3-D illustrating

Remember the beginning of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, when the camera floats over the miniature set of buildings? I always found that view fascinating, and wished that the whole show featured those little buildings. Home, a wordless picture book by Jeannie Baker, offers views on a city neighborhood in a somewhat similar fashion. The illustration technique is relief collage. I feel a bit tardy on "discovering" Jeannie Baker as an illustrator, because she has been publishing since 1977. Home was a 2005 ALA Notable book, originally titled Belonging, when it was published in Australia. This summer I have caught up with Ms. Baker by reading Home, Grandfather, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea.

Another noteworthy illustrator, Salley Mavor, makes "fabric-relief." She takes broadcloth, felt, knits, ribbons, eyelet, buttons, yarn, and painted wood, and then sews, embroiders, crochets and arranges them into pictures. My two favorites among her work are The Hollyhock Wall by Martin Waddell and In the Heart by Ann Turner. In both books, the magic of a high-quality story is added to by intricately detailed illustrations. A quote from Salley Mavor herself, from the book jacket of The Hollyhock Wall, helps describe how this works: "she chose to illustrate Mary's garden-fantasy world in this medium because 'sometimes the vivid world of fantasy seems more real than real life.'" In art, realism has a place, but the audience often benefits more when guided to see things through a filter which the artist provides.