I’m producing a children’s book workshop led by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls [above] at the Society of Illustrators of New York on Wednesday, October 28. Their clients include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, Scholastic, Lee and Low Books and Knopf. It’s perfect for illustrators who want to break into the picture book industry and need that extra push and solid pointers.

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I opened a solo show at the prestigious Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Called Water Makes Me Wet, the exhibition runs until the end of the month. I also just finished a set of window displays for high-end, Argentine fashion designer, Martin Churba, which opened last week. Martin Churba’s window displays can be seen at Tramando until September 6th, 2009. They’re co-related to the exhibition.

Corkboard makes my life easier, and if you’re a detail-oriented, hyper-productive, compulsive networker, perfectionist workaholic, it’s very likely it will help you too. Though it also helps avid readers, foodies, travelers, shopaholics, and just about anyone really. Why? Because it’s the first time I can combine hundreds of typed lists, tons of little notes, bookmarks, restaurants and books I see on the go, and just my own thoughts in one single place.

Corkboard is a Web-based application that allows you to keep track of everything you want to remember in a rather orderly kind of way. You can add stuff online and via cell phone, categorize it, and keep it private or public. You can also share and see what the Corkboard community is posting.

I use it mostly for work contacts, restaurants, books, movies and artists I want to go back to. I also have a Buenos Aires public posting that I send to the handful of people who go there every month and want some insider’s pointers.

[Full Disclosure: my husband is one of the founders of the site]

These Village Pillows by Brooklyn artist Rachael Cole are a set of cushions that work like a puzzle where you build your own country town, including houses, trees, a car, a horse, a dog and a duck. They paint a beautiful picture as a group, and work just as nicely as individual pieces. What I like about the Village Pillows is that they’re playful yet mature, youthful yet elegant, well designed yet simple. It just makes you want to play with them like a kid! They’re hand-screen printed in limited edition batches, wrapped in cotton duck cloth, and available as a full set of nine pillows or individually.

71 is the kind of place which is small enough to miss, but once you see it, you realize everyone somehow knows about it. It’s set three steps down from the sidewalk level, and it’s always packed, except for week late nights and mid-mornings. Even though their service is not the friendliest — like any other spot in New York that’s too cool for school — 71 has a noticeably loyal clientele. Lots of writers hang out with their computers, while photographers check out the scene, and artists meet up with their reps. Besides hot and cold drinks, including their own coffee, they also offer a great selection of pastries, sandwiches and my friend Nicolas’ favorite chicken soup ever.

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I met Caroline Thaw at Brooklyn’s Third Ward in one of the courses I taught. The first time I saw samples of her work, I was happily overwhelmed by her diversity of styles, her cute yet twisted characters, the radiant and infinite beauty in every piece she made, her delicate line, and her strong sense of style and scenographic space. Part of her work’s charm comes from her experience in theater design designing sets and custumes for productions that traveled around the world (she is from England, originally), and her tremendous love for kids.

Located by the Atlantic Avenue Station, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the BAM movie theaters are as genuine as it gets in New York when it comes to going to the movies. It features a small selection of the latest releases actually worth seeing, or you can immerse yourself in the BAMcinématek, which presents repertory classics, retrospectives, festivals, premieres, and rare films.

Yoko Furusho’s work leaves me absolutely speechless. There are so many lines in all of her drawings that I really wonder how she can do it all with one single hand. Just take a look at her Galliano and Fantasy drawings, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Not to mention her magical characters, her endless parade of patterns and her remarkable use of colour, which makes you feel like you’re swimming inside of a whipped cream and strawberry pie!

I met Yoko through my good friend and fellow illustrator Marcos Chin, who had the pleasure to be one of her teachers at SVA (by the time I started teaching there, Yoko had already graduated.) Talking to Marcos a few days ago he mentioned how, regardless of how tired Yoko was, she would never miss class and would always bring all her homework. When I asked him, rather surprised, why she was so tired, he replied: “Because she always working!” So, there you have it!

Located on West Houston, Alphaville is my favorite gift store in Manhattan. It offers a great selection of vintage objects, from Nixon’s campaign buttons, to Sesame Street 80s mobiles, 50s greeting cards and the original Mr. Potato Head and his friends. It’s one of those places I walk into just to look but always end up buying something.

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Located on Manhattan’s Crosby Street, the Housing Works cafe is a great place to browse around a huge collection of used and new books. The Used Book Cafe is not only that — they also have live music, readings and book signings. And even better is that one hundred percent of their profits go to Housing Works, a non-profit that helps the homeless.

