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| Barbara Higgins Bond |
Barbara Higgins Bond, a versatile artist whose work has
attracted national attention, Higgins Bond (as she’s known professionally) has been an illustrator and commercial
artist for close to 40 years, and I take "bragging rights" ... Barbara is my maternal first cousin! What an honor - I can't help but place her in celebration of this year's Women's History Month. Barbara, I think I remember right ... you said you combined your maiden and married name because early on when you were an up and coming illustrator, as in most high-level technical fields back then, being female was sometimes career-challenging, but if the name appeared male, it seemed to open doors. I don't know if things have changed all that much.
Paraphrasing her biographical history:
Barbara's images have appeared in children’s books and on magazine and book covers,
posters, album covers, and collectors’ plated created for such prominent
clients as Anheuser-Busch, McGraw-Hill, Essence magazine, the Franklin Mint,
The Bradford Exchange, NBC, Hennessy Cognac, Frito-Lay, and Columbia House. She also is an adjunct professor of
illustration at the Nossi College of Art in Nashville. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
Du Sable Museum of African-American History have exhibited her work. She has received prestigious honors
including a medal of honor from then-Governor Bill Clinton. The first African-American female to
illustrate a United States postage stamp, she has created outstanding designs
for three Black Heritage issues: Jan E. Matzeliger, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Percy
Lavon Julian. She also has
illustrated four stamps for the United Nations Postal Administration.
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| "Great Kings of Africa" by Higgins Bond |
The "Great Kings of Africa" is one of my favorite of her illustrations - but she has created such a litany of great works, it is r-e-a-l-l-y hard to choose.
3/31/15
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