Great Egret w Vanilla Cupcakes
DORA DYLANNE REYES
Dora is a baker turned watercolorist and graphic artist. Self-taught, she started painting just before the pandemic. While others were locked down baking at home, Dora was painting her own baked goods and sweet treats. Very quickly, Dora discovered that her compact, yet expressive studies of sweets and other simple objects could translate well for the greeting cards market. In 2021, she created Luvfish Greeting Cards and Art to bring that dream to reality. Concepting, painting, writing and even printing her own cards, Dora has created a line of over 60 cards available at local retailers.
In 2022, Dora began collaborating with artist/illustrator, Don Carter (as Edgar Allan Slothman). Her unique concept was to incorporate her watercolor and digital desserts with his Audubon prints. In 2021, Birds and Their Just Desserts / Let Them Eat Cake brought their work together in its first public exhibition. The Birds & Desserts series has since grown and is exhibited and sold in Connecticut and Massachusetts universities and galleries.
“We’ve created a fantasy world for these birds filled with vibrant colors and sweet treats. Every story is different and each approach is unique. Sometimes we pay homage to a film, an artist, a cultural tradition … or just simply have our fine feathered friends enjoying a piece of pie, just because they can”. — Dora
Presently, Dora continues to bake, write, paint and create 3D fish. She lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts.
DON CARTER
aka EDGAR ALLAN SLOTHMAN
Edgar Allan Slothman is the pop art persona of designer, illustrator, author and award-winning creative director, Don Carter. The illustrator of seven picture books for children, Don has also created two Disney animated short-form animated series, Happy Monster Band and Dance-A-Lot-Robot.
Don’s first book, Wake Up House! by Dee Lillegard was named one of the New York Public Library’s “100 Titles for Reading and Sharing” in 2000. School Library Journal also listed the book in their “Best Books 2000.” Publishers Weekly in a starred review wrote, “Visually striking…Carter makes his children’s book debut with arrestingly tactile, sculptural illustrations.” Get To Work Trucks has been named a “Best Book of the Year” by Child Magazine and a “Top 100 Book of 2002” by the New York Public Library. His Heaven’s All-Star Jazz Band celebrates the pioneers of jazz and has received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.
A life-long love of birds and illustration have most recently come together in his reimagining of Audubon’s Birds of America series in a simplified, graphic style. And in 2022, Don began collaborating with baker-turned-watercolorist, Dora Dylanne Reyes. Dora’s unique concept was to incorporate her watercolor and digital desserts with Don’s Audubon prints. In 2021, Birds and Their Just Desserts / Let Them Eat Cake brought their work together in its first public exhibition. The Birds & Desserts series has since grown and is exhibited and sold in Connecticut and Massachusetts universities and galleries
“I was working on a Florida Cormorant and was just about to put a fish in his mouth when Dora suggested something a little more interesting … a piece of black forest cheesecake. To the ornithological purist in me it made no sense at all, but it looked absolutely amazing. From there, the Birds & Desserts series took off.” —Don
A graduate of Paier College of Art, Don is a creative director with Adams & Knight, a marketing agency based in Avon, Connecticut. In 2017, he was inducted into the Connecticut Art Directors Hall of Fame. Don lives in the beautiful Pioneer Valley area of Massachusetts.