Best of 2022 Morgan Gaynin

Kayla Reilly

Project: Portraits of Iconic Women

Self Promotion

Kayla told us, "I really enjoyed the challenge of coming up with patterns & motifs that represented  different heritages, careers and legacies."

Josée Bisaillon

Project: Martin and the River, written by Jon-Erik Lappano

Client name: Groundwood Books

Martin and the River is on Josee's "best of"  list because she is particularly proud of the interplay of color and texture that she achieved.  She says, "I'm really proud of the mixed media work on these pieces and the way the softness of pastels and the boldness of cut paper interact."

Raúl Colón’s

Project: Immigrant New York: Rebuilding Together

Client: NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs

The idea was to develop an image that highlights the strength of New York’s immigrant community; how crucial they were in keeping the city moving during the pandemic, as well as how vital they were to the city’s re-opening.

Susan Gal

Project: Tower of Life

Client: Scholastic Inc.

Bringing the story of Yaffa Eliach and her resilience as a survivor of the Holocaust and her extraordinary achievement of creating the Tower of Life in the US Holocaust Museum both challenged Susan and continues to inspire her both as a person and an artist.

Gaby D'Alessandro

Project: Wings in the Wild

Client: Simon & Schuster

Gaby says, "It was a pleasure to illustrate the cover for this gorgeous novel in verse by Margarita Engle. Her inspiring and beautiful words made my job easy."

René Milot

Client: Wall Street Journal

Rene really enjoyed the challenge of taking a contemporary figure like Beyonce and portraying her in a classical style reminiscent of a Botticelli painting that evokes a serene beauty while maintaining a realistic interpretation.

Jonathan Bartlett

Project: NFL Game poster, Cardinals vs. 49ers. Social media marketing campaign.

Client: EA Sports, Madden ’23.

Jonathan told us, "When I work with sports related projects I’m always trying to push beyond what is expected and this was a great example of getting to play with shape, color, and layout to achieve our goal of grabbing the viewers’ attention with an exciting piece of art."

Tonya Engel

Project: Impossible Moon - Written by Breanna McDaniels

Client: Simon and Schuster.

Tonya loved that she was able to really dig deep into her imagination to create an entire universe of swirling stars, constellations, ethereal characters and atmosphere. Tonya told us, "With permission to 'just go for it' I took my cue and really took off! I absolutely adored the outcome!"

A. Richard Allen

Client: WSJ

This assignment was a doozy - find an illustrator who wouldn’t want to draw a pampered pig in an upper East Side duplex.