Musicians and Artists: #nf10for10

Today is Non-Fiction Picture Book Sharing, #nf10for10, hosted by Cathy Mere, Reflect and Refine: Building A Learning Community, Julie Balen, Connecting to Learn and Mandy Robek, Enjoy and Embrace Learning. Below find 10.5 nonfiction picture books I can't live without. These nonfiction picture books are about musicians and visual artists. 

from Frida Kahlo and her Animalitos.

Brown, Monica. (2017). Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos. Illustrated by John Parra. New York: NorthSouth Books.

This picture book biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo portrays her childhood and adulthood with a twist: the text focuses on how she was like her pets. For example we learn that Frida was colorful like her parrot and independent like her cat. In the style of the artist Frida Kahlo, illustrator John Parra uses acrylics to capture the folk art sensibilities of Kahlo. His work is gorgeous and earned the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2017. Well deserving.

Brière-Haquet, Alice. (2017). Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simone. Illustrated by Bruno Liance. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing.

It wasn't until I was well into my 30s that I first heard Nina Simone sing. Rob had a CD (yes it was that long ago) of hers and we listened to it on a trip north to Maine. I was hooked. Her voice carries such tension, such blues. Hers is an aching beauty that comes together especially well in songs like, "Tell Me More and More and Then Some." I could listen to that over and over again.

This picture book biography told by Nina as a story she is telling her daughter illustrates  the woman as musician, the mother, and the activist. Told through Bruno Liance's black and white illustrations that offer a stark simplicity. This is a jewel of a book.

from Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire.

Guglielmo, Amy & Jacqueline Tourville. (2017). Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire. Illustrated by Brigette Barrager. New York: Atheneum Books.

This picture book is based on the life of Disney illustrator Mary Blair. Blair is most well known for her design of the the 1964 World's Fair ride--It's a Small World--a ride I have been told I rode as a very small child. Truthfully, I can't recall. Years later I would see that ride again in Florida. What I like most about this book is how the text focuses on Blair's use of color.  The text opens:

and then goes on to explain that when Mary's family moved to California, the sights she saw along the way --hues of various colors--would influence her work as an artist.  Lovely.

Harshman, Marc & Anna Egan Smucker. (2017). Fallingwater: The Building of Frank Lloyd Wright's Masterpiece. Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. 

The story about how Fallingwater was designed and built opens with a quote from Wright's autobiography: 

"No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other."

Harshman, Smucker, and Pham then go on to illustrate in beautiful written and painted language how Fallingwater embodies that quote.

Without question one of my favorite of the ten.

Hood, Susan. (2018). SHAKING THINGS UP: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World. Illustrated by Sophie Blackall, Emily Winfield Martin, Shadra Strickland, Melissa Sweet, Oge Mora, Julie Morstad, Lisa Brown, Selina Alko, Hadley Hooper, Erin Robinson, and Sara Palacios. New York: Harper Collins.

This is a keeper book and an extra bonus book here as I am not telling you about the whole book, but rather just one of the 14 young women featured. The text is written in free verse and each illustration is done by a different artist.  All 14 women are exceptional. For this post though, I am only focusing on Maya Lin, "A New Vision." Lin is the architect-artist who won the competition (entry #1026) to build the Vietnam Memorial. The first time I visited the memorial it was with several hundred 12th graders who had met all of their senior high school obligations and were on their way to Virginia Beach for a bit of holiday. It was the dredded (if you were a chaperone and I was) senior trip. But what happened that day stays with me--30 years later. The kids were loud as you might expect, but as we came over the hill, the black wings of the monument rose up out of the ground and the students grew quiet, silent, absorbed. 200 voices, hushed. It wouldn't be until 20 years later that Rob, Devon and I went by boat to the war memorial at Pearl Harbor that the same sense of silence would descend.

At the end of "A New Vision," Susan Hood asks this provocative question:

After all, 

what should a war memorial do? 

Unearth memory, 

make us cry, 

see ourselves, 

and then lead us back up 

into hope, 

into the light.

It's a question and a response that stops me and makes me think. 

Julie Morstad (loved, loved her book, The Wayside) illustrated the Maya Lin pages. 
At the conclusion of the book are biographical notes and links to more information about each of the women. Below is the book, Bloom, that Morstad illustrated as well.

Maclear, Kyo. (2018). Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli.  Illustrated by Julie Morstad. New York: Tundra.

