COMMUNITY / PS 58 Residency 2/11/09

The Brooklyn Heights Blog writeup about my residency.


I continued my author-illustrator residency with the second graders in the art room and felt welcomed the moment I arrived at the school.

Our art project is to create a community out of recycled objects.

First, the students viewed two picture books I illustrated. For examples of global community and recycling, IT’S MY EARTH, TOO, an early ecology book published in 1992. And A CITY IS, about urban community, their community, with illustrations of brownstone Brooklyn and New York City.

The old cereal and tissue boxes, milk cartons, and water bottles the students collected would be transformed into what they see around their neighborhood. Everyone started painting background colors on their new buildings.

The girls got very involved.


So did the boys.


Dedicated art teacher, Megan Driscoll, shared her great ideas which helped the project flow beautifully.


As the paint dried we all sat together again. I talked about the themes of A CITY IS: Observing the big picture as well as the details. Nature. And Silence painted as birds-eye views and silent characters.


Here is my work in progress made from a cracker box, bread package tags, paper towel roll, address labels, magazine tearsheet, and a cocktail umbrella.

Thanks to Joan Bredthauer, Jane Rothberg and Regina Rosario for their assistance.