Artist:
Mayling Mack Holm
(American, born in the Phillipines, 1940 - 2023)
Birthday Balloons
Medium: Ballpoint pen on paper
Date: ca. 1970s
Dimensions:
Image: 11 x 8 1/4 in. (27.9 x 21 cm)
Accession number: 2023.5.1
Copyright: © artist, artist's estate, or other rights holders
Curatorial RemarksHolm was a mostly self-taught children’s book illustrator who worked in the unusual medium of ballpoint pen. Each minutely detailed drawing took two to three weeks to complete. Holm did not begin making art until she was in her mid-30s, when her children were young. This drawing was published as a full-page illustration on a 1970s Green Tiger Press greeting card. Green Tiger Press was a small publishing house in San Diego begun in the early 1970s, which graduated from producing note cards and posters to children’s books with imagery of fairies, magical creatures and other enchanted imagery. In 1990, the successful press was acquired by Simon & Schuster, Inc.