Year: 2026

Motherhood in Art: Join me for an Inspiring Art Talk! (Hybrid)

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I’m delighted to invite you to a meaningful and visually rich presentation, Motherhood in Art, which I will be giving on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 from 4:30–5:30 PM EST sponsored by the Scarsdale Public Library in anticipation of Mother’s Day. Click here to register on the Scarsdale Library website.

Explore Motherhood In Art

Fra Filippo Lippi’s Mother and Child with Two Angels, 1460-1465

As both an artist and art historian, I’ve long been fascinated by how artists across time have explored the idea of motherhood—not just as a role, but as a powerful, evolving expression of care, identity, resilience, and connection. Fra Filippo Lippi’s exquisite Mother and Child (above) is one of many images

In this talk, we’ll journey through centuries of art, discovering how motherhood has been depicted in different cultures, eras, and artistic movements. From tender, symbolic representations in early religious works to intimate, everyday moments captured in Impressionism and modern and contemporary art, these images reveal how deeply motherhood is woven into the human story.

Rather than focusing solely on struggle, this presentation highlights the richness of motherhood—its beauty, complexity, strength, and emotional depth – and the enduring bonds between parent and child.

Whether you’re an art lover, a parent, or simply curious about how universal themes are expressed visually, this talk offers a fresh and uplifting perspective.

Hybrid Presentation

This is a hybrid presentation—you can attend in person or online.

Scarsdale Library – an ideal place for a talk!

Thank you to the Scarsdale Public Library for sponsoring this event. I enjoy giving talks here, which is why I keep coming back. This is my fourth talk at the Scarsdale Library, a wonderful space with a large 2 story screen that offers the opportunity to look closely at details and compositional elements in a grand space. It’s an uplifting, comfortable space with ample parking. What more can we ask for at an event like this?

Previous hybrid talks sponsored by the Scarsdale Library that you can view include A Bitesize View of Food in Art with Beverly Shipko, Creativity in Bloom: Flowers and Art, and A Magnificent Menagerie – Animals in Art.

Registration Requested

Click here to register to come In-Person or attend Online. It’s especially important to register in advance if you’re attending virtually to receive the zoom link an hour before the presentation begins. And it will begin on time. Registration closes 3:00pm on Tuesday, May 6.

Bring a bit of an appetite since Bonnie, my younger daughter, is serving light refreshments. A rough head count will help her plan quantities of “bites” and drinks. The last thing we want to do is run out of food!

And how could we not serve food? It’s a long standing tradition at any Shipko event.

Bring Your Family and Friends!

This is a public event sponsored by the Scarsdale Public Library. The more, the merrier. Please feel free to invite your friends and family by forwarding this blog post.

Transportation

The Scarsdale Public Library is located at 54 Olmsted Road, in Scarsdale, NY right off Boston Post Road in Southern Westchester Country. For those who plan to drive, parking is plentiful in the library lot and on the nearby side streets. Because of the positive response to this talk, and other simultaneous library events, parking could be more challenging than usual. Please allow extra time to park.

For non-drivers from NYC, the Scarsdale train station is on the Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem Line from Grand Central Station. The station is fairly close (1.6 miles or 5 minutes) and easily accessible by taxi, Lyft or Uber.

Questions?

Finally, for additional information, please go to the website at scarsdalelibrary.org or call (914) 722-1302. You can always contact me directly at beverlyshipko@mac.com or 914-954-7779.

Now the question for me is how is to organize and edit a large amount of material on this epic topic into 45 minutes….! I’m up for the challenge!

Come to the Scarsdale Library to celebrate Mother’s Day with a new visually exciting perspective on motherhood through the lens of art. Following the formal presentation, I will be available for questions (and chatting, of course!). I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, May 5th at 4:30pm EST!

Cake Painting’s Thrilling Debut on Allegra Goodman’s “This Is Not About Us!”

From Canvas to Book Cover

What began as a joyful oil painting — full of sunlit highlights, lilac shadows and thick impasto paint — has taken on a new life. My first cake painting now appears on the retail book cover of This Is Not About Us! by Allegra Goodman, just released by Penguin Random House.

Seeing my work printed, wrapped around a novel, and sitting in the world of books at Barnes and Nobel feels like an exhilarating crossover — where visual storytelling meets literary narrative. For an artist who paints desserts as memory, celebration, and metaphor, this feels like a sweet and meaningful milestone.

Here’s the full image.

Story about American Family Life

You can read more about the book in this New York Times review, which is actually a compendium of short stories having strong connections between them. I love the title of this article: Meet the Rubinsteins. They’re Messy, but They’re Mensches. The first short story centers on apple cake and the Bernstein family, so this painting choice is powerful.

And how exactly does the cake tie in? Penguin Random House says:

When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.

I am quoting the publisher since I haven’t read the book yet. However, it certainly sounds like an excellent selection to present at my book club! Maybe I’ll even invite Allegra Goodman as a guest speaker…

A Rocky Balboa Moment (with Two Books!)

And yes… I had my Rocky moment.

Finally, channeling Rocky on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, I held two copies overhead in triumph. If you’re going to celebrate your first retail book cover, you might as well do it properly.

Hope you see the resemblance – in the spirit anyway!

There is something wonderfully dramatic about holding not one, but two books — proof that painting can leap mediums and still carry its color, energy, and story with it.

How did this come about?

By far, the most common question is, What did you do to get your painting on the cover?

Honestly, I didn’t reach out to anyone. Donna Cheng, the talented art director at The Dial Press (an imprint of Penguin Random House) who created the book cover, reached out to me and asked to do a mockup using my painting.

Now you’re asking: How did she find you, Beverly? Who did you know at the publisher?

The answer is: I wrote a blog about my cake paintings in 2020 with lots of SEO tags. That’s all. I believe Donna discovered me as a result of the tags attached to this cake blog written during the pandemic, entitled Virtual Studio Tour – with Cake!. This entry showed the evolution of my cake paintings over time using 3 paintings, beginning with the Bundt Cake.

Ah, the power of the Internet! Maybe I should take that Coursera 5-class certification on SEO search… What do you think?

Behind the Camera: Thank You, Aileen!

My friend, Aileen Riordan (and local real estate agent extraordinaire!), enthusiastically documented the moment. Every artist needs someone who says, “Yes, let’s do this,” and means it.

The laughter and the sheer improbability of it — that’s what these photographs hold for me. Not just a book cover. A shared milestone.

This IS About Us!

And while the title says This Is Not About Us…

For my fifteen seconds of fame, it absolutely was about us!

Finally, signing off with gratitude for the journey — and this unexpectedly pleasureful chapter! I’m still a bit amazed.