Illustrator and animator Georgia Darley Oldham of Providence doodled her way onto the cover of Motif’s Summer Guide. When she received the assignment from art director Olivia Lunger, Oldham started doodling and sketching out a bunch of ideas. “I asked myself what images come to mind when I think of summer,” she says, while sipping a cold brew at White Electric Coffee Co-Op in the capital city. “I wanted to do a beach scene,” she continues, “and when thinking about sunshine, I started doodling a sun person. Olivia liked it.” Indeed, the main focus of the piece is the giant sun character who’s holding a cone of melting ice cream as a crowd gathers round.
“Summer in New England,” Oldham muses, “where suddenly all the people emerge on the beach or in the parks to enjoy the weather.” Originally from Austin, TX, Oldham has been doodling ever since she could hold a crayon. “For me, a lot of ideation comes from the process of drawing itself. That’s what has guided me to where I am now,” she says. Oldham received her MFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in May 2025. While attending RISD, she served as a graduate instructor in Illustrating Folktales and a teaching assistant in Visual Strategies in Illustration. She holds a BA in Art History from Tufts University in Medford, MA. Aside from her doodles, Oldham finds inspiration in reading about the art of illustration during the mid-20th century. Her favorite illustrators from that time are Faith Ringgold, Remi Charlip, Seymour Chwast and William Steig. “I love looking at their work,” she comments.
She’s the author and illustrator of comics such as People Watching and Picture Everyone Clothed! Oldham has exhibited her work at RISD Unbound Art Book Fair, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, and the Small Press Expo. One of her current projects is creating an illustrated medieval fairy tale comic. The main character is a down-on-her-luck maiden named Bernagilde whose goal is to attend an epic ball. She gets into a lot of scraps in this comedy-oferrors as she tries to get there. “This one’s inspired by medieval manuscripts,” Oldham says, adding that it just might be her favorite so far.
Another project she’s working on is a children’s book, Line Land. “It’s about a little boy who’s running errands with his grandma. He wants to entertain himself while they’re waiting in line, so he gets a pencil and paper and starts to doodle,” she explains. No surprise, Oldham got the idea from doodling one day, “I wanted to convey space and time in this book. Visually, he’s taking up space on the page when he’s doodling. And time is shown by him and his grandma standing in line.” Oldham loves to dance. “I take a ballet class every Sunday,” she says, and she likes other forms of dance as well. She considers it a good change of pace from working at her drawing table. This illustrator and animator also likes to go on walks and hikes, or, like her doodles, just wander around. With her MFA Illustration in hand, Oldham plans to stick around PVD through the summer. And after that? “I may stay here, or maybe move to New York City with some friends,” she says, adding, “I’ll see where the chips fall.” In her artwork, Oldham aims to show the joy of life, along with a little bit of absurdity, “I want to illustrate a world where things can be weird and joyful, like the best of real life.”
Oldham’s illustrations, comics and animated videos can be viewed on her website georgiaoldham.com.