The Arts Consortium has named children’s book illustrator and art teacher Merry Miller-Gass as the 2026 Tulare County Artist of the Year.
The Arts Consortium is Tulare County’s designated arts council.
Along with the title, Miller-Gass will receive a featured gallery spot at the Peter N. Carey Gallery in Visalia next year, a booth at the annual Taste the Arts Festival in October, and a feature article in the annual Watermark magazine.
“My art is inspired by the things that connect us and the things that bring us joy,” Miller-Gass said. “I try to build empathy in the art that I create. I hope to showcase people embracing their individuality and sharing joy, and bring some whimsy and humor into everyday situations.”
Life imitates art
Miller-Gass artistic influences have included picture book illustrators Shaun Tan, Dan Santat, Jon Klassen, Maurice Sendak and Roald Dahl.
“I’ve also been influenced by the illustration work of Tim Burton, who I know many people know from his movies, but I really, really enjoy his illustration work,” she said.
Miller-Gass said that she chose a career in art late in life.
“As a kid, I always loved creating but was not super-encouraged to pursue it as a career, so I took the more practical path,” she said. “I worked in banking. I worked in bartending. I worked as a defense contractor for 10 years before finally realizing that, hey, life is too short.”
Becoming a mother influenced her decision to return to art, she said.
“In particular, the bedtime reading routine reignited my love of art and books, just how it can bring different generations together over the shared storytelling and the joy of reading with my children,” she said.
Miller-Gass and her husband moved to Visalia during the pandemic.
“I lived in Ventura County all my life, and once 2020 happened and everyone sort of went remote to work, that gave us an opportunity to check out some other places in California,” she said. “A big part of why we landed in Visalia is our creative community. When we were researching different places to live and visiting different places, I really fell in love with the wonderful creative community that we have here, and I really wanted to be a part of it.”
Her husband is also creative and works as a software engineer. In his spare time, he draws, paints and works on sculptural art, Miller-Gass said.
Her children are also artists.
“My youngest in particular just dove right into the art community here,” Miller-Gass said. “He’s taking classes at a variety of our wonderful venues here downtown, and he’s even shown his own artwork at the local Brandon-Mitchell Gallery a few times.”
A full résumé
In addition to being a children’s book illustrator, Miller-Gass has taught art for a variety of local organizations, including the Brandon-Mitchell Gallery, the Visalia Parks and Recreation Department, the Visalia Senior Center, and at other community centers. She has given art instruction at schools, libraries, and bookstores. She has also taught art at private parties and given one-on-one art instruction.
She currently teaches art at Arts Visalia’s summer camps and is in the process of scheduling art classes with some local charter schools.
She is also the regional advisor and illustrator coordinator for her chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, where she helps mentor aspiring authors and illustrators who are just getting into the publishing industry.
“We’re a very, very large region, so a lot of our programming is done online,” she said. “We have a monthly Zoom meeting where we all get together and help answer questions about the industry and share different opportunities that might be coming up. We celebrate each other’s publishing wins, because it can be a very long road to getting published, filled with a lot of rejection, so we also act as sort of a support system for each other along the way.”
Miller-Gass helps manage the MyVoice Media Center program the Arts Consortium, a hybrid program that combines mental wellness and art.
“We have folks coming in who are able to find their voice, build their creative skills, and build their community, all in a safe space in this beautiful gallery setting,” she said. “It’s run by a variety of different professional working artists. We’ve all been trained in mental health first aid, and just really enjoy sharing our passion for creativity and how that can help improve a person’s wellness overall.”
She is currently the center’s project coordinator, helping coordinate the different sessions and facilitating youth sessions.”
Book illustration projects
Miller-Gass’ most recent book illustrations are in “Rover Rolled Over,” written by Rebecca Langston George.
“That’s a really, really sweet book,” Miller-Gass said. “It’s about a little boy named Reggie who desperately wants a dog, but his problem is that pets aren’t allowed in his apartment, but he’s determined not to give up. He uses his creativity and problem solving and a little outside-of-the-box thinking to find the perfect solution to build the pet of his dreams without breaking the rules.”
Miller-Gass’ illustrations will be in three books scheduled for release over the next year.
“Duck, Duck, Groove,” written by Jeanette Fezzari Jones, is scheduled for an August release.
“’Duck, Duck, Groove’ is about a duck named Upton who loves music, movement and self-expression, especially in his flashy new raincoat,” she said. “When the other animals are telling him that ducks don’t do that, he has to decide whether to shrink himself to fit in or to keep dancing to his own rhythm. Some of the core themes of that book are self-confidence and individuality, being unapologetically yourself.”
A September release is planned for “No Love Potion,” by Christina Shawn.
“That one was pitched to me as a Halloween Valentine’s mashup book,” Miller-Gass said. “I instantly wanted to say yes to that before I even read the manuscript. Once I read the manuscript, I felt even more in love.”
“This one’s about a little witch named Bettina who wants nothing to do with love or Valentine’s Day or mushy feelings or anything like that,” she said. “She’s determined to brew the ultimate ‘no love’ potion to rid the world of this icky love stuff, but when an unexpected ingredient changes everything, she discovers that love and friendship might be more powerful than she realized.”
“Pioneer Tree,” written by Robin Currie, is expected sometime in 2027.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful picture book that explores themes of growth, resilience, roots, and connection through a nature-centered story, and continues the blend of storytelling and expressive illustration style found throughout my projects,” she said. “It is slightly more poetic, I think, in that it’s exploring themes of wildfires, in particular aspen trees and how they respond to a wildfire, how they regrow.
“The thing about aspen trees that I discovered working on this project is that they have this really amazing interconnected root system so that when they experience a hardship like a forest fire, they’re able to regrow from this community of roots that they have underneath, which I think is really symbolic and kind of how we as people deal with our own personal wildfires,” she said. “We rely on this community support system to help regrow and flourish after something like that.”
For more information about Miller-Gass, and to see samples of her illustrations, visit artbymerry.com or her Instagram page, @merry.millergass.
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This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Children’s book illustrator named Tulare County Artist of the Year
Reporting by Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta | USA TODAY Network
