Author: Judy Butler
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Wessman and Wiesner: Serious Play with Paint
I had the pleasure of meeting Robin Wessman at a local art show. The Provincetown Independent featured Wessman’s paintings in “Robin Wessman’s Destabilizing Reality” (March 20, 2025). In this article we see Wessman’s color and light leap off the page. Reporter Abraham Storer describes these still life images as “rendered realistically, with fastidious care given to…
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Collage Fun
As I play with collage, I realize one reason I love childrens’ picture book illustration is that every image tells a story. My collage is just an arrangement of objects and colors without a message. Something to think about. Here’s a few in frames from local thrift stores.
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Where – or Who – is Mom?
I came across The Overeager Egg by Milja Praagman (2022) at the bookstore and took a peek. The overeager egg is one that tumbles out of its nest, hits a rock, and partially hatches. When it sees other creatures it asks, “Are you my mommy?” A swan at the end of the story has found…
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Bliss’ Bailey Goes to School
Bailey by Harry Bliss looks like an easy laugh at first glance. Bailey is a stocky, softly spotted dog whose tail wags all the time. That’s one clue to how I learned to love this story. On the cover, in Bliss’ characteristically clean illustration style, Bailey is writing the title and author’s name in white…
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Walls
The Wall by Eve Bunting (1990) is an emotionally powerful story. A young child and his father search for a name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. “The wall is black and shiny as a mirror. In it I can see Dad and me. I can see the bare trees behind us and the dark, flying…
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More Collage Play
Many thanks to the Illustration Department podcast, the Learn to Paint podcast, Skillshare, and The Artist’s Way (along with The Artist’s Way with Hells and Rua) for my informal and intermittent art education. Thanks to my local art association as well. Here’s a few more of my collages. No, they’re not fine art, but they…
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Exquisite Collage x 2
Once again, I came across two books with similar content. They are both beautiful. Dazzling pictures in colorful collage illustrate both. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page earned a Caldecott Honor for What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? (2003). They illustrate portions of animals’ bodies and ask a question. For example, “What do…
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Artistic Agony
The Painter and the Wild Swans by Claude Clement (1986) is a story about an artist’s existential struggle. Art is life. Life is art. They coexist in Teiji as a fight for survival as intense as any person’s hunt for food and shelter. Frederic Clement succeeds in painting this synchronicity. Only now, after reading the…
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Flood Disasters
How does an author appeal to a young reader when the topic is about the volatile earth? Two picture books that came my way took care to soften the brutal reality of such trauma. Selvakumar Knew Better by Virginia Kroll (2006) tells the story of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 by featuring a family’s…
Books Too 