I love Jon J Muth’s work so much and was thrilled to find this clip this morning via Fuse #8. Muth discusses working on the illustrations for an adaptation of The Stonecutter, a Chinese fable, rooted in Taoist principles. Originally published in a limited, fine art edition and long out of print it has just been re released in the US.
It took my breath away when I first watched it and I’m sure you will all feel the same.
We love amazingly talented artist and author Kylie Dunstan! Her stunning picture book Collecting Colour is nominated for the 2009 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award and the 2009 Crichton Award. We asked Kylie if she would answer a few of of our questions and she kindly agreed….
we ♥ books – Collecting Colour traces the story of the interaction between a young white Australian and a young Indigenous Australian? What inspired this story?
Collecting Colour was inspired during a year I spent working as an arts officer for Injalak Art Centre in Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Arnhem Land in 2007/08. Injalak is a community owned and operated association, forming an important creative and social centre for the Gunbalanya community.
The artists from this area are known for their ‘x-ray’ paintings, done using natural ochres and fine ‘rarrk’ lines and their stunning woven pandanus baskets mats and bags.
Part of my job was to take the ladies who made the fibre art ‘out bush’ to collect the pandanus leaves and ‘colour’ – natural dyes used to make the baskets. The term ‘collecting colour’ was used by the weavers and it was from this phrase that the idea for the book grew.
For me, Collecting Colour is as much about friendship as it is about learning an Indigenous Australian cultural activity. Of course, the skeleton of the story is built around the process of making the fibre art but at the core of the book is a contemporary cross-cultural friendship between two little girls.
we ♥ books – Tell us about the work space where you wrote and illustrated Collecting Colour
After leaving Arnhem Land my partner and I traveled overseas. It was during this period that I wrote ‘Collecting Colour’.
After writing the first draft it was put aside for many years – and almost forgotten -until in 2004 (when living in Melbourne) I decided to apply for the ASA (Australian Society of Authors) mentorship program and needed a second manuscript to submit. After some reworking Collecting Colourwas submitted and I was offered a mentorship to work with Sally Rippin on its development.
The illustrations were completed in Adelaide, where for the first time I had a house that would fit my enormous drawing desk (salvaged many years ago from the drafting department of a Broken Hill mine). It would only fit in the living area but the light was great so I would illustrate the book while my youngest daughter, who was a baby at the time, slept or was with her Nana.
we ♥ books – What is the significance of the CBCA nomination for you? Where to from here for Collecting Colour?
The CBCA shortlist was such a high! As your typical insecure artistic type, getting a pat on the back from my peers was invaluable. It assured me that this career path was indeed the right choice for me. Hopefully for Collecting Colourit will mean increased exposure and more readers.
we ♥ books – Can you tell us about your work as an illustrator? When did you start illustrating and when did you know it would become your career? What formal or informal training did you have in collage techniques?
I have always wanted to write and illustrate picture books (yes, I am one of those people). However, somehow I ended up studying Visual Arts at University. After my degree I worked in Art Galleries and Museums until 2004 when I started to concentrate on my illustrations.
I don’t have any formal training in collage techniques, it’s just a style that has developed over the years. I like to use different techniques for different books and find I exhaust myself of one technique and develop a new one while working on a book.
we ♥ books – What’s your favourite colour?
My kids would probably say green as I seem to be quite drawn to it, but I like most colours – it’s the shades and tones of them that are important to me.
we ♥ books – Are there any particular websites or blogs that you visit regularly? Can you share with us some of your favourites?
I discovered ‘blogland’ when we moved to Vietnam last year and it has become quite a lifeline for me. My favorites list is endless but I really like Jacky Winter for some very talented illustrators, Book By It’s Cover and too many illustrators websites to mention.
The Design Files to give me a Melbourne/Design fix, LMNOP, Bloesem and B-Kids for lovely design from around the world, Garance Dore and The Satorialist for great street fashion… the list goes on.
we ♥ books – What were your favourite books when you were little?
The one that I still remember the words for is The Best Nest.
I think even at the age of five I related to Mrs Bird but probably even more so now (my partner will attest to this) – we move houses a lot!.
we ♥ books - We understand you have just finished your second picture book for Lothian. What can you tell us about it? Any chance of a sneak-peak?
Because You Are With Me, is in production now and due for release in early 2010. It’s quite different from Collecting Colouralthough I have used the lokta paper and a collage technique. The story revolves around a little girl, her dad and all she can achieve when they are together.
Some illustrations from the upcoming Because You Are With Me…
Further to our first Borrowed and Thrifted post last week, I thought I would share some of my methods for buying secondhand books…
I do not consider myself an expert on thrifting books online – by any stretch – but reading blogs like Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves provides so much inspiration for finding vintage or out-of-print books. My experience has been that there are only so many titles I can keep in my head (or on a list) for next time I’m at a secondhand bookshop or sale. So these are some ways I’ve been using to make the most of the internet to find secondhand books, instead of relying on my brain cells…
1) Using Ebay for buying secondhand books
If I know a book is out of print or hard to find, I do a quick search on Ebay. Usually the book will not currently be available, but I use my original keyword search to set up a saved search. You can do this for a particular title or for an author. I use the email facility so that Ebay sends me an email when a book I’m looking for comes up for auction. I’ve found some great picture books via Ebay, and recently I’ve picked up a few for 99 cents – one was even signed by the author! My saved search was the reason I found these books and became the only bidder.
