Book Champion: Sean

Our Book Champion today is Sean who initially turned the tables on our
intrepid interviewer by asking: “Why are you asking me these questions?!”.
Sean is 10 years old and lives in Spain, he likes playing the saxophone and
his favourite book is The 13-Storey Treehouse by author Andy Griffiths
and illustrator Terry Denton.

Is this the first book you’ve read by this author?
No, it’s my second one.

What do you like about his books?
The illustrations because they’re fun. And I especially like how you could be in
one chapter at the start and then all the way at the end that person will come back into the story. Like the dog Barky. He’s there early on and then he comes back a hundred pages later. And gets squished!

And that’s it for Barky? He’s gone? Oops!
The End!

The End for Barky. Who squished him?
A giant gorilla.

They seem like long books. Do they take a long time to read?
Hmmm, they probably take me two months.

Do you read one chapter a night?
No, probably for a week I read about 36 pages.

And how did you come across this book. Are your other friends at school
reading The 13-Storey Treehouse?
No. A friend from Australia came to visit and he showed me one of his books which I’d already read and so then I got interested in it and I was talking to my teacher about it and she said her son has tonnes of them.

How many of them are there in the series?
23.

What’s the other one that you’ve read?
The Very Bad Book. And see that’s an autograph by the illustrator. The writer and the illustrator are both Australian.

And what’s the story about?
The book is basically about the writer and the illustrator. They live in this tree house and all these strange things happen to them. Like giant sea princesses that turn into evil monsters, giant gorillas, monkeys invading the treehouse, falling cats. But from the start of the book, they have to write a book. Which is this book! And then all the way through they’re getting stopped from what they’re doing because of that book. And eventually at the end you’re reading the book that they came up with.

That sounds like fun. Especially when you have a man-eating shark tank and a bowling alley and a room full of pillows and swinging vines and a see-through swimming pool. And a lemonade fountain. Would you like to live there?
Yes. I even did a drawing of it, except it’s at school.

Who would you live there with?
All my friends. Mum and Dad. My brother. And Luka (Sean’s dog)

Would Luka be scared living up a tree?
Oh no, she doesn’t seem afraid of heights.

 

Chatterbox No. 7

Isadora: Are there pirates in the Philippines?

Me: Yes, and other places … on the high seas. How can you spot if
someone is a pirate?

Isadora: They have a scratch on their face and wood leg.

Me: What do pirates do?

Isadora: They do three things.

Me: Three?

Isadora: They steal boats. Steal treasure. And chase people.

Me: Would you like to meet a pirate?

Isadora: No. I want to watch them on TV, when I’m 6 or 7.

Sweet tweet

A kindergarten teacher mentioned that the children in her class always asked how to draw one thing or another. She asked if I would complete a drawing exercise with them. After some thought about a suitable activity, it seemed drawing an object for a four-year-old to  replicate didn’t seem right. The fours and fives seem quite happy developing their own generic symbols: rainbows, sky, bee, dog and so on. What could I add by rendering fancier versions?

This age group is starting to use shapes in imagery. A design using a collection of circles, triangles, semi-circles, assembled to form an object, could be good fun to play with, and show that by using similar combinations of shapes you could make pictures of other animals or objects.

I designed a ‘bird’ picture to recreate in the classroom. First, we looked at the geometric shapes made from coloured paper. We named the shapes, and guessed what we could ‘draw’ from rearranging them. Each child was given their own set to assemble and glue down, after the example, and some children added unique details. All up, the bird was a big hit!

A familiar face

It can be hard to look at certain objects and not see a face. Resting in the shadows of trees, or in the raised metal of drain covers on a footpath, faces are everywhere. Well, I think so, and I’m not alone. The want to anthropomorphise is deeply imbedded in the human brain. Thankfully, the faces I see are benevolent ones, like the one springing from this silicon rubber trivet in my kitchen. It took me by surprise one day, looking for all the world like the head of Charlie Brown, and he has never left the kitchen. Every time I look at the trivet, there he is. Good grief!

Chatterbox No. 6

My best four year old friend (BFYOF) and I were reading The Perfect Monster by Sally Grindley and Erica-Jane Waters when the coversation turned to the nature of reality, epistemology, exceptionalism, popcorn and Tinkerbell dresses.

Me: Do you think the characters are real?

BFYOF: Ummm, yes!

Me: What makes them real? Are they pretend or are they real?

BFYOF: They’re real. Cos, they’re just in the country but the book seems like they’re not real but they’re actually real.

Me: They’re real but they’re not real in the book?

BFYOF: Yes!

Me: OK, hmmm, so how does that work?

BFYOF: Ummm…?

Me: So on the page they’re not real?

BFYOF: Yes because they are real but they just don’t show they’re real.

Me: OK, so … they could walk into the room here?

BFYOF: No!

Me: No?

BFYOF: Because they’re very very very long to their, to their country. It’s very very long.

