An Extra Piece of Pie

Coney Island, aerial photograph at night – by Jeffrey Milstein

This is going to be sweet and brief – let’s call it a little extra slice of pie on the day after Thanksgiving. I’m just going to link you to the portfolio page of a photographer I recently discovered whose work I love because 1) it’s unique, 2) it explores patterns, which is something acknowledged to be true in formal poetry, and is probably true in many other creative endeavors, 3) it makes me feel like maybe mankind has an eye for beauty, and 4) it makes me remember that wonder – that is, a sense of wonder – is just as important as all the other senses: taste, touch, sight, smell, sound.

Other reasons spring to mind for loving Milstein’s photographs, but I’ll leave it there. He has a book out titled LA NY – it’s well worth spending an hour or two with. If you follow his website’s portfolio link, below, you’ll find other links that tell you about his background. But right now, I’m going to keep it visual. Scroll down past the photo samples to find the link, and to find out what you’re looking at from above.

Happy Day After Thanksgiving! And thank god – or God – for Wonder!

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Here’s the link to albums in Milstein’s portfolio: http://www.jeffreymilstein.com/portfolios/

 

My Mazza Museum Memories

Steven Savage, me, Nina Laden, Lori Nichols, Peter Catalanotto – after our talks were done.

Last weekend, I had the honor of being a guest speaker at the Mazza Museum Fall conference at the University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio.

The Mazza Museum collection is the largest collection of picture book art in the world, with a holding of more than 14,000 pieces of original picture book art – and counting!

The Mazza Fall conference is a yearly event to promote literacy through picture books. It is primarily attended by teachers, librarians, and students – a pleasant audience for us picture book folk.

The event was organized by Benjamin Sapp, the Mazza Museum director. He also arranges a group tour of picture book artists’ studios in some part of the country every few years. He brought a group to our neck of the woods in July of 2017 which Laura Kvasnosky wrote about here.

During the entire weekend Ben was the epitome of gracious calm. If he felt the strain of hosting six artists and 275 attendees and overseeing troupes of volunteers (known as Mazza Enthusiasts) he didn’t show it.

I find public speaking to be like a roller coaster ride. I fret for weeks as I prepare. I worry about what might go wrong (I have my own personal repertoire of performance-anxiety dreams). I get a kaleidoscope of butterflies in my stomach as the moment gets closer. Then I give the talk and I think … That wasn’t so bad. It was actually kind of fun. I might do that again …

But all that aside, I enjoy these sorts of events because of the people I get to meet and the other artists whose talks I get to listen to.

Melissa Sweet is like a soft-spoken firecracker. I admire her and the care and discipline she puts into her process. There is so much love in her work for her subjects. I purchased a copy of the book she wrote and illustrated about E.B. White – Some Writer!. It is a beautiful and informative read.

Lori Nichols talked about her personal and professional growth rings and how her book characters Maple and Willow came to be. I felt at one point as if we were sitting in her yard with her under her beloved trees. Her talk was so engaging I (almost) forgot that my talk was up next.

Nina Laden (my fellow Pacific Northwesterner at the event) wove her talk through with personal tales of trial and perseverance, as well as envious shots of her Island studio.

Peter Catalanotto talked about how as a boy, he struggled with writing until a wise teacher told him to try starting his story with drawing pictures instead. Lead with your strengths. His story ideas often start with him asking himself “What if…”

Stephen Savage discussed the importance of composition (what he calls hierarchy) in imagery, especially in books with no written story as many of his are. Vertical lines on a horizontal plane are static. Diagonal lines and curves imply movement. The simplest of images can say a great deal.

In my 45 minutes, I talked about how Where Lily Isn’t came to be, from my early work through my time in London and my wordless letters with Julie Paschkis. Where I started, what I left behind, what I’ve brought with me. That sort of thing.

Although each of us had very different styles of presenting, there were some commonalities: We all mentioned events in our youth that formed our future selves as artists. We all spoke of our challenges and failures as well as our successes. We all talked about the importance of play in our work. And I believe we all showed pictures of our dogs at some point.

My Nik

Other treats for me included:

Meeting and sitting at the dinner table with this year’s Dickman librarian of the year, Christina Dorr. I love librarians.

Kathy and me and a photo of us with the other 2004 winners

Seeing Kathy East again, the head of the 2004 Caldecott committee. It was she who called me to tell me Ella Sarah Gets Dressed was receiving an honor award. She will always have a special place in my heart.

Getting my hand cast in resin by Daniel Chudzinski for the Mazza archives. A new and slightly macabre experience.

Finding an open spot to sign the signing wall at the museum – my mark is now there with so many artists whom I admire. Intimidating yet exciting!

My one regret is that I did not have a chance to tour the Mazza Museum itself. My appointed tour time was forgone due to bad traffic coming from the airport in Detroit and the rest of the time I was booked (no pun intended) tightly. However, I did manage a couple of photos on the fly.

Ed Emberly

Tomie dePaola

Thanks to Ben and all the Mazza folks for including me in their pantheon of picture book artists. It was a roller coaster ride I am glad I participated in.

Here we are demonstrating Steve’s principle of dynamic diagonals.

Idyll

I have illustrated many books, but I’ve never created the illustrations for each page of every copy of a book by hand. Until now!
I teamed up with Claudia Cohen, an amazing and talented bookbinder.
Together we created a limited edition artist’s book called Idyll.

We met several times to figure out our subject matter and technique. For subject matter we settled on this fragment of a poem written in the 3rd century BC by Theocritus, creator of bucolic poetry.

IDYLL

Many an aspen, many an elm
bowed and rustled overhead,
and hard by, the hallowed water welled
purling forth of a cave of the Nymphs,
while the brown cricket chirped busily amid the shady leafage,
and the tree-frog murmured aloof in the dense thornbrake.
Lark and goldfinch sang and turtle moaned,
and about the spring the bees hummed and hovered to and fro.
All nature smelt of the opulent summer-time,
smelt of the season of fruit.
Pears lay at our feet, apples on either side, rolling abundantly,
and the young branches lay splayed upon the ground
because of the weight of their damsons.

……………………………………………………

For technique we decided to stencil the images. Together we figured out the size, shape and length of the book. I sketched out all of the illustrations and cut the stencils. Claudia selected and folded handmade rag paper.

Each Tuesday for 15 weeks I went to Claudia’s studio where I would stencil 20 copies of 1 page. She handed me the papers and kept everything in order. That got more complicated as we completed more pages.

I used gouache paint (opaque watercolor in tubes) and Korean stenciling brushes made of badger hair.

The stencils were held in place with small heavy weights.

As I finished each page Claudia would press it between wood.

I would take the pack of wood and pages back to my house and hand letter the words during the week.

Each page is unique; there are variations in the stencil print and in the lettering.

Here are a few of the other pages:

When all of the pages were stenciled and lettered, Claudia stenciled endpapers and hand lettered the colophon (last) page.

She bound the books in goatskin vellum with gold embossing.

She made a case for each book.

It was fun to spend the time with Claudia in her studio which is a treasure trove for bibliophiles.
It was a privilege to work with someone with such expertise.

Idyll is available from Two Ponds Press in Maine, although it might not be up on their website yet.

Claudia and I are starting to plan our next adventure. We won’t be idle for long.