Celebrate the opening reception for a collaborative picture book by writer Judith Brandon and illustrator Erin T. Mulligan, with original illustrations on view and books available for purchase and signing. Both artists, recognized with awards in Northeast Ohio, will also share selections from their studio practices. Live music and refreshments add to the evening. Erin T. Mulligan, an oil painter and instructor based in Canton, creates finely detailed narrative works. She studied Flemish glazing methods with Frank Dale in 2003 to 2004 and continues to work in a layered process she has refined, building on early guidance from a family of artists that includes her mother, Michelle Mulligan, and two painter grandmothers. Judith Brandon explores the meeting point of intuition, weather, and the wisdom of the natural world through drawing and painting that softens the line between seen and unseen. Her accolades include the International Spiritual Art Award and two grants from the Ohio Arts Council, along with national recognition such as honors at the International Weather Biennale. Her work has appeared in multiple museum exhibitions and is collected across the country in corporate and private collections. She holds two invention patents and, with Mulligan, co-created the children’s book featured at this reception. Her conservation commitment led to the largest solo exhibition ever staged at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, focused on rhinoceros conservation and the responsibility to protect endangered species. Early experiences with spring floods and oncoming storms shaped her artistic language, which now reflects contemporary life through the pulse of weather and the alertness of wild animals, grounded in a belief in personal sovereignty and our enduring bond with the living world. Brandon notes that both artists work in layers, with Mulligan progressing from drawing into paint and Brandon often moving from paint into drawing.
