Fisher, Cynthia

Personal

Female. Education: University of Maine, B.S., 1980; attended Greenfield Community College, 1986-87; attended Art Institute of Boston, 1987-89.

Addresses

Office—Big Bang Mosaics, 15 Forgette Rd., Charlemont, MA 01339. E-mail—cindy@bigbangmosaics.com.

Career

Artist and illustrator. Freelance illustrator, 1989—; Big Bang Mosaics, Buckland, MA, founder. Teacher of mosaic art at Ashfield Summer Arts Program, Ashfield, MA, Snow Farm New England Craft Program, Haydenville, MA, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT, and Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA. Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, 1980-82, for U.S. Park Service, 1983, and for U.S. Forest Service, 1983-86. Exhibitions: Work exhibited at The Art Bank, Shelburne, MA, 2002; Forbes Library Gallery, Northampton, MA, 2003; Museo Italoamericano, San Francisco, CA, 2004; Higgins Art Gallery, Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable, MA, 2004; Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, MA, 2004; Slater Concourse Gallery, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 2006; High Risk Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006; Great Falls Discovery Center, Turner's Falls, MA, 2006; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, 2007; Somerville Museum, Somerville, MA, 2007; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Gallery, Hadley, MA, 2008; and (solo exhibit) Jones Library, Amherst, MA, 2008.

Illustrator

Anne Fine, The Chicken Gave It to Me, Joy Street Books (Boston, MA), 1993.

Constance Hiser, Night of the Werepoodle, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1994.

Julie Anne Peters, B.J.'s Billion Dollar Bet, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.

Melvin Berger, All about Sound, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.

Dick King-Smith, The School Mouse, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.

David A. Adler, Calculator Riddles, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1995.

Peggy Parish, Be Ready at Eight, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1996.

Nancy White Carlstrom, Ten Christmas Sheep, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1996.

David A. Adler, Easy Math Puzzles, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1997.

Laurie Lawlor, The Biggest Pest on Eighth Avenue, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1997.

Laurie Lawlor, The Worst Kid Who Ever Lived on Eighth Avenue, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1998.

Betty Miles, The Sky Is Falling, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

Elvira Woodruff, Can You Guess Where We're Going?, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1998.

Judy Cox, Third Grade Pet, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1998.

Natasha Wing, The Night before Halloween, Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 1999.

Anne Schreiber, One Stormy Night, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1999.

Judith Bauer, A Squeak, a Squeal, and a Screech!, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1999.

Joan Holub, The Spooky Sleepover, Grosset & Dunlop (New York, NY), 1999.

Barbara deRubertis, Deena's Lucky Penny, Kane Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Lee Bennett Hopkins, compiler, Dino-roars, Golden Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Judy Cox, Mean, Mean Maureen Green, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2000.

Anne Schreiber, Brent's B-day Party, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.

David F. Marx, Baby in the House, Children's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Alice DeLaCroix, The Hero of Third Grade, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2002.

Jane Schoenberg, My Bodyworks: Songs about Your Bones, Muscles, Heart, and More!, Crocodile Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Alice DeLaCroix, How to Survive a Totally Boring Summer, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

Cynthia Fisher, a mosaic artist and illustrator based in Massachusetts, has illustrated more than two dozen children's books, including Judy Cox's Mean, Mean Maureen Green and Alice DeLaCroix's The Hero of Third Grade. In one of Fisher's early efforts, The School Mouse by Dick King-Smith, a young rodent with a love of learning prevents the other mice in her family from eating the poison left behind by exterminators. The animal characters "are hilariously embellished in Fisher's imaginative illustrations," observed a critic in Publishers Weekly.

Mean, Mean Maureen Green centers on third-grader Lilley, who dreads the thought of riding the school bus with Maureen Green, a notorious bully. Lilley also attempts to conquer her fear of riding her new bike without using training wheels. According to School Library Journal reviewer Kay Bowes, Fisher's "black-and-white cartoons add a touch of humor and capture the intent of the characters" in Cox's story.

Fisher has also provided the artwork for a pair of works by DeLaCroix. In The Hero of Third Grade, young Randall is inspired by the romantic French fictional hero the Scarlet Pimpernel to perform good deeds for his new classmates. Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher stated that the illustrator's "comical pen-and-ink drawings capture the intrigue and chaos of a grade-school classroom." Randall starts a chess club once school lets out in How to Survive a Totally Boring Summer. Here "Fisher's illustrations … include clever touches such as Randall's ‘I love chess’ shirt," noted Kelly Roth in School Library Journal.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 1995, Lauren Peterson, review of The School Mouse, p. 404; November 1, 1995, Carolyn Phelan, review of Calculator Riddles, p. 466; May 1, 1998, Ilene Cooper, review of The Worst Kid Who Ever Lived on Eighth Avenue, p. 1524; December 1, 1999, Gillian Engberg, review of Mean, Mean Maureen Green, p. 703, and Carolyn Phelan, review of Deena's Lucky Penny, p. 716; January 1, 2003, Connie Fletcher, review of The Hero of the Third Grade, p. 888; August, 2007, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of How to Survive a Totally Boring Summer, p. 73.

Publishers Weekly, September 11, 1995, review of The School Mouse, p. 86; November 10, 1997, review of The Biggest Pest on Eighth Avenue, p. 73; December 14, 1998, review of Third Grade Pet, p. 76.

School Library Journal, March, 2000, Kay Bowes, review of Mean, Mean Maureen Green, p. 192; December, 2002, Elaine E. Knight, review of The Hero of Third Grade, p. 86; July, 2007, Kelly Roth, review of How to Survive a Totally Boring Summer, p. 73.