When you first see The Gershwin Hotel, you might think it’s an art gallery or a public art installation. The white, bird-like shapes sticking out of its red facade is certainly unique, without being too loud. The rooms are rather small but the location and accessible price range makes it all worth it.

This café, cookie shop, ice cream place in Cobble Hill Brooklyn is all about flavor, aroma and family. Their cookies and ice cream are absolutely to-die-for, and the place is so well-designed, painted in vintage colors with old family pictures printed on the walls, that you’ll want to indulge yourself for more than just a few minutes. Try their Whoopies and Lucia cookies. They’re my favourite.

I’m a big fan of toys, not all toys, but cute, adult-adaptable toys. The Germusu pouch is a good example of that: it’s small enough to sit in my pocket, large enough to keep all my change, and funky enough to make me look cool. Created by artist V.Germy, Germusu are pouches with a twist. Each zipper-mouthed germ has an awesome personality.

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Andrew Davis (from AWWSWEET, a curating agency) has done it again: his second skateboard art show has made it all the way from Detroit to the Brooklyn-based art space, Third Ward. Inspired by the documentary feature film Beautiful Losers, which focuses on the subcultures of skateboarding and graffiti, Good Wood brings together 45 different artists who’ve designed a stunning selection of decks. Styles range from collage, graffiti, acrylic, oil, ink, silkscreen and photography to sculpture. Some of the big players in the show include Chuck Anderson, Nathan Fox, Leo Espinosa, and myself, amongst many others.

Davis, the originator and curator of the exhibition, recently graduated from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies with a major in illustration. His first Good Wood show debuted exactly a year ago. I caught up with Andrew at the gallery yesterday to find out more about how this came about: “I thought of it because I saw that many artists were making their names through skateboarding; it also gave me a good excuse to reach out to artists I admired and establish a solid network for future shows I plan to curate.” Davis provided the canvas — the decks — and the artists provided the work, which made artists more receptive to his proposal. This year’s version of Good Wood continues that trend.

Stop by the opening at Third Ward this Saturday, July 26, between 7 pm and midnight, where you can check out some short films by Josh Stewart, dance to DJ Brion Isaacs’s music, have a drink or two, and buy a deck to help a good cause. The show will be up until August 10th.

Sonotipo is a Buenos Aires-based band that produce a smooth combination of pop, rock and electronic music. Somewhat dark and melancholic, their music has a sweet beat to it that makes you want to dance all night long. Ciro Cavalotti and Sebastian Quintana are the musicians behind it, with guest musicians such as the Argentinian legend Daniel Melero.

I was recently visiting my friend Michel Lagarde, an illustration agent and publisher in Paris, and besides falling in love with his amazing collection of drawings by artists like Sempé, Georges Lepape, and Ronald Searle, I fell for the small collection of comic books he has just published. The cover design is modern-retro using vibrant colors, the size is small enough to carry them around, and the black and white drawings by eight different artists are funny and beautiful.

I’ve really gotten into this series on HBO called Flight of the Conchords. It’s about two corky musicians from New Zealand who are trying so hard to break into the music industry in New York. The show combines its cute storylines with ridiculously stupid video clips that are so bad they’re actually good. Well, kinda good anyway.

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One of my favorite bands, beside biggies like Belle & Sebastian, Languis, and The Smiths, is this French band I discovered recently called, The Lovers. If you’re in one of those hectic moods and you just feel like dancing until you collapse, play The Lovers — loudly — and you’ll get there. They’re about as poppy and bubbly as it gets. [see also Los Campesinos!]

Listen to The Lovers track, Sex Club.

When it comes to illustration, there’s a certain freshness in good children’s picture books that I don’t seem to find anywhere else. It’s as if it were a playground instead of a canvas or a mere book page. Two of my favorite children’s book illustrators are Tomi Ungerer and the Italian artist, Emanuele Luzzati [above], who I discovered recently in Rome, but have never seen here in the States, even though he’s been around forever. [see also Hiro Kurata]

Teatrio, an arts association in Italy, is behind an amazing traveling exhibition titled The Fabulous Colored Pencils which has been touring through Italy for more than a year and features what they consider to be the best 40 female illustrators worldwide. Included among the works on display are originals by Yuko Shimizu, Juliette Borda, Esther Watson [illustration above], and myself. We were asked to provide eight originals and do a commissioned portrait of our favorite female celebrity from our homeland. I chose Norma Aleandro, from Argentina. The Fabulous Colored Pencils is curated by Mark Heflin, the director of American Illustration.