I'll Read You A Story: Children's Book Art

Children's book art may be the most important art in all of the art world. Here's why.

1. It's associated to literature, which is associated to reading. Whether we read to others or read to ourselves, the act of reading in itself is the connective tissue of our modern world. Our earliest experiences with reading can define our relationship to literature - and nonfiction - for the rest of our lives.

"The Coronation", watercolor, Gary Lippincott, from The Prince and The Pauper

2. It's often the first art we experience in our lives. Whether it's Eric Carle's hungry caterpillar or Maurice Sendak's monsters having a rumpus with Max, this is our first foray into western art. Colors, patterns, shapes and images are defined to us through our books, especially picture books. Our favorites tend to stay with us as we grow up and wind up inevitable "classics" as we read these to our own children and grandchildren.

"Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!", Maurice Sendak, from Where the Wild Things Are

3. It's keeping the paper publishing world alive. Okay, I don't know if that's exactly true, but reading to children typically feels more "right" with a physical book, and majority of children's books are in color and hard bound. There's a physicality to a child's book that addresses a child's needs beyond the images and sounds. There's touch, texture, even taste (who hasn't chewed a small corner of a book?) that the child's book fulfills to the child. They are loved and read again and again. I still can't imagine an iPad taking the place of the physical book. They sure don't taste as good.

Whether we care to admit it or not, children's book art has influenced all of us. As a child, I drew on my books, I drew what was in my books, I loved my books, and I still do love them. Illustrators such as Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak, and Mercer Mayer were huge influences in my art making; my work may not look exactly like theirs but I was in awe of the worlds they created with just a couple of lines and some watercolor.

Mercer Mayer's "Little Critter" character. Wonder why I related to him so much? ;)

In fact, part of the reason I created the "I'll Read You A Story" show had to do with my finding a Jules Feiffer drawing for sale. Jules was the artist behind the chapter book called The Phantom Tollbooth, which was my all-time favorite childhood book. It was about a boy named Milo who is bored with everything until he goes through a mysterious tollbooth (in a toy car) and enters a world that revolves around letters and numbers. The linework was simple, even a little sloppy, but very likeable and perfect for this story, which was written by Norton Juster in the early 1960s.

ToC Page, ink on paper, Jules Feiffer, from The Phantom Tollbooth. This is the actual drawing.

R. Michelson Galleries was selling the aforementioned drawing. I was exceptionally excited about finding it until I contacted them about it, only to find that drawing was well into the five digit price range, which was way too rich for my blood. I did note, however, they represented many living and deceased children's book artists, and after a few email conversations with Mr. Michelson, I managed to work out an exchange that allowed the majority of this show's art to ship to Seattle, which I knew would be a very difficult feat with the individual artists. Most of these illustrators no longer own or sell their published work, and some of them are very hard to contact (I learned that quick).

"Bagheera", watercolor, Jerry Pinkney, from The Jungle Book

For the most part, I chose work representative of picture books for children between the ages 3 - 7 years of age, although some of the book art is for children slightly older (such as Gary Lippincott's two paintings from "The Prince and the Pauper"). All of the art is from published books, and many of the artists have had very long and distinguished careers, such as Jerry Pinkney, Ruth Sanderson, and Scott Gustafson. A few are known not for their children's books per se, but for other projects: Tony DiTerlizzi is best known for his Spyderwick Chronicles illustrations, Marc Brown is known best for Arthur the Aardvark book (and cartoon) series and Barry Moser is an accomplished block print artist.

"Little Jack Horner", oil, Scott Gustafson, from Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose

The work is accomplished, to say the least. Richard Jesse Watson's two pieces are quite large, with one in oil and one in egg tempera paint. "The Waterfall" is in egg tempera: it took him about a day's worth of work to paint approximately a square inch (tempera isn't easy to paint in), and the final result is a rich, complex painting at 19 x 34 inches. Now, just imagine an entire picture book of these! The result was The Waterfall's Gift, a picture book full of textures and colors almost too sophisticated for a child's mind, but he makes it work with his soft palette and strong object placement.

