Jordan Rosenfeld
AUTHOR ' S corner
Jordan is the author of four writing guides and three novels. Her articles
have been published in such places as: Alternet, The Atlantic, Marin
Magazine, the New York Times, the Petaluma Magazine, Salon, the
San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post and many more.
The Accidental Illustrator…
Mark J. Hoffmann
M
ark J. Hoffmann, a postal
worker in Morgan Hill, has a
history of falling into creative projects.
His most recent was to illustrate a new
children’s picture book, titled Little
George and the Christmas Socks, written
by Joe Malerba.
Hoffmann connected with Malerba
through a Facebook group that he runs
for fans of something known as vinyl-
mations, another creative hobby he fell
into. Vinylmations are Disney-inspired
Mickey Mouse figurines painted in any
way a customer desires. After receiving
one such figurine for Christmas from
his husband, city council member
Rene Spring, he painted The Little
Mermaid on it, and put it up for sale
on his Facebook page, where it sold in
ten minutes. He realized he was onto
something.
“Joe was following me on Facebook
through my vinylmations figures page.
He posted that he’d written a children’s
book and I said I had illustrated some
before.” The rest was history.
“The entire process was done online,
over email,” Hoffmann explained. “I
drew twelve different styles of George
he could choose from and we based the
look of the book around little George.”
The cheerfully illustrated book
was published in late summer, and
Hoffmann drew a standing-only
crowd at BookSmart of Morgan Hill in
September to launch the book.
Hoffmann said that Malerba gave
him “total creative freedom and he
liked every picture.” Hoffmann enjoyed
the hand-drawn look of the images.
“Nobody hand draws stuff anymore.
It gives it a Christmas classic feel.”
It couldn’t have been simpler or
more different from Hoffmann’s last
experience years before illustrating
a series of children’s etiquette books
for the American Etiquette Institute
featuring a character called “Eddy Cat.”
“That experience was challenging. I
didn’t have creative freedom.”
In addition to books and vinylma-
tions, the self-taught artist’s creative
wanderings have led him to create pins
for the Hard Rock café, plus a custom
line of rubber stamps, and greeting
cards. “You have to ask; they’re not
going to come knocking on your door,”
he said.
While he’s not interested in writing g
any books himself, he’s open to
illustrating others, and he and
Malerba may continue their
collaboration. “Little George may
go on to other adventures.”
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
december 2018-january 2019
gmhtoday.com
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