our collaborating artists
Jan Brett
ILLUSTRATOR
With over forty one million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books.
Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.”
Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."
Woody Jackson
PRINTMAKER & PAINTER
Woody’s work stems from a long and close association with the farms and farmers of the Champlain Valley of Vermont. His early work, primarily as a printmaker, forced him to radically simplify. As the years have gone by the work has grown more complex with overlays of color and more detail. But, he is still simplifying and allowing the paint to describe a sense and feeling of the objects in my field of vision. Woody wants to convey discovery, imagination, pleasure and joy in a simple rectangle on a piece of paper. The cows have allowed him to bring them on the journey as he has learned to express himself with paint. He is still having fun, sharing his version of Vermont with you. .
Tracey Campbell Pearson
ILLUSTRATOR
Tracey Campbell Pearson graduated from Parsons in NYC. She studied picture book illustration with Maurice Sendak and designer Jane Byers Bierhorst. Her first book, We Wish You a Merry Christmas was published by Dial Books -1983, Booklist starred review. Pearson is the author and illustrator of many critically acclaimed picture books, including Bob, a NCTE Notable Book, Where Does Joe Go?, an Oppenheim Gold Award and Myrtle, a Parent’s Choice Award. Elephant’s Story was featured on ABC Best Books for Children Catalog Cover. She is the illustrator of many more children’s books, including The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson a Booklist Editor’s Choice, Top of the List and a School Library Journal Book of the year. Pearson lives in Vermont with her husband and Wilbur, her 98lb studio pup. Their two grown children live in Chicago and NYC….but sometimes they come back to Vermont for a visit and a walk in the woods.
Katharine Montstream
PAINTER
Katharine Montstream grew up in the flatlands of Connecticut and couldn’t wait to move to Vermont to ski. She studied at Green Mountain College and the University of Colorado in Boulder for her Sociology degree. Montstream has been coloring for a living since 1988. She started out making handmade watercolor greeting cards, and in two years she sold over 15,000 -each one individually painted- to shops in New England. The next year, Montstream Studio started printing her images and she and her husband began selling the greeting cards nationwide. In 1989, her painting career took off after she had her first solo show at a favorite bar in Burlington, the Daily Planet. The images were of buildings, big gardens and the skyline of Burlington. Since then she’s had multiple exhibits in Vermont and focuses on her favorite subjects, the lake, mountains, snow, woods, swimming holes and Burlington’s iconic Moran Plant.
Bren Alvarez
ARCHITECT
Bren Alvarez is an architect and co-founder of SAS Architects. Founded in 1993 by Bren Alvarez, Marty Sienkiewycz, and Stephen Smith and located in the heart of Downtown Burlington, VT, SAS Architechts has a staff of ten people, including eight registered architects, one architectural intern, and an office manager.