one world

On the seventh day of the seventh month, my busy tour of bookish events around Seven Days of Daisy began at the Graves Memorial Library in Kennebunkport. Quite auspiciously, too, since I was there over four years ago on a visit with Mitali Perkins and Rickshaw Girl. Nice to start with familiar faces!

In keeping with the summer reading program of One World, Many Voices, I gave a presentation first to a book group of girls who had just read Rickshaw Girl. I showed images from my childhood, my early career as an illustrator, and then sketches and referencing in the making of illustrations for the book. Process is always a good topic, because people are generally curious about the back story. I had to travel in my imagination to be in Bangladesh, and I did that with many visits to my island library, as well as listening to music, eating Indian food, and watching films set in Bangladesh.

That book has led to plenty of other assignments in the same area of the world. I showed this illustration, done for Cricket Magazine, since henna designs are relevant to the alpana designs in Rickshaw Girl. This piece is currently on view in Tell Me a Story: Folktales and World Cultures at the University of Southern Maine's Atrium Art Gallery at Lewiston-Auburn College, through August 12.

And most recently, I worked on illustrations for a curriculum activity for Saraswati's Way by Monika Schroder. Here's my drawing of the goddess of learning and knowledge, Saraswati.

Calling attention to the strong decorative patterns running through these cultures and my illustrations, I invited the group to draw with my colored pencils and pastels. Stand back!

These can be like doodles or radial designs that begin in the center, and expand outward. Or, some decided to draw an imaginary scene, anything that shines with color.

This artist was the last to leave. She needed to get her color all over the page. And maybe a little on herself! Her drawing has a bold palette and strong composition. Hooray!

Another artist decided to make use of patterns. Love all the striped petals here.

The book group cleared out and made way for another round of younger kids who heard my story of the making of Seven Days of Daisy.  After reading the book, they got busy creating their own summer story.

This girl was very excited about an upcoming sleepover:

Every day of the week, something cool happens to this girl:

Many thanks to the Graves Memorial Library for a fun exchange of stories and art!

I made it back to the island in time to gather some pieces for the Color of Peaks show at the TEIA, the island sailing and tennis organization down the hill. The "club" as it's known, makes an appearance in Seven Days of Daisy.

It's the large white boathouse that hangs out over the water in the background above. I walk by it every day on my way to the beach with the dog.

 "Dusky Diamond View," below, is one of the pastels in the show.

Next week I'll be teaching a Drawing with Color workshop to young artists at the TEIA for three days
followed by a flurry of book visits.

On Thursday, July 14 at 2 PM, I'll be at the Skowhegan Public Library.
The next morning, July 15 at 10:30, I'll be at the Bristol Area Library.

And on Saturday, July 16 I'll be at Bayswater Books in Center Harbor, NH from 11 AM - 1 PM.

Whew! Have pencils, will travel!

seeds of conflict and peace

One aspect of illustration I relish is the chance to do research. Maybe I miss doing those book reports from school, or maybe it's my keen curiosity. I had a fantastic opportunity to go back in time, waaaay back, when I worked on a project for Cricket Magazine. "Jason and Jonathan" is a story by Eric Kimmel, set in ancient Judea. Two boys from opposite sides of their village, one Greek, the other Judean, meet in the caves above the town and become friends.

Art director Karen Kohn provided some reference, mostly of Greek soldiers and Greek vase art, while I scoured the local library and my own clipping files for something to spark my sense of that time and place. The illustrations also involved battle, not something I have drawn before. There's nothing like primary sources to get me going, so I found some island models. Since Cricket is aimed at 9 - 14 year-olds, I contacted Liam, who is 14. He found another friend, Jack, to come along. I asked them to wear shorts and sandals and bring something like a sword.

In the first scene, they are lying on a cliff, gazing at shooting stars. Here's the shot I used for reference.



And here's the sketch.



I also contacted a neighbor, Steve Schuit, who has been to Jerusalem and traveled in the Middle East. Steve and his wife, Marsha, are consultants to groups, while being civic leaders and art advocates in their community, and have hosted numerous art shows in their home. He showed me great landscape shots like this one.



It informed the setting for the final illustration.



The boys took many poses, getting into the act. Liam here finds a live Greek on the battlefield.



It's Jack, his long-lost friend.



Here's my sketch, in which I accidentally switched the players.



It was the Judean standing, not the Greek. So I revised that in the final illustration.



In the final scene of the story, the Greek boy encounters other Greek soldiers, and he pretends to take his friend hostage. My models were great:



Here's the sketch.



Karen asked me to refine the helmet a bit more.



While I was in the middle of this project, Steve asked me to join him for the Educators Evening at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine. It felt completely relevant to my state of mind. The boys in the story I was illustrating had decided that, although they had different customs and beliefs, "Our prayers just take different paths."

If only their descendants could have been so open-minded.

Seeds of Peace was founded in 1993 to bring together youth from countries around the world in a state of conflict. Teens from Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and Jordan go through 3 weeks of intense workshops, facing ancient fears and hatreds with dialogue, activities, and when it's not raining, swimming in Pleasant Lake.

This is Annie O'Brien, who also attended the Educators Evening, at the gate.



It was a soggy camp when we arrived, nobody jumping in the lake.



Yet, when you gather 14 and 15 year-olds, the energy is high. Here they are busting out of dinner.



The rest of us gathered at the Delegation Center, where most of the session work takes place. Every country sends along Delegation Leaders, adult educators who work with Seeds of Peace facilitators to arrive at open communication models they can bring back, planting those seeds of peaceful respect in their classrooms and lives.



Marsha and Steve led the discussion, in which everyone in the large circle stated their country and their educating role. Then for short sessions, we all mingled and spoke to those with parallel areas of interest and/or experience. This was a heady moment: to be in exchange with so many people from all over the world in one room. I met Nadim from Pakistan, Drora from Israel, Fatmah from Egypt, and so many I could not spell their names. It was humbling and exhilarating all at once. My contribution was a lesson activity using zines as a vehicle for self-expression, a merger of visual and language arts to communicate a student's viewpoint in unexpected and revealing ways. I shared some student zines and talked about visual art as a medium that can sometimes go beyond the limits of language. Here's the mingling.



The whole room was wallpapered in big lists made during sessions.



What if we ALL kept this list front and center? To learn to be peacemakers and live with people we disagree with?

I came away from Seeds of Peace feeling like a new person, an ambassador for being human, wanting a peaceful world, and teaching others to get along. See where illustration takes me? I thought I was looking for photos of Jerusalem, and I wound up meeting people who live there.

I thank Cricket for publishing stories that illustrate friendship and understanding. And I thank Marsha and Steve for being ambassadors for peace, in their work and dedication.