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Patty Hoffman is a lifelong storyteller and hobby artist who worked as a full-time daily newspaper reporter for a decade before symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis made that fast-paced life less desirable.
As a child, Patty was a chronic talker and doodler. Growing up the youngest in a family with seven children, Patty told stories and drew pictures to get attention. In first grade she shared tales about her older siblings during "Show and Tell" and her teacher printed them in First Grade Grit, the classroom weekly newspaper sent home with the children each Friday. Patty's family didn't always enjoy seeing their "news" in print. Her teenage brother was upset when Grit reported he was "the proud new owner of a green-and-white VW bus and the only problem (was), he already lost the keys!"
For several years after her retirement from daily newspaper journalism, Patty did photo restoration for her husband's small business in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan and developed ease working with digital and analog pictures. That experience helped Patty gain competence with modern illustration techniques. Despite her ability on platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram and her ease working in Procreate on her Ipad, Patty prefers to create finished illustrations in gouache or pencil. She loves the warmth and texture of traditional materials and expects more people will grow to appreciate "handmade" artwork as artificial- intelligence-generated "art" proliferates more venues.
Since January 2020, Patty has been devoted to learning the art of picture-book making and telling stories about her adorable dog Happy and his funny friends. She is writing and illustrating a series of seven children's stories and plans to begin seeking an agent in March of 2023. Patty invites publishers and agents to contact her for more information on the stories, including a dummy books and manuscripts.
Patty is tremendously grateful for the tutoring and education she has received from Orange Beak Studio in the United Kingdom and in particular from amazing gouache illustrator Maisie Paradise Shearing, winner of many prestigious awards including the 2015 Bologna International Illustrator Award. Others affiliated with Orange Beak including designer and co-founder Ness Wood also have been incredibly helpful to Patty. She is also grateful for her education and mentoring with New Yorker Cartoonist Bob Eckstein and classes at the Ann Arbor Art Center. Patty, who turned 57, in November of 2022, reports that it is , indeed, "never too late to teach an old dog new tricks!"
In addition to writing and illustrating stories and walking her dog, Patty loves to travel and plans to attend the Bologna Children's Book Fair in March 2023 after spending a month on the island of Maderia, Portugal with Happy and her husband, Rob.