I have not always been a children’s book illustrator. Before I painted books, I painted paintings and sculptures and showed them in galleries and museums. I designed sets and costumes for theatre and dance performances. I worked in museums preparing art for exhibitions. I worked as an Artist-in-Residence in the schools.

Left: Curator’s Choice, Bronx Museum for the Arts, 1985, Bronx, NY.

Right: New Zuyder Zee, The Kitchen, New York, NY.

Left: Preparing art for an exhibition at the New York Public Library.

Right: Teaching art in the schools as an Artist-in-Resident.

As soon as I could hold a crayon I loved to draw. When grown-ups asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I always answered: “I want to be an artist.” (Except when I was 6 years old, I wanted to be a deep-sea diver.)

Picking Apples, crayon on paper, age 4

At the Zoo, crayon on paper, age 5

When I was little I loved to look at pictures. This enormous book (right) lay on a shelf underneath the TV in our family room. It was filled with reproductions of great paintings. There were paintings of shipwrecks and battles, paintings of kings and gods, paintings of lions with sleeping gypsies, and paintings of sunflowers and exotic landscapes. They told me of worlds I did not know or see in my safe suburban childhood. I read the paintings like reading a book. Like a good story, I knew them by heart.

The Standard Treasury of World’s Greatest Paintings

Now, all over my house I have bookshelves filled with art books. I still love to look at art almost as much as I love to make it. Before I can begin illustrating a book, I have to look through all of my art books. I think of it as gathering inspiration from and consulting old friends before embarking on a new creative journey.

When I moved to Minneapolis in 1988, I began building large sculptures out of wood with doors that opened and closed. I showed them in museums and galleries, and received a McKnight Fellowship for sculpture in 1992.

Juliet, oil on wood, 1991

Heart of the Gardener, acrylic on wood, 1993 (closed)

Heart of the Gardener, acrylic on wood,1993 (open)

After giving birth to my daughter in 1992, I began making small “box” sculptures out of wood. Taking care of a baby is as creative and as hard as making art, so I balanced art and baby by making smaller art.

Debra Frasier with her books at the Children’s Literature Network Book Week Festival, 2004

My friend, Debra Frasier, an extraordinary author and illustrator, came to see an exhibition of my small painted sculptures or “boxes” at the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis. When she opened and closed the doors on the sculptures she said, “Lauren, opening these doors is like turning pages in a book. You have to make a children’s book.” So she showed slides of my sculptures to her editor in San Diego and her editor agreed; it was time for me to make a children’s book.

I  continue to create work outside of painting books. Sometimes the artwork is inspired by the illustrations. This sculpture, (right) is one of the many sculptures I was inspired to make after painting Scarecrow.

Scarecrow, acrylic on wood, 1998

Wave II, gouache on panel, 2000

Sometimes the book is inspired by the artwork. After a trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior where I watched a terrific storm rage for two days, I was compelled to make a series of wave paintings. The movement and swirls of these paintings inspired the movement and swirls of the animals and their homes found in Castles, Caves and Honeycombs.

And sometimes I paint images that are not connected to a manuscript nor will they be turned into a book. I have been painting a series of panels that I call my “Crow” paintings. They seem to tell a story that compels me enough to keep painting them.

copyright © Lauren Stringer, 2008, all rights reserved. If you would like permission

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