The Bankrupt Circus and Other Misadventures

Posted on December 16, 2025 by lksukany

The Bankrupt Circus and Other Misadventures by J. Bradley Minnick has been published! You can buy a copy through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org.

The book is a compilation of short stories “Together, the stories form a portrait of America at its edges-where working-class rituals, childhood games, and neighborhood legends are transformed into metaphors for endurance.”

I worked on five of the story cover illustrations including “Notes from Tennis Camp,” “Fly Stand, Inquire Herein,” “Innocently to Amuse the Imagination in this Dream of Life is Wisdom,” “The Twisted S,” “The Last Telegraph,” and the dedication. Some of the stories that have links, you can read on East of the Web website.

I was working on story illustrations for J. Bradley Minnick prior to this project. His publisher suggested we collaborate on more, and that I be added to the book. I worked on these for about two months to meet the publication deadline. It was a very exciting time.

Here are a few studio pictures of the project!

“Notes from Tennis Camp” was a really fun illustration because it was interactive. We purchased a tennis racket and tennis balls to get a feel for the story. The kids got to play tennis and we ended up with a really nice image on that one because of it.

“Fly Stand, Inquire Herein” was the grossest illustration to work on because of the pictures of flies and rats. I was trying to look without looking while I was painting.

“Innocently to Amuse the Imagination in this Dream of Life is Wisdom” was a bit of a puzzle for me because I wanted it to look very classic. There are a lot of writers referenced in this story, and at first I was thinking of making their portraits, but landed on their head busts instead to further accentuate the old wisdom in literature. I also had to ask my mom to send me the title in her fancy cursive. I think she liked helping on this one.

“The Twisted S” was a seemingly simple illustration, but all of the components had to fit together just right for this one to work well. I got E.K. to model this one for me because she was the most flexible of the kids.

“The Last Telegraph” illustration was very much finished in my imagination after reading the story, so it was only a matter of painting all of the pieces. This small sketch is what I sent J. Bradley Minnick, so you can see that he’s very trusting of my imagination!

The Dedication illustration was inspired from my own family portraits wall.

I’m so thankful I got to work on this great project.

15 Illustrations: Christmas at Bass Pro

Posted on April 22, 2017 by lksukany

I am working with Inktense pencils, Micron ink pens, and Canson Illustration 11×14″ 150lb art pad to create 15 illustrations (that is how many pieces of paper are in the art pad) of my current family life and inspirations.

This work is narrative in content and uses color in a monochromatic way accentuating one part of each drawing. These fun and quirky illustrations are a reflection of the current joy and activities I have been experiencing.

“Christmas at Bass Pro” was a memorable time to say the least. It was E’s first carousel ride, first time meeting Santa (which seemed to be more of a traumatic experience than of joy), and first time watching an automatic train set. There was also a very large Christmas tree, which is featured in the drawing and inspired the use of Inktense pencil Leaf Green for the color.

My favorite things about this drawing are the “Santa’s elf” photographer, Santa’s little log cabin set up, and my friend Stashia and her daughter Avi meeting Santa,

the line of families to meet Santa, our family portrait, and our fun patterned pants (I wish we had this many patterned clothes in our real wardrobe),

all of the over-the-top Christmas decorations, the presents under the tree (with the fun wrapping paper patterns), the Christmas trees, and it wouldn’t be a Bass Pro Christmas celebration without the taxidermy reindeer ya’ll.

Inspiration for this drawing

15 Illustrations: Key of G

Posted on October 27, 2016 by lksukany

“Key of G” is a musical family portrait in the playroom. G was the first note our baby played on her Casio keyboard. I liked this drawing so much that I made it into E’s first birthday party invitations and thank you notes. It’s super fun with all of the patterns, shapes, and there is that party pink color again. I used Inktense Carmine Pink and Fuchsia blended. I never thought I would be a little girl pink promoter, but goodness there are so many cool things in pink!

Some of my favorite details of this drawing are the thread in a jar, the piano, the piano bench cushion pattern, M’s fun socks (completely made up), the rug pattern inspired by The Land of Nod,

the play kitchen with the triangles on the wall (which the pink triangle decals are from the Land of Nod and placed by Gallery Gal), our fun family musical portrait,

me playing accordion, E playing the maracas, Ein playing the jingle bells,

the fun pendant (that I designed and embroidered), table cloth triangle pattern, and flowers in the kitchen, M playing the concertina (Grandpa and Grandma Sugar gave us the concertina – thanks!),

and the musical alphabet banner I made.

The inspiration for this drawing (wall done by Gallery Gal in Springfield, MO):

The embroidery pendant I made:

15 Illustrations: Book Babies at Terry Library

Posted on September 29, 2016 by lksukany

“Book Babies at Terry Library” was a direct inspiration from a children’s reading program at the Terry Library in Little Rock, Arkansas called “Book Babies” and was such a fun time for E and I. Book babies is a 30 minute program that meets once a week and involves stories, action rhymes, songs, and a playtime/social time at the end.

I used Inktense pencil Carmine Pink for my monochromatic color, which felt very fun and playful within this composition. I have been going to my favorite art shop – National Art Shop – in Springfield, MO to pick up extra Inktense pencil colors.

Here are the close ups of all of the moms and their kiddos.

Here is E and I!

Some details I liked were the rug pattern and the background books – all of which we have read!

While we were still living in Arkansas, the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) promoted a very fun and challenging program called 1,000 Books Before Kindergarden which we did in six months. For me it was a lot of research in the children’s books publishing world. For E it was just a lot of fun with mama.

The inspiration for this drawing:

Paintings for Livada: Shinkai House

Posted on September 11, 2016 by lksukany

When I was on the missions trip with Grace Church serving the Livada Orphan Care ministry in Romania, the beauty of the country inspired me. I had the idea that when I got home to Arkansas I could paint these Romanian scenes and donate the paintings to Livada to raise money for orphan sponsorship.

Our group went to the Shinkai house and it was amazing! The family who fosters some of the orphans was so welcoming and showed us around – on the outside of the house, there were cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, and chickens. On the inside there was a wall full of drawings and paintings that the kids had made.