Bug People Project
Artist/author/chef Vicki Chelf promotes self-acceptance
To transform the world, you have to start small. And Vicki Chelf believes kids are the key.
So the Sarasota-based artist, author and vegetarian chef has found a way to combine her three passions into one—and appeal to little ones through a series of whimsical stories about self-love.
In December 2020, Chelf self-published her first illustrated children’s book, entitled Lucy Ladybug: The Ladybug’s Lament (about a short, round protagonist who yearns for a waist like a wasp). But Lucy ultimately learns that she is beautiful just as she is. Lucy is just one character in Chelf’s imagination, and the ladybug lays the groundwork for the evolving Bug People Project.
“Our mission statement [with the Bug People Project] is to inspire a love of self and nature—to heal the world, one child at a time,” Chelf says. “I believe humanity is truly in a crisis at this moment and, at the risk of sounding cliché, we need to learn to live in harmony with nature and each other. It all begins with self-love, and children have so much to try to live up to today.”
The bug series builds on Chelf’s decades of work as an illustrator and author of vegetarian/vegan cookbooks (which she began publishing in 1976).
“Writing children’s books is something I have wanted to do for a long time,” Chelf says. “I have been told my entire life that to combine these loves [artistic, culinary and literary] would be my ticket to success. I never had a clue how to do it until this project came along. Better late than never, as they say.”
Chelf has already written eight stories. Soon, she will begin further developing the tale of Gandy Green, Big and Mean—a bully grasshopper who thinks he is the biggest bug in the world because he has never left his backyard garden. There is Bridgette Butterfly, the most beautiful and popular butterfly of all, who loses a bit of her wing. And another is Leonardo Monsieur Es Car Go—a snail who thinks he is dumb because he is slow. Chelf is even creating kid-friendly cookbooks to accompany the Bug People Project books.
Sharing these uplifting messages makes Chelf feel like she is contributing positively to the next generation—and to the planet and the culture as a whole.
“[Children today] are the first generation faced with the reality of the collapse of our ecosystems and such a rapid loss of biodiversity. Even if they don’t yet know this, they have to feel it,” Chelf says. “The old myths no longer necessarily serve them in today’s world. From my own selfish point of view, the only way to not feel hopeless in our current situation is to feel like we are doing what we can to help.”
Vicki Chelf: 941-928-3426; facebook.com/vickichelfartist
