My Artistic Vision
…begins with mental maneuverability. The freedom to become anything by pushing my imagination in any direction—lovely, incorrigible, ridiculous, hilarious, lonely, mystical, autonomous, all without limits. For a subject or character, I choose one of my many animals, because they always inspire me. Lastly, I explore my childlike curiosity and, bingo, I’ve got a storyline.
I toss the tale aside to germinate anywhere from two weeks to several months while I water it. When it sprouts an idea or two, I stress it. I’ll cage the incorrigible and watch it struggle, or restrain the laughable until it must entertain. If the story requires fertilizing, I stir it up a bit—add some salt, or more purple, or encase it in cobwebs. Because, when I refuse to limit myself regarding what is lovely, incorrigible, or ridiculous, then I have three new characters to keep my protagonist company.
Now with four characters to pick from, I experiment with what these guys might do. I sketch or paint them and write out their characteristics to build them up little-by-little and make them believable. Then I leap into their world and go crazy, knowing I can tone down certain elements later, depending on my audience.
Another thing I do often is destroy my story idea. Smash it to bits. Does something better appear in the shattered pieces? I’m always willing to abandon anything I create. I’ll critique it to death, or become abominably lackadaisical toward it. During these creative times, I often discover something unimaginable. I’ve learned to be inefficient. When I do, my imagination runs wild with ideas. Then I choose the ones best suited for the story.
When I struggle, I’ll grab my box of pre-written prompts to help me whip up a mental image. Here’s one I wrote years ago: On a beautiful sunny day, the old woman wears bright red rain boots as she walks her cat down Main Street by its tail. The cat does not belong to her, and the whole town knows this. Result = Imagination Explosion!
My artistic vision tends toward the extravagant, kinda like Jacob Collier, the British pajama musician, who said during a recent interview, “I hate generic! I can’t stand it!” During the same discussion, when the interviewer asked Jacob what one should do about artist block, he replied, “Try and make the worst thing you’ve ever made. Like deliberately.”
Super good advice!
Spontaneity is key to triggering my imagination. No planning involved. During the day I observe our animals and, without exception, they have BIG personalities and I encourage them to show and tell. Because animals adore being part of a loving human’s life, they’ll do darn near anything to get attention. Take this kitten, for example. He’s a beloved rescued feral with more attitude than ten cats put together. Behaves more like a puppy. Follows me all over the farm, drapes himself over my lap when I’m writing, hides his face when he doesn’t want to be bothered, belly flops with a sloppy tail, flat refuses to move for vacuuming on cleaning day…the big personality list for this cat is endless, resulting in boundless imagination.
Meticulous Planning
I won’t bore you with bookmaking details; however, immediately after spontaneous discovery, the project becomes a balancing act between creativity, usefulness, and logistics. I am so blessed to have those three elements, because when I get bogged down with one, I switch to another.
Some days this triple switcherooo looks like an amateur plate-spinning contest, complete with major crashes, but the combination keeps me interested, and I find the books complete faster. Plus, having three specific elements for each book ensures I never get bored, cuz boredom equals doomed. I have yet to complete a project that bored me, and I’ve learned all the discipline in the world will not make a boring project interesting to me or anyone else.
So, when the imagination explodes, I sketch and write. Alongside, I consider the book’s usefulness; my audience's age, gender, interests, theme or lesson, potential takeaway, etc. I design each character: their age, size, clothing, trademarks, physical world perspective, color palette, characteristics, habits, etc. And I muddle through book development: word and page count, dimensions, layout, illustration panels versus text, formatting, front and back covers, and all that.
There’s never a dull moment…and that’s the idea.
My Children’s Cherish Books customers asked me if I’d be willing to publish books commercially. Short answer: No! Their friends loved the handmade books and wanted a more affordable version. The thing is, my happy place is custom-designing a story, its characters and settings for a specific child, made into an heirloom for them and their children after them. Not terribly practical, but the process satisfied my creative and artistic needs. Plus, the Cherish Books are one-of-a-kind. A product my clients honor and cherish.
Obviously, I took their demands to heart, and this agreement opened a can of worms, the first of which is how to paint the artwork for mass produced picture books. Some artists finish an original and scan it. This option didn’t work for me. Unacceptable quality, plus, I wanted the look of textured watercolor paper, and I found it by learning how to paint on an iPad. Now I go from imagination to completed painting using software instead of paper, paint and brushes. The time it takes is the same as watercolor painting, but the process is wildly different, and that’s okay; I’m learning to enjoy different!
I make original, custom handmade books. Parents fill out a questionnaire, and I transform that information into a story unique to their child, filled with colorful painted papers, pop-ups, hidden doors, pockets, and tactile textures that get a child’s creative juices flowing. I hand-stitch the pages into signatures and bind them into hard covers with spines. Depending on the request, some are spiral-bound, others glued, and still more are nylon-stitched. With a little tender-loving care, these unique and beautiful books will last a lifetime.