Vesper Stamper Illustration

Hopelessly lost among the wintry wardrobes of Pauline Baynes’ Narnia, Shaun Tan’s mysterious foreign lands, and the watery open spaces in Lisbeth Zwerger’s illustrations, Vesper Stamper’s calling as an illustrator began as soon as she cracked open Hilary Knight’s Cinderella and spent the rest of her childhood meticulously copying each graceful page. Vesper attended LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and Performing Arts in New York City, and earned an Honors degree in Illustration from Parsons School of Design (under the instruction of fellow SCBWI member Pat Cummings, who continues to be a mentor). Woven in with her visual work, Vesper is also a recording artist in the indie rock band Ben + Vesper, on the Sounds Familyre record label. Her career has spanned fifteen years, dozens of album covers, four picture books and countless other exciting projects. Vesper is guided by a profound sense of calling to serve the richly complex emotional lives of children through her work. She brings a refined style and emotional depth to her work that goes beyond mere decoration to pay homage to the rich illustrative tradition from which she comes. Vesper was recently named the recipient of the 2012 Lincoln City Fellowship for her upcoming graphic novel, The Sea-King’s Children, which will take her to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland this spring (2013) to research the book’s setting and folklore, and to write and paint for the book at the “edge of the world”. Her book with fellow musician Stephen Roach (Songs of Water), Satchel Willoughby and the Realm of Lost Things (2010), was a top five finalist in the NAESP Book of the Year contest. Her book with Allison Flannery, In the Hall of the Mountain King (Samizdat, 2013), is a setting of Ibsen and Grieg’s play/composition which enhances elementary music education. Vesper lives in Jersey City, NJ with her husband, filmmaker Ben Stamper, and her two fairy children, who are grabbing the baton and can take an urban backyard full of dirt and recreate it as a world of wonders.