The West Windsor Arts Council’s exhibition “Jump into Pictures: Children’s Book Illustrations” opened a few weeks back yet still provides an opportunity to consider this art form that can be summed up as “playfully serious.”
The playful comes from the art form’s general purpose to delight and engage through shapes, color, line, and, often, a touch of mystery.
The serious comes from the artists’ mastery of skills and intent in creating such works.
While the exhibition features regional artists Ilene Dube, Lori Fol, Marzena Haupa, Mita, BoFeng Lin, Eleni Litt, Deborah Pey, Kate Pollack, Georgina Ramirez, Jane Reed, and Rupa Sanbui, it was juried by two established children’s books illustrators from Lawrence, Kelly Lan and Rashad Malik Davis.
A statement from one and an interview with the other provide some insight into the souls that create the images.
My name is Kelly Lan (translates to “blue” in Mandarin/Taiwanese). I am the founder and creative director for Hello Prosper, an arts education brand that crafts stories of Asian women pioneers who dared to be great. We serve to empower children, teens, and young adults to love their Asian culture and female identity.
I’m the oldest daughter of Taiwanese immigrants and was raised in a small town in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I grew up in the Quaker school system where we believed that there was a light in everyone. We called teachers by their first name. We left our lockers unlocked and bookbags in the hallway during lunch. I was friends with many groups of people and was encouraged to participate in many areas of student life, like in academics, art, sports and community service. There was a strong system of trust.
Despite having the top resources for success, I was disappointed in how little I knew about the experiences of Brown and Asian folks. I was ashamed that what was intrinsically part of me I had no sense of pride in. We didn’t learn about figures like Patsy Takemoto Mink, who co-authored Title IX amendment, allowing women access to sports funding, and Hazel Lee, who served and died for our country during WWII. I ultimately want to create a modern, aesthetically-pleasing brand that ignites confidence in our Asian/Asian American youths.
Hello Prosper was built out of necessity — to pursue the unanswered questions that society has ignored. Learning about history through the arts will allow us to minimize the built up of confusion of who we are and what we’re capable of, despite having little or no reference point in the classrooms.
Rashad Malik Davis is the Staten Island-born and Tufts University graduate who has written and illustrated “Carefree Like Me.”
In a past Community News Service interview, the following was reported about Davis and his work:
Davis says the purpose of his books is to teach children, especially boys, the value of being in touch with their emotions.
“People are dominated by emotions, but society doesn’t teach us how to live with those emotions,” Davis says. “Especially boys. There is no emotional vocabulary.”
The ability to feel something and understand it and address it is the definition of emotional intelligence. But for boys in particular, Davis says, there is no real conversation about how they can and should handle their more sensitive emotions. Because, surprise, boys actually do feel sensitive emotions. They’re just discouraged from expressing them.
Indeed, Davis himself, who long ago accepted that he thought differently from other boys and is more in touch with his emotions overall than most males, wondered if he should actually publish “Carefree Like Me” at all.
“At first I thought I shouldn’t do the story,” he says. “Sensitivity is a sensitive topic.”
Adding a layer to the conversation (or lack thereof) surrounding emotional intelligence among boys and adults is race. Davis says he likes to populate his stories with characters of color because they are underrepresented in children’s stories and because boys who grow up in poorer black neighborhoods often have even less of a chance to learn about emotional intelligence than those who grow up in more affluent areas.
Black boys, he says, don’t often get to see positive, professional role models of strong, successful Black men, and that takes a toll on them.
“There are not a lot of Black, male cartoonists out there,” he says. If he sees himself as any kind of role model, it’s as one who teaches boys (and girls, of course) that it’s important for them to be who they want to be, and that there is freedom in creativity.
“We need to have this dialogue with boys,” he says.
This is especially true now, Davis says. Though he tries to not be political, he says we’re in a moment in time when a more fringe attitude towards non “accepted” types of people is being openly espoused. This, he says, is a time for healing and empathy, not one to give into our more aggressive emotions.
“Carefree Like Me” was also inspired by a couple of America’s uglier moments—the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and photo that compared his killing with that of Emmett Till, a 14-year- old black boy who was lynched by two white men in Mississippi in 1955.
The deaths, he says, gave him the storyline for his book series on the spot, because he felt someone needed to start a conversation on healing and compassion. He helped fund his enterprise through KickStarter and signed with hybrid publisher Mascot, which helps him market the book but allows him to retain all rights.
Pre-launch, “Carefree Like Me” garnered the attentions of Afropunk magazine, which reviewed the then-upcoming book because it struck a chord with the publishers.
“The uplift and affirmation of children of diverse backgrounds is paramount in all times, but especially in times like these,” the magazine wrote. “Between police brutality, gender and sexuality discrimination, and lack of mental health resources for Black and Brown youth, it’s important that when the opportunity presents itself, that every effort is made to support those who want to support the kids.”
The seriously fun “Jump into Pictures: Children’s Book Illustrations” is at the West Windsor Arts Council, 952 Alexander Road, Princeton Junction, through Saturday, August 26. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 609-716-1931 or www.westwindsorarts.org.
