The Creatures Arrive: The Early Days

Chapter I

As a child, I spent hours and hours sitting at my father’s gigantic desk, drawing mice and monkeys and all sorts of funny, furry animals. These little drawings made me laugh and helped me to feel better when I was sad, or lonely, or scared.

As a grownup, I expressed myself artistically mostly through performing puppet shows and teaching young children using dance, music, storytelling and puppets. But during the pandemic, for the first time ever in my career, I was unable to be around children in person and it was awful. But to my relief and delight (phew!), the mice and other critters from my childhood somehow, magically, flowed back into my consciousness and helped me through some very confusing, scary times!

Jill Liflander artwork - The Squirrel Portal

The Squirrel Portal 8/2020

While working on a story to tell students on Zoom for Rosh Hashana, I sketched these friendly “guard squirrels” who ...
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Hope is a Thing With Leaping Rodents 10/2020

My friend Ben Romano created an online gathering of artists called “Sacred Space.” The theme in the Fall of 2020 ...
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Birthday Forest Party

50th Birthday Forest Party 12/2020

Turning fifty during the pandemic was quite a bummer. But even though I couldn’t see my real human friends for ...
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The Peace and Love your Neighbor Tree Party 1/2021

I was extremely upset by current events and decided, “You know what? Let’s raise money for our local food bank ...
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Snow Day 2/2021

It made me sad that the kids couldn’t gather and play in the snow together because of Covid. So I ...
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One Day 3/2021

Wow. A full year of the pandemic had passed. There are twelve animals, one animal for each month of the ...
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Spring Mouse Celebration painting by Jill Liflander

Spring Mouse Celebration 3/2021

Spring always comes after the long winter. Skunk cabbage pokes its way through the cold ground, and each day, there’s ...
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Chapter 2: The Magnification Era: Dreaming of a Harmonious World >>