Me: Aahh. They have their own country?

BFYOF: Yeah! And they don’t come to people’s houses because they don’t know where to go.

Me: OK, and the country they live in is far away.

BFYOF: Yes! Very far away. I think they’re …up (she points vaguely to the sky).

Me: Up in the sky?

BFYOF: Yes, there’s a big man up there who says Bing! Bang! Fo! Fum!

Me: I smell the blood of an Englishman!

BFYOF: …(she looks quizzical…)

Me: Is that how it goes? Well that’s interesting. I didn’t realise the monsters had another country.

BFYOF: Yeah? You didn’t know that?

Me: No, I didn’t know that.

BFYOF: Do you know why I know everything?

Me: Why do you know everything?

BFYOF: Because sometimes my brain just knows everything and it tells me…yeah.

Me: Wow!

BFYOF: Yeah everyday.

Me: You’re lucky! Does that work for everyone? Does everyone’s brain tell them stuff?

BFYOF: No, just me because I’m a special girl.

Me: You’re a special girl?

BFYOF: (whispers in my ear): Because I eat popcorn!

Me: Popcorn? Does that make you special or does that give you special powers?

BFYOF: That gives me special!

Me: Special powers?

BFYOF: No, not special powers. It just makes me special. Want me to wear the Tinkerbell dress?

Me: No, I like what you’re wearing.

BFYOF: OK.

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Mini Pop Up Tots

It’s not yet summertime in Australia, but it is time for some home spun frivolity.
Watching bemused looks on the girls’ faces when presented with miniature cardboard versions of themselves was great fun. I printed, then cut around and assembled the ‘miniatures’ with a stand like a photo frame.

Isadora was initially delighted and perplexed, stating, ‘What on Earth are those? … They look a bit groovy’.

It was entertaining to see them act the puppeteer with their own likenesses*, with both girls talking in exaggerated voices, and this made for very animated play.

Make your own … 1. Take a photograph top to toe, somewhere standing in even light (meaning, fewer shadows or bright sun across the person is good).
2. Print out the full-figure on A4 paper. 3. Glue the paper to a heavier cardboard first, one that is rigid enough to stand upright once cut out. If you want a colour outline like the example, just mount the figure on colour card after you have cut around the outline. 3. Carefully cut around the colour card, mirroring the existing outline, allow a 5-8mm border. 4. Too make a simple stand for the back cut a piece of cardboard approx. 180mm x 75mm wide and then fold at the 20mm point lengthways, in the example, this side was simply secured to the back with a long strip of tape. The remaining 50mm folds back and acts as a basic stand, you don’t see it from the front. And there you have it, your own mini whoever.

* Each of these ‘characters’ were made with three images combined. Heads were made a bit bigger for effect, and shoes were added from separate photo too, this allowed for more detail and brighter colour, but you can still use a single image to great effect.

The Tree Climber

Although I knew that the playful pastime of tree climbing was also a serious occupation, I had never watched a professional tree climber at work, until yesterday in our backyard. Sliding out on the thinnest of twigs at the greatest of heights, Barton, our climber, displayed the nimbleness of a sailor and the derring-do of a chainsaw juggler. Leaning horizontally, and swinging upside down Barton was giving our 60 year old Elm tree a very spectacular chop. I asked if he was a good climber as a child, ‘I used to climb, I’m not sure that I was any better then the other kids. It’s just practice’.

Like so many skills in life, ‘it’s just practice’. Though this did not lessen the spectacle of Barton’s intuitive climbing skills. He placed absolute trust in his ropes and swung between limbs, chainsaw humming from waist. Perching lightly, like a cat, he stretched to tend the fingernails of third-storey branches, pruning the magnificent tree carefully into shape. Good job. Some job. Don’t try it at home.
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The Olympic spirit

When Baron Pierre de Coubertin designed the modern Olympic logo in 1914, even he could not have imagined that his creation would be so highly visible and widely recognised one hundred years on.

With the London games over, and the city lingering in the afterglow, a British committee begins to focus on developing the legacy of The Games.
Meanwhile, the IOC packs up and moves out, setting its sights firmly on the next big gig, Rio 2016.

The London games may not loom large in the childhood memories of 5-year-old Isadora, as she grows up, though it did capture her imagination. Days after the closing ceremony Isadora continued to churn out drawings of tennis players, scribbles of bicycle riders, swimmers and volleyball players. Within each drawing was her reproduction of the unmistakable mark, five interlocking rings.

This is the first symbol she has ever included as part of a drawing, and such logo recognition would surely warm the hearts of global brand consultants.

My favourite bit though, aside from the 11 fingered beach volleyball player pictured above, is that within the same drawing, this small Australian girl chose to make her volleyball player French. In doing so, she has displayed a lack of boundaries,
a non-existent nationalism, and effortlessly honoured the Olympic ideal of
shared humanity.

