Lesson 10: Culture - Different Ways of Seeing - Part II

Lesson Overview

Many years ago I met an illustrator from Brazil. He talked about the travesty (to him) that imported books from the United States and Europe were wreaking on Brazilian children. "The images and the colors are not ours," he insisted, pointing toward some of the better known American picture books. He then showed me some of his work. The colors were shocking to me; my immediate reaction was "I don't like this, the colors are much too loud." But if you've ever traveled to a place much different from where you live, you know the colors ARE different, the light from the sun shines differently. We're going to look at some of the well-known illustrators whose work does originate out of the mainstream, dominant culture. Also, we will see how their work is marked by form and by content.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson you will:

• Become familiar with the work of a culturally diverse group of illustrators
• Consider Bryan Collier's Uptown and Myers' Harlem books
• Identify what you like and dislike in the pictures and attempt to place your preferences within a culture. (For example, "I don't like illustrations that are all cut up like these; I like warm fuzzy animal characters like those bunnies Rosemary Wells draws." If you can state a preference such as this, try to unpack it. And please share it on the discussion. The rest of us would like to try to unpack it as well.)

Lesson Readings & Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 10 Course Schedule.