Art director Tommy Washbush has followed Renée Graef on Instagram for many years and admired her work. He reached out to see if she might be interested in illustrating an Isthmus cover and was pleasantly surprised that she was. “She’s so incredibly talented and well-known,” he says. “Luckily, she has Madison roots, and feels connected to Isthmus.”

Renée moved to Madison in 1978, and says she has always considered Isthmus a “must-read.” She currently resides in Mineral Point.

Renée works in a variety of mediums, including pen and ink, watercolor, acrylic, and oil painting. She has illustrated more than 90 children’s books, worked with American Girl, HarperCollins, PBS, and the Getty Museum and won numerous awards.

Her first two drafts of her Isthmus cover showed a Minneapolis-centric vigil, and a scene depicting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pepper spraying the classic Statue of Liberty scene on Lake Mendota. Both concepts seemed a little too similar to recent Isthmus covers, so she pivoted to a surveillance-themed idea, inspired by the growing prevalence of AI, facial recognition software, and data tracking.

“Many people worry that their data — what they buy, where they search, and where they go — can be used against them,” she says. “The fear isn’t just being watched, but being unfairly influenced or harmed.”

Renée’s latest book illustration project, The ABCs of Wisconsin Cheese by Susan Apps-Bodilly, will be released in late August 2026 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. See more of her work on Instagram.