Santa Maria artist Jill Iversen is the resident artist at the Santa Maria Discovery Museum in Santa Maria. She creates fine art as well as children’s illustrations for books and has even authored her own book, Goldie Hatches a Brood.
Iversen spoke with the Sun about her career in art and how she got her start.
Sun: How did you first get involved with art?
Iversen: My first memory was when I was about three years old playing with crayons like so many of us do. I don’t feel like there was a big turning point in my life where I got involved. I always have been drawing and painting. It’s just who I am.
Sun: What did you do for an education and how did you get into art professionally?
Iversen: I decided I wanted to try and make [art] part of my life, to make it the main thing or the biggest thing I did with my life. In high school and college I took every class that they offered. In high school, when I was done with every class that they offered, they kind of made up a class so I could keep doing art. It was a continuance of what they offered and sort of self-guided. And then for college, I went to ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. You know, people come to a decision if they are going to do things the way it’s advised or make up their own path. At that time, when I graduated with a degree in illustration, I didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing, what they were told to do, which was move to New York City and live there and talk with the agencies and things like that.
My main way of making art professionally was doing commission work as a fine artist and freelance work as an illustrator. It’s hard to say what the bulk of my work is because I’ve done so much, between stained glass design to graphic design to T-shirts, to jewelry to portraits, I’ve done a little bit of everything.
Sun: How did you get into illustrating for children’s books?
Iversen: I did aim to do children’s illustrations while I was in school. I didn’t get to do that until I did my first book in 2015. I illustrated a book called Lucy Learns to Fly. While I was working on that job, I was working on my own book because there were gaps in the time I was doing illustrations for the Lucy project. I didn’t like the stopping and going so I decided to work on my own book, which was Goldie Hatches a Brood. It’s kind of neat because they are both stories about real animals. The horse book is about a horse that lives in Los Altos, and Goldie is a hen we used to have. I’m a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and there are things you can do to get involved with children’s illustrations. But if the traditional methods aren’t working or taking too long for your personal liking, a lot of people like myself just jump in and do it for themselves.
Sun: What is your inspiration behind your artwork, whether it be for children or for fine art commissions?
Iversen: I want to show things that are either actual and I want to be factual in my recording of it. For example, if I’m doing a children’s illustration, even though I’m showing something that is not normally what an animal does, I want the animal to be structured correctly so that you can tell that it’s a certain breed or whatever. I like accuracy in that way, and then to twist it further in a direction, whether it’s a look in the animal’s eye or the colors in a sunset. It’s a little bit beyond real. It’s real with a little exaggeration to it. It has a bit more personality to it that way.
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose keeps it real with a lot of exaggeration as well. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 18-25, 2018.