Breakers Release at Desert Island 4/25

In October last year I was invited to study at a three-week-long residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Dave Kelly and Lara Antal of So What? Press have created an anthology of work from the residency, Breakers. I'm very honored to be part of it and will be at the official launch party, hosted by Desert Island on April 25th. From the press release:

The book will have its East Coast premiere at Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY on Thursday, April 25th at 7:00 pm.  The event is free and open to the public.  Beer and cookies (in the shape of sharks) will be provided.  The book will be offered at a discounted price of $10.00 at this event. 
The book will be available in stores and online the following week.  So What? Press handles all distribution worldwide.  For more information, visit www.sowhatpress.com. 

So What? Press, the new publishing imprint headed by Dave Kelly & Lara Antal, is set to release Breakers, an anthology of comics featuring Ellen Forney, Dean Haspiel, Megan Kelso, and twenty-two other outstanding cartoonists:  Jessica Ruliffson, Gabrielle Gamboa, Gregory MacKay, Lark Pien, Boum (Samantha Leriche-Gionet), Nusha Ashjaee, George Folz, Jp Pollard, Jen Breach, Lara Antal, Rebecca Case, Jean Chen, Julie Condon, Gabrielle Greenlee, Lynda May, K-Fai Steele, Theresa Coulter, Sean Ironman, Christa Cassano, Fionnuala Doran, James Greene, and Meghan Lands.

From the back cover:
In October 2012, twenty-six comics creators descended upon Central Florida for a three-week residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.  These lost souls were set adrift in an incubator of creativity amidst killer sharks, a local nude beach, and other primordial nature.  Under the tutelage of Ellen Forney, Dean Haspiel, and Megan Kelso, a body of work was generated that interwove many similar themes based on their new found tropical isolation.  What you hold in your hands is a summation of that experience, a document of a wondrous blur of creative freedom, and perhaps an artifact of a comics paradise lost.

A Belated Reflection

2012 was an incredible year. I visited veterans at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with the Joe Bonham Project, studied cartooning for three magical weeks with Dean Haspiel and a whole mess of  other talented cartoonists at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, tabled at SPX, published an eight page nonfiction comics piece in the Oxford American New South Journalism Issue, received a Sequential Artists Workshop Micro-grant for self publishing, and made lots of new friends and new work. 2013 has already been a busy time, here's to watching it all unfold. Special thanks to Josh Kramer, Dean Haspiel, Tom Hart, Studio Yolo, Victor Juhasz, and The Joe Bonham Project artists for pushing me to make my very best work.

Residency! at Atlantic Center for the Arts in October

Here's an excerpt from an email I just received from the Atlantic Center for the Arts:

Dear Jessica Ruliffson,

Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you of your acceptance as an Associate Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts’ October 8 –October 28, 2012 residency session with Master Artist Dean Haspiel. We are looking forward to hosting you. Throughout the three week residency, you will meet within your discipline with your respective Master Artist, with the daytime and evenings open for interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration, in addition to the opportunity to work on personal projects and goals.