The guardians of the Olympic image may not appreciate such unsanctioned reproduction of their trademark, however, they might appreciate the spirit in which it was used here. The future of the Olympic ideals could be in good shape if the drawing is anything to go by, Olympic games brand recognition looks like an absolute shoe in.
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Gabriella Soraci

Twelve months ago I stumbled upon the work of Gabriella Soraci.
Recently I decided to ask the artist about her images, and the story behind one
of her little paintings in particular.

Hi Gabriella, please tell us a bit about yourself and your environment.
I live in Eugene, Oregon, it’s a small town nestled between the Cascade mountain range and the rugged Oregon coastline. The area is known for its easy-going lifestyle. I have lived here most of my life. In addition to my own studio practice
I teach painting and drawing at the University of Oregon and at Lane Community College, both in Eugene. My husband Michael is a building designer and we have
a one-year-old daughter, Francesca.

What about your art background?
It definitely reaches back to early childhood. I was always drawing, and reading.
My sister and I attended a Waldorf school where arts, crafts, and storytelling are incorporated into daily learning in all subjects. Later on in college (Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Oregon, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California at Davis), I approached the study of fine art in a more serious way. I have always been a huge reader, so in college the choice of what to study was between studio arts, and something else like creative writing or English. Ultimately the studio won out. There is just nothing better than the feeling you get when you are deep into the creative process. Time moves differently. Petty concerns vanish. I knew that in the studio I could combine all of my interests and continue learning for the rest of my life.

So what books did you enjoy in childhood?
I was always reading, one book after another. I loved, and still love, the
Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle, and many of her other books.

Painting of My Rainbow Painting (2008)

I love your little canvas, Painting of my Rainbow Painting, it appears to fuse landscape, mindscape and still life. What led you to paint it?
The year before making Painting of my Rainbow Painting, I made a dramatic change in my process, from working abstractly from the imagination to working perceptually with simple still life items. The little watercolor painting seemed like a bridge between the two. I actually love the way you describe it – fusing landscape, mindscape, and still life. I think that is something I strive for and that my most successful paintings accomplish, so thank you! I made another attempt at incorporating the Rainbow Painting two years ago. I placed the watercolor behind a jam jar, partially refracting the image through the glass. I might use it again some day, since its symbolism continues to broaden for me over time.

Jar and Rainbow on Table (2010)

Can you tell us more about the Rainbow watercolor image?
My parents met at a spiritual community called Findhorn in Northern Scotland, where I was born in 1979. A fellow community member was the artist Bob Knox, who would go on to a successful career as an illustrator and painter. The original “Rainbow Painting,” as I call it, is a small watercolor made by Bob and given to my parents as a gift after I was born. I have always had the painting with me, either in my bedroom growing up, or in my studio, and now in my daughter’s bedroom.
That magical little watercolor certainly represents something about my childhood experience, and since it has always been with me, has most likely influenced my artistic sensibility as well. As an adult, I suppose the painting also acts as a symbol, reminding me of the dreams and utopian ideals for the future that my parents, and many of their generation had in the late 1960’s and 70’s. For some, those ideals are still alive and kicking, but there is no doubt that as a culture many of those dreams have not come to pass. In that sense, the painting is bittersweet, a marker of personal and collective history.

Sometimes your subject is a cup or simple box, other times you make
mini-constructions from everyday objects the subject. Books are stacked in a triangle, or a piece of paper is taped to a window, folded maps become little sculptures.
Well, other than the personal relationship with the Rainbow Painting, I mostly use objects that are not sentimental and have come across them somewhere in a different context. I spend a lot of time moving things around, playing with possible combinations, and looking at the resulting arrangement. I’m attracted to simple geometric shapes – squares, circles, and triangles – and find myself building these shapes with different materials.

What is currently inspiring you?
I am focused on my daughter most of the time while continuing to teach, so studio time is limited. When I do get a small chunk of time I am drawing classic subjects like apples and flowers, or the view out my studio windows to get warmed up again. I have made hundreds of drawings over the years in the “down time” between my more intense painting periods. For me painting is a slow craft, but it is one I am prepared to spend a lifetime at.
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Gabriella’s website and Etsy store

Folded Map II (2008)

Black Paper in Window (2008)

 

A book critic is born

I decided to ask my Best Four-Year-Old Friend (BFYOF) for feedback on the illustrations that accompany one of our manuscripts.

F: Do you think that little character is cute?

BFYOF: Hmmm, no.

F: He’s not cuddly enough?

BFYOF: (reluctantly) He’s a little bit cuddly.

F: What would make him look more cuddly?

BFYOF: When he’s smiling and playing.

F: What about that picture?

BFYOF: That one is when he’s scared. But why’s his teeth out like that?
Maybe he’s going Aah! and Grrrr!

F: He looks a bit scared though doesn’t he?

BFYOF: Yeah. He’s in a hot air balloon

F: What about there? Does he look cute there?

BFYOF: Yeah, I already saw that picture. (she walks off)

Tough audience.

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