Hello! I’m Jackie. Here are a few things about me.
I’m a children’s author and illustrator from New Jersey.
I adore traditional media (gouache, acrylics, graphite, pastel, you name it, I want to put it on paper!).
I’m a mom (my favorite job title, even above Artist).
Though I am a proud Jersey girl and have spent most of my adult life in NYC, I grew up in Pennsylvania, and many of my formative and most precious memories lie among the woods and farmlands of my childhood town.
When I’m not making art I can be found:
Reading. (Some recent favorites include: Intermezzo and The God of the Woods.)
Gardening. (If I can’t have dried paint on my clothes, then give me dirt.)
Thrifting or antiquing. (I love old stuff and treasures, need I say more?)
Giving in to my sweet tooth at every opportunity. (Couldn’t even begin to narrow down a favorite list of desserts, the answer is just yes.)
Unabashedly watching reality tv (e.g. RHOSLC or the Great Pottery Throw Down) or rewatching a comfort show (The Office and Gilmore Girls forever; I am a millennial, after all).
Here is my objective, in a nutshell:
It can be difficult just to be a person in 2026. I suppose my goal in creating art, particularly for our most precious of people, children, is to send into a sometimes harsh world one small sliver of light. Ideally, this sliver will join up with many, many other slivers to amalgamate into some sort of beacon that might dispel from the world some of its bleakness. Wow, how is that for one humble objective?
In seriousness, I do try to live my life with a healthy sense of humility. But it can feel disingenuous when the art I create is at face value sweet, cute, playful, and other perhaps light and fluffy adjectives not to acknowledge what is going on outside of the walls of the page. Creating hopeful literature for children is, for me, one way I feel that I can contribute to a more tender, compassionate, and just narrative for the future.
Shows + Exhibitions
2021 - Business Card Art Show / JKR Gallery, Provo, Utah
2022 - All Shapes and Sizes / JKR Gallery, Provo, Utah
2022 - Business Card Art Show / JKR Gallery, Provo, Utah
2022 - “Daylight” juried exhibition / Daylight Artist Collective, Westerville, Ohio
2022 - Community Board 8 Fall Art Show / New York, NY
2024 - Business Card Art Show / JKR Gallery, Provo, Utah
2025 - Studio Tour SOMA / Maplewood, NJ