Book Making & NYC Zine Festival

This weekend, I attended the NYC ZINE FEST '09 at
the Brooklyn Lyceum building.

Below is the official poster of the event:

The NYC Zine Festival are made of self-published, homemade,
independent and small publishers.

Some of the Zines I got from the festival:

By GBtran: A Vietnamese American Cartoonist

Below a handmade book by John Mejias:

spread and front cover

I drooled over the
Microcosm Publishing Catalogue below: ( love the illo on the cover) where they've got loads of Zines, books, posters,etc..

Another favorite of mine : Robin Enrico

she created the "Jam in the Band" below:

cover and inside pages:

Las Vegas trip, Day 2

Welcome to Las Vegas:

In Las Vegas, my hubby and I stayed at the Palazzo Hotel .

A view from the Hotel room:

I visited my childhood friend Gochi and Tifanny:

Tifanny prepared a delicious Chinese meal :

Duck & water chestnuts wrapped in Lettuce with Hoisin sauce

Delicious!

We visited the Springs Preserve

Gochi and Madonna at the Springs Preserve:

Cactus:



Gochi and Tifanny's dogs named CuCu and Euro:

These are the dogs wardrobe closet:
Tifanny and gochi holding CuCu and Euro:

Schoolgirl Memories Unfolding

Illustration Friday theme: "Unfold"

by © Maria Madonna Davidoff

School Girl Memories: Las Vegas trip, Day 1

There is nothing like re-uniting with childhood friends and schoolmates again. I sketched this inside the plane bound for Las Vegas where my Friend, Gochi, now lives. We were classmates in a school called Maryknoll, an all girls-private school in the Philippines. Maryknoll is now called " Miriam College" but I, of course, prefer the old name Maryknoll. I have lots of good memories from that School and as an illustrator, lots of nostalgic images appear in my sketches:

This is how our Maryknoll Uniform looked like:

We were such a disciplined bunch!

Oh the Joys of Lunch break:

That's me in our grade school picture below- what a hair!

And here is Gochi:

And here we are at present: Taken in Las Vegas:

Gochi and Mado( my nickname then)

Las Vegas

Wee, I'm flying a again for a short trip ---to Las Vegas,
not to gamble but to visit a childhood friend. See you then!

Illustration inspired by Bali

My entry for Illustration Friday's theme this week : CRAVING

I created this illustration based on a Balinese mythology, inspired by my travels to the island of Bali. I was in Bali last April and I rented a small bungalow which resembles the one in my illustration below. This is an illustration of a Balinese witch who likes to devour children. In the myth, the Balinese children saved themselves from being eaten by dancing.

by: © Maria Madonna Davidoff

After my Asian Trip, Events in New York

I'm Back!

It took me awhile to update my blog since I got back from my Asian trip.

For one whole month, I traveled solo to Singapore, Bali, and The Philippines, except in Vietnam, where I joined Bart, my hubby,who was already there to meet me.
During my trip I had a wonderful time sketching, sight-seeing, meditating and meeting old as well as new friends in Bali, Cruising in a romantic small ship through Ha Long Bay in Vietnam with Bart, taking a nostalgic visit to the city of Singapore where we used to live for a year from 2006 -2007, and then finally, re-uniting with my family in The Philippines.

When I arrived in the States It took me almost 2 weeks to recuperate from my jetlag.

But..... I had artwork to do, new projects to start on and several Books and
Art events to attend to in New York City.

The Book Expo America 2009:

The first event I attended was the Book Expo America held at the Javitz Center in New York.

One of the books I've illustrated " From Our Mother's Hearth " published by Africa World Press 

was exhibited at the previous Book Expo.  

Inside The Book Expo America at Javitz:
Madonna Davidoff in front of the Book Expo at Javitz Center NYC:

I joined some of my fellow CBIG (Children's Book Illustrators Group) inside the Book Expo:
Below, I am behind a lot of wonderful Childrens Books:

Some things I got from the Book Expo when I got back to my studio:

Bookmaks:

Childrens Books Publishers Catalogs!

My BEA badge and some Children's Book with authors signatures:

Some Totes to carry the tons of Publishers catalogs and books: