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Wendy MacNaughton        

Graphic Journalist & Illustrator; New York Times Bestseller; Creator of DrawTogether & Co-Founder of Women Who Draw

Wendy MacNaughton’s work is based in the practices of drawing, social work, and storytelling. She combines the practice of deep looking, listening, and drawing to create stories of often overlooked people, places, and things. Wendy has worked on varied projects across mediums and fields, and in collaboration with numerous groups and individuals, but one thing stays consistent: Wendy uses drawing as a vehicle for connection.

As a visual columnist for The New York Times and California Sunday Magazine, Wendy drew stories everywhere from high school cafeterias to Guantanamo Bay.

She has authored and drawn two books, How To Say Goodbye and Meanwhile in San Francisco, and illustrated many others, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat and New York Times Bestseller The Gutsy Girl by Caroline Paul.

She is the Creator and Drawer-in-Chief of DrawTogether, a participatory drawing show for kids, and The Grown-Ups Table, lessons and community for drawing-minded adults. She is also the co-founder of Women Who Draw with Julia Rothman, an advocacy database launched in 2016 to increase visibility and opportunities for underrepresented artists, illustrators, and cartoonists.

She lives in Oakland, but you can often find her on the road, speaking at conferences, universities, or companies, or in her mobile studio (built inside the back of a Honda Element) doing the thing she likes best: drawing.

Speech Topics


The Art of Paying Attention

In an invitation to slow down and look at the world around you, graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton illustrates how drawing can spark deeply human, authentic connections. Ready to try? Grab a pencil and join MacNaughton for this delightful talk. "Drawing is looking, and looking is loving," she says.

Wendy regularly speaks about the unique power drawing offers to help us slow down, get curious, look deeply, and connect us to people and the world around us.

She draws on the many adventures she’s had in her own life while drawing – documenting Guantanamo Bay court proceedings, having stereotype-busting conversations with folks like a bootmaker in rural Utah, hanging out with unhoused folks at the public library and SF’s Tenderloin, drawing with thousands of kids during the darkest moments of the pandemic... She loves to get audiences to actually draw in real time. In just a few minutes, she helps them experience the power of drawing: they slow down, pay attention, open their hearts, and remember how miraculous every single person is when have the courage to look closely.

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