Jody Hewgill

Jody Hewgill knew she wanted to be an illustrator from the age of five. A native of Montreal, Québec, she attended the commercial art program at Dawson College then moved to Toronto, where she graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She has been illustrating full-time since 1988.

Hewgill has worked on a wide variety of assignments, from book covers to retail interior murals, for clients in North America, Europe, and Australia. Her clients include Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.; Entertainment Weekly; the Grammy Awards; Global Village Communications; Little Brown & Company; Mondavi Wines; Nordstrom; O, The Oprah Magazine; Random House; Rolling Stone; Royal Bank of Canada; Simon & Schuster; 3Com; Time-Warner; and the United States Information Agency.

Hewgill has received several awards for her work among them a gold and silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, Best in Show from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, a gold award from Spectrum magazine, and gold and silver awards from the Advertising and Design Club of Canada. Several of her posters are included in the Permanent Poster Collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Her paintings are in several private collections throughout North America.

Hewgill lives in Toronto with her husband, Balvis Rubess. She teaches illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design. The 2010 Julia de Burgos stamp is her first project for the U.S. Postal Service.