I Am Drawing You: A Mother, A Child, A Sketchbook is a deeply original and moving hybrid creation—equal parts art book and personal essay. Just ten days after she gave birth, S.B. began drawing her son as he nursed, napped, and awoke to the world. What began as a physical balancing act—supporting her infant’s head and her sketchbook with her left arm while drawing him with her right—soon became a tender chronicle of her child’s first five years. In more than two hundred spontaneous, sensitive, and occasionally comical line drawings, we watch this new human sleeping, crawling, and trying out possible transitional objects. In an engaging introductory essay, S.B. describes—with light doses of psychoanalytic theory, drawing pedagogy, and art history—what her practice meant to her and what it might mean to others. Sketching one’s child at close range requires a paradoxical mix of physical attachment and mental detachment, which S.B. sees as a magical elixir that can help anyone overcome the anxiety, alienation, and (yes) boredom of new parenthood. Indeed, she believes she has found the "fountain of maternal bliss," and she wants to share it with you. I Am Drawing You: A Mother, A Child, A Sketchbook is the perfect gift for new and expectant mothers and fathers!
S.B. is an artist and author known primarily for her playful criticism and her anthropomorphic graphic novels. Her writing, published in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and Artforum, has been widely anthologized. She studied drawing at the New York Studio School and the Art Students League and has lectured at Parsons School of Design, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. This is her first book of sketches from life.
S.B. will be in conversation with Matthew Klam, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Robert Bingham/PEN Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts. His first book, Sam The Cat and Other Stories, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year in the category of first fiction, was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, Esquire Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Kansas City Star, and by the Borders for their New Voices series. His second book, Who Is Rich?, was selected as Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and The Washington Post, was nominated for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was named a best book of the year by Vogue. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, GQ Magazine, and The New York Times Magazine. He currently teaches at Stony Brook University, and in the New Directions Program in Washington, DC. He’s taught creative writing in many places including Johns Hopkins University, St. Albans School, American University, and Stockholm University in Sweden.