Hi! I’m Lucy.
I’m an illustrator living in Pittsburgh PA.
Sometimes I do design work, but illustration has my heart.
After graduating from the University of Michigan with a BFA in 2011, I passionately pursued a career in editorial illustration. My drive to succeed and establish myself as an unattached recent grad allowed for busy career at the expense of everything else. It took time, injury, and important people entering my life to realize my work would only be good if I was in a good place—but we’ll save that for another day. As a life long procrastinator, I was so hungry for the adrenaline rush editorial work gave me. The tight deadlines were truly thrilling. Lately though, I’ve been really loving attempting a full night of sleep.
I have had the opportunity to illustrate books.
As my identity as an individual has changed shape, so has my professional identity. My time is not my own, which happens when you let people into your life in the best way—more on that another day too. I enjoy a project I can sink my teeth into with time to really digest the content. Books are that for me. Book projects started coming in here and there from wonderfully talented authors and imaginative design directors and I’ve absolutely loved every project. I love that I get to learn about new things and strive to really understand them before I dig in to creating the illustrations that will keep them company. I hope that the future holds opportunities to take on more titles and explore different genres. More books!
Projects have come my way that don’t necessarily fit into a category.
I enjoy those just as much. There have been times where work I’ve created just for fun has inspired a client to approach me with something we can create together. My job is also my hobby, so when the two overlap I don’t mind one bit.
In the last few years, my identity has changed so much in every facet of my life.
Hurdles have appeared with and without warning and the fact that the sun keeps setting and rising means changing shape regardless of how I may be faring. For that reason it’s taken me awhile to decide that a blog is the way I’d like to share things with the world. Like many millennials, I maintained several blogs in the early 00s. One was purely to provide an outlet for the anxiety disorder fueling my insomnia. The other was one where I’d share my work, my thoughts on my career, and other illustration work I was excited about. A variety of reasons have created a natural distance from social media for me. And so I find myself returning to the idea of a blog.
These days, I am trying to work the clay that is myself into a shape I can’t quite see yet. I know that I feel something different when I’m illustrating work where something is happening—even a feeling. I enjoy being challenged to find a way to articulate ideas into pictures. An art director once told me that I have an “incredibly empathetic and thoughtful illustration style”. While I never thought to strive for this assessment, it’s the greatest one I’ve ever received about my work. I hope to continue to make thoughtful empathetic work that’s imaginative and playful without reserve. That’s the shape I’d like to take.