"The Waterfall", egg tempera, Richard Jesse Watson, from The Waterfall's Gift

 In contrast, Marc Brown's and Barbara McClintock's work seems almost painfully simple, but these artists are not catering to 40-somethings, but 4-somethings whose color and object comprehension is far simpler. Marc is Old School - he understands the psychological use of color and shapes and creates his early reader books with hot colored acrylics and mixed media collages, and the kids LOVE it (remember Eric Carle and his hungry caterpillar? That damned thing has been gorging itself for what, 46 years now?).

Image from Eric Carle's A Very Hungry Caterpillar. 46 years of overeating is clearly showing here, but the kids love it, so he keeps eating.

"Dinoslide", acrylic, Marc Brown, from Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur

Barbara is Old School but in a truer old school way: her work is reminiscent of the great Randolph Caldecott  and his classic nursery rhyme illustrations, utilizing simple subjects and a lot of gesture and humor. Kids call it "funny" and "silly", and we call it "whimsical", our way saying it's both likeable and nostalgic. We all like it, and therefore, books with art like Barbara's is bearable to read over. And over. And over again.

Randolph Caldecott illustration from A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go

"System", watercolor, Barbara McClintock, from A Child's Garden of Verses

This show has 14 illustrators and nearly 30 pieces of art, each from a page in a book, each with a story, each impressing into the minds of literally thousands of little ones (some now Big Ones like me), coloring their sleepy minds with dogs and cats and dinosaurs and rueful little children much like themselves. In a quiet way, this show is probably more important that some of our regular signature shows: this art is shaping our children, and shaped us. This art is the stuff that inspires little artists to grow up into big artists that eventually get big shows at places like Krab Jab Studio. This art gave us our first connection to abstract concepts and to storytelling, and allowed us the green like to go off and create our own stories.

"It Couldn't Be Done", watercolor, Jon J Muth, from Poems to Learn by Heart

So you see, this is very likely the most important show we do all year. It's not sexy, it's not going to blow your mind. In fact, you may just sort of pass it over. But give it another go-over and if you feel like little soap bubbles are blossoming in your chest, just let it happen, that's what this art is meant to do.

Title Page, watercolor, Barry Moser, from Cat Talk

"I'll Read You A Story" features the following artists: Marc Brown, Tony DiTerlizzi, Scott Gustafson, Cory Godbey, Ruth Sanderson, Barbara McClintock, Jon J Muth, Jerry Pinkney, Gary Lippincott, Barry Moser, Diane deGroat, Mordecai Gerstein and Richard Jesse Watson.

Show runs through September 5th, with an art walk opening August 8th, 6 - 9 pm. Richard Jesse Watson will be in attendance!

~Julie Baroh, August 2015

FAERIE II

I'm going to need to backtrack a little over a year, when fellow Krab Jabber, painter Kyle Abernethy, introduced me to the woman who ran TLC Workshops, an illustrator named Tara Larsen Chang. I myself ran a couple of workshops at Krab Jab Studio and marveled at the success of this relatively new workshop machine that booked talent such as Greg Spalenka, Brom, and Terese Nielsen, among others. Honestly, I was a bit irked; I mean, she was making my job of putting "butts in seats" fifty times harder! Plus, Kyle had gotten into her Brom workshop and couldn't stop blathering over how great the facility and experience was. He insisted we meet.

The woman he introduced me to was truly magical. Smiling, warm, talking a mile a minute, Tara was instantly likeable. She was a Doer, a Seeker, and a Dreamer. All my envious feelings melted away when I realized that much like me she worked hard in the background of her workshop machine, and much like me, she was a huge fan of the artists (and students) she supported. And... she was a faerie artist.

