From book for children, with McClintock illustrations, based on Merchant's album of 'poem songs,' inspired by American and British poetry.
Art from a children's book of poetry, rewritten into songs by celebrated solo artist Natalie Merchant, and illustrated by Barbara McClintock, is the new exhibit at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst. “Leave Your Sleep: Natalie Merchant and Barbara McClintock,” opens Nov. 26.
The book, “Leave Your Sleep,” is an off-shoot of Merchant’s double album of the same name, which came out in 2010. Merchant spent five years researching and writing the "poem songs", which are based on 19th and early 20th century British and American poems, from the likes of E.E. Cummings, Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, among others.
Connecticut-based children’s book author and illustrator Barbara McClintock loved the album the moment she heard it. Co-produced with Andres Levin, the album involved 125 different musicians in recording 30 of the songs Merchant was inspired to write from the poems.
“I instantly fell in love with the music and the poetry, and the combination of them,” said McClintock, who has won numerous awards for her work. “I kept hearing the music over and over in my head, and I saw images instantly. There were poems about equestrian circus riders, witches, goblins, sailors lost at sea…it was just epic and wonderful and glorious.”
It occurred to McClintock that the album could be brought to life in a children’s book.
“I thought, this had to be a picture book, and I would absolutely love to be the person to do the drawings for this,” she said. “In fact, I have to be the artist for this!”
McClintock contacted her editor, Frances Foster, who had been thinking along the same lines, and helped her get in touch with Merchant, who once sang with the alternative rock band, 10,000 Maniacs.
“She was thrilled to have this picture book extension of her album done,” McClintock said. The hardcover picture books of poems, includes a CD with 19 of the corresponding songs from Merchant's album.
The project was a challenge for McClintock.
“This is the first time I’ve ever worked with music as well as text,” she said. “I think I was dealing with trying to find the source and vision of the poet through their words, but trying to also create pictures from Natalie’s interpretation of the poem. Each song is realistically appropriate for the poems, and therefore very different.”
The music the "poem songs" are set to runs the gamut from folk and jazz to R & B.
“She found that music was one way to really access poetry,” McClintock said of Merchant. “I think a lot of people find poetry to be a little difficult to penetrate.”
McClintock said she and Merchant visualized the poems in the same way in some instances.
“’The Sleepy Giant’ is a poem about a giant who has given up eating little boys; it’s a very funny poem,” said McClintock of the work by Charles Edward Carryl. “Natalie really thought of the giant as someone who lived in Elizabethan times, and was actually a woman. When I was listening to the song, I saw the giant as a woman as well.”
Another poem, ‘The Janitor’s Boy,’ by Nathalia Crane, is about a girl who has a crush on a janitor’s son. The two make a raft out of an old settee, and they set off to find an island where they can live together always.
While each of the poems is been paired with different types of music, McClintock sought unity through her illustrations.
“My artistic style was going to kind of bind all of these poems, written by different poets at different times, with Natalie’s different musical styles,” McClintock said. “Even though the costumes are reflective of the time period the poems were written, and also the sensibility of the music, they are all done in pen and ink and watercolors so they can be consistent throughout the book.”
In addition to the finished artwork from the book, the exhibit will also include McClintock’s early work on the book to show the process she goes through.
“Originally, I just did very loose pencil sketches of some of the characters and animals,” she said. “We had to do smaller vignette drawings to determine the flow of the book, with the text and the illustrations. The visual interpretation is something I explore when I do the original rough sketches.”
The exhibit will also include some of Merchant’s own drawings she made to illustrate the songs as she was exploring the poetry.
McClintock said “Leave Your Sleep” has an added benefit in that teachers often use it with reluctant readers, or those learning English as a second language.
“The pictures help them work with the language, and help them create that connection, that bridge in the language,” she said.
McClintock, who has had her work displayed at The Carle Museum in the past, said the Carle has set the standard for appreciation of picture book art.
“It’s a wonderful platform to celebrate the really remarkable variety of artwork that is done for picture books,” she said. “I think it also reflects a changing sensibility in the way that people in the United States view and cherish this artwork that is done for children.”
“Leave Your Sleep: Natalie Merchant and Barbara McClintock” will be on display through May 4, 2014 at The Eric Carle Museum, located at 125 West Bay Road, Amherst. For more information, visit www.carlemuseum.org.
Related:
http://www.nataliemerchant.com/