Sources of Inspiration

Since I was confused about which day I was supposed to be blogging (I thought it was next Thursday), today’s entry is a bit last minute.

As I was mulling over possible topics, I got to thinking about the people who inspired me to start writing children’s books in the first place, as well as those who continue to inspire me. And I thought sharing the names of these people might help some other writers and illustrators out there. Or cause them to share some of their own sources of inspiration.

So without further ado, my very random list of 10 creative people who have inspired me, in no particular order:

Douglas Florian

Children’s poet and wordplayer extraordinaire. And he illustrates his own poems to boot. I love the apparent simplicity of everything he does.

Chris Van Allsburg

He re-introduced me to the wonders of children’s books when I was in my 30’s. When I saw The Polar Express, I knew I had to get into this field.

Bill Bernbach

The guru of creative advertising in the 60’s. If you want to learn about how words and pictures work together, look up the advertising work of Doyle Dane Bernbach from that era.

Robert McCloskey

What a storyteller. What an illustrator. I never get tired of reading his books to my kids.

Eric Carle

To experience the sheer joy of creation, I highly recommend a video that he did about his creative process called Eric Carle, Picture Writer. It’s available at my local library and probably at yours too.

Leonard Marcus

He’s written so many books about the business of children’s books, all of them inspirational–especially Dear Genius and Ways of Telling.

Vincent van Gogh

800 paintings in 10 years–he literally painted like a madman. Like me, he was a latecomer to his chosen field. I’m not ashamed to say I cried when I saw The Sower in person.

Jan Vermeer

Only 35 of his paintings survive, and most of them stop me in my tracks. I love the fact that he may have used an early form of the camera, called a camera obscura. Some see it as cheating. I see it as creativity.

Dr. Seuss

No one can match his talent. But everyone tries. I also like the roundabout way he discovered his calling.

Bob Gill

I was a Graphic Design major in college, and Bob Gill wrote a wonderful book called Forget All the Rules You Learned About Graphic Design, Including the Ones in This Book. His basic premise is, when you’re designing something to solve a problem, and you get stuck, creatively redefine the problem. It’s a great book about thinking differently. And it’s fun to read because it’s made up entirely of examples.

Is that ten already? I know, I know, there isn’t a non-fiction writer in the bunch, unless you count Douglas Florian. But as they say, inspiration can come from anywhere.

Waiting for Vermeer

Where do ideas come from? In the case of my upcoming book, tentatively titled THE VERMEER INTERVIEWS, the idea came from reading WAYS OF TELLING by Leonard Marcus, a book which I highly recommend to all children's authors and illustrators.

In WAYS OF TELLING, Marcus interviews 14 different picture book authors and illustrators to find out how each goes about the business of creating their books. I found each of his interviews to be more interesting than the last. I also found the solution to a problem that had been nagging me for years.

I had always wanted to write about the 17th century Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, who is one of my favorites. The question was, how should I present the information? In my first attempt, called MY DELFT (Delft was Vermeer's home town), I chose 14 of Vermeer's paintings and wrote a page of text for each painting from the point of view of Jan Vermeer himself. For example, this is what I wrote about Vermeer's painting, View of Delft:

“Welcome to Delft, Holland. I was born here in 1632 and painted this portrait of the city in 1660 when I was 28 years old. See the gleaming white tower in the distance? That’s the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church, near where I grew up. And to the right, behind the two large boats, sits the Rotterdam Gate, one of several gates which allowed boats in and out of the city’s busy canals. See how the sun shines on the rooftops in the distance as it emerges from the morning clouds?  I loved to paint light. It was one of my specialties. You see, I was an artist. My name is Jan Vermeer. And although I died in 1675, I can still speak to you through my paintings. Come, let me show you around.”

I thought it sort of worked, but it sounded a bit like a series of monologues, and I had no good explanation for how Vermeer was able to speak to us from the grave.

Then I tried an ABC book called D IS FOR DELFT, and was very pleased with myself when I was able to find objects in Vermeer's paintings for each letter of the alphabet. However, this book was clearly aimed at older readers, so the ABC approach wasn't right either.

My third and fourth approaches both involved poetry. For approach number three, I attempted to explain each painting in verse and called it A ROOM IN DELFT. It was fun, but the result was neither here nor there. For approach number four, which I titled TALKING TO VERMEER, I wrote in cinquains (a 2-syllable line, followed by 4 syllables, 6 syllables, 8 syllables, and then back to 2 syllables), addressing the people in each painting as if they were alive. For example, I empathized with Vermeer's The Geographer like this:

Like you,

Geographer,

I can get lost in maps,

Dreaming of places I'll sail to

Someday.

I liked this approach quite a bit, but it was probably a bit sophisticated for my audience. Then there was approach number five, written in the style of THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, called THE TOWN THAT JAN PAINTED. Let's just say it was forced.

At this point, I have five completely different versions of a book on Vermeer, none of them quite right. So, as I said, I finished reading WAYS OF TELLING, a book of interviews, and I asked myself, "Why don't I interview the people in Vermeer's paintings?" It's fun. It allows me to present my information in a more creative and interesting way. And it makes the paintings come alive.

The more I worked on the interviews, the more I realized that this was the perfect format for a book on Vermeer. There is very little information on the artist, including very few written records, no early work or sketches, and no self-portraits. In fact, just about the only source of information we have on Vermeer are the 35 or so finished paintings that have survived to this day. So who better to tell his story than the people in his paintings?

THE VERMEER INTERVIEWS will be published next year, after six versions and at least that many years of stewing and marinating. Thank goodness not all my books take so long to come to fruition. But this one will be most satisfying.

"Do You Do Your Own Illustrations?"

Because I write books about art, my books are full of famous paintings.  So I find it funny when I go on a school visit, and a kid (or even a teacher) asks, "Do you do your own illustrations?"

I wish.

I mean, it seems obvious to me that the paintings in my books are famous, and that I didn't paint The Starry Night or The Scream myself.  But to a child, who doesn't understand the whole bookmaking process, it only makes sense that if my name is on the cover, then I must have made the pictures inside.  So I go on to explain that these are photographs of paintings that hang in museums, and that I have to get the museum's permission to use these paintings in my books.

But one of the cool things about this question is, it made me think differently about my books. After all, how many authors can say they've written a book illustrated by Jasper Johns?  Or Pablo Picasso?  Or Leonardo da Vinci?  I actually have the privilege of working with some of the finest "illustrators" the world has ever known.  I even have the power to choose which ones I want to work with.  I can "hire" whomever I want.

So in a way, I am doing my own illustrations.  I'm able to look at the entire history of art and choose whichever pieces I think best illustrate the story I'm trying to tell.  The creativity comes in the choosing.  And so does the fun.

What Does Advertising Have To Do With Art?

Although I have recently publishedseveral children’s books about art , for the last 20 years I’ve earned a living as an advertising copywriter. As it turns out, writing ads has been great training for writing art books. In fact, you could say that what I’m really doing with my books is advertising art to kids. (If any of you harbor a less-than-charitable opinion of advertising, keep in mind that without advertising, the royalty checks we receive for the books we publish would be a lot smaller!)

The point I’m trying to make is this: Advertising is a way to provide people with information about a specific product, service or cause. Non-fiction writing is a way to provide readers with information about a specific subject. The more creative advertising is, the more attention it gets. The more creative non-fiction writing is…you get the idea.

Take my first children’s art book, NO ONE SAW. There are 18 lines of text in the entire book. Each line is paired up with a famous painting by a different artist. For example, the first line of text reads, “No one saw flowers like Georgia O’Keeffe.” Next to this line is her wonderfully large painting of Calla Lilies. Another line of text reads, “No one saw stars like Vincent van Gogh”, which is paired with his most famous painting, The Starry Night. In essence, each line of text in the book is a headline advertising a particular artist.

The trick is to write a headline that not only imparts information, but does so in an interesting way. We ad writers take pride in getting people to look at things differently, so that whatever we’re advertising will be remembered. The same skill applies to writing non-fiction.

For example, I could have said, “Georgia O’Keeffe became famous for painting really big flowers.” This “headline” is true enough, but it’s also fairly flat-footed and obvious. After all, readers can see from the painting that her flowers are big. But by saying, “No one saw flowers like Georgia O’Keeffe”, I allow readers to come to their own conclusions about how Georgia saw flowers. Not only that, the line makes her vision sound special. It gives her credit for seeing things in her own way, and seeing things in your own way is what the book is really all about.

So if you want your non-fiction to get noticed, consider taking a few pointers from advertising. After all, it has worked pretty well for me