Tara Larsen Chang

Not only was Tara a faerie artist, but she was connected to many of the faerie artists I admired and had worked with in the past. I mentioned my idea of a Faerie show, and she enthusiastically offered to help me cull together one of the most interesting and beautiful group shows we've done, which debuted with glowing reviews in February 2013. Not only were the "old favorites" of Amy Brown and the Frouds (including Toby Froud), but newer talent such as Emily Fiegenschuh, Yoann Lossel and David Thierree were introduced to Seattle. Without Tara's help I would not have gotten in touch with Robert Gould, the mastermind behind Faerieworlds and another enthusiastic backer of the FAERIE show. Before the show even closed, Tara and I were already concocting plans for FAERIE II.

Amy Brown

So here we are, a year later, and FAERIE II will be opening in just a few days. I asked Tara to be guest curator this time, and she eagerly accepted and went to work on her list of invites. The list was long - too long, actually. There are a lot of great faerie artists out there, but the gallery can only stuff so much into it. We had to cut a few people out (many of which are highly talented, by the way. I was also cut, so this wasn't necessarily biased). Tara came up with a stunning list of artists, and happily, nearly all of them accepted the invitation to show. As Tara states: "When considering who to invite to participate in this assemblage, I thought of those artists whose fairy art I was familiar with and admired. Many of them are well known and the others should be! It's a striking assortment of talent."

Kimberly Kincaid

We worked alongside Robert Gould, as he loved the idea of a Faerie exhibition in his February convention, aptly called FaerieCon West (located in the Seattle-Tacoma area - see website for details, it's a pretty wonderful event). FAERIE II will exhibit in it's own room at the convention February 21-23, with many of the attending guest artists on the exhibit roster.

Linda Ravenscroft

Okay, fairies... what's the big deal? For me, Disney kind of ruined them. Disney and all those well-meaning "house fairy" sculptures and badly painted watercolor greeting cards, the cutesy little kid fairies with impossibly tiny insect wings. Faerie and the Fae was reduced to kitschy, cutesy and completely harmless. Scared of a fairy? Really???

Annie Stegg

Really. The Realm of Faerie was not always filled with tiny butterfly children and impish smiling elves hiding under mushrooms. It was a spiritual world of Nature, an otherworld that was both marvelous and tempestuous. It wasn't hard to accidentally piss a fairy off, and they often stole milk, cows, or children from their human neighbors. While there were faerie folk of small stature, depending on the region where one lived, they could be human sized or larger, or simply blinking balls of light. Sometimes they married and lived alongside humans, but mostly they kept to themselves, dancing in the moonlight, always enjoying what Nature offered in their magical realm. Until they were squelched from everyday life (thanks to the Church) and reduced to children's stories, they were feared, loved, and most of all, respected. Many believed the Fae were the spirits of our Natural world, and often one would see a dearly loved one, passed on, dancing alongside the Fae in the tall grasses and sacred groves, smiling and laughing, young and vibrant.

Fred Fields

I believe that thanks to Brian Froud and his friend Alan Lee, the world of Faerie began to take on it's original face with the general public. They published the now-iconic book, Faeries, igniting a new interest in the old beliefs of the Celtic regions of Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and Brittany. Their beautiful illustrations of the world of Fae opened the door to many similar artists, and once again did the Faerie demand her rightful respect. The fairy was now the Faery, both beautiful and terrifying, generous and mischievous, mysterious and strangely familiar.

Greg Manchess

The Fae take on many shapes and forms. Terra-bound and aquatic, tiny and huge, red-capped and finely dressed or completely nude, wings or simply radiating, faeries and their ilk run the imaginary gamut of form and function. Many faerie artists find a form they enjoy working with, and some of them like to push the envelope into pure weirdness. Allen Williams, for example, works smokey, ghostly forms into his graphite masterpieces, with bony, spurred horns emerging from the tops of heads and tree trunks. The Fae manifest through the artist's hand in the forms they choose. Allen may think he has a handle on them, but truly it's the other way around.

