my new children’s book!

It was such a dream come true to work on this kid’s book to illustrate one of my favorite poems and poets ever:  “i carry your heart with me” by ee cummings.

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

I love many of the spreads, but here is a peek at a few! In this interpretation it’s a love story between a mother and child, that is mirrored in the love between the elephant parent and child, birds and trees as they all grow from pregnancy to infancy to… going off to school in the final spread. I worked in a new way artistically by creating collage and taping the cut paper to the paintings and allowing there to be a shadow behind the art. Honestly, this happened by accident when I was taping the art for client approval to glue down and I really loved the effect! Happy creative “accidents” are the best<3

Available for pre-order here and save the date for Mrs. Dalloway’s launch event, scheduled for Thursday, March 27th in the evening. If you know of a bookstore or boutique that would be a good fit for a book signing, please get in touch: matirose(at)gmail(dot)com.

I worked on this project this summer with a wonderful husband + wife team of Cameron & Company publishers and editor Amy Novesky and designer Sara Gillingham.

From the lovely publisher Cameron & Company: Happy Valentines Day! Enter to win an advance copy of ‘I Carry Your Heart With Me,’ which features poetry by E.E. Cummings and art by Mati Rose McDonough. Open Instagram, follow us, and give our image a ‘like’:

http://instagram.com/p/kaNRhePCCd/

Also ‘like’ our brand new page for the book!
http://facebook.com/ICarryYourHeartWithMe