Fairly obviously for regular users of Ebay, once you find a book you want to purchase, you can also view the seller’s other items. Often sellers of children’s books – whether they are doing a home clean-out or operating on a bigger scale – have multiple picture books, so it’s worth having a look at their other books and potentially ‘save’ some money with combined shipping.
2) Australian online secondhand book sites
I also use Books and Collectibles, which is an Australian-based online secondhand bookstore. From what I can tell, their database includes numerous vendors, so by searching their site, you are searching the databases of many stores at once. Compared to some other online secondhand bookstores, the books here generally seem to be reasonably priced.
I have just discovered that you can click on ‘Add Your Wants‘ on this site, and you will then be emailed if the book you are searching becomes available at one of the vendors.
There is a secondhand bookstore specialising in children’s books here in Melbourne called Nanny’s Web, and I have found some lovely books there.
3) International sites for sourcing secondhand books online
I have also used are Abebooks, which sources books from sellers around the world, and I particularly like the way you can filter searches on this site.
Are there any other book thrifters out there? What are your tips for sourcing secondhand books – either online or in person? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Found via this super cool blog (currently my absolute favorite) is this gorgeous little limited edition Zine created by husband and wife team APAK. They have an Etsy site which also features this beauty of a print called Sloth Tree..
On my last Etsy post we had a comment by we ♥ books reader Sally who mentioned that as the mama of two boys she wanted to find some Etsy prints that are more suitable for boys. I must admit she has me stumped a bit but I do have some ideas which I will post this week. I think we need to do a call out to all Etsy artists that we’d like some boys reading in art! If anyone else knows of some funky art suitable for boys that might include reading or have a storybook sort of theme let us know.
This book was one of my very favorite books from childhood and I remember it vividly…
Whistle For Willie is about Peter, a little boy who really wants to learn to whistle his very long sausage dog - Willie. It is such a simple story but it meant so much to me, as it has to millions of other children since its publication in 1964. And still now I am just in love with Keats.
Just like Sesame Street did, Ezra Jack Keats and his picture books opened up a whole different world to me. I learnt about big cities on the other side of the world, urban landscapes that I had not experienced but they fascinated me.
The illustrations in this book are as vivid as my memories of it. The colours are loud and happy, the sky bright blue and the pavements gritty grey. There is funky graffiti on the streets and gorgeous 60s floral wallpaper on Peter’s walls at home. Keats used a spectacular technique of blending gouache watercolour with collage in his illustrations that gives the book an illusion of texture.
I don’t remember ever questioning the fact that Peter is an African American child and I was interested to find this quote by Keats on his Foundation website…
“…None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids—except for token blacks in the background. My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along. Years before I had cut from a magazine a strip of photos of a little black boy. I often put them on my studio walls before I’d begun to illustrate children’s books. I just loved looking at him. This was the child who would be the hero of my book.”
Peter is every child; he struggles with learning to whistle, he plays, he skips and he explores. His enthusiasm and joyfulness in life is infectious and irrepressible. His expressions and his movements are just delightful and just looking at this book makes me want to give him a big kiss.
This animation of Whistle For Willie was filmed in 1965.
Whistle For Willie was the second book written by Keats about Peter, the first being The Snowy Day for which he won the Caldecott Medal. The Snowy Day is also gorgeous; for me imagining a city covered in snow is still a dream and of course this book also taught me the art of making snow angels. Peter goes on to feature in four other books growing up to be a teenager. You can see that lucky Katie found a second hand copy of Goggles starring Peter in this photo from her loot at Booktown. The Keats books are actually hard to find in Aus.
There is a beautiful clip from a film made about Keats on the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation website. Watching it brought me to tears today as I discovered so much about the man who created these amazing stories from my childhood. Overwhelmingly what comes from this piece and the rest of the information on the website is that Keats just adored children. Although he never had a family of his own he respected children and really believed that all children have a place in the world and should be loved and treated well.
On this Mothers’ Day I feel very lucky to have had a mother and grandmother who instilled such a love for reading and literature in me. I know that I want the same for Ned and the best way to do that? I think I’ll share some stories about Peter with him.
||The Snowy Day is currently available from our online store||
Melbourne readers may already be familiar with the Magnolia Square boutique markets held in Melbourne. We are very excited to let you know that We Heart Books will be participating in the forthcoming Tiny & Small event, to be held in Brighton, on May 21-23.
Lou and I have been to the gorgeous Magnolia Square markets in the past. The first time we went, Rowan and Ned were still babies, and I was particularly sleep-deprived… but NOTHING was going to stop me getting out of the house for some Magnolia Square-style retail therapy and a coffee with Lou. That’s a testament to the lure of this particularly special market!
Magnolia Square lives up to its motto of showcasing products that “are exceptional in their originality, quality & style”. We will have lots of our special books and related product on display at our stall, including many of the books that you can currently find in our store plus some new products we have sourced specifically in advance of this event.
Details are:
Thursday 21 May: 12pm-9pm
Friday 22 May: 10am-5pm
Saturday 23 May: 10am-4pm
Venue: Brighton Town Hall, cnr Wilson St and Carpenter St, Brighton.
We hope to see some of you there!
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