrated full books for adults and children, including the ‘The Alphabet Thief‘ and ‘The Bunny Band‘ (BC Book Prize winner) by Bill Richardson – what I had initially wanted to do!
I briefly taught illustration at Emily Carr University from 2012-13 and have served twice as a judge for the National Magazine Awards. With one, recent exception (album cover art for the Clamor), I’ve now officially retired as a ‘hired hand.’
During the 2000s, I also trained and worked as a belly dancer for about 9 years in San Francisco and Vancouver, until an injury ended that career. With piles of costume embellishments left over, I began creating tapestries inspired by Haitian ‘Drapo’ and miniature, beaded icons, reminiscent of my Russian heritage, continuing a process of discovery through the traditional, women’s arts. This was very therapeutic, as was painting large scale and creating mixed media miniatures, such as the Harpy series.
Jewelry and photography, two things I’d once imagined doing professionally, are now more like hobbies with which to break from the often stressful micro-decisions that image-making or writing involves. I’m an active member of the Involuntary Painting/Sculpture group, started on FB by Millree Hughes and Paul Conneally and have some photos in the group’s permanent show at Hidalgo Station in Mexico City.
Bit o’ Background
A Taurus/double Sagittarius, I’ve always been a devotee of nature, myth, mysticism, symbol and the esoteric (‘within’) as well as the art muse. I read a lot of fairy tales as a kid, but was just as happy to look for fossils. My zealot of an Aries mother had been a Latin scholar and taught English literature/poetry, studied Jungian psychology, philosophical alchemy, mythology (which she also taught), the ancient Goddess and introduced us to Tibetan Buddhism and much else before we’d hit pre-pubescence. She became a student of Joseph Campbell and a Jungian psychotherapist, and continually passed teachings and catch-phrases (“follow your bliss!”) down to her daughters – whether we asked for it or not! Along with the usual, public school curriculum, I had a rather unique home-schooling.
My Cancerian father was a medical doctor who chose to leave surgery and become a psychiatrist. At the time of his death, he’d just been appointed head of Psychiatry at the MGH, but his true super-power was his bedside manner and sense of humour. He treated everyone as a human, which I witnessed when he took us with him on patient rounds. He was also an expert at games (cards, chess, etc), which we played a lot of. He understood their role in mental development, and it’s no surprise (or accident) a certain deck of cards later became an obsession – and teacher – for me. But it was our shared fascination with the natural world where I felt our deepest connection. Both my parents were art lovers and encouraged my creativity.
Current/ongoing
I’ve been musing on and reading Tarot cards since the 1990s, but first was intrigued by it at age 9 or 10. I’ve studied astrology alongside Tarot and began reading astrology charts professionally about 12 years ago. All of these subjects feed each other. Symbolism has, for me always been a type of detective work, wherein I get to play Sherlock and the clues never run out! All myth has its source in nature. It seems the modern world is doing its best to seal the doorways to the soul shut and I feel it’s the duty of artists, poets and other creative mystics to ensure there is always a way back in.
Present, personal projects are the Tarot deck I started in 1998 aka my ‘Magnum Opus’ (nearing completion, Goddess willing), a cheap n cheerful, classic RB divination card deck and some creative writing I hope to publish. Perhaps once my cards are finished, I will offer some courses.
I currently enjoy a reasonably quiet, hermetic existence in YVR (albeit interrupted regularly by leaf-blowers), where I receive feathered visitors on my porch daily and serve them snacks. ~rb
