Art Break Wednesday: Terrific Art Springing up – Check Out these Artists!

 

Greetings, Art Friends!

On the home front, I’m zipping between region and state tennis tournaments this week for my youngest, a high school senior and captain of the team. DSC_0036 seth with trophy small  (Blog posts I’ve been planning in my head have yet to materialize, in other words!)

But it’s still Wednesday, so I’d love to share a few links which are sure to delight your eyes.  Click around and enjoy!

First up is Chip Ghignachip ghigna art cropChip is the son of noted children’s poet Charles Ghigna, aka Father Goose.  I’ve been eyeing Chip’s colorful, lively paintings on the Father Goose blog for a while now.

 

Chip is a recent graduate of Auburn University and currently enjoying his first gallery show at the Ellenburg Gallery at the Homewood Public Library, next door in Alabama.  If you’re in that neighborhood, check it out!  If not, please enjoy clicking and scrolling online.

 

Next, you’ll enjoy tooling around the portfolios of Joseph Bradley.  I met Joseph briefly at The Maker’s Summit in Greenville, South Carolina, in February.  joseph bradley art cropHe hails from a neighboring town, Pendleton, and I quickly assessed that his paintings on wood panels have more than a few fans.  Take a look-see and you’ll learn why!  Joseph has just added many new pieces.

Last but not least on our mini gallery tour today is the newest member of my wonderful art critique group, fellow Georgian and the creative force behind Doublefly Design, Leighanne Schneider . leighanne art crop Here’s a link to her fine art site, and she has a treasure trunk full of irresistible offerings at her illustration site.  She doesn’t know this yet – nor do my other art critique group partners in crime – but I do plan to feature each one of them in a proper interview post in coming months.  Forgiveness is easier to get than permission, you know…

Here’s hoping you are surrounded by colorful April flowers – and art! – springing up, and that the pollen is passing you by.  Enjoy creating, and support your friendly local artists. :0)

Thanks for visiting.

Art Break Wednesday: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s “Drawing Into Poems” project

 

Hope you are enjoying a Happy Poetry Month!

Today I have a special treat.  Children’s poet and author, sought-after writing teacher, and Poem Farm blog creator Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has embarked on a wonderful project this month that she graciously agreed to let me share here.

Amy LV

Amy LV

Each day in April, Amy has been “Drawing Into Poems” – her daily “drawing/seeing/writing study into poetry.”

“I chose this project because I have always wanted to learn to see better, to understand through seeing, to develop my own sensitivity,” she says in the introductory post here. Logo Amy LV

(Don’t miss the great books she’s listed as resources on that page.  I smiled at a couple of old favorites, THE ZEN OF SEEING by Frederick Franck  and DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN by Betty Edwards.  Others I’m putting on my to-read list.)

 

Here’s a taste of her project.

On April 4th, Amy shared this drawing of a bowl:

Bowl Good 2 Amy LV

On April 5th, she shared a poem inspired by that drawing exercise:

Cupped Hands 3

Don’t you love all those associations?  And such lovely imagery?

a dream / of old coyotes / a dream / of sun-warm deer” makes me swoon.

Another favorite of mine from this project is her cemetery sketch from this past Monday (April 15):

Cemetery Amy LV

I  LOVE the lively composition here – so much life for such a “grave” subject, no?  And what wonderful reflections, such as the winding thought penned above the arched tombstone, “Always… These tombstones remind me… not to worry…

I’m enjoying Amy’s reflections in her blog posts, too.  Here’s an excerpt from this same day:

What places make you feel grateful and reflective?  It is important for all of us to find places where we can find our quiet selves and just think. Cemeteries slow me down and help me remember what matters most to me.  I wish that I could talk with all of the people buried here, learn from them, hear their lessons.”

My mother instilled in me a love of walking through cemeteries, too – sketching, pondering.  Amy’s drawings and words help us appreciate such contemplative moments and places.

At just past the mid-way point of this project, I asked Amy what she’s learned so far.

“Halfway through my month of Drawing into Poems, I see that drawing and writing are even more alike than I had imagined,” she says. “There’s that initial flash of love, followed by circling around and around, trying to make clear outside what you see and deeply feel inside.  I’m studying shadows now, and roof lines, noticing the silhouette of a milk carton and the way our mother cat’s tail curls around her smallest kitten.  I am seeing more because I am looking differently; drawing has opened up another window for me.  I plan to keep drawing in my notebooks even after April is over so as not to lose these new eyes.”

Amy’s poetry appears in many publications and acclaimed anthologies.  Her first collection for children was released this spring by Clarion Books – FOREST HAS A SONG, illustrated by Robbin Gourley.  Led by a girl in spunky red boots, readers FOREST COVERexplore the woods in 26 poems.  From “Song”:

Under giant pines / I hear / a forest chorus / crisp and clear.

Singing its praises are the most respected names in the field of children’s poetry as well as teachers in the trenches.  You might also be interested in seeing the art for this book develop – Amy includes a page on her website which chronicles Robbin Gourley’s beautiful illustrations as they progressed.

Now, I know you want to click over to Amy’s blog and check out all the art and reflections thus far this month.  And aren’t you thankful we still have a couple more weeks to go in April? :0)

Gracious thanks to Amy for visiting today and sharing her inspiring work!

