Catching up with Mirka Hokkanen

We’ve had a busy few years since my last update! We moved back stateside from South Korea and have been working on settling in the DC area in MD. We are not living in a military community and it feels like it’s taking much longer to make friends and find our footing here.

I’ve been busy with books and teaching, having 5 books published since my last post, with two more upcoming 2025 titles. I’ve created a nice selection of classes teaching picture book illustration, and have had the pleasure to mentor several up-and-coming picture book authors and illustrators this past year.

This year I am looking forward to organizing two small conferences in MD; one for picture book creators and one for wood engravers, creating more books, and having a solo art show at a local gallery. It’s nice to be a bit more stable in the US, planning for the future, making connections with people around me and being able to work properly again.

I feel so fortunate to have published five children’s books in the last two years. Kitty and Cat are funny concept picture books and Mossy and Tweed are early reader graphic novels. I’m really pleased with both series. You can find more about them on my book page here: mirkah.com/booklist. [https://www.mirkah.com/booklist]

Little Seasons: Spring Seeds [https://www.amazon.com/Little-Seasons-Spring-Mirka-Hokkanen/dp/1250885604] is a humorous non-fiction picture book about the life cycle of seeds. It’s a great homeschool and classroom resource to have on hand. The second book in the series, Little Seasons: Autumn Leaves [https://www.amazon.com/Little-Seasons-Autumn-Mirka-Hokkanen/dp/1250885612] publishes in September of this year. It’s a great complimentary book to Spring Seeds, covering all about why leaves are important, how they change color and how photosynthesis works.

How the Forest Feels: Sensory Play Nature's Way [https://www.amazon.com/How-Forest-Feels-Sensory-Natures/dp/0823456404] is a book about a boy and his grandfather who travel through a scenic forest on a sensory adventure. It’ll be out August 5, 2025. This fall themed book has colorful watercolor illustrations and a lovely rhyming text. The book is a great read-aloud for preschools with sensory awareness on the curriculum. The back matter features the author, Wendi Silvano’s, note about the five senses, as well as an interactive sensory treasure hunt for curious young readers.

I love teaching and have been steadily adding new picture book illustration classes to Skillshare [https://www.skillshare.com/en/r/user/mirkah] and Gumroad [https://gumroad.com?a=846297907]. Even though there is not a ton of interaction with students on these platforms, I love answering the questions I do get and enjoy giving feedback on student work. It’s fun to see how my classes are helping people grow in their illustration skills. I also offer mentoring and one-on-one sessions for people who want more personalized advice and feedback on their work and find that the more intimate sessions are even more rewarding. I love helping people find their way and seeing aha-moments as they figure new things out about their work.

For the beginning of the year, instead of doing an illustration class, I wanted a business focused class and created a workshop on goal setting, time management and creating a visual calendar. People often ask how I manage to get so much done while moving every few years and staying at home with three kids. I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the years about balancing life and a career (and your husband’s career!) and this class was an opportunity to dive into the mindset shifts I’ve had and share ways that I organize my life and keep myself motivated. I think it’s a great class for parents and entrepreneurs who juggle a lot of responsibilities and who might be feeling a little lost, overwhelmed or stuck. If you’re interested in seeing more, visit the class page [https://www.mirkah.com/goalsetting] to watch a short intro video and learn more.

I’m slowly also working on gathering resources into a blog. I write articles for both picture book authors and illustrators and teachers/librarians/parents looking for resources and activities to do with kids. I’m slow at writing posts, and they usually take me at least a day or two to write, but I like having an organized place to post resources for you to find. My latest post “Valentine’s Day Brain Break Ideas for Elementary Kids” [https://www.mirkah.com/pb-blog/valentines-day-brain-break-ideas] features fun drawing activity ideas for educators. It rounds up my heart-shaped drawing tutorials from YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QNIpjXny1k&list=PLLdrjvXffioZrJlUiMv-xgI1wocNdHhXg], PDF drawing tutorials [https://www.mirkah.com/free-drawing-tutorials] from my website, shapes games and team building exercises to incorporate creative out-of-the-box thinking activities into Brain Breaks, Morning Meetings, language arts and math lessons.

https://www.mirkah.com/pb-blog/valentines-day-brain-break-ideas

For Christmastime, I shared gingerbread house activities and the recipe that I use to make our cookies every year and the next post will be related to my time management class; why time blocking is so useful.

The last thing I wanted to mention was my art show coming up. I have already started and made a series of paintings at the end of last year for it. I collected the paintings into a 2025 wall calendar [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1807802681/2025-wall-calendar-folk-art-quilting] , and am selling them as prints and canvases. The calendars have been very popular, and the collection of illustrations is also being made into a puzzle, but I’m keeping the original ones to frame and then they will be in my May exhibition in Olney, MD, with new pieces that I’ll work on in the upcoming months

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1807802681/2025-wall-calendar-folk-art-quilting

I’m posting some things on social media, but as there are new illustrations, blog posts, videos and tutorials, everything feels a bit splintered. I’m most active on Bluesky and Facebook, a bit on Instagram. I post every new resource on Pinterest and that’s a good place to follow me if you’d like, but the best way to get notified of all the exciting things happening at my studio is signing up for my newsletter [https://mirkah.eo.page/signup]. I send it out at the beginning of each month, and collect everything into nice, organized sections, so it’s easy to follow, and know what’s new and upcoming.

While the world around me feels at time like it’s collapsing or crumbling, I find strength in my communities, and purpose in what I do for others. Having a creative outlet and reading bring balance to my mind. While this post was a pretty wide update of what I have been up to lately, I hope that some of the resources shared will be helpful or may bring you joy.