Mundie Moms

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

I LOVE MY HAIR by Andrea Pippins / Blog Tour: Author Interview #ILoveMyHair




Hello and welcome to today's stop on the I LOVE MY HAIR blog tour! I'm so thrilled to share an interview with author Andrea Pippins, with her Editor, Lee Wade. This book is officially out TODAY!! If you're a fan of the new craze of adult color books, you'll love Andrea's I LOVE MY HAIR color book. 


INTERVIEW with The Author / Editor of I LOVE MY HAIR




Lee Wade:
You have such a steady hand and can draw so beautifully. How long have you been making art like this? Did you doodle as a teen? Aside from making this book, do you still doodle? Like, do you doodle while talking on the phone?


Andrea Pippins:
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I’m sure I doodled as a kid as well, but it wasn’t until my design job at Hallmark Cards that I really got into doodling regularly. My colleagues and I would take doodle breaks or doodle during lunch, and I realized that I loved it. I have several sketchbooks from that time filled with doodles. All of my artwork now starts with a doodle.


And yes, I definitely doodle while I’m on the phone, on the plane, or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. Last spring I had jury duty and was terrified about being called in for a pretty heavy case. I was feeling really anxious. So I pulled out my sketchbook and doodled until they let me go.


Lee Wade:
I know you are drawing for many hours every day on this book alone, can you tell us what you do while you are drawing? Do you listen to music while drawing or watch TV? 


Andrea Pippins:
I have a system going when working on the book. I’ll make my favorite vanilla tea, light my coconut lemongrass candle (that I would buy at the farmers’ market weekly), and put on a movie, a podcast, or some uplifting music. I watched twenty-five films, listened to about a dozen podcasts, and Lianne La Havas was on repeat A LOT. Because doodling/drawing is extremely meditative for me, it’s very important that whatever I am ingesting positive things while I’m working on the art because it would impact my mood or thoughts.


But I did have one guilty pleasure while I was drawing: The Wendy Williams Show.


Lee Wade:
Can you tell us more about your social campaign for I Love My Hair? And where your fascination with hair began?


Andrea Pippins:
The I Love My Hair campaign was a design thesis project while I was in graduate school. Our topic was social awareness, which inspired me to focus on the revived natural-hair movement that was just starting to take off. During that time, I was really intrigued by the black beauty industry and how much money black women all over the world spend on hair-care products. At the time I had been natural for seven years and loved it, and I wondered how the industry would change if more women of color embraced their coils and went natural as well. So that project allowed me to explore this idea visually. Soon after, it became art prints and tees, and now the I Love My Hair coloring book, which celebrates all kinds of hair textures.


In doing a lot of research and looking at tons of imagery of black hair, I became interested in creating my own imagery. It was a way to create what I wanted to see, more representation of women of color in visual art, using a topic that is usually reserved for style and adornment.


Lee Wade:
You are a teacher and a successful commercial artist. Can you tell us what you tell your students about becoming professional artists? What do you think is the most important thing a person can do who wants to make art for a living?


Andrea Pippins:
I try to consistently tell my students that they don’t have to have it all figured out. At least not right out of school. I’ve been out of school for years and still figuring it all out. I know sometimes the students I work with feel the pressure to graduate with their whole lives planned out and I try to let them know it doesn’t always work that way. I encourage them to take one step at a time and understand that the culmination of those steps can lead to something great. And sometimes not-so-great, but even those not-so-great times inform what to do next. It’s all about the journey.


With that said, for anyone who wants to make art for a living, I think it’s really important to understand who you are, how you work, and what you need as an artist. Knowing that you don’t like to work alone, or need complete peace and quiet are good things to know when thinking about leaving a job or finding a studio. Or knowing if you like doing administrative work, or are able to delegate so that you don’t have to do administrative work. Knowing who you are can help with making difficult decisions.


Lee Wade:
We love the diversity that we see in this book, and we love your empowering messages. Can you talk about where you think that springs from?


Andrea Pippins:
Earlier this year I wrote in my journal the vision I have for my life and the work I want to do. One of the things I wrote is that I want to use my art to empower women and girls.