Allen Williams

When speaking with Tara about the lure of Faerie, she puts it this way: "I think there is more 'out there' than what generally meets the eye. What *is* however, is harder to define or quantify. I believe things like fascination-with-the-fae begin to attempt to give form to the mystery of the unknown."

Justin Gerard

From the point of the artist, Tara adds: "To me, a large aspect of Faery is Nature and her forces personified. Something that can be both intensely appealing and deeply perilous to interact with. As part of the unseen natural world, their mien reflects the many facets of organic beauty and wild unpredictability. To depict them effectively, I believe one must portray these paradoxical elements that make them enigmatic and ultimately unknowable."

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Faeries can also be humorous; who better to depict this than Brian Froud? His 1994 book, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, exemplifies this to a T. The squashed fairies in this album are often in silly positions, smiling, tongues sticking out. (no real faeries were harmed in the making of this book)

Brian Froud

 With 24 stellar artists in this exhibit, I can't realistically show every one of them in this blog post; you'll have to visit the show itself or view the full catalog, available online February 9th until show ends February 27th. When I asked Tara what she hoped the viewer would take away from this show, she stated: "I hope the viewers of this collection get a glimpse into the realm just beyond the senses, and go home with an increased sense of wonder and mystery."

Reception is February 8th, 6 - 9 pm, show runs through February 27th. All works are original and for purchase. Select prints also for sale. Exhibition will travel to FaerieCon West February 21-23rd. We'd also like to thank our NYC support, the AFA Gallery, who represent the Froud family and exclusively consign their art to Krab Jab Studio.

If you'd like to read what the artists have to say about their work, make sure to check out the online catalog!

Gary Lippincott

-Julie Baroh, February 2014

Building on a Golden Age: Creating a Dream

About eight months ago, as I was working on wrapping up the 2013 schedule for the gallery at Krab Jab Studio, I had a few blank months to fill, September being one of them. At the time, I was corresponding with Jeff Menges, who was working on the collaborative book project celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the game Magic: the Gathering, of which both of us were contributors (and he the publisher). He knows I am a huge Golden Age of Illustration fanatic, and has indulged me over the years by sending me books on the subject that he's edited with Dover Publishing. Jeff is an expert on the subject, so he is always an easy earbend when I babble over great illustrators such as Arthur Rackham or Howard Pyle.

 Captain Keitt by Howard Pyle

I don't remember if he suggested it or I did, but the idea of a show celebrating The Golden Age of Illustration (a period of time between 1895 and 1925) came up. He mentioned that he knew several illustrators whose work was directly affected by the art of that time: names like James Gurney, Gregory Manchess and Donato Giancola popped up. I locked on like a heat-seeking missile, and the idea of the show was born.

Why is this period of time so special? There are a few answers, some more technical than others, but basically the technology of printing in color had advanced, allowing printers to reproduce subtle values and colors like never before. Coupled with the beautiful, sumptuous influences of the Art Nouveau movement, the publishing industry began to produce books of stunning beauty and decadence. The public ate it up, and the precursor to the Coffee Table Book was born.

The most illustrated books in our current modern age is that of the child's book. Read, reread, and cherished, the children's book was something that both adults and children could love and read together. A race to produce the most beautiful of these books was set in motion in the late 19th Century, and thus arose the Golden Age. Whimsy, fantasy, drama and excitement were elements that dressed the pages of these books, and artists such as NC Wyeth (student of the great Howard Pyle and father to Andrew Wyeth), Maxfield Parrish, and of course Arthur Rackham rose to the challenge. Never in any other time were illustrators revered and so handsomely paid - not even today.

