Children as observers and story tellers.
Only people who have suffered unspeakable traumas can fathom what citizens of Beyrouth are experiencing since last month’s explosion at the heart of their city. Author and mother of two, Yasmina Farah Massoud shared her thoughts about the horrendous time she, her family and her people find themselves in. See her August 11th Facebook post and her son josef’s rendering of the aftermath of the explosion (in French).
Parents, siblings, friends and teachers can definitely influence in how and what a child draws. Let’s not however overlook illustrators, who make it their trade to draw FOR children. Picture books have long fed kids’ imagination, but rarely do we see their illustrators celebrated. We turn our attention to Japan, where the museum community has done so, in a wonderful way.
The Chihiro Art Museum grew from the works and life of famed illustrator Chihiro Iwasaki. Located in Tokyo and Azumino, the museum holds an impressive internal collection with over 17K pieces by over 200 illustrators from 33 countries.
Nobody knows who this young boy named Onfim was, but we know when and where he lived: Medieval times, Russia. Thanks to Onfim himself, for drawing, thanks scientists’ curiosity and a great deal of luck. Onfim’s drawings were not meant to be preserved for centuries, yet they were by chance, due to where they ended up and preserved by natural elements. Find out the details of this amazing discovery in Justin E.H. Smith‘s article on on LitHub.com: Onfim Wuz Here. His article previously appeared in Cabinet Magazine. Let us all be inspired by Onfim’s images and make sure that in centuries from now, people will have access to today’s images from children, not by chance, but by design.
What do the kids draw while schools are closed, during this global pandemic? Which telling images will remain as memories, to illustrate future tales to children and grand children?
Does anyone have children’s drawings of the time of the Spanish Flu, a century ago? We doubt it, but let’s do everything we can to prevent a similar catastrophe this time around. Stay safe and protect those vulnerable around you!
When we carefully study its content, a child’s drawing can prove to be a window to the child’s world, and to our own as well. Should this drawing be old enough, it may give us a view to a nearly forgotten past. The drawing below, from our collection, was made by a boy, in the mid 1960s. Here, the hint to the past is actually spelled out in the words added to the drawing. It gives the title of a storybook which the drawing refers to. The book, written by Paulette Blonay and illustrated by Pierre Nardin, certainly made an impact on this child, and now resurfaces on our blog. The book itself is a rare find at antique sellers. Paulette Blonay’s Lili character and book series reached world wide fame and are easy to find, but little Tony not so.
This is the first known published in depth study of children’s art. It was first written in Italian by Corrado Ricci (1858-1934) and has been published in various languages for over 120 years and counting.
A copy published in 1887 found a home at Toronto’s Robarts Library and can be viewed as an open library edition on Archive.org
