About
Cynthia Guill
Author Cynthia Guill
As a little girl growing up in Dallas, Texas, Cynthia would stay up long past her bedtime sitting at the top of the stairs, listening to her parents and their friends toast each other at dinner parties with poems they had written for one another celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, or basically anything, if the muse inspired them. Whether short, or sometimes way too long, the poems never ceased to delight; and ever since then, she has enjoyed writing poems for, and about, family, friends, and now a rescue dog, she loves. She lives in Houston with her husband, Ben, their dog, Hap; cat, Minnie Moo Moo; and outdoor cat, Kittyfur, and is blessed to have all four grown children and their families living a bicycle ride away. Whether at their summer home on Nantucket, or in Houston, Cynthia enjoys volunteering, needlepointing, serving on the Altar Guild of her church, keeping the ice cream drawer filled with popsicles and M&M’s. She also is dedicated to walking, walking, and more walking with Hap, who at this very moment is no doubt dreaming of, trying to, or successfully eating something he shouldn’t.
Meet Hap Allen Guill
Hap was born we know not where and now lives with his family in Houston, Texas. He became a foodie early on as he accompanied his, then, Dad on road trips in the back of 18 wheelers as they criss-crossed the country. Partial to fast food, Patsy Cline and being horizontal, Hap was known in all time zones as a loveable, congenial dog who never met a morsel he didn’t see as his. At 6 years old, he retired from trucking and, after a short stint in a rescue shelter, he was adopted by the Guill family. While dismayed that long lazy days in the back of the truck were replaced by long walks, and that pizza was replaced by green bean dinners, his disappointment soon turned to happiness as he was dearly loved by his new family, and felt more spry, to boot. When in Nantucket, he loves walking to town with his Dad to get the paper, watching boats come in, late afternoon walks with his Mom to Brant Point and crunching on scallop shells along the way. While he has reduced to a healthy-ish weight, he, like us all, struggles with temptation, and with stunning speed and dexterity can still score an entire pie, leaving nary a crumb, and walk away, with a smile on his face and a tail in full wag.
Illustrator
Jocelyn Sandor Urban
Jocelyn is an artist who has taken her love of art and horses and turned it into a lifelong career that encompasses commissions, gallery shows, book illustrations, benefit donations and a greeting card company. She has completed more than 2000 commissioned portraits of horses and dogs and is world-renowned in the equine industry. Trained as a printmaker, earning an MFA at UMASS Amherst and an undergraduate BS degree at Skidmore College, her exceptional ability to draw has fueled her versatile career. Her woodcut prints are in many private and corporate collections, she has two drawings in the Kentucky Derby Museum, her work has been on the covers of many publications including The Chronicle of the Horse and the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. She is an artist member of the Art Association of Nantucket, exhibits in the Nantucket Looms, the Vermont Artisans Gallery in Brattleboro, VT and the Stratton Mountain Club. She is herself a life-long rider, horse owner and currently has three rescue dogs.
Her greeting card company, Urban Visual Media, LLC, (formerly Fursure Enterprises, Inc.) was developed in 1989 together with her equine veterinarian husband Richard B. Urban, VMD, and features her portraits and cards illustrating the humorous side of life with horses. Sold in more than 200 saddlery shops in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia the cards are also available on the website urbanvisualmedia.com.
Jocelyn continues to focus on commissions, most recently completing 4 life-sized paintings approx. 102 x 96”. Her commissions include the full range of backyard ponies to famous racehorses and Olympic champions and her clients range from the average American to the President of the United States. She has also illustrated ‘Beaufort, the Painted Pony’, by Candyce Miller.