Say Hello To Our New Illustrator: Wendy MacNaughton

Soon you’ll start noticing some rather nifty illustrations on several of our posts. That’s because we managed to convince artist extraordinaire Wendy MacNaughton to turn some of our thoughts into ink and water colour drawings.

Here’s what we know about Wendy based on her bio:

Wendy has spent most her life in transit. She lived in LA, NY, Amsterdam, Paris, and East Africa before moving back to her hometown of San Francisco.

She’s written advertising copy, designed humanitarian campaigns in Kenya and Rwanda, produced a film in The Democratic Republic Congo, sold used books, counseled survivors of torture, served as a social worker and non-profit advertising campaign director. She created and illustrated the national campaign for the first democratic elections in Rwanda.

Since settling in San Francisco, Wendy has commuted by subway twice a day, five days a week, 30 minutes each way, where she’s observed and captured hundreds of fellow passengers. Her ink and watercolor drawings reflect the inner worlds of commuters: the quirks, anxieties, and above all the isolation-despite their proximity to others. She also creates maps that convey geography as a transient psychological experience, and personal diagrams that plot her feelings and thoughts as mathematical territory.

Wendy received her BFA from the Art centre College of Design in Pasadena in 1999, and her Masters in International Social Welfare from Columbia University in 2005. She has spoken at universities and museums on visual communications and the intersection of art, design, and social work. Her art has been featured in numerous publications, and she has been profiled in academic publications and textbooks.

You can usually find her on the #10, inbound and out.

Aside from those details, I’ve managed to discover that last night Wendy ate icing off the top of a cake and that she prefers her scarves to be bright fuchsia this week. She also shared that she has a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a newsletter, a blog and a gorgeous website.

Oh, and after some cajoling she also revealed that these are some of her favourite drawings:

Welcome to our crazy corner of the web, Wendy!