Website: https://www.justabrownbird.com/ |  Instagram: @justabrownbird

Represented by Rena Rossner

Abby Brown is an illustrator in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family, three cats, and a garden that is more of a fairy habitat than a source of nourishment. She grew up in a wildlife sanctuary in central Florida, spending her childhood watching manatees nurse their young and alligators gaping along the canal. She would sit hours on the dock stargazing and sketching the fairies she imagined hiding in the jasmine by the fence. Her years spent at Appalachian State University studying visual culture and psychology gave her something just as meaningful: a community that made her feel at home. Homeschooling her children and teaching art classes to middle schoolers and adults have deepened her belief that every lesson needs whimsy and acceptance. She works in traditional mediums to render scenes that have a folk sentiment and tell stories about what home means, and how magic is all around us. More than anything, she wants her work to feel like a hug and to offer the same wonder, safety, and belonging that nature and her mountain community have given her.