Mags DeRoma is an artist and storyteller. She makes, writes, designs, draws, paints, and builds thoughtful works, many of them for a young (but discerning) audience.

She lives, plays, and builds forts with her three rowdy boys (one of whom she is married to), in Venice, California, Blackwing pencil in one hand & clumsy ukulele in the other. 

PROJECTS:

AWAKE
(Author/illustrator) Debut picture book, October 2021, Roaring Brook Press, a MacMillan imprint, edited by Emily Feinberg

TO MAKE
(Illustrator) Written by Danielle Davis, Spring 2022 with Katherine Teagan Books, an imprint of Harper-Collins, edited by Mabel Hsu

Books of Great Character: Too Many Bubbles, Brave Like Me
(Co-Author/Illustrator) Spring 2021, Sourcebooks, edited by Eliza Swift (have you ever heard a more picture book-worthy name than that??)

Silly Street (toys & games that build character), Co-Founder, Creator

March Forth Magazine (A deliciously illustrated magazine for environmental activists of the young set, coming soon)

Art (Paintings/mixed media and sculpture)

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am drawn to anything that is practically made, in real, physical life.

Real, tactile, messy paint strokes and paper tooth and charcoal line and graphite and water droplets and intentions and happy mistakes—are the textures that ground us to the real world, that remind us that there was once a human there.

They are, in the greater sense of the ever-expanding and evolving universe, impermanent. I think about legacy and the blip that is each of us on this earth. A blip! The creatures of 3021 are going to think us wild and savage, perhaps, and naive to the possibilities of the universe. Perhaps they will look back to us as we look back to medieval times or neanderthals, with fascination and beguilement, hopefully, kindness and maybe amusement.

All of this is to say that for me, for my blip, my experience here is what counts. I love to make real, tactile things. So to leave behind something that delighted me as it was made is my goal.

And if someone else, on witnessing this creation, is delighted, that is icing on the cake.

x, Meghan (or Mags, whichever you prefer) DeRoma

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For collaborations, please contact magsderoma@gmail.com

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