2023 Illustrators Cup

For this year’s Illustrator’s Cup, we did away with awarding first, second and third prizes and instead focused on the idea that during one of the most demonstrably bizarre and challenging times in human history, art performs a public service. What, we wonder, is the point of anything without art? How might we learn to process our emotions without it? Feeling something can prove harder all the time as the world burns. But local artists have the distillation of those feelings on lock. Please enjoy artist Odessa Sawyer back on the cover for the second Illustrator’s Cup in a row (last year’s “Night Drive” was dope; this year’s “Year of the Rabbit” impressed our judges mightily). We also found ourselves verklempt by the work of Matthew Cruickshank, whose “Shedding Skin,” didn’t deserve to be cropped. Then, there’s the derriere-filled classical chops of Christopher Stoll’s “Butt is it Art?” A stunner. We’re honored to present four additional works as well.

Winner

Year of the Rabbit

By Odessa Sawyer

Odessa Sawyer is an illustrator and doll maker from Santa Fe, where she lives with her husband, mom and two sons. Her artwork appears in and on the covers of middle-grade and young adult books; ad campaigns; posters; and film and television projects as well as album covers. Archive published her work as one of the 200 best illustrators worldwide for 2011 and 2014, and she won the 2019 best cover award in fiction in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.

Shedding skin

By Matthew Cruickshank

“It is a place, it’s Santa Fe—my initial reaction to moving here,” says artist and traditional 2D animator Matthew Cruickshank, who is about a month and change into his move to New Mexico following time in San Francisco and his homeland of England. “Shedding Skin,” an oil painting, signals what Cruickshank hopes will be a transition to a more traditional painting practice. “I was seeing snakes on the land, and the idea was changing to take on the land, to shed your skin,” he continues. “The more you look, the more you’ll see snake patterns, the interchanging of color and harsh lines where something stops and begins again-—the shape of a snake. That’s how I felt, like I’d shed my own skin and manifested into something new.” Find more from Cruickshank on Instagram at @santafecruickshank.

Butt is it Art?

By Christopher Stoll

Santa Fe-based illustrator Christopher Stoll is dedicated to the exploration and creation of fictional worlds and has written multiple self-published sci-fi fantasy books. Stoll prefers to work digitally, designing visual and narrative experiences that immerse viewers in fictional spaces.

Honorable Mention

Evasive Maneuvers

By Christopher Zappe

Christopher Zappe is a freelance illustrator and digital media artist who loves to tell stories in whatever medium he can get his hands on. Follow his work at chriszappe.com.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius) Nest & Egg

By Sienna Van Slooten

Sienna Van Slooten was born and raised in Santa Fe. She often uses her work as a means to educate her viewers on the delicate balance of ecosystems, the symbiotic relationships between plants and animals and the vitalness of many at-risk species in their role in biodiversity. She strives for her work to bring more awareness to the growing impact that climate change is having on the planet’s ecosystems. Van Slooten wants much of her work to serve as a lasting record of species that may be entering their final century on earth.

Buzzy Collins

By Brennan Barnhill

Brennan Barnhill is a cartoonist and illustrator based out of Santa Fe. Nineties animation and comics influences his pieces, which are often satirical and goofy. Most of his work aims to poke fun at all facets of modern life and culture.

On The Shore

By Carolyn Patten

Carolyn Patten says she works from images she has photographed and others that appear in her dreams. She layers transparent and opaque paints and specially mixed glazes to create harmony and depth and edits out all but the most potent details, giving the work room to breathe and connect with the viewer. As she moves deeper into the work, the images become more abstract, working with concepts of time, universal archetypes and their connections to our shared experience.

She writes: “I view my life as a series of deeply gratifying, sometimes daunting, journeys into the unknown, from travels across the globe to interior travels in search of an authentic life. Time spent in Mexico and the American Southwest, working as a writer and always pushing the boundaries of what my family, peers and critics told me I could/could not do, has opened my eyes and my heart to a few of life’s treasures.”