Hobbie, Jocelyn

Personal

Daughter of Holly Hobbie (an author and artist). Education: Attended Studio Art Centers International (Florence, Italy), 1990; Rhode Island School of Design, B.F.A. (painting), 1991.

Addresses

Home and office—New York, NY.

Career

Fine artist and illustrator. Exhibitions: Work included in exhibitions at Spazi Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; Tilton/Kustera Gallery, New York, NY, Goeffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; Fish Tank Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY; Bellwether Gallery, New York, NY; and Galleria Glance, Turin, Italy.

Illustrator

Nathaniel Hobbie, Priscilla and the Pink Planet, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2004.

Nathaniel Hobbie, Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2006.

Nathaniel Hobbie, Priscilla Superstar!, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2007.

Nathaniel Hobbie, Priscilla and the Great Santa Search, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

In addition to her work as a fine artist, Jocelyn Hobbie has created illustrations for several picture books written by her brother, sculpture artist Nathaniel Hobbie. The "Priscilla" series, which features a spunky girl who lives on a planet where everything is pink, includes Priscilla and the Pink Planet, Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise, and Priscilla Superstar! The brother-and-sister team did not end up working on children's books without inspiration: their mother is Holly Hobbie, a popular children's-book author/illustrator whose name became well known when a licensed character she created during the 1970s grew in popularity to the status of a cultural icon.

Priscilla has been praised by critics for her optimism, and her adventures have won her many fans. Readers first meet her in Priscilla and the Pink Planet, as she realizes that too much pink is not a good thing. Also featuring Nathaniel Hobbie's rhyming text, Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise finds Priscilla frustrated by three straight days of rain until a pixie shows her the importance of a few rainy days, while in Priscilla Superstar! she decides that the life of a roller-derby queen is for her. Calling Priscilla and the Pink Planet "an entertaining" debut, School Library Journal contributor Elaine Lesh Morgan added that Hobbie's "engaging cartoon illustrations are filled with interesting details" in shades of pink. In Publishers Weekly a contributor noted Hobbie's nod to picture-book illustrator Dr. Seus, writing that the artist's "exuberant ink-and-watercolor pictures … combine a giddy abundance of detail with a stylish editorial sensibility." Reviewing the art for Priscilla Superstar!, Amy Brozio-Andrews concluded in ImperfectParent.com that Hobbie's "light and bright artwork matches the written text beautifully, both in style and tone," and the "pages and pages of swirly girly pink will have most young girls especially reaching hand over fist" for the book. The "expressive essence" of the young heroine "is fully captured in witty, cartoonlike watercolor-and-ink" renderings, concluded Booklist critic Shelle Rosenfeld, the critic adding that each picture is made more girl-friendly through Hobbie's inclusion of "glitzy frills."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2007, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Priscilla Superstar!, p. 49.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2004, review of Priscilla and the Pink Planet, p. 1007.

Publishers Weekly, October 25, 2004, review of Priscilla and the Pink Planet, p. 47.

School Library Journal, December, 2004, Elaine Lesh Morgan, review of Priscilla and the Pink Planet, p. 110; March, 2006, Kathleen Whalin, review of Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise, p. 192; October, 2006, Wendy Woodfill, review of Priscilla Superstar!, p. 112.

ONLINE

Bellwether Gallery Web site,http://www.bellwethergallery.com/ (July 15, 2008), "Jocelyn Hobbie."

ImperfectParent.com,http://www.imperfectparent.com/ (July 15, 2008), Amy Brozio-Andrews, review of Priscilla Superstar!