My personal work has always spoken to that in some way. It started to be an underlining theme in my design projects in undergrad. I’ve always felt this undercurrent of social awareness in my interests, and it really creeped up in my work in grad school.


Now, as an artist and educator, I try to infuse everything I do with that in mind. I’m not sure where it comes from; I just know there’s something in me that feels it’s an important component to the work I want to create.


Lee Wade:
Is there something you’d like aspiring artists and colorers to know about you that I didn’t think to ask?


Andrea Pippins:
My absolute favorite film out of the twenty-five movies and documentaries I watched while working on the book was Chef. I’ve watched it four times in two months, and counting. It really captures the journey of an artist in an unexpected way. And the sound track is amazing! I think I’m overdue to watch it again.




ABOUT THE BOOK


LOVE MY HAIR (on sale November 10, 2015) by designer Andrea Pippins is a fabulous new adult coloring book from Schwartz & Wade Books that celebrates strong, confident women and explores how beautifully diverse, stylish, innovative, and fun all types of hair can be.

Featuring bold hairstyles and accessories, from rows of braids, to Mohawks, to sweeping updos, to cascades of ribbons and beads, LOVE MY HAIR is filled with Andrea Pippins’s delicate pen-and-ink illustrations, ready to color, complete, and embellish. Coloring enthusiasts of all ages will love this empowering and stylish book. 

Purchase from Penguin/Random House 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



ANDREA PIPPINS is an artist, a designer, and an educator with a penchant for cool and a personality as warm as her Brazilian roots. Her work can be seen in magazines and on television as well as on clothing and stationery. Andrea teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art and curates her fashion, art, and design blog, Fly, a weekly resource to inspire young women to pursue their creative passions. She also produces digital and screen-printed artwork in which she explores color, pattern, and texture while interpreting her personal experiences as an African American woman. Andrea lives in Baltimore. This is her first book. Learn more at andreapippins.comand follow her on Twitter at @andreagpippins.

FOLLOW THE TOUR

Monday, November 2 | Alexa Loves Books 
Tuesday, November 3 | Pandora's Books
Wednesday, November 4 | Natural Chica
Thursday, November 5 | The Irish Banana
Friday, November 6 | The Lovely Books
Monday, November 9 | Fiction Fare
Tuesday, November 10 | Mundie Moms
Wednesday, November 11 | What Sarah Read
Thursday, November 12 | Bookiemoji
Friday, November 13 | Readical
Monday, November 16 | Read, Sleep, Repeat
Tuesday, November 17 | The Eater of Books
Wednesday, November 18 | The Reading Nook Reviews
Thursday, November 19 | The Jungalow

OUT TODAY! New YA Releases For 11/10/15



There are some fabulous YA books hitting shelves today! 
Happy Book Birthday to the following new YA releases: 

  1. Winter by Marissa Meyer, on sale 11.10.15, Feiwel & Friends
  2. Soundless by Richelle Mead, on sale 11.10.15, Razorbill
  3. Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick, on sale 11.10.15, Simon & Schuster
  4. Unforgiven by Lauren Kate, on sale 11.10.15, Delacorte Press
  5. Hello? by Liza Wiemer, on sale 11.10.15, Spencer Hill Contemporary 
  6. For The Record by Charlotte Huang, on sale 11.10.15, Delacorte Press
  7. Da Vinci's Tiger by L.M. Elliott, on sale 11.10.15
  8. November 9 by Colleen Hoover, on sale 11.10.15, Atria 
  9. Triple Moon by Melissa de la Cruz, on sale 11.10.15, G.Putnam & Sons
  10. Consent by Nancy Ohlin, on sale 11.10.15 from Simon Pulse
  11. If Only by Richard Paul Evans, on sale 11.10.15 from Simon Pulse
  12. The August 5 by Jenna Helland, on sale 11.10.15, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux
  13. Autumn's Kiss by Bella Thorne, on sale 11.10.15, Delacorte Books
Which new releases are you looking forward to picking up?

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