What up fam?

My name is Rob and I'm an artist from Oakland California. Why do I make the things in this shop? Let me explain.....

Literacy! I make children's books & accessories (bk marks, plates, posters) because I am an advocate for children learning to read at an early age. Not only do I want children to learn to read, I want them to enjoy it.

Me personally, I hated to read as a child. Why? I never saw a single book that felt like a reflection of me or my family. I didn't know that was the reason I didn't like reading as a kid/young adult. But as a grown Dad and an advocate for kids books I've found that I'm not the only one. There has been a huge demand for more diversity of race, gender, ability, nationality, class, etc in storytelling across the board.

As a young father I became furious when I found out not much had changed since I was a kid, so I dedicated myself to learning to make kids books.I took action and began to build community with other illustrators, authors, librarians, teachers, etc who also yearned for a more diverse pool of books. We've made great strides, but there's still a lot of work to be done within the larger publishing world and independently.

The other artwork you see here relates to music, ethnic studies, politics, and me just trying to express myself.

What else? I mentioned I'm a father. I'm a husband. My family is multi-ethnic and I have spent my entire life around people who identify as part of the lgbtqiia family. I paint murals w/ Trust Your Struggle Collective. I collect and write abt music w/ Muphoric Sounds. I also work w/ a crew of spunky kids book creators in the Bay. You can see more of my illustration here: www.robdontstop.com and you can follow my blog or social media via the same site.

Any questions? Holler.
I identify as He/him, his. I am a Black man, a man of color. My background is Black, Mexican, Korean, & Apache.

Last updated: Sept 2020