Lynn Titleman Rizzotto, artist - illustrator

A seasoned artist whose work has been exhibited nationally, Lynn Titleman Rizzotto is a professional illustrator of children's books and magazines, as well as a dedicated teacher whose experience includes curriculum development and art therapy. A celebration of creativity and diversity, Lynn's work has expressed her uniquely holistic perspective on the world for the past thirty years. A love of children, a deep connection to nature, and a belief in the power of every individual's artistic potential permeates Lynn's art and life. Through her teaching, she gives children the confidence to express a growing understanding of their own worlds.

While still a student at the New England School of Art and Design, Lynn illustrated her first children's book, “To Catch a Worm,” published by Houghton Mifflin. Thirty years later, she has created the illustrations for more than 50 children's story and text books including beloved tales such as “Charlotte's Web,” “Winnie the Pooh,” “The Wind in the Willows,” and Mr. Fig's New Car.” Working independently, Lynn has illustrated children's textbooks and learning materials for publishers including Houghton Mifflin, Silver Burdet Ginn and Co., and McGraw-Hill. With its signature bright colors, shining faces, and bold detail, Lynn's art has adorned children's numerous magazines including Cricket, Sesame Street Magazine, Jack and Jill.

With a curiosity that breeds versatility, Lynn's work has encompassed a wide variety of materials and techniques. Her experience also includes large-format creations, such as designing murals for homes, schools businesses, and other organizations.

In a true collaboration between teaching and illustration, one of Lynn's current projects involves art directing her students. The resulting artwork will be used in a new teachers program being developed by Scholastic and Brown Publishing.

Every Child is an Artist

“For ... years, parents have dropped off their youngsters at the front gate that leads to Rizzotto's big white house, which is cradled in the shade of maple and pine trees ... on her wraparound porch and in her garden, children have learned much more than how to hold a paint brush.”

--The Boston Globe

Lynn's gifts as a teacher rival her talents as an artist. An active consultant to both public and private schools, Lynn has teaching and curriculum development experience spanning twenty years. Whether in her Children's Creativity Workshops in “Magic Garden,” at Boston Public Schools or in the Old Colony Montessori School, Lynn recognizes her young pupils as artists, teaching the basics of fine art while giving them the tools to make their own creative decisions. She works hard to encourage the children's creative impulses, espousing a concept that there's not a single correct method to create art. “It's very important that there is room for

The Magic Garden

individual expression during the creative process,” says Lynn. “Art gives children the opportunity to rework, to mold an idea that is developing. It allows them a chance to grow beyond a dualistic, black/white, perspective of the world.”

According to Lynn, before you can draw, you have to be able to see, to take things apart with your eyes. So, each summer, Lynn engages the wonder of her garden -- gold, yellow, burgundy and red sunflowers that reach for the sky, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and squash -- to help her teach the power of observation.

“Her students spend a great deal of time outdoors studying the tiniest of things, like the arch of a leaf, the shape of a stamen or the angle of a petal, when learning the basic elements of art, such as line, shape, form and shadow.” --The Hingham Journal

Watching a sprout grow week by week and eventually turn into a giant plant with an enormous yellow face, gives children something real and alive to visually record.

“When I am drawing, I observe things that I didn't notice before such as how most of the seeds in the center of a sunflower fall out. I hope someday I will grow a beautiful garden like Lynn's, but for now I grow my garden with paint. Giving away my paintings is a way I can share my garden with others.”

--student, age 12

Life as Art

Lynn's life, professional work, and teaching often overlap, for as she reaches for each untapped experience, what she learns enriches her work.

One of the most important experiences that Lynn has gathered in the past several years come from her travels to the Mexican village of San Miguel de Allende. Started with a group of women artists, called “Las Amigas,” Lynn has continued to visit the area on her own each year. The community offers a unique glimpse into the traditions of the Mexican culture, as well as educational institutions offering classes and lectures. Fascinated by Mexican folk art, Lynn absorbs every aspect of the village life with each visit, stopping to paint or sketch several times every day. The unique foods, sounds, culture, and traditions have woven their way into Lynn's classes, and deepened her understanding of folk art and its traditions. Lynn is currently researching and developing a series of children's books exploring Mexican art and culture.

Deepening her understanding of children's issues, Lynn has recently expanded her teaching to include art therapy. Attending training sessions at the Cambridge Hospital for Professionals, and Adoptive Families Together of the South Shore, Lynn has worked with the Center for Family Connection in Cambridge, Massachusetts to develop a new art therapy program. The program uses art as a way to access the emotions of children who are dealing with loss, opening up a new avenue for children to share their emotions.

With much of her work dedicated towards sharing the benefits gained from exposure to art, her goal is to keep children interested and involved in the arts for the rest of their lives. Lynn presents art as process, not product. “She's a constantly moving figure as she walks up and down her screened porch, encouraging, praising and making suggestions to the eight children seated at the wide table, working away with a variety of materials to create the picture they see in their minds.” (The Hingham Mirror) Permeating Lynn's life and work is a childlike joy in celebration of the world's diversity. She

shares that connection with the earth and curiosity about life through all of her teaching and published work. And, as Lynn continues to introduce numerous children to the process of art, the result is unmistakable -- self-confident, creative, and uniquely generative individuals.

Lynn's resume | tour the galleries | contact info

Learn about the many ways you can work with Lynn