It was such a wonderful experience to return to my alma mater (class of 1979 and also where I started my teaching career at 19!) to read from my new book, By the Forces of Gravity. A total joy to see so many familiar faces, and meet new ones! Many thanks to Maybeck High School and Trevor Cralle (also class of 1979 and author of The Surfinary (awesome book and home to my first-ever published cartoon, the Valley Sheep)) for co-hosting the event with my publisher, Books by Hippocampus! Donna Talarico, a million thanks to you! Thanks to everyone who came out on a full moon evening in Berkeley to celebrate the book! Here are a few images from the event.
Reading in the Fireside Room at Maybeck High School (still renting rooms in a church, but way more swanky than when I went to school there)
best math teacher I ever had šCartooning the Landscape author and my cartooning mentor, Chip SullivanUC Divers representing fish love (note, there is nothing about SCUBA diving in By the Forces of Gravity. That came later in my life)author, publisher, book and school mascotBooksplaining something to my dad and step-mom. They’re super sharp so it probably didn’t need to be said, but I was pretty excited.I made a ginormous painting/collage/book timeline/artifact museum exhibit for the book launches.Maybeck community members (note the overlap of UC Divers and Maybeckians. Maybeck encouraged exploration, of the mind and the world, so of course it spawned a love of SCUBA)Co-author of Illustrated History of Landscape Design, Elizabeth Boults contributing to the memory canvas I made to allow people to share memories of loves in their life no longer with them.me reading and trying to remember to advance the images as I read, so people could enjoy the cartoons.
