Interview with Debbie Topolski – Artist Entrepreneur

  
   

Debbie: Keeping me “in lattes” Having studied a multi-disciplinary
field like architecture, I think one is always multi-tasking their craft. I’ve
used my skills in design concept, industrial design and architectural
illustration; for corporate identity imaging such as artwork for logos,
convention booths, and packaging; and in promotional pieces for communities and
clubs. I still do this type of work to keep me “in lattes”, so to speak! I’ve
always had a sense of whimsy in my illustrations and felt that they might be
well-suited to children’s book illustration. This is a discipline in itself and
I’ve so enjoyed studying this art form as well.

Me: You wrote an article in the 2009 Prairie Wind, SCBWI
Illinois’ local chapter newsletter, summarizing last year’s regional
conference. It was an amazing conference and I can’t believe I had to travel to
California to meet a fellow Illinoisan! At that conference, you were working on
your picture book Baker’s
Dozen. What’s the status of that manuscript? Did you do both the writing
and illustrating?

Debbie: Busted! While
working on Baker’s Dozen in  Esther Hirshenhorn’s Newberry
writing class, she again encouraged me to “write the book you need need to
write – NOW!” Rafter is that book but was too personal a
story to express at the time. It took me a year of studying picture book making
and attending conferences and classes to find the courage and confidence to
express myself whole-heartedly.  I just completed the dummy in July and
brought it to Los Angeles with me.  I got the story down on paper and put
it out there – literally – in the Portfolio Showcase. It still needs work and I
have to complete a few pieces of final art, but I feel a terrific sense of
accomplishment having done this much so far.  I am going to submit one of
these soon-to-be finished pieces to the 2010 Prairie Writers’ Day Illustration
Display.  I hope you’ll all look for it at lunch on November 13th!
As for Baker’s Dozen, I am
going to exhume it’s story-line and characters. They took a trip to Italy last
fall as (5) original finished
pieces for the Illustrators’ Exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair,
held in March 2010. Now that they’re back and well-rested, the images are
informing the manuscript as much as the manuscript informs the images.  I
will resume work on it with all the encouragement, critiques and classroom advice I received before
setting it aside. I am still in love with my characters, but I’m not totally
convinced that it is still a picture book. I’m going to pursue it and let it
evolve to dictate its own format by and by.  Good storytelling is the key,
whether it is expressed in chapters, a 32-page format, on an i-Pad or up on the
Silver Screen. As long as I am true to the story, I think this Yuletide tale
will entertain audiences as much as it does me!

Me: When did you join SCBWI, and what drew
you in to all the work you do with the organization?

Debbie:
Two years of selfish behavior After attending my first SCBWI network
meeting in Oak Park two years
ago, I remember telling my husband that I had found ”my tribe”.  I felt at home for
the first time in a long time. I was –and continue to be-so consistently
invigorated by this dynamic, talented and generous group, that I soon realized that I selfishly
wanted to spend as much time as possible in its glow!  I accosted Esther
at an event the following winter and told her that I was upset that I had not
yet been asked to help out.  Happily, that was all it took to get on a
task for the 2009 ALA Conference! It was especially meaningful then, later that
month when I attended the 2009
Summer Conference, that Lin Oliver should refer to the SCBWI as “the tribe.”  Now I just
need to keep working at my craft so I don’t get “voted off the island”!