The Road Back To Maisie, And, Finally, A Maisie Book Underway…

This month is the one year anniversary of when Maisie was born, last February 2019. I did more than 20 Maisie paintings last year and I ended last year and entered the new year not in very good shape so I wasn’t drawing or painting, but as January ended I had a great longing to get back to Maisie’s World. I started a little 5×8″ sketchbook to start drawing little pictures of her to find my way back in and figure out what the next big painting would be. I love my little sketchbook. I collaged the cover and used the quote that I love by Montaigne, “It’s not the arrival but the journey that matters.” And it’s been quite a journey indeed and will continue to be.

Friday, the last day of January, kind of lost and not knowing where to begin I drew the first little picture. I knew that I needed to find my way back to Maisie and so this is what I came up with to start…

I felt better as soon as I saw her. She and her Daisy would lead me back in so I drew them, with Molly in my lap of course, and we 4 had a grand time. Of course first Molly stole a tiny sip of frothy coffee!

The next picture that I did made me smile. I don’t know why this came to me — I seem to have an unusual bent for peculiar things in Maisie’s World — but the thought came to me that even though she didn’t leave her house so wouldn’t have the need for one Maisie just loves umbrellas. Why she has a whole assortment of them. This is the one she chose on Saturday…

Then, as I meandered through the day on Saturday the most hysterical thing happened. Well I got excited you see by a funny thought that I had and I just about laughed my way through drawing the below picture. Sadly I was having such a great time I didn’t realize, literally, until I was uploading the picture to Instagram and Facebook that I had made a HUGE MISTAKE!!! A shocking mistake. I thought for about half a second about whether I should post it and then I laughed and laughed and put it up for fun. I wrote, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

No one will ever be able to figure out my brain! How I could draw this and NOT notice until I was posting it that her red toenails and fanny were on the SAME SIDE I will never know but great hilarity ensued on both Facebook and Instagram over it all with tons of comments. The thing that made me giggle most of all was that some long-time followers of Maisie said that this was their favorite picture of her EVER! Ha ha ha. And then my son-in-law Jeremy who is a physical therapist but also a yoga teacher tried to help by sending me a picture of a real man doing what is called a “Side Bending Headstand” which kinda sorta (but not really!) looks like what Maisie is doing above. I figured she was a very gifted yogi afterall. NOT! Ha ha ha. I went back and added this to the Instagram and Facebook posts…

“Maisie had finally achieved the famous side bending headstand but she couldn’t figure out how to get down. Lesson: Know your limitations.” (A special nod and thank you to my son-in-law Jeremy for this! He told me about a possible yoga pose so I didn’t feel like such a dufus for putting Maisie’s parts on cattywompus!)

I swear, I am still laughing about this. If I had a poster made of Maisie for my studio this would be it!

Finally, by Saturday evening, I was in a different mood and I drew a picture that really touched me. You see I am never going to be marching in protest or all over the internet shouting about causes that are actually important to me but I am too shy and much quieter than that. Things like racism, sexual orientation, and so on, but I have a message and I have to share it my way, through Maisie’s World. Wanda, the Rainbow Ex-Showgirl Snail who also happens to be transgender would be one example. And then there is the new little creature who entered the scene in this picture. With the below picture I posted, ” “They Didn’t Know What It Was But They Decided To Keep It” 💕 Accept and love everyone even if they don’t look like you…”

I haven’t named her yet, though I know she is a girl, but in my mind she is maybe (and this came to me after I drew her) a combination of ET, Yoda, and a duck! I have fallen in love with her and she will certainly have a part in Maisie’s World. I think she will be Daisy’s new best friend. A one-eyed dog and a little creature like her make great best friends!

And then yesterday, Sunday, the most marvelous thing transpired. I have very much wanted to create a book for Maisie, I think her story is important and might reach and touch people, but as I figured I would have to self-publish through amazon, say, and I could figure out how to do that if the book was all text, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to do with the illustrations. Then, in a nearly 2 hour video call with my dear friend Cathryn yesterday she did something amazing — she has self-published many books, knows all the ins and outs and technical things I don’t — she not only offered to help me by setting up the book for free to get it ready for publishing if I supplied the art and the text, BUT, and this just blew me away, she said she really felt a publisher would want Maisie, that they would be thrilled to have Maisie, and she thought before self-publishing we should search for a publisher. She had me look at another book by a woman who wrote a book that, while not like Maisie, reminded her in spirit of the Maisie book with lots of illustrations and text and it is an amazing book and was a huge success. (The book is Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. I am reading it for free now through Kindle Unlimited and I am in love with it. And no, not Maisie, but it deals with mental health and life in a way that is truly amazing and her illustrations are so much fun.) So, I will be moving forward this year with Maisie’s book, and we are looking at coming up with a book proposal and approaching a publisher before trying to self-publish which I will do if I can’t find a publisher. I walked around all night last night with my head in the clouds!

To that end I will not be selling prints in an etsy shop because it would not be wise to sell prints of pictures that are going to be in a book before the book even comes out. Afterward maybe merchandise would be possible if a publisher picked it up. Someone said, long ago, not long after Maisie came into my life and I started sharing the art, that there should be a Maisie doll! A big, soft, cushy Maisie doll to cuddle and hold. And then I thought last night that it should be a Maisie doll with little Daisy with her AND what about a Wanda the Rainbow Ex-Showgirl Snail? And Petunia, the mentally challenged flamingo, and, and, and… He he he, you can see my head was spinning.

I will be taking the paintings this week after therapy or maybe next week, depending on how things go, to a printer to get the originals scanned because they will then be high quality which is needed for a book. I took the pictures as I created them with my iPhone and had to kind of cut off the edges because I could never get them straight. For a book they have to be perfect and high quality. So much to think about.

For now I am just doodly-dooing in my sketchbook, which I will also be doing tonight, and working on the next big Maisie painting. This book could be a dream come true for me. I really want to see Maisie go out into the world and reach and touch those who might also love her and benefit from her message. So for now I am here, with my sketchbook, and Molly and I are with Maisie and Daisy and we will see what we will see. Hold a good thought for the 4 of us will you? Stay tuned, I’ll update you here with more pictures as they come, and news about where I am in the process of the book with dear Cathryn’s help.

And thank you so much Cathryn, I love you dearly, as I have for many years, and I appreciate your kind offer more than I know how to say.