Sophie Blackall/New York Magazine

I’m addicted to New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrix.”

The Approval Matrix

I regard it the same way I do The Daily Show–as an opinionated roll-up of the interesting and absurd goings-on in the news I’m too busy writing/testing cocktail recipes/watching Bones re-runs to ferret out all by myself.

So I was delighted when I opened this week’s NYMag issue (August 10 – 17) to the last page to find “A Brooklyn artist named Sophie Blackall” plotted in the BRILLIANT area of the Approval Matrix’s “taste hierarchies,” because (drumroll)…

… Sophie helped illustrate Cookie Craft! Her drawings add a touch of whimsy to the book (as Alison Kolesar’s renderings of the cookie decorating techniques add usefulness).

Among Sophie’s many and varied illustration projects are a number of gorgeous, gorgeous children’s books–and it’s wonderful to see her get recognition for her, well, BRILLIANCE.

Sophie Blackall's cookie-nabbing dog in Cookie Craft