Mindy Dwyer
author/illustrator of The Salmon Princess, Sweet Dreams, Polar Bear, Coyote In Love, Aurora; A Tale of the Northern Lights and Quilt of Dreams, and the illustrator of Winter Is, Baked Alaska and Alaska's Three Pigs.
You may have seen Mindy behind a stand up bass playing bluegrass music with the DWYER FAMILY BAND or working at The Food Co-op in Port Townsend.
Mindy's art training includes visual communications at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, PA and fine art studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Along with independent study in art, Mindy has developed a distinct graphic style. Dwyer enjoys working in a variety of mediums ranging from acrylic, scratchboard and collage but her favorite medium for children's books is watercolor. Dwyer hones her imagery to its most basic shape, preserving its essence and combines it with bold composition and light. She creates a strong sense of place, a world in which her characters come to life.
"Dwyer has mastered her craft beautifully clear, bright colors; washes that add texture to so flat a medium; and colorful characters that bound across the earth and sky."
Mindy grew up in the melting pot of Western Pennsylvania, a diverse heritage from opera singers and doctors, to farmers and miners. She has been a photo retoucher, a forester, a furniture maker, shopkeeper, graphic artist, a mother and bass player. Living in the Rockies, travelling in Mexico, raising a family in the Pacific Northwest , living in Alaska and New York state all add to the evolving themes in her art. Early on Mindy paired words with pictures by writing poems and cutting up magazines or drawing comic strips chronicling the funny things she did with her friends.