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24-year-old Philly illustrator Loveis Wise drops her second New Yorker cover

The UArts grad's new cover, entitled “Taking Care,” was inspired by how her mother and grandmother would oil her hair growing up.

Loveis Wise, who illustrated the cover of the New Yorker's 2018 Summer Fiction issue, says to her, illustration is about accessibility.
Loveis Wise, who illustrated the cover of the New Yorker's 2018 Summer Fiction issue, says to her, illustration is about accessibility. Read more--- David Maialetti / File Photograph

Loveis Wise, the 24-year-old illustrator who made her New Yorker debut last summer, is back on the cover of the magazine this week.

This time, her piece, entitled “Taking Care,” was inspired by how her mother and grandmother would oil her hair growing up.

In a Q&A with the New Yorker’s art director Françoise Mouly, the UArts grad, who was among one of the first black women to illustrate the magazine’s cover, said of her grandmother: “She co-owned a hair salon with my grandfather for over twenty years, and she often taught me the importance of taking care of my crown (or my hair). She taught me that it was part of self-love.”

Self-care figures prominently in Wise’s work.

Last summer, in an interview with the Inquirer, she said she used to feel guilty when she wasn’t working at all hours of the day but that she realized she should be kinder to herself.

“My best pieces come from me realizing that I needed to take better care of myself,” she said.

Next month, Wise will unveil a mural at the Navy Yard that she worked on with Ryan Strand Greenberg and Mural Arts. Earlier this year, for Black History Month, she created a Google Doodle of abolitionist Sojourner Truth.