Reporting: The Robert’s Snow Raffle of Original Art
Afterwards I went to the bar Baker Street to get the raffle underway. As you may recall, Jarrett Kroschka came up with this great idea to raffle off original pieces of art by fellow artists to whosoever wanted to come. Artists would sometimes surreptitiously slip me a piece here and there during the earlier event on the sly. Mo Willems is a very trusting fellow in this respect. After being handed the holiday chapbook that years later would become Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, I found myself trying desperately not to bolt for home where I could frame this booklet for all of posterity to see. The only thing keeping me from doing this was the comfort of knowing that at least I might win it in the raffle later (I didn’t).
To my very great surprise, it seems that Jarrett Kroschka missed his calling in life. Yeah, sure, he’s got artistic talent and verve, but seriously? The man was a born auctioneer. He should be screaming numbers on Wall Street or handling the farm auctions of Allegan, Michigan. The world has lived without his ability to make his voice clear, concise, and amusing against the pounding noise of a loud bar TOO LONG!
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The deal was good too. Buy $10 worth of raffle tickets at a buck apiece and get 5 for free. Who could object to that? So I did and so did everyone else. We mostly got editors, agents, and other illustrators (shown below) and that was fine. We’ll have to do this again sometime, and get a bigger audience.
Now why do I usually fail to post pictures that are anything but group shots at these events? Because I’m bad at names. There’s a 50% chance that I’d pose with someone, forget their name, and insult them to their very core. With that in mind, I shall name try to be very sparing with my titles.
This is the folder that Jarrett created to hold the raffle tickets. And look at the adorable little Robert’s Snow mousey on the front. The level of dedication it takes to create this little detail is noteworthy and honorable.
Jarrett and his raffle tickets. They would end up hanging about his neck laia-like before too long.
This is our small space in the bar. We had a kind of elevated plaform which allowed us to peer down at the little people below us.
Jarrett was good enough to show of the myriad properties and delights of each object raffled . . .
. . . which then fell instantaneously into the laps of the deserving winners.
Here you can see Jarrett gleefully displaying the original Pigeon book that could have been mine if I had only run when my legs told me to go. Jarrett also raffled off the picture of Pig that appeared on my Hot Pig of Children’s Literature post. I didn’t win that either. *sniffle*
So that would be Dan Yaccarino on the far right, a nice woman that I think is Sean Qualls’ wife in the middle (you see what I mean about my poor memory?), and Sean Qualls on the left.
And here they are again.
After the pieces were handed out and the happiness ebbed a little, Jarrett summed up the winners with, "They went wholesale for cancer and got a crapload of art." Damn right they did. A great time.
For a different take on the events as they conspired to occur, check out illustrator Dan Santat’s post on his wonderfully regularly updated blog.
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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Got damn, Betsy, I miss New York! Thank you for being our fly on the wall!
FYI- That is not Sean’s wife. Sean’s wife, the wonderfully talented Selina Alko, shows only the back of her head in the penultimate picture…a bit like the yeti, no?
Excellent.
Thanks for setting the record straight, Rebecca! The mystery woman next to Sean in question is our good friend, the talented illustrator/designer Jeanine Henderson.
Proof positive as to why the Web is such a superior form of communication: Instantaneous corrections to poorly informed postings.