Blind Pew by NC Wyeth

The Golden Age was not just for children's books, but the world of advertising and home decoration as well. Lithography was being perfected, allowing artists to create the precursor to the Ikea Poster, with images by Maxfield Parrish being the most popular to decorate the middle class parlor. Advertising, whether for theater, alcohol, or bicycles, was elevated to the stylish art poster, using both Art Nouveau greats as well as the Golden Age illustrators to sell their wares. Alphonse Mucha rose to the heights of greatness in the advertising industry, with rabid collectors from Europe to America.

Job Cigarette ad by Mucha

Although the rise of color reproduction was in full swing, black and white work (in the form of woodblocks, engravings and ink drawings) were always in high demand. Color printing was still expensive, so the bulk of most books contained black and white work. Artists such as Willy Pogany, E.H. Shepard and Harry Clarke took the art of ink to a whole new level, thus dismissing the idea that Color is Better. In fact, these artists were actually better at their inkings than painting. I can't imagine The Wind in the Willows without E.H. Shepard's organic, comical inkings of Mr. Toad.


Mr Toad, E.H. Shepard

And that's the thing: the art of this time embedded itself in the psyche of many of us who grew up exposed to these books (many still in reprint). As a kid, I received a copy of Hans Christian Andersen illustrated by Arthur Rackham, and fell into his work, mesmerized by the beauty. I would stare at his paintings and little ink vignettes for hours - screw reading - tracing the lines with my eyes, over and over. I loved the oversized limbs and hands of his characters, the flow of line in the fabric, the prettiness of his heroines, the ghastliness of his villains.

Arthur Rackham

My Rackham-inspired work for Ars Magica RPG, 1994

There are so many great illustrators of that time (including women illustrators such as Jessie Willcox-Smith, Kate Greenaway and Beatrix Potter) this entry would be a nonstop freight train of names and references. I encourage you to research the period and the illustrators on your own, there are many good books on the subject (Richard Dalby and Susan Meyers both produced excellent books on the subject). Calla Editions reproduced gorgeous new editions of many of the classics for reasonable prices.

So, back to our show...

Jeff was a shoe-in as guest curator, being an expert on the subject and all. He composed a list of artists he knew to be heavily inspired by the Golden Age, originally a list of 15 artists. The great James Gurney (also a Golden Age fanatic) was on top of the list but he is a busy, wanted man (and he's signed with another gallery). Greg Manchess was being honored by the Society of Illustrators (incidentally organized by many of the Golden Age greats) and all his work was sequestered for that show, also in September. A few others were detained (thank you, Illuxcon, hehe) but our final number was the respectable following: Donato Giancola, Tom Kidd, Gary Lippincott, Tony DiTerlizzi, Terese Nielsen, Echo Chernik, Socar Myles, Yoann Lossel, and Michael Hague. How can you not be over the moon with this group? Wait, you don't know who some of them are? Okay, I will educate you.

Donato Giancola: Well, he's a god. Okay, maybe that's a little extreme, but he is a legend in the fantasy world, with so many book covers to his name it's boggling. His merit list is so long it rivals Charles Manson's rap sheet. And he's not even 50! He was trained in classical realism and has managed to bridge that world and fantasy marvelously. His two drawings in our show are delicate, fluid, and natural.

Rangers of Arnor by Donato Giancola

Tom Kidd: Tom is very old school in so many ways (we like that). He gave us two very evilly sweet illustrations for our show from the Words Like Coins book. He is very good at bringing an element of comedy to otherwise strictly violent or fantastical images, making you smirk when you know you shouldn't. I linked him to his imaginary world he's been creating, that of his world of Gnemo, because the art is damned fine.

Words Like Coins by Tom Kidd

Gary Lippincott: Gary has a long list of children's books to his name, delicately painted in watercolor washes. The Vampire's Beautiful Daughter cover was sent to us, as well as his Hermit piece. I have to say, his work is so delicate I don't think digital reproduction does it justice. Seriously, his work is a total experience in person (which is why I insist people get off their butts and see this stuff live!!).

