Quick post. When I was a wee-bug I didn’t have much interest in museums, but I loved books, libraries and was a serious gold star member of Scholastic Book Club.
Man, I used to order so many books. Tactic? Doe eyes, often dad pant-leg tugging, sometimes binding contracts in crayon that vowed I would never smoke cigarettes(true story) and I was able to order what I wanted. I found the success rate of these tactics to have waned exponentially as years passed and my “want” list shifted from Box Car Children to Lexus hardtop convertibles.
Anyway, one of the earliest illustrators I admired was Graeme Base. He was responsible for Animalia, Sign of the Seahorse, and The Eleventh Hour.
His work was always so detailed and creative, I really admired it. I could look at Animalia for hours, as it was an alphabet book where every page had hundreds of objects pertaining to that particular letter. I even violated my “will not write in books” rule for The Eleventh Hour which was a mystery story that required unlocking codes, and eventually tearing open a secret section at the end. I guess I violated two of my book rules 1.)thou shall not write in books 2.) thou shall not tear pages out of books.
From Graeme, the next individual that earned their place on my time line would have to be Keith Haring..many moons later.
But I’m sure you already knew this!
Right? ♥
