Remember the photos of Ruth McNally Barshaw as the Mad Sketcher all during the weekend of the SCBWI Winter Conference?
It's up HERE!!!
Yay, Ruth! What a treat to finally get to see the weekend through your eyes.
PS: Ignore any slanderous references to Barbjn! I swear I am innocent of all charges.....
...but this comes to you with only the warmest wishes for a great holiday season!
If I can resist the urge, I will try to take a little break from the blog and focus on some other things: family, kids' books, Christmas, kids' books, guests on Monday, kids' books, going to New Hampshire, and kids' books. Oh, and then I might think a little about books for children, too.
Enjoy the season!
I have never aspired to be Miss Domesticity.
Yes, I used to spend lots of time cooking--sometimes even liking it! I bake the meanest blueberry pie you have ever had. I also have almost 30 years worth of Bon Appetit and Food and Wine in stacks that I even sometimes took recipes out of.
Yes, I love to decorate my house, and even thought about being an interior designer. Except, if you saw my house, you would realize that unless potential clients love cookie jars, carnival chalkware and plaster bust Elvis lamps flanking their couches, they might not want to hire me.
But that aside, I am totally out of the closet when it comes to being NOT NEAT. And that is in keeping with things, since half of my clothes at any given time are also totally out of the closet--or drawers, as the case may be. The surface of my dining room table, the official dumping ground for all that enters the house, makes an appearance briefly just before it gets set for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and then it goes under cover again until Passover when we host a big Seder.
I used to be a little embarrassed about my lack of interest in being Suzy Homemaker. Eventually, I realized that if you are raising three kids and also writing and illustrating, something has to give. In my case, it was my husband. He had to give up the notion that a house has to stay in order at all times. He actually had to give up that notion even before we had kids. I never believed it myself for one minute.
So now I have the New York Times to validate my sense of decorum, if not decor. Check out this article by Penelope Green in this morning's House and Home Section.
And then check out my current dining room table:
I feel a tight market coming on. The forecast is for rising prices, followed by a lessening of availability. Auction bids may reach new heights. A mad rush for what few are left will ensue, and many, many will be left out in the cold.
And I guess being left out in the cold is appropriate, since I am talking about SNOW GLOBES, and the little essay in this morning's NY Times. Watch that snowy real estate be snapped up pronto. And look to eBay for a bidding frenzy likely to rival the one I saw develop over chalkware bride and groom cake toppers.
I have always loved snow globes. When I was a kid I was particularly fond of the kind you could get at every Stuckey's south of the Jersey Turnpike. You know that kind: the ones with alligators, palm trees, mermaids, and an ever present abundance of snow. That's a surreal juxtaposition or an extra special kind. The Kitschy kind.
I have been putting them into illustrations since I started illustrating, because for me it is never enough to own junk, you have to draw it, too. Above is the one on the last page of my new book that is due out in the spring (TEX & SUGAR). I put one into my last PB, too:
Not long ago I doscovered that my publisher, Sterling, has a great book out: Celebrating Snowglobes, which I, of course, simply HAD to buy:
And this is REALLY weird: to see this article in the paper that mentions the company Global Shakeup on the West Coast that is like visiting Snow Globes City. I just yesterday placed an overnight FEDEX order for a few I loved, and a whole bunch of the do-it-yourself-kits. Check out their great selection of funky snow globes from all kinds of touristy attractions around the world.
There is also a new book that has come out that I am CERTAIN I will have to buy:
Something tells me that I'd better rush out and get as many plastic kitschy globes as I can BEFORE they are all gone. According to the woman at Global Shakeup, whom I spoke to yesterday after I went broke with my order, plastic snow domes (the other name for them) are likely to be a thing of the past. Because of plastic and the cost of oil? Because people love the glass globes more? Not sure.
Unlike the piece in the paper, which advises you to "buy tacky," I happen to love the glass almost as much. My son--who also collects them--told me one day in a in a very serious tone of voice, "Don't buy me those plastic junkie ones; I want the real ones--the glass ones."
Isn't that special? For about $40 a pop and up, I am soooooo glad he approves.
Maybe I should have started him off on the junk.
It is scary when you kids know you better than you know yourself.
My son, living in a house filled with junk and Elvis lamps has seen the humor in our family's surroundings and his mother's obsessions.
This is just so right on. And darn funny, too!
But I swear, I am NOT this bad....I don't think......
I 've been thinking about why I love Ugly Betty so much. Yes, the show is well produced and the performances are fun. But I think it mostly has to do with the visual feast created by the genius or two behind the set and costume design. And it is in the small details: Betty's clothes and home environment (gotta love that kitchen!) and also her neighbor's and rival's place. Take a close look at the details in Gina Compara's apartment. Whoa! THAT is exquisite set design to a tee--things you see for only fleeting minutes on a small screen--and yet they so wonderfully add to the character portrayal or the not-so-lovely Gina.
My favorite film makers pay enormous attention to set design and clothing. They go for the small things that are true to time and place and person in the stories.
Good book illustration pays the same kind of attention to detail. Especially in a book for kids, when you have a limited number of words to show who the main characters are and what they are about. You have to fill in the space with small details in the art that paint (both literally and figuratively) the whole picture. What does this guy like to wear? How does the girl decorate her room? Are there family pictures on the walls? Is the place neat or warmly disorganized?
These are the kinds of things I love to add to illustrations. It helps me know my characters more. It helps me to show the reader who the characters really are. We all form instant impressions about people without realizing it-and we do it because of the small details.
