From Sketch to Storytime: Illustrator’s Way

Seo Kim is an award winning illustrator, designer, educator and lover of all things natural, organic, and textural. Growing up, she bounced between Busan, South Korea and Durham, NC before settling in Baltimore, Maryland. After receiving her MFA in Illustration Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art, she began teaching illustration at MICA where she realized her love for teaching. Currently she is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of illustration at Towson University. Nature is her biggest inspiration, and she loves growing little jungles in her house and yard. Seo loves children’s books, sour gummy worms, homemade banana pudding, and all things related to zombie apocalypses.

Meghana Narayan is a children’s book author, illustrator, and fine artist living just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Her visual work is rich with texture, often mimicked from patterns and colors found in nature. As a children’s book creator, she feels a  great responsibility in creating space for the stories that often go untold. Meghana seeks to bring out the voices and narratives that she was yearning for as a child—those characters that have rich histories and powerful stories to tell. She draws from her experiences as a child of Indian immigrants when creating her stories and art. Between the layers there is a sense of universality that helps to create bridges between us all. When Meghana is not in her studio, she is reading and creating alongside her daughters (5 and 2 year olds), who are her greatest inspiration. She loves to get dirt beneath her fingernails and watch her garden transform every year.