Where the familiarly conventional meets the blatantly unorthodox.
Iva C. Blackman’s previous role was as a consultant (attending) physician and geriatrician. Her medical career began in 1989. She began writing fiction in 2007. Her first published work, however, occurred in 2017. She coined the term Connected Fiction a year prior. Its aim? To bridge the disconnect between teens and the significant adults/elders in their lives. Her novels are to be shared, discussed, but most of all, to inspire and foster a sense of connectedness for those searching earnestly for it.
She has always pursued other interests alongside her medical career, integrating them wherever she found an opportunity. The most enduring of these was her cartoon art which has now evolved into a more expansive form, and keeps evolving. A surrealist painter from her early teens, her favourite media include watercolour and ink, watercolour and pencil, marker and ink, pen and ink wash, ancrylics, and of late, digital ink.
Tinkered Ink was an apt rebranding which encompassed IC Blackman’s vision in its entirety – the tinkering of classic ink, classic media to craft connectedness through mixed media cartoon art, books, ink’s best love – paper (an appreciable portion of which is recycled), and its second love – fabric (sourced from around the planet).
IC Blackman has lived in Trinidad where she spent most of her formative years, Nigeria, Jamaica, the United States, and the United Kingdom where she now resides. She draws inspiration from her clinical experience as a healthcare professional, her life experience as a mother and as a global citizen to inform most of her literary works and cartoons.
The raison d’etre of all of Tinkered Ink’s creative endeavours is to promote legacy gifting and to honour the principles of Ma’at.
Image: The Avatoon Bookhead of IC Blackman.