Wonderful goodies to report this week!

Valeria Petrone, whose own work has regularly made an appearance in the 3×3 Annual, has been invited by publisher Charles Hively to help judge this year’s competition. What an honor! 3×3 has poised itself as being one of the industry’s top sources for the best in contemporary illustration, and I imagine it will be a very difficult process to judge the sheer volume of high caliber work that will come through. Congratulations, Valeria - and good luck!

Will she love it, or….(image by Valeria Petrone)

Shannon Brady announced that he has been invited to participate in the upcoming ‘Illustration Minnesota’ show on February 2nd, from 6-8 pm. The biennial exhibition will celebrate the inventive work of 25 select Minnesota illustrators, and each will exhibit a printed illustration accompanied by the original artwork, an original piece of their choice, and also a personalized and decorated Moleskin. These unique, one-of-a-kind Moleskins will be sold in a silent auction during the exhibition reception, and the proceeds will benefit the CVA Scholarship fund. If you happen to be in or around Minneapolis Saint Paul, click here for more details.

And finally, we have some thrilling news from Raul Colon. We knew that something exciting was a-brewing, but the initial non-disclosure agreement was rather strict…and despite being in this small office, many of us were clueless (and subsequently going bananas). But now that we have learned about the project, it’s rather high profile and we understand the secrecy that surrounded it in the preliminary stages. Jill Biden, our second lady, will be releasing a children’s book with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in June of 2012 - and Raul has been asked to illustrate it! All net author proceeds for “Don’t Forget, Nana, God Bless our Troops” will benefit charities to support military families and children, and in honor of the book’s publication, Simon & Schuster will also be making a contribution to a charity that supports the same cause.

“As a military mom and a teacher, I wanted to write this book to make all Americans, especially children, aware of the unique experience of children who have a parent or other relative deployed in our armed forces,” said Jill Biden. “I saw with my own grandchildren just how difficult it is to carry on while you are worried about a parent who is serving in a war zone … and I also learned what a difference it makes when members of the community show support. I hope my granddaughter Natalie’s story, which inspired the book, gives readers some insight into the strength and character of our military families, and encourages them to reach out in their neighborhoods and communities.” Congratulations, Raul, for this exciting assignment! We are looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.

Upper left is how I felt being kept in the dark for so long. Image by Raul Colon, from “Sugarcane”