Yeah, I know. You would expect someone who collects so much junk to think this way. Can't help it.
Damnation to minimalism. Bring on the lawn ornaments!!
Now that my book is finally done and off to the publisher, I have tried to take a little time for junk. I picked up my mother and we hit our favorite consignment shop in Wrentham, MA. I always find things to take home and today was just like any other trip to Junk Heaven. I came home with goodies.
I fell in love with an oil painting of a bird, and a hand carved bird, as well, signed and glued to a small branch. I also found some tinted photos and old prints for NH. I bought a vintage wooden rake with the paper label still on and I went home with yet another American Bisque Beehive cookie jar. Typical kind of finds for a day on the hunt. Stuff I really do not need, but somehow could not leave in the shop.
Hard to say if this is good or bad, but I started a new collection quite by accident. Small salt spoons. One was dated 1893. A small keepsake from Chicago. Of course, if one is to collect sterling salt spoons one needs to collect the containers they scooped salt out of. What are they called? I have no idea, although I heard it once. If anyone knows, please tell me. The spoons are tiny. I was thinking they would make a great necklace strung together.
And this is the danger of junk love. There is always another collection that bites you and starts you scratching. Before long, you have a rash.
I've been think about starting a new blog just for junk huntin'. It deserves its own. And a new blog just for my book work.
I'll save this one for where the two meet in the middle, because most of the time they do.
It is hard to believe that it's been more than a month since I posted.
That is because I have been buried with a book project that is coming to a close.
This book has been a labor of love. I wrote AND illustrated it. It started in 1983, as a small poem. Then it went to bed and into hibernation for 17 years while I a) did tons of editorial art, and b) raised three wild boys.
Finally after several rewrites and near misses it found a home with an editor that I adore and have worked with on several books.
And I have spend that last nine months on it from morning until night.
The art is 90% done and shipped. I miss it.
BUT---I sure am glad this pregnancy is OVER!!!!!!
I need some serious junkin' time....
In the meantime, here is some art fromthe latest chpater book I have illustrated for Viking (written by David Adler)
This morning I opened an email:
" I've recently acquired two large prints that are signed B Johansen Newman. After reading your Bio, I believe these may be your work. One is titled "Puppet Drama With Star" and is numbered 2/5 and the other is titled Halloween and is marked A/P (artists proof?)
My questions are; Do these titles ring a bell? Also, I'm not sure what medium was used, they appear to be pencil, charcoal, or linoleum block. If I were to send a picture do you think you would be able to tell? Lastly, if you do recall the prints, can you put an approximate date on when they were created?
Any information would be greatly appreciated, these are beautiful prints, I would love to know more about their history. Thank you for your time. "
And so, it would seem that someone was out junkin' or, in this case, at auction up in the Buffalo area, and came home with...ME! Or, at least they came home with my art work!
Yes, indeedy, these were two etchings that I had done in the fall of 1973. I never did a run off of these plates, so I believe that there were barely 5 copies of the one print, and there may have been only 2 copies of the other!! How did I let them go? Did I give them away? Did I leave them somewhere? Did I sell them? We were always pretty broke back then, so I am sure the money must have come in very handy if I did sell them--like being-able-to-go-to-the-laundromat handy for clean underwear. THAT is how broke we were. I do know that they were THE FIRST pieces I signed "Johansen Newman." I had just gotten married that September!
Apparently they came from an estate sale. Whose estate?
I so enjoyed getting this email because I collect art by unknown artists that I find in antique stores. I often wonder who these long lost artists are/were and how they must have enjoyed putting brush to paper or canvas. Many of the pieces I buy are from the turn of the last century, some are later. Where did these artists live? Who were they? Do they know that I love the fruits of their creative efforts? Did someone else love their work before I did? Who? And, if so, how did it come to be owned by no one in particular?
How nice it would be to Google them and find out answers.
And that is why it was nice have some Google me and tell me about these long lost prints.
As artists we like to think that the fruits of our labors have lives all their own. That somehow they outlive us and keep on going--to other people, to other homes....
I wonder where this art will end up next when it is sold. And it will be sold. The finder is also a dealer.
I'll have to ask about that.....
He has promised to send me pictures. I will post them if possible.
mmmm.....I think I will have to do some serious treasure hunting this summer....
No, I am not talking about that Dusty Springfield song. I am talking about how I wish that I could illustrate a book containing some or all of the following:
a jukebox
a diner
a phone booth
a a 1956 Cadillac
a beauty parlor
a 50's kitchen
lots of cowboys
lots of taxi's
lots of buildings
a nightclub
an antique store
a 50's kitchen
a 50's department store
lots of clothes and junk that you would buy in a 50's department store
lots of junk period, like I live with all the time and have an obsession about buying
OK. I confess. I not only like to collect junk, I love to draw junk. With total glee I am now painting some of the above: the cowboys and the buildings, in my book that will come out next spring:
TEX AND SUGAR: A BIG CITY KITTY DITTY
Since there is a limit as to how much junk one can actually purchase or fit into one's house, one has to have a scheme if one is to keep from going nuts with covetitis. So one, or at least THIS ONE, has to draw stuff in illustrations and write about it.
I have several PB mss in the works containing some of the above. That should save me some money and living space.
I also have a MG novel in the works that takes place in Buffalo in the seventies. If you read my bio on my web site, you will know why I have a certain fondness for BUffalo in the 70's.
So if by some fluke, and editor or AD ever reads this blog and has a ms to illustrate that contains some of the above or is in the flavor of the above, think of me.
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