A picture book biography about Elsa Schiaparelli, an Italian fashion designer who was influenced by surrealism. Told from first person point of view, we learn about her childhood (she thought herself ugly and questioned what was beauty) and her art that took form as she designed clothing and bags, and shoes in bold, bold colors.  Julie Morstad captures the spirit and dazzle through mixed media. 

from Bloom

Mahin, Michael. (2017). Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters. Illustrated by Evan Turk. New York: Atheneum.

There's more than enough energy in the telling of this history and the images that launch a reader off of the page. This picture book biography of legendary blues guitarist, Muddy Waters, is spectacular. Evan Turk's paintings and collages electrify while the dialogue by Mahin is simply spot on.  Consider this exchange between Muddy and his grandmother:

This story though is not only about the musician, but also about the way he stood up when the indignity of being an African American sharecropper the Delta grew too great. 

But today Muddy couldn't do it. He was tired of being picked on."I ain't a boy," he said. "And I sure ain't YOUR boy." 

The boss man's face went red with anger as Muddy walked away."Stop right there or you'll never work in this town again!"But Muddy was never good at doing what he was told.

And so Muddy left the Delta and headed up to Chicago with his guitar and his blues. 

Turk created the illustrations with watercolor, oil pastels, china marker, printing ink, and collage. Another top favorite and also New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2017.

Veirs, Laura. (2018). Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten. Illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. San Francisco, CA; Chronicle Books.

This picture book biography is about folk singer and guitarist, Elizabeth Cotten who is most well know for a song she composed at the age of 11, "Freight Train." Veirs captures the perseverance Elizabeth Cotten showed and how it was Cotton's housekeeping work for the Seegers that helped to place her on a stage for all to come to know. And as lovely and powerful as the words are to this story, the images made me want to weep. 

First time illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh's graphite illustrations are moving and evocative. She made me want to look and relook every single page. Stunning and evocative work. Here is a link to her website. You will want to check out her work.  One example of her art:

Street Work: Brooklyn, NY 2017

This is Elizabeth Cotten performing.  I love this video as it helps me to get a sense of the woman and her music. She was quite the storyteller. 

Wallace, Sandra Neil.  (2018). Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. New York: Simon & Schuster. 
    

from Between the Lines

This picture book biography explains about the life of African American NFL player Ernie Barnes (1938-2009) who became an American painter during the 20th century. This picture book focuses on Ernie's love for painting and what he needed to do in order to become a painter having grown up in the Jim Crow era. One section of the text that really moved me was the exchange Ernie had with an art tour guide when he first visited an art museum in North Carolina. He asked where the paintings by Black artists were and was told, "Your people don't express themselves in that way." Although this biography tells the story of a man destined to paint, it situates that story within the story of the civil rights movement. 

Bryan Collier who included an artist's note in which he explained meeting Ernie Barnes in 2000 at an art festival created the images for the book using watercolor and collage-his signature art style.  This book is evocative, informative, and moving.

Walters, Eric. (2018). From The Heart of Africa: A Book of Wisdom. New York: Tundra Books.

This picture book features aphorisms from Africa that have been collected and then illustrated by Eric Waters. In the introduction Walters explains that the aphorisms were ones he heard from friends. I appreciated that where each aphorism came from was listed along with an interpretation. 

The images were created by more than a dozen artists who created the illustrations using traditional and digital media. 

A portion of the royalties will be given to aid Kenyan orphans through Creation of Hope. Further Penguin Random House Canada will match the donation. Hope you will buy a copy.

Weatherford, Carole Boston. (2017). Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression. Illustrated by Sarah Green. Park Ridge, IL: Albert Whitman & Company.

Carole Boston Weatherford's writing always draws me in and this picture book biography of one of my favorite photographers is no exception. Weatherford allows us a more personal glimpse of the iconic photographer beginning with the nickname Lange was called by peers after she had polio.  They called her Limpy.  It was this sense of other that Weatherford says Lange embodied that allowed her to empathize so greatly with those she would capture on film. The inclusion of original photographs makes this a keeper.

#SOL17: Healing with Art

 Call and the Birds Will Come

I. 

A friend, Heidi, recently returned to school to study art therapy. I was delighted for her as this seems like a very good fit. I have no doubt she will be terrific. Thinking about art therapy led me to also think how for the last 19 months I painted most every day and in doing so I began to heal.

