Author Photo Gallery
Lauren playing the Harmonica - age 3 or 4. It's a good thing I went into art instead of music, though there may have been some pixies who enjoyed dancing to my tune.
Lauren at age 12 - with my rabbit, Thumper. I came home from the pet store with two rabbits who I was sure were both boys - "Harry" and "Thumper". My sister's boyfriend built the hutch for them, but soon I discovered a nest with babies. Harry was immediately renamed "Harriet" and Thumper was immediately moved to the deck and enjoyed some romps through the house.
Daughter, (an Elf) Evie, 1990
Dennis and Lauren teaching art to daughter, Evie (Genevieve May Nolan), 2003. She's now an artist, singer and dancer.
Dennis, Lauren and Evie with Fia, 2004
Lauren, Dennis and Evie in costume, 2005
Here is a picture of our daughter, Genevieve May (Evie May), around 2005, wearing a patchwork jacket my mother made in honor of The Rag Coat.
Our old home was a restored tobacco barn in Williamsburg, Massachusetts and surrounded by many acres of conservation land. We were a stopping and snacking point for many wild animals. Sometimes a lame one would come up on the deck. I tamed a raccoon, a squirrel, a toad (he posed for Thumbelina and grew quite fond of us and would watch us swim), chipmunks, chickadees, etc.... but Dennis drew the line at bears and would drive them away by banging on pots and pans. (1995-2008).
Here is a picture of me with a baby squirrel that a neighbor rescued.
Here is a picture of Jessie and Willie, who were whippets. They are very old here - 15 and sadly are no longer with us. I miss them terribly.
Dancing with Dennis in my old sculpting studio, 2011.
Daughter, Genevieve May Nolan, artist, 2014
http://www.genevievemay.com
At our daughter's college graduation where she dared me to hold on of the snakes she dances with. 2015.
Giving a puppet workshop with Kathy Brown at the Eric Carle Museum
Taking a break with Cappy, a neighbor's dog I'm friends with.
In the studio before a night out.
My mother is a doll maker... still at 87... and here I am peddling her dolls at the Eastworks' Holiday Shop in Easthampton, Massachusetts
A view from our window looking out at the double rainbow over Mount Tom.
When I don't work on books I like to sculpt and learned to sculpt at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
My favorite illustration is the cover to Snow White illustrated by Nancy Eckholm Burkert. I first saw it displayed in my older sister's apartment when I was fifteen and wanted with all my heart to illustrate a fairy tale. When I illustrated the cover to "Tatterhood" I thought of this picture that I display in my studio.
Here is the entry way to our home and studio which is in a big brick factory building full of other artists and shops.
Here is a picture of our studio taken from the loft. The left side is Dennis' studio, the middle is the living room where we hold writers' and illustrators' meetings, and the right side is my studio.
Here I am having fun at a Faerie Convention, looking at other artists' work.
About Lauren Mills
Lauren A. Mills has won national acclaim as a book author and illustrator and as a sculptor and painter. She was greatly influenced by the 19th century artists, especially the Pre-Raphaelites for their focus of the natural world as well as their sense of mythical wonder. The fourth of five children, Mills grew up playing and pretending in the woods of Connecticut and spent her summers at her grandparents' in West Virginia.
In her teens she moved to Oregon and Minnesota and later lived in Colorado, California and Massachusetts where she resides now. She and her husband, author/illustrator Dennis Nolan collaborated on several projects, most notable, their daughter...read more