From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 18:10:50 -0500

I had the pleasure of hearing Chris Raschka talk about his work at the Eric Carle Museum last Sunday (Feb. 5). His appearance at a bagels and conversation event at the museum had been scheduled well before the announcement of the Caldecott Award, so it was serendipity (thanks to Megan Lambert for telling us about this program in an earlier post in January!)

Chris talked about two influences on his work for Hello, Goodbye Window. One is a child's drawing that hangs in his studio. He drew for us an approximation of what that drawing looked like, including big stars in the sky, and showed how the child's simplicity had affected his execution. The other influence was an exhibit of Philip Guston's work. You can google Guston if you are unfamiliar with his art (as I was) and the connection is very interesting to see in some of the more expressionistic work.

The technique he used is both watercolor and oil pastel. He puts down a watercolor wash with broad brush strokes and finishes with the oil pastels for form and composition. It was a great opportunity to see into an artist's technique so soon after the recognition. He also talked about how inspiring Norton Juster's text was to him (Juster was in the audience) and that they did have some contact while he was working on the illustrations.

Connie Rockman
Received on Fri 10 Feb 2006 05:10:50 PM CST