There . . . I said it, and I am not ashamed. In my world, Halloween ranks up there with Christmas when it comes to sheer excitement. It should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. I have photographic proof from my earliest childhood. I can't say for sure if it is the license Halloween gives us to dress up in costume, or the freedom to indulge a certain fascination with the ghoulish and macabre. Perhaps it is simply the chance to raid the bowl of candy set out for the little gypsy girl and her corpse bride sister from next door. I don't care. I love it.
This year I had extra reason to celebrate. At 3:47 a.m. on Halloween morn, I put the final brushstroke on my last painting for Riding to Washington, the story of a young girl who takes a bus to Washington, D.C. to hear Dr. Martin Luther King give his now famous “I have a dream” speech. This book, another Sleeping Bear Press publication, was written by Gwenyth Swain, a St. Paul author who can claim credit for a great many books for young readers, including the acclaimed novel, Chig and the Second Spread. Gwenyth is another of those wonderful people I have been privileged to work with as a costumed interpreter at Historic Fort Snelling.
There is always a feeling of relief when I send the paintings off to my publisher and this time around was no exception. The process of painting these latest illustrations was not substantially different than the others, and yet it posed a whole new set of challenges. The story takes place in August of 1963, and I can honestly say that I have never painted a bus, a television set, a bus interior, a gas station, the back-end of a bus, a bathroom, rows of buses, the Lincoln Memorial, (did I mention the bus?) . . . there was not a wooden palisade or birch-bark canoe anywhere in sight!
In the end, however, it still came down to painting the effect of light. Whether it was the silver light picking out the shape of a young girl's face as she watches an old black and white T.V. set or the warm glow of the lights illuminating a lonely gas station at night, I had my share of fun with it.
I am told the book will be released in February of the coming year, and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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