“Nevada grad illustratescolorful children’s book” plus 1 more

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Nevada grad illustratescolorful children’s book

Posted: 01 May 2010 11:33 PM PDT

You may not be familiar with the name Sami Mac, although you've probably seen her work—she was one of the artists who helped paint the Character mural in downtown Nevada.

If you don't think the name sounds familiar, that's probably because it's just a moniker that she uses.

Her real name is Becky McIntosh, and she chose the name Sami to honor her father, who taught her to draw, and the last name Mac to represent the last name McIntosh of her children.

McIntosh is a graduate of Nevada High School, an artist and graphic designer with more than 20 years under her belt, and daughter of longtime Nevada resident MaryAnn Gardner.

Recently Sami Mac teamed up with native Iowa author, LaVina Varnony-Barcus, to illustrate Barcus' newest children's book, "Perfect in Mother Nature's Eyes."

"My roommate in college hooked me up with this gal. She's written a couple other things—she's kind of figured out the self-publishing process and wrote this children's book, and my friend got us together so I could do the illustrations for her," McIntosh said.

Doing artwork is nothing new to McIntosh, who graduated from ISU with a degree in graphic design. After college, she started out working as a graphic designer for about five years. During that time she also started doing freelance work for a T-shirt company, making character maps of cities. "I worked that to where I could do it full time and then take care of my kids at home. So it was all work at home and then I would just take the illustrations in. I worked that for 11 years, and then started homeschooling my kids," she said.

While homeschooling her children, she slowly started slipping out of the field of graphic design. Since McIntosh graduated from ISU, the graphic design field has seen some very large technical changes. Graphic design elements used to be produced largely by hand, but now the industry has become evermore reliant on computer programs.

"I kind of got out of the technical aspect of doing graphic design—I didn't know how to use (Adobe) Illustrator or InDesign, so I couldn't just hop back into doing a graphic design job after my kids got older and I was ready to go back to work."

So, for the time being, she took two part-time jobs at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, where she lives. But despite not knowing some of the cutting-edge technology, she hasn't left artwork behind. McIntosh has been creating artwork for various purposes.

She had a hand in creating the character mural, just off of main street, and has donated artwork to the Leukemia Society, to name a few. "I've been keeping my hand in it, but I've been trying to get back into something that I could do for a living at some point," she said.

Recently she was given the opportunity to illustrate "Perfect in Mother Nature's Eyes," which she took.

McIntosh said that doing the 20 water- color illustrations for the book took her about 70 hours of work, but not all of that was spent just on the illustrations. She said that the author wanted to her to include some specific animals and flowers, and McIntosh wasn't familiar with all of them, so she had to spend some time researching what the author wanted and fine-tuning her artwork. After McIntosh finished the artwork it, was all sent to the publisher to be scanned into computers and prepped for printing.

This project has led to more illustration work for McIntosh as well. "(Varnony-Barcus) is doing another book; it's got the same main character in it—her name is Sadie. In the next one, she is getting a little brother," she said.

For now though, she is keeping to her jobs at Mercy, and working on keeping up to date in the graphic design field. "I'm just going to keep practicing it at home for now. I think a lot of it is just getting time to work on it. I've got four kids, ages 14-21, so I'm still managing on the home front and just setting aside some time to practice. I think that this has opened up some doors for me."

McIntosh is hoping to learn a little bit from her kids, to help get her in tune with some of the newest technology in the graphic design field, "I've got one girl in college now and a son that is going to go to Iowa State. They're both in art fields, so I'm going to kind of glean off of what they learn and try to get back into it through that door, too."

McIntosh has also spent about 50-60 hours working on her own book, "The Cowgirl Ballerina," which she is authoring in addition to illustrating. She said she hopes to get her book published at some time in the future, "I'd like to explore that avenue, too," she said.

The Nevada Public Library will be holding a book reading Saturday, May 8, at 10 a.m. The book is appropriate for ages 4-8. Copies of the book will be available to purchase.

The book is also available online at www.createspace.com/3433148.

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Farmersville teen wins Law Day Essay Contest

Posted: 01 May 2010 09:12 PM PDT

News:

Saturday, May 1, 2010 7:38 PM EDT

Farmersville teen wins Law Day Essay Contest

By Rick Miller
Olean Times Herald

FARMERSVILLE - A 17-year-old Farmersville teenager who was homeschooled and now attends Genesee Community College has won this year's New York State Court of Appeals Law Day Essay Contest.

Leah Reino, daughter of David and Gail Reino of Farmersville, will receive the award in a ceremony Monday at the Court of Claims courtroom in Albany. Gov. David Paterson is expected to attend the ceremony.

"I was just blown away when I got the e-mail notifying me that I had won," she said Friday an interview from Batavia where she attends Genesee Community College majoring not in pre-law, but in biotechnology. She read about the contest and was encouraged to enter by a former professor, Michael Weston.

The topic of the essay? The evolution of justice along the Erie Canal, analyzing hundreds of pages of legal briefs, and comparing the past and present-day forms of justice in the state.

The contest, called the David Garfinkle Essay Contest, is open to SUNY students including community colleges, and to CUNY (City University of New York) students. Generally the winner is from the New York City area.

Leah is no stranger to writing contests. Last year she was a top 10 finalist in a national essay contest sponsored by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development and Community College Week magazine. She wrote her essay on Professor Weston, a history instructor at the college's Arcade campus.

After being homeschooled through middle school by her mother, Leah got her equivalency diploma through Genesee Community College's Arcade campus at age 15, then started taking college courses there before going to the Batavia campus.

I've always been interested in the law," Leah said. "I'm now considering a career in law instead of science. (The essay project) has been very eye-opening."

The essay is being published by the court and will be distributed to guests at Monday's ceremony.

She's excited about going to Albany to receive her award and the $1,500 cash prize that goes along with it, at the Court of Appeals. Joining her family will be Professor Weston.

She is also excited about the prospect of studying abroad in the fall, and has been accepted into a medical pathology research program in Brisbane, Australia.Leah and her brother, David, 15, grew up on the 500-acre family farm in Farmersville, where they raise beef cattle and other animals. Both were homeschooled.

Mrs. Reino is proud of her daughter's accomplishments, as she is of her son's. She runs the farm and her husband is an emergency-room doctor in Hornell and Binghamton. He was also worked in hospitals in Jamestown and Olean.

"I run the farm and get the kids where they have to go," she said.

Leah, her mother said, "likes to write a lot." While she's no lawyer, her mother said Leah seemed to enjoy the challenge posed by interpreting the legal briefs. She's an officer in the college's Phi Beta Kappa organization.

Her son David has tutored at the Eastmnan School of Music for the past eight years, and last year finished third in talent competition at the New York State Fair. He plays banjo and piano. After his homeschooling, he is getting his equivalency diploma at Genesee Community College campus in Arcade, too, Mrs. Reino said.

Both children helped out on the farm while growing up, Mrs. Reino said. She homeschooled them "because I wanted them to be free thinkers - to be who they could be and not what they were told they should be. They've always been taught to ask questions."

And there's no watching television in the Reino household.

"We do a tremendous amount of reading" instead, Mrs. Reino said. There is the occasional movie, but for the most part they've been able to avoid the media-driven hype and advertising most children are exposed to growing up.

(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com)