Art Break Wednesday – Hyewon Yum

with Hyewon Yum and Ladybug 2013 kaigler crop

Robyn with Hyewon Yum at the 2013 Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival

Waving howdy from the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival in Hattiesburg, MS!

I’m on a poetry panel here with Irene Latham and April Halprin Wayland, as we present a workshop called “Take 5 – Create Fun with the Poetry Friday Anthology.” (I mentioned on my author blog here.)

Also on my author blog a few months ago, I featured an illustration from Hyewon Yum.  I was thrilled because she illustrated a poem of mine in the Nov./Dec. 2012 issue of Ladybug.  (Here’s my post about all that.) Yum is an acclaimed author/illustrator of many books including: MOM, IT’S MY FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN (2012), THE TWINS’ BLANKET (2011), THERE ARE NO SCARY WOLVES (2010), and LAST NIGHT (2008) all from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. More books are soon to hit the shelves, which she either illustrated or wrote and illustrated.

I was extra-thrilled to discover last month that she won the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, presented at this festival!  Here’s her blog post about that.

She kindly permitted me to post her artwork for my poem in December, so I’d like to share it here with you to day as I’m wishing her hearty congratulations on her new award.

fox-final and LADYBUG collage

This is a linoleum cut print, and, being a print fanatic, I just love it.

Many thanks to Hyewon for sharing her artwork, and to The LADYBUG/Carus folks for granting permission to share my poem online.

GRAY FOX

by Robyn Hood Black

At the edge of winter,
at the edge of the wood,
at the edge of the brush,
a gray fox stood.

I took a small step,
I took a breath in –
then nothing was there
where the gray fox had been.

© 2012 by Carus Publishing

If you’re an educator, click here for a link to the LADYBUG Teacher’s Guide for this issue.

The future of children’s book illustration looks to be in good hands!

Art Break Wednesday – Poetry Month, Austin Kleon, Found Poems

poetry-month-2013-logo

Happy Poetry Month!  Because I’m a poet as well as a visual artist, I especially love April.

About this time last year, with a couple of Atlanta writing buds,  I got to hear and meet New York Times bestselling author Austin Kleon.  Sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book, he spoke at the DeKalb County Public Library about his book, STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST – 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.  Ready for more black and white graphics?

StealLikeAnArtist

You might know writer and artist Kleon from his 2010 NEWSPAPER BLACKOUT:

cover-375-245x367 newspaper blackout austin kleon

dedication page Austin Kleon 2012 RHB(I was happy that he signed both of my books with his signature arrow-through-the-head image.)

 

Do click over to his blog to check out his work.  He’s a warm, funny, engaging speaker addressing creativity in the digital age.  He’s also a new dad (awwwww…!) and presents common sense ideas about creating in uncommonly understandable terms.

Robyn with Austin Kleon 4 2012

 

 

He’s spoken to audiences at Pixar, Google, and The Economist, to name a few organizations.  Intrigued?  Check out his TEDx Talk.  His work has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

One of my favorite things about his books is the introduction to NEWSPAPER BLACKOUT.  The book contains dozens of “redacted” poems created with a permanent marker and newspaper articles.  You’ll have to check out his blog to see examples!  Anyway, in the intro, Kleon gives us an abbreviated history of this type of poetry – stretching back more than 250 years!  As a lover of found poetry (my first publications in an anthology came in THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK – A Book of Found Poems  edited by Georgia Heard and illustrated by Antonie Gullioppé, Roaring Brook Press, 2012), I was hooked on this surprisingly rich history as well as on the poems.  Why not try some yourself?

The few found poem collages I’ve made for my art business and my Etsy shop have found buyers these past few months (Yay!  Thanks, Buyers!), so I’m conjuring up some more.  Here’s a peek at one just done – when the glue finishes drying (!) I’ll take some real photos and list it tomorrow.  I always start with a real page from a vintage book.  This one is from p. 47 of A LITERARY PILGRIMAGE, Seventh Edition, by Dr. Theodore F. Wolfe, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia: 1896.  (Such a lovely laid texture on those pages!)  I use the real page but photocopy it to work out the found poem before I paint over the original text with gouache, leaving only the bits I want for the poem unpainted.

discarded stanzas in process RHB

Once the poem emerges and the paint dries, I attach to a prepared substrate (background surface I’ve already painted – Canson matboard in this case) and embellish with vintage metal elements.  I’ve been waiting for just the right piece to use this twisted black piece on (from an Eastern European Etsy dealer!) – it reminds me of a figure, specifically, a Kokopelli type figure playing his flute.  A prankster and storyteller, I think of him as a poet, too, and he seemed to fit here beside the “preface” line of “footsteps lightly print the ground.” – a line from Thomas Gray on this page.

discarded stanzas image adj RHBWritten out, the found poem would look like this:

Discarded Stanzas

the poet’s footsteps lightly print the ground

what was

the transcending quality of

such stanzas

divinest poetry

of a noble soul

on which

bereft mortals meditate

on the way to

darkness

discarded stanzas framed RHB

For a look at my process making another found poem collage, click here.

Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you a month full of art AND poetry!

(Thurs. Update – Listed this new found poem collage in my Etsy shop.) :0)