As some of you have remarked, the last few months black birds seem to have flown in and out of most of my paintings.  Another art friend, Jim, asked today why there were birds in so much of my work. I told him I was not completely sure why the birds are flying in and out, but I feel better knowing they are there. I also realized that the last section of the memoir I am writing has the subtitle, Wild Birds Rising. I suspect there is a connection. Perhaps the birds are spirits.


II.

A few weeks ago, my friend Jane's sister, Susan, died. The birds showed up again in force right after her death.  I didn't realize until this evening that her death affected me.  For the last two weeks I have been feeling down, revisiting the sadness I felt months after Rob died. Susan was three months older than Rob. Both were far too young to die. Last year, I spent a week with Susan in North Carolina at the beach and the beginning of August I had the opportunity to visit with her while I was in North Carolina taking an art class. Some people I've know forever and others have come in and out of my life briefly and yet profoundly touched it.  That was the kind of person Susan was.  She profoundly touched lives by simply being herself.

Some days I think the birds are those spirits that carry away pain. Some days I think the birds are the departed who find ways to wing back to this world.


III.

For me, painting reveals new ways of naming and feeling--ways I am often not aware of in a codified manner.

I sense knowing. '

Edward Hopper explained how the language of art opens us in ways that words simply do not.  He wrote, “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.”

Here are a few of my new paintings.

How I See You (acrylic, collage, pencil, Tombow markers, gesso, digital remix)

Prayer  (acrylic, Tombow markers, pencil, digital remix)

Through a Window (acrylic, gesso, pencil, digital remix) 

Tangled (acrylic, ink, pencil, digital remix) 

Self Portrait  with Black Birds (Photograph, paint, transfer, acrylic)

A few art therapy links (Activities and books)

Here's a link to 100 Art Therapy exercises. Does anyone want to take some of these on? I am going to try to work my way through the list.

Here are 20 art therapy ideas that also looks good.

Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul

Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression

#SOL17: Saying Yes

Some recent painting I have been doing.

I have been practicing saying, yes.

Instead of listing in my mind the many reasons why I should not do something, I have been practicing doing. Just that. With my son achieving adult status in so many ways there is a freedom that I can now enjoy. And I have. To be truthful, I have spent this summer mostly playing with just a little bit of work thrown in. I have stretched a bit beyond my role as mom and am the better for it.

As I write this I am 650 miles from home in North Carolina--here to take an art course taught by Pam Carriker, an artist whose work I appreciate. I hope to learn a lot, especially about color mixing and portraiture.  It is somewhat unsettling to be in North Carolina without Rob, and yet it is not uncomfortable. I have learned that to be unsettled is not equal to discomfort. Being unsettled is often healthy. Time seems to have a way of smoothing the rough and taming the wild edges of grief and I am ever glad for that. I am 100-pages into a memoir chronicling the last two years and though wading into that sorrow is a challenge, I also think it deepens the healing. I have been in this state only one other time without my husband and never in Charlotte where Rob, Devon and I have travelled to and through more times than I can count. What is difficult after the death of my husband are all the new places I have traveled and experienced that Rob never got to know and never will.  But, here now I have taken a page from my husband's ways in the world and found a public space to write and it feels right.

This may sound odd but I love people. I love being around others, listening in at times, sharing at others. Given my profession as a consultant and educator I imagine enjoying others and loving children are not so unusual. But beyond profession, we all have a need to connect, to feel the human pulse that ties us spark to life. Matthew Lieberman in Social (2013) writes,

We are wired to be social. We are driven by deep motivations to stay connected with friends and family. We are naturally curious about what is going on in the minds of other people. And our identities are formed by the values lent to us from the groups we call our own (p. 2).

Here in North Carolina on my way to an art workshop, I am part of a group of artists I call my own. So I reached out when I got here to another participant who Sean (the man who picked me up from the airport) told me was also going to be at the workshop and was staying at the same hotel. Patricia is a delight and has led such an incredibly interesting life full of intrigue, foreign locales, and of course--art. We passed a lovely evening and knowing we will share this weekend experience is grounding.

This is what it means to live in the middle of things.

What is unsaid is a poem

Part of a 2-page spread . 

What is unsaid is a poem.
What is unknown reveals as much, if not more, than what is known.
What is unrealized is often what I most need.

