Good morning.
It's Monday, March 30, and today's message comes from the cartoonist and public artist Ellen Forney.
"I'm going to show you a drawing game that is very calming and meditative. And it's a game that you can play by yourself," she says in her message. "I'll show you."
She adds, "This is the first time I've been outside in a couple of days."
Ellen is the author of the New York Times-bestselling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me, the story of her diagnosis and struggle with bipolar disorder. Her other books include Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, which is a handbook full of coping tools and a guide to maintaining mental health.
Her work has appeared many times on the cover of The Stranger. A gallery of those covers is below.
Ellen's two permanent large-scale murals for Seattle’s Capitol Hill light rail station have become an iconic part of the neighborhood. Erstwhile Stranger art critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Jen Graves wrote about those public works here.
Forney grew up in Philadelphia and lives in Seattle, and teaches comics at Cornish College of the Arts. You can follow her on Instagram here.
In addition to all the comics of hers that have appeared inside The Stranger, here are some of her memorable covers:
Thank you so much for your message, Ellen, and for giving us new ideas of how to relax with nothing more than a pen and piece of paper.
And thanks for showing us inside your sketch pad!
Have a calm, creative Monday, everyone.
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Also in this series:
