| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
April Issue 2003
Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro, NC, Features Exhibition by NC Book Illustrators
The Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro, NC, is presenting the exhibition, Picture Books: North Carolina Illustrators, on view through May 4, 2003.
The exhibition features the well-loved art form of picture book illustrations by twelve NC artists including original artworks by the artists and mock-ups used in the process of developing illustrations for publishing.
Shana
Greger
The exhibition showcases a diverse array of illustrative talent, highlighting the award-winning work of NC artists from across the state. The exhibit includes works by Clay Carmichael, Mark Dubowski, David Gaadt, Shana Greger, Gail Haley, Marijo Moore, Consie Powell, James Ransome, Glen Rounds, Don Stewart, Virginia Wright-Frierson, and James Young.
Known for piquing childhood curiosity and stimulating imaginations, picture books are most children's first and sometimes only exposure to art. Each illustration tells its own story.
"You should get a sense of something that's happening," says James Ransome, Coretta Scott King award winner for illustration. The artists' works capture moments from humorous to personal. "All of my works and characters evolve from important events and people in my own life," says illustrator Clay Carmichael.
Don
Stewart
Greensboro's own James Young and Don Stewart are in the show, as well the work of David Gaadt, illustrator of several of Orson Scott Card's science fiction works. (Scott Card and Gaadt also reside in Greensboro.) Orson Scott Card is the first to win the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row for Ender's Game (1986) and Speaker for the Dead (1987). The popular and acclaimed, Ender's Game is being developed for film.
Green Hill's Picture Books also includes the work of Charlotte, NC-born Gail Haley, the only person to receive the Caldecott Medal (for A Story, A Story) and the Kate Greenaway Medal from England.
There will be several programs and events offered in conjunction with this exhibition, including:
Apr. 9, 5-7pm - Celebrity Read-In - Local celebrities read select children's books during ArtQuest Family Night. Presented in collaboration with the Greensboro Public Library and National Library Week. The event is free.
Apr. 11, 4 - 8:30pm & Apr.
12, 9am - 4pm - Teaching Beyond Testing: An Innovative Writing-Illustration
Workshop - Investigate texture, pattern, form and color with words
and paint! Artist and educator Peg Gignoux and writer Susie Wilde
present this hands-on
workshop designed for teachers and parents seeking ways to meet
curriculum goals while making learning meaningful and exciting
for their students. The dynamic collaboration of Wilde's writing
process combined with Gignoux's artistry will help participants
and their students play their way to writing success. Teacher
re-certification credit available. Fee: $60, $50 for Green Hill
Center members. Call to register by Apr. 1 call 336/333-7460.
April 23, 6 - 7:30pm - Q &
A with Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card and Illustrator David
Gaadt - Award winning author Orson Scott Card and featured illustrator
David Gaadt present an informal question and answer program on
writing and illustrating. Greensboro resident Card has published
over 50 books, including science fiction, fantasy and plays. Ender's
Game is currently being developed for film. Gaadt, illustrator
of several of Card's books, is a self-employed artist and portrait
painter. The recipient of many design awards, he has worked for
major clients such as RCA Records, Kodak,
Coca-Cola and Paramount Pictures. The even is free.
Picture Books: North Carolina
Illustrators
is made possible with support from Knight-Carr & Company,
Kindermusik and a media sponsorship from Time Warner Cable.
The following bios are offered about the artists participating in the exhibition
Clay Carmichael
An award-winning artist with books published in six languages,
Carmichael uses pen and ink and watercolor to create art for children
of all ages. "All of my works and characters evolve from
important events and people in my own life," she says. Her
books include Bear at the Beach, Used-Up Bear, and Lonesome
Bear. She is currently an outreach professor at NC State University
and a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
Mark Dubowski
Dubowski is an illustrator and author of fiction and non-fiction
books for children and young adults, some of which he co-authors
with his wife, Cathy East Dubowski. His books include Cave
Boy and Pretty Good Magic, a Book of the Month Club
featured selection. (Both published by Random House.) He also
creates "media tie-in" fiction, which involves original
plot, dialog, and characters, featuring characters from
television media.
David Gaadt
Gaadt is a selfemployed artist and portrait painter. He is well
known for creating the covers of Ender's Game and Ender's
Shadow by local science fiction writer Orson Scott Card. He
is currently working on an assignment for book covers for Starscape
Books. The recipient of many design awards, he has worked for
major clients such as RCA Records, Kodak, Coca-Cola and Paramount
Pictures.
Shana Greger
Greger is a painter and children's book illustrator and author
from Brevard, NC. Her books include The Fifth and Final Sun,
a retelling of the Aztec Myth of the origin of the sun, and Cry
of the Benu Bird, an Egyptian Creation Story. (Both published
by Houghton Mifflin.) Her work can be seen in the Greensboro Central
Library Children's area, as well as the Art-Deck-O mural in the
Church Street parking deck. Greger exhibits her paintings nationally
and was recently featured in the exhibition, Southern Vistas,
Interpreting Landscape, at the Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Asheville,
NC.
Gail Haley
Haley's award winning books have captured the hearts and minds
of readers young and old since her first children's book, My
Kingdom for a Dragon, was published in 1962. Born in Charlotte,
NC, Haley describes herself as a
"storytellin' woman." She has traveled extensively throughout
the world, making presentations at schools throughout the US,
Canada, England and Australia. She is the only person to have
received the Caldecott Medal (for A Story, A Story) and
the Kate Greenaway Medal from England (for The Post Office
Cat). Haley continues to teach courses in puppetry, writing
and illustrating for children at Appalachian State University.
Marijo Moore
Residing in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Moore is
an author, artist, poet and journalist. Honored with the prestigious
award of North Carolina's Distinguished Woman of the Year in the
Arts in 1998, she was also chosen as one of the top five American
Indian writers of the new century by Native Peoples magazine
(June/July 2000 issue). She is the author of several books and
the editor of a collection of writings by NC American Indians.
Her essays, poetry, short stories and commentaries have appeared
in numerous magazines, newspapers, anthologies and journals.
Consie Powell
Raleigh, NC, resident Consie Powell has written and illustrated
several children's books, including Old Dog Cora and the
Christmas Tree and The Old Red Harness. Her book
A Bold Carnivore: An Alphabet of Predators, was a runner-up
in the Rocky Mountain Book Publishers Association Book Design
Competition. Powell's interest in depicting the natural world
has resulted in her creation of illustrations for the North Carolina
Zoo, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and other
scientific publications.
James Ransome
Originally from Rich Square, NC, Ransome is a distinguished illustrator
as well as Pratt Institute teacher and lecturer at elementary
schools, libraries and book conferences. He has been widely recognized
and honored for his illustrative skill. He is the recipient of
the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration for The Creation
and Uncle Jed's Barbershop. For the body of his work, Ransome
received the 2001 Rip Van Winkle Award from the School Library
Media Specialists of Southeast New York.
Glen Rounds
During his illustrative career, Rounds wrote and illustrated over
100 children's books and received many accolades for his work.
His unique life experiences, from growing up in the Badlands of
South Dakota to traveling the country as logger and carnival barker,
led one reviewer to describe him as "spiritually akin to
Mark Twain." (From a review in The Horn Book of Mr. Yowder
and the Giant Bull Snake.) His illustrations are known
for capturing children's attention and sense of humor. Rounds,
a resident of Southern Pines, NC, passed away in the fall of 2002
at the age of 96.
Don Stewart
Stewart's freelance career has spanned well over a decade. A resident
of Greensboro, NC, he has illustrated nearly 100 book covers for
the juvenile and young adult market, including covers for Sugar
Creek Gang, and New Sugar Creek Gang, a classic series
by Paul Hutchens and Too Smart Jones, a mystery series
by Gilbert Morris. Stewart's artwork has been seen nationwide
in numerous magazines and advertisements, with recent clients
including HarperCollins Publishers, Scholastic, Michelin Tires,
and Lucent Technologies.
Virginia Wright-Frierson
Wright-Frierson, whose home is in Wilmington, NC, has traveled
from North Carolina's Penland School to Cortona, Italy to teach
watercolor classes. Besides painting in oil and watercolor, she
has illustrated nine books and also written three, one of which
is the award winning An Island Scrapbook, Dawn to Dusk on a
Barrier Island. The book is an exploration of Bald Head Island
with her daughter Amy. An Island Scrapbook and A North
American Rain Forest Scrapbook both won the John Burroughs
Award for children's nature books from the American Museum of
Natural History.
James Young
Young is the author and illustrator of 15 children's picture books,
as well as the Children's Librarian at the Central Greensboro
Public Library. His books have appeared nationally and internationally
and have been adapted for radio, television, cantata, and ballet.
His stories are imaginative and lighthearted, accompanied by colorful
watercolor illustrations. Young also provides programs and writing
workshops for adults. His books include The Cows Are in the
Corn, Every Day, and A Million Chameleons.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings,
call Green Hill at 336-333-7460, or at (www.greenhillcenter.org).
Carolina Arts is
published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary
of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.