I have been working large today--painting when I should have been doing a number of other things. Sometimes the paint calls. Some days I listen. That is a definition of grace.

4 Art Books I Am Currently (re)Reading and Some Video

I am currently reading a few art books to study technique and to be inspired. I wanted to share these titles with you as each seems rather good.

1. Pam Carriker's (who I will be taking a class with soon) Mixed Media Portraits with Pam Carriker: Techniques for Drawing and Painting Faces (2015) from Northlight Books.

Here are two videos that show Pam at work creating a portrait.

2. Jane Davies' (who I want to take a course with so much) Abstract Painting: The Elements of Visual Language (2017) from Jane Davies Publications.

The techniques Jane describes here are helpful and inspire me to try my hand at abstract painting. I bought her book after watching her video, Scribble Collage: with Hand-Painted Paper with Jane Davies. 

Here's a brief look at the video.




JD1 Preview v1 from Creative Catalyst on Vimeo.

3. Misty Mawn's Unfurling, A Mixed-Media Workshop with Misty Mawn: Inspiration and Techniques for Self-Expression through Art (2011) from Quarry Books.

I so appreciate Misty Mawn's paintings, processes, and her book. It is one I return to in order to resample and be inspired. The last section of the book shows ways to visually journal and she is clear and the ideas are excellent.

Below is Misty's I am an Artist film.

5.  Elisabeth Bronfen's  (Edited by Janine Latham) Woman Power: Maria Lassnig in New York 1968–1980 (2017) by Petzel.

Here is a brief video featuring Lassnig's portraits.



Here is a brief video about a retrospective of her work at MOMA PS1.

#SOL17: Wonder

A foggy morning in Leonia, NJ. I was on my way to Manhattan and just had to stop. I was two miles from the GWB entrance.

If you are an artist, it is work that fulfills and makes you come into wholeness, and that goes on through a lifetime. Whatever the wounds that have to heal, the moment of creation assures that all is well, that one is still in tune with the universe, that the inner chaos can be proved and distilled into order and beauty. —May Sarton 

I.

For as long as I can recall, I have been fascinated with and attentive to light. Lambent light of dusk, the almost watery Maine light Hopper captured, the variations of light Monet's haystacks allows us to see, and the light that disperses fog that I have learned to see through the lens of my camera--all of these and more have taught me to look and look again. I can recall one afternoon telling Rob that some days I made it into work in Morristown, NJ and did not recall driving there as much as I could narrate what was happening with the light of day as I moved along in stop and go traffic on a highway.

Learning to look is different than seeing.


II.

I measure time with light. Dawn, near dawn, mid-day, dusk, twilights, midnight are more about the presence and absence of light than they are representations of time on a clock. Such representations are so often wrong and certainly one could well argue that the invention and our uses of mechanical clocks has harmed more than helped.

Interval measurement assumes that time is relative and we know that time is not.



III.

I am healing myself by making art--making forms of captured light. Grief is no easy matter, nor is finding myself a single parent of an 18-year-old.  Some days I feel like I am failing at everything. Other days, not so much.

Last night found me awake at 3 a.m. mixing paints to create tints and shades for a painting I am making. I felt compelled to make something. I'm not sure how long I was painting as I consulted no clock, but what I do know was that true night was gone.

The shape of trees in my neighbor's yard were distinguishable from the darkness.

Drawing Realistic Faces: A Few Tips

from my Art Journal (May 2017)

1. Closing one eye flattens the world. To draw a three-dimensional image on a two-dimensional piece of paper, close one eye. (From: Parks, Carrie Stuart. Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (p. 39). F+W Media. )
2. Here are a set of tools to help train your mind to recognize shapes. They are: 

• Isolate: To see shapes by studying individual shapes separately. The first artistic technique is to isolate the shape. Look at the works of any artist, and you will find sketches of eyes, hands and parts of the face. These artists are isolating each of the different components of the whole of the art that they will be doing.

• Simplify: A tool for learning to see shapes by seeking the simplest expression of that shape in the form of a straight or curving line.

• Relate: A tool for learning to see shapes by using one shape to help see a second shape. 

• Measure: A tool for seeing shapes by measuring a smaller shape and comparing it to a larger shape. 

• Invert: Turn the line drawing you're trying to copy upside down. It is best to use a line drawing for this technique, not a photo.

