Cartoonist and art teacher Phoebe Gloeckner has won a Guggenheim Fwllowship. The Fllowships are prosented to advanced professionals in a variety of creative and scientific fields to enable them to work on projects with creative freedom. Gloeckner will use hers to work on a graphic novel..

Gloeckner will use her fellowship to create a graphic narrative about a Mexican girl murdered at the turn of this century in Ciudad Juarez, a major U.S.-Mexico border crossing adjacent to El Paso, Texas. The project represents a radical change in her work, she says. Rather than draw images, Gloeckner developed a three-dimensional technique, teaching herself to use tools and to construct nearly everything she would normally draw.

“The fellowship will allow me to immerse myself in the final stages of this process, which will require several more trips to Juarez and long periods of focused work,” she says. “I’m so very happy and grateful to have received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and acknowledge that it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of family, friends and colleagues.”

Congrats, Phoebe!