Artist:
Mayling Mack Holm
(American, born in the Phillipines, 1940 - 2023)
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
Medium: Ballpoint pen on paper
Date: n.d.
Dimensions:
8 × 7 in. (20.3 × 17.8 cm)
Accession number: 2021.11.4
Copyright: © Mayling Mack Holm
Curatorial RemarksMayling Mack Holm was born in Manila, the Philippines, to an American mother and a Chinese father. She grew up in Canton, China, and Hong Kong before moving to the United States permanently at age 16. She studied at Indiana University and DePauw University. She is a Chinese American self-taught artist who worked mainly in illustration. She did not begin making art until she was in her mid-30s when she had young children. A Forest Christmas (Harper & Row, 1976) is her first and only published work, owing to the onset of health difficulties. She worked in the unusual medium of ballpoint pen and collected antique miniature furniture which she used to create her detailed drawings. She currently lives in Vermont. The drawing illustrates the poem “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” by American poet Eugene Field. It was originally published in 1889 and became a popular lullaby, with a cartoon adaptation by Walt Disney in 1938. Holm’s illustration was never published.