The Vampire's Beautiful Daughter by Gary Lippincott

Tony DiTerlizzi: I am embarrassed to say I didn't make the connection between Tony and The Spiderwick Chronicles (which he co-created with Holly Black) until recently. Oh, I know The Spiderwick Chronicles, I just had seen other works of his and didn't make the full connection. Dumb? Maybe, but it also allowed me to enjoy his other whimsical works of their own merit. I've been told to "study Tony" if I wanted to structure my own work into children's books. Trust me, I am a willing student! He sent us some rarely-seen giclees for our show, adding additional comedy and whimsy alongside Tom's work.

Imagine by Tony DiTerlizzi

Terese Nielsen: Terese has been a favorite artist of mine for nearly 20 years; her nod to the Golden Age is apparent in her beautiful use of the ellipse, as well as her delicate palette. Well known for her work with Magic: the Gathering and the Stars Wars Saga (I love her Queen Amidala pieces, one of which we have a prints!), Terese has been working in the game and comic industry for years. I am always in awe of the perfect beauty in her work - she does no wrong.

Hanna, Ship's Navigator by Terese Nielsen

Echo Chernik: Echo clearly loves Mucha. She doesn't just emulate him though, she still has her own stamp to her work that makes her clearly unique. She is the only digital artist in our group, although you would never know it when you look at her work, and she prints her work big. Really big. Thank God; there are so many little nuances in her work, you miss them in small reproductions, which is a good thing she's been doing giant murals and advertising posters for so long (although she does have several books under her belt). Her work emits the feel of decadence, with her elliptical lines and deep rich palette and her super hot female figures. You just want to pop a bon bon in their mouths.

Burlesque Belly Dancer by Echo Chernik

Socar Myles: My friend, illustrator Samuel Araya, turned me onto Socar, and in turn I turned Jeff onto her as well. He said she was funny. He's right. But even more so, she holds the honors for the most "Jesus Christ!" exclamations over the work in this show. Her ink drawings are insanely detailed, to the point of hurting your eyes. And they're funny too, in a sort of twisted way. She put out the book called Fantasy Drawing Skills - it's quite good, my new student brought it in to show me the other day. Her inspiration is clearly Harry Clarke, although one can see an Aubrey Beardsley-Shel Silverstein mashup going on as well.


I DO NOT LIKE THIS MANHOLE by Socar Myles

Yoann Lossel: Yoann and I came into contact last year when I stumbled upon him on Facebook and invited him to our FAERIE show. We haven't looked back. He is not known here (yet) but has a strong following in his native France, with good reason. Jeff was apprehensive with my suggestion of Yoann until I sent him images - he's now a believer like me. He is currently a fine artist with a few publications in France, and you can see the Howard Pyle influence quite clearly, I think. We will see more of his work at Krab Jab in the upcoming year!

Eros et Thanatos by Yoann Lossel

Michael Hague: the master... Michael Hague is clearly influenced by the Golden Age, and in turn has influenced many more with his gorgeous watercolors. His credits include The Wind in the Willows, and Michael Hague's Magical World of Unicorns, along with several fairy books and one graphic novel. Michael sent us one of his magical unicorns, and I have to fight like the dickens not to buy it myself. Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham would doff their hats in his direction.

The Unicorn by Michael Hague

 I wish our guest curator, Jeff Menges, could have been in town for this show. He did a fantastic job building up our catalog of artists and art, but the call of Illuxcon (an illustrator's convention on the east coast) beckoned him and since I made the terrible mistake of opening the show the same weekend as the convention, he was unable to attend. But his stamp of excellence is everywhere, and I thank him.

This was a dream show for me. I love both the original period works as well as the contemporary work inspired from it. I hope some of this has rubbed off on any of you originally unfamiliar with the Golden Age, and I wouldn't be surprised if these contemporary artists inspired the artists of tomorrow. In that respect, the Golden Age is eternal.

Good night! - Julie Baroh, Sept 15th 2013