• Rename: A tool for seeing the shape in facial features by renaming that feature in terms of shape.

• Incline: Use a ruler for checking subtle angles in the facial features by using a ruler.

• Negative space: A viewfinder allows you to see a positive shape (solid space) clearer by focusing on the negative shape (empty space) next to it. Using a viewfinder can help you to isolate the figure so you can better see the negative space. Make your own by cutting a square out of a pice of paper.

• Question: A tool for seeing angles and shapes more clearly by asking yourself exactly what it is you are seeing. This tool is so named because you ask questions: What is the line/edge doing? In what direction is it going?

• Compare: A tool for seeing shapes more clearly by tracing that shape from the photograph, tracing your own drawing and comparing the two shapes as line drawings.

• Flatten: A tool for seeing a three-dimensional shape more clearly by closing one eye to level the image into two dimensions.

(from Parks, Carrie Stuart. Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces, pp. 44 - 58. F+W Media. )

#SOL17: The Handmade Art Book

Part of a two-page spread.

Bettina's handmade journal.

Last month, when my art journaling group met we created handmade journals using composition book covers, file folders, and wax linen to bind the books. I used white file folders and have found that these work well as pages. I also have been surprised at how well paint (acrylic and watercolor) and collage papers adhere to the folders. They really make an excellent substrate.

The book making process was complicated, yet very doable, especially as we had an excellent teacher. One of our group members, Bettina Makley, taught all of us how to create the journals. Bettina is a practicing artist and she was gracious to teach us. We had seen a journal she had made at a prior session that was held in her studio and we knew we wanted to try our hands at creating our own.

This past week, I finally started to use my journal and I must say that I am loving it. Using a journal I made by hand is special.

Note: You can see more of Bettina's forays into book making here. She is available to teach small groups if you have an interest. You can contact her through her Facebook page. She is an excellent art teacher.

Below are some of the first pages from the journal.

Journal from side view .

I created different sized pages to add interest.

Part of a two-page spread.

Part of a two-page spread.

A cut page (you can see the pages that peek out)

2 page spread background only - not sure what I'll be doing on this page - Perhaps some buildings.

Just started 2 pages.

painted woman on tissue paper and textured background

#SOL17: Facing the Face - 100 Day Project

Day 8: 4.11.17 (6B pencil, stabilo pencil, gesso, white marker, digital remix)

Everyone is in the best seat. - John Cage

I am participating in the #100DayProject Creativity and have completed the first week. Each day for no more than 20 minutes I compose a face. I want to study faces and figured that drawing or painting one each day might help me to see differently and to take more chances. Somedays I sketch, mostly I paint, and eventually I imagine that I will collage and photograph. I sometimes alter the images made slightly (or a lot depending on my mood) digitally. 

I have been learning as I compose each day--about drawing and painting faces and more. Felix Scheinger in Urban Watercolor Sketching: A Guide to Drawing, Painting, and Storytelling writes, "All too often we paint things only as we imagine them to be and not as we experience them from observation"(Kindle Locations 829-830). I think about the truth of that statement and how it can also be true in other life situations. Want is a powerful force--as is studying and seeing more objectively.

Some thoughts as I continue in this project:

1. Isolating sections of a face and naming the shape helps me to better draw.
2. Small adjustments to a line or shadow can make large differences.
3. Sometimes my hand just does not want to cooperate.
4. Constraint, such as time, pushes me to finish a work. 
5. Posting a work each day is brave. 
6. A 100 day study feels like an indulgence.
7. I enjoy playing with many styles and have yet to cultivate my own signature. I wonder if I will.
8. I love composing with ink, pencil, paint and words.

I have been posting the image, date, media on a separate page on my blog. The first week of images are below.

Day 1: 4.5.17. (Stabilo pencil, acrylic paint, sharpie paint marker white)

Day 2: 4.6.17 (Stabilo pencil, watercolor, ink, on watercolor paper)

Day 3: 4.7.17 (pencil, watercolor, gesso, digital remix, newspaper)

Day 4: (Acrylic paint, stabilo pencil, white marker) 

Day 5: (4.9.17, stabilo pencil, watercolor on piece
of deli paper - I had wiped paint on it)

Day 6: (4.10.17, gesso, acrylic paint, pencil, stabilo pencil, digital remix)

Day 7: (4.11.17, watercolor, pencil, stabilo pencil, digital remix)