November 21, 2009
I could have wept
Francoise Mouly, art editor, writes:
“David Small’s Stitches is aptly named. With surgical precision, the author pierces into the past and, with great artistry, seals the wound inflicted on a small child by cruel and unloving parents. Stitches is as intensely dramatic s a woodcut novel of the silent movie era and as fluid as a contemporary Japanese manga. It breaks new ground for graphic novels.”
This graphic novel broke my heart. It is disturbing. It is poetry. It is dark and sad – yet there is redemption and David Small survived. I highly recommend David Small’s Stitches.
David Small was only 2 years old when he began drawing. Even then, everyone around him knew he would be an artist.
Mr. Small was born February 12, 1945, in Detroit, Michigan. He spent summers in rural Indiana, which would later influence his drawings of the outdoors. Shy and sickly as a child, he spent a lot of time playing alone and drawing. Later he would gravitate to the written word, making up his own stories.In college, Mr. Small originally studied literature with the intent to become a playwright. He later switched to art when a friend suggested his doodling was better than his playwriting. Said Mr. Small: “I found a real home in the Art Department…I felt that I had been suddenly washed ashore in a country where people spoke my own language. I felt alive. I grew stronger. I knew that in this world of art I could find a place.” (Something About the Author, Vol. 126, p. 202) He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at Wayne State University in Detroit and a master of fine arts degree at Yale University.
He became an assistant professor and taught drawing and printmaking. He also created editorial cartoons for publications such as the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. In the 1980s, he lost his teaching job due to cutbacks. It was then that he committed himself to combining his loves of writing and art. His background and experience led him quite naturally to creating picture books.
His books reflect the concerns he had as a child: of being different, an outsider. “I think of my books as a kind of dog whistle pitched high above normal human hearing,” says Small, “sending their signal of acceptance to the strange ones out there, telling them to hold on.” (Children’s Literature Review, Vol. 53, p. 147)
Some of the influences on his art include the art lessons he took as a child, museum visits with his parents, the murals of Diego Rivera, and his summers in Indiana. He works with watercolor, pen and ink, and pastel.
Besides illustrating his own and other authors’ books, Mr. Small has also illustrated books by his wife, Sarah Stewart. “Some of my best books were written by Sarah,” says Small. “It is never easy, but it is frequently a lot of fun and entirely worth the effort.” (NCCIL Exhibit Packet)
Mr. Small’s work has earned him much critical acclaim and many awards, the most notable being the 2001 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in So You Want to Be President?. He also earned a 1998 Caldecott Honor for The Library, written by Ms. Stewart.
Mr. Small and Ms. Stewart currently live in Mendon, Michigan, in a house that is on the National Register of Historic Places.
November 20, 2009
quote of the day
Information
does not
always result
in either wisdom
or understanding.
Sister Margaret Cafferty, PBVM
Executive Director
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
November 19, 2009
The Chicken Dance
When we first moved to Seguin, we attended the Fourth of July Mayor’s Luncheon (the mayor at that time was Mark Stautzenberger) and a group of folks began dancing The Chicken Dance. Hubby and I looked at one another in amazement (never having seen this dance performed before) and said (almost simultaneously): “This is the town for us!”
I’ve never danced the Chicken Dance . . . but it was such fun to see this group of dancers enjoying themselves as as they clucked and hopped about; it was infectious. And indeed, Seguin IS the town for us!
November 18, 2009
The church – and skeptics – and Elmer Gantry – and the Devil’s Tickets
Just finished The Devil’s Tickets by Gary M. Pomerant (which isn’t about Elmer Gantry or Sinclair Lewis - but rather about The Roaring Twenties and bridge and the murder of Jack Bennett by his wife Myrtle).
However, after finishing the book, I kept thinking of Sinclair Lewis and his novel Elmer Gantry (both of which Pomerant mentions in his novel). This led to remembering the movie Elmer Gantry and the great performances by Shirley Jones and Burt Lancaster (think Jones won an academy award for her performance in that movie).
One thought leads to another . . .
Famous Americans dropped in [Kansas City, Missouri] during the twenties, announcing themselves in curious ways. The novelist Sinclair Lewis, a disturber of the peace, spent six weeks in Kansas City in spring 1926 holed up downtown in an Ambassador Hotel suite, researching a “preacher novel” that became Elmer Gantry. During his visit, Lewis stood at the lectern of one local church and challenged God to strike him dead in fifteen minutes. He took off his watch and waited; he survived. In his hotel suite each Wednesday, Lewis held “Sunday school classes” over lunch for eighteen local clergy. They liked Lewis, and admired his zeal for his subject. The perpetual skeptic, he prodded them and probed deeply into theological issues, once asking, “What the hell right has the church to exist anyway?” At another turn, Lewis pointed a finger at a minister and challenged his belief in God; a Catholic priest calmed the novelist, saying, “Sit down, my son, and don’t blaspheme.” Lewis paused, and replied, “Will you have a drink, Father?” The priest said, “I will.” The local clergy should have known what was coming. The fictional Elmer Gantry proved a scoundrel and hypocrite with a lust for power. He drank alcohol to excess, engaged in sex with church secretaries and congregants, and trampled choir girls in escaping a burning tabernacle. As Gantry hit the bestseller lists, a few Kansas City ministers shouted betray, though others rushed to Lewis’s defense.
Who uses Facebook?
Research has shown that people use Facebook especially to keep in touch with their existing networks rather than to meet new people. This makes sense since the site – another structural feature – organizes people and one’s connections according to one’s existing offline networks. Again, especially in the beginning, what mattered most was a user’s school affiliation. If your friends who graduated from high school a year or two ago didn’t go to college then they probably didn’t join Facebook so if you want to keep in touch with them, that’s not the network where you’ll be able to do it best.
If people’s online networks mirror their offline networks and constraints placed on people in their everyday lives are reflected in their online interactions then that means that there is a limit – for some more than others – to what different people can get out of their online activities and interactions.
[excerpt from James Joyner article, November 21, 2007]
Adam N. Johnson:
“The main use of Facebook is the recreation of social connections between people who had, or still have, a connection in their everyday lives. So, people mainly used Facebook to reconnect with people they went to school with, worked with, or friends they lost touch with. But, the key question is ‘what do people do once they have created this network?’ The results of the research suggest that this can be divided into four main activities – they can use applications within the site to interact with their network, they can browse their friends’ friends and learn more about them, they can join groups and express their identity via shared social experiences, or they can use the site to inform others of their news, and keep up to date with others’ actions.”
. . .“The issue is what do these sites provide once you have built your network. If they do not provide additional activities or social networking resources, the danger is that they become nothing more than a glorified contacts database. Two uses – photographs and people’s news – came out clearly as possible motivators of repeat visits to the site. If they want to remain central to people’s online lives, social network sites need to find ways to encourage people to use them to not only make contact with others, but also to keep that contact alive.”
books
Reasons for buying books . . .
These days, there are so many Bargain Book opportunities – and much to the chagrin of Hubby, I do take these opportunities.
I actually have a book going in almost every room of the house; for me – reading is like breathing – it is essential to my well being.
