Firstborn, first year

As a young adult, artist Hilary VonJoo wasn’t planning on having children. But after she got married, she knew familial expansion was the right move. And the first year of her firstborn, Emerson, is the subject of VonJoo’s show at Archival Gallery.

VonJoo’s line drawings are delicate yet assertive, suggesting movement, compassion and a twinkle of magic. She said A Year of Emerson was actually the idea of Archival owner D. Neath and her husband, who are longtime friends of the artist (VonJoo also works as a framer at the shop). She said it was challenging squeezing in drawing an infant during her initiation into motherhood, but she soon figured out a way to regularly catalog his growth with her pen, and she plans to keep on drawing.