Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Here’s Douglas Florian, who is pictured outside his studio on West 52nd Street in Manhattan (“also known as Swing Street,” he told me, “because the jazz musicians used to record there”) and whom I’m happy to welcome to 7-Imp this morning for a breakfast chat.

Douglas is the acclaimed author and illustrator and poet-painter of over thirty children’s books and also the recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. He is one of my favorite children’s poets, an inventor of words and often a blithe disregarder of grammar and spelling rules in his imaginative verses. All this creative wordplay he refers to as his “poetic license….Poetry is not black and white,” he says. “It is more like the gray and purple area that connects all the things we live in.” He has released so many beloved titles over the years—for children, their parents, and the teachers and librarians who use and love the books—that it’s difficult to pick favorites. His mixed-media art is one to pore over, a real delight for readers’ eyes — full of detail, textures, and playful patterns and humor. School Library Journal once wrote, “{t}he pleasing blend of faded shades and brilliant colors, of old-fashioned prints and fanciful sketches, makes the illustrations seem both antique and high-tech.”

In his latest offering, from which he sent several spreads this morning, things are no different. DINOTHESAURUS: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings, released last month from Atheneum Books for Young Readers, is a “free-flowing, witty collection of poems and collages about dinosaurs…a giganotosaurus delight–perhaps his best work ever.” Those are some strong words from Publishers Weekly. In this title, Douglas brings us poems about eighteen carnivores and herbivores, book-ended between two entries about the age of and end of the dinosaurs. I’ve seen a copy, and fellow illustration junkies will not want to race quickly through this one: It’s a visual delight. Julie Just in the New York Times wrote, “Florian’s art—in gouache, collage, colored pencil, stencils, etc.—is gorgeous and fun.”

Let’s get to our seven-questions-over-breakfast with Douglas (who, by the way, starting blogging—“poetry commotion”—last September over at his Florian Cafe, fans will be happy to know). “First I’d like to thank Jules and Eisha for inviting me to be a part of their incredible blog, my favorite kids-lit blog, actually,” he said. “My choice of breakfast would have to be French Toast, crisply cooked, with real maple syrup and a small pat of butter on top. A large cup of coffee—a little milk and one sugar, please—would wed that well. A small glass of freshly-squeezed OJ is cool. And, since it’s French Toast, we’d all have to eat it in a cafe on the French Riviera.”

Twist twist my arm. We’ll head to the French Riviera then. Color us getting into our jet now. Let’s get the basics from Douglas, while we head there for our deliciable (as my five-year-old would say) breakfast. I thank him for stopping by to chat, for sharing his art work, and for the kind words about 7-Imp.

Note: Each of Douglas’ DINOTHESAURUS spreads has been re-sized to fit within the blog’s template, but each image is linked to the original file. Click on each spread to see it larger and in more detail. In fact, I highly recommend that. Also, I’ve peppered the interview with some of Douglas’ fine art pieces, what he calls “abstract regressionist. They are old but behave like little children.” In fact, for more of his thoughts on his art, visit this most intriguing artist’s statement.

7-Imp: Are you an illustrator or author/illustrator?

Douglas: I’m an Authorstrator, since I do both. If I mess up the illustrations, I can only blame myself. I also do fine art and not-so-fine-art.

7-Imp: Can you list your books-to-date?

Douglas: Most recent…

7-Imp: What is your usual medium, or -– if you use a variety -– your preferred one?

Douglas: My usual medium is gouache watercolor paint, but I occasionaly use colored pencils, stencils, newspaper clippings, rubber stamps, shredded papers, tin foil, inks, candy wrappers, and—in DINOTHESAURUS—dinosaur dust (I’ve got an Iguanodon bone buried in my back yard).

7-Imp: If you have illustrated for various age ranges (such as, both picture books and early reader books OR, say, picture books and chapter books), can you briefly discuss the differences, if any, in illustrating for one age group to another?

Douglas: All my books are designed for all ages, or at least 6 and up.

7-Imp: Where are your stompin’ grounds?

Douglas: I was born on an island called Manhattan, and now live on another island called Long Island, where I root for a hockey team called the Islanders.

7-Imp: Can you briefly tell us about your road to publication?

Douglas: While going to Queens College, where I studied with the amazing man Marvin Bileck (Rain Makes Applesauce), I started to do drawings for the New York Times. That, along with cartoons and covers for The New Yorker magazine, was my entre into the door of Greenwillow Books, where—under the guidance of Susan Hirshman, Libby Sub, and Ava Weiss—I learned what makes a book work and why. Now Virginia Duncan does a splendid job there. I’ve also been fortunate to have worked with the ingenious Barbara Fenton at Crowell, and I’m now in cohoots with Allyn Johnston and Andrea Welch of the brand new Beach Lane Books, part of Simon & Schuster, thanks to Rubin Pfeffer.

{Ed. Note: Pictured above is Light of My After Afterlife (II-575). Douglas’ fine art is with the BravinLee gallery.}

7-Imp: Can you please point us to your web site and/or blog?

Douglas: www.douglasflorian.com (fine art), floriancafe.blogspot.com (kids’ blog)

7-Imp: If you do school visits, tell us what they’re like.

Douglas: I’ve done many, many schools visits in almost all parts of the country, and usually they’re splendid. I find out what kids like, don’t like, and want to see, and I’m often inspired by students. For example, Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars came about after walking throughout the halls of a school in Long Island and admiring the art on planets by first graders.

Last fall, at a school in Cincinnati I saw some marvelous student art in a gym. When I asked the kids what medium they used, they told me oil pastels with watercolors. I’m now using oil pastels and watercolor with some collage in the book on trees I’m working on. I hope to impart my love of poetry and painting to the many children I see, and it’s most rewarding to hear kids laugh at my poems. I also love the questions such as “Have you ever had a real job?” My answer: “No, this is too much fun.”

7-Imp: If you teach illustration, by chance, tell us how that influences your work as an illustrator.

Douglas: I’m always amazed how kids can see things so freshly and originally. If a kid draws his hand which was hit by a hammer yesterday, he makes it huge. Picasso said all children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. First we grow up, then we grow down.

7-Imp: Any new titles/projects you might be working on now that you can tell us about?

Douglas: I’m almost finished with a book of poems and paintings about trees. It has a few surprises in it, but you’ll have to wait until next Spring to see it!

Okay, the 7-Imp jet has landed, and the table’s set for our seven questions over breakfast. Now we’re ready to talk more specifics. Once again, I thank Douglas for cyber-stopping by.

1. 7-Imp: What exactly is your process when you are illustrating a book? You can start wherever you’d like when answering: getting initial ideas, starting to illustrate, or even what it’s like under deadline, etc. Do you outline a great deal of the book before you illustrate or just let your muse lead you on and see where you end up?

Douglas: When starting a book, I search for the mood or concept of the book. In DINOTHESAURUS, I wanted a metaphorical feeling in the art that reflected the text. So, I have a crane-like Brachiosaurus, a high-tech Giganotosaurus, and a lake-like Seismosaurus, to name a few. The research was done at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, with primary source books written by paleontologists, and with the dinosaurs moping around my back yard.

{Pictured here is Bluesome (II-534).}

I never really know where an illustration will go. I let the art have a life of its own. That’s why I hate to do rough sketches or a dummy. I want spontaneity and happy accidents.

2. 7-Imp: Describe your studio or usual work space for us.

Douglas: My work space is a big mess. That’s the way I like: I get lots of crosscurrents and jokes-tapositions flowing from one thing to the next. I work in a neighborhood called Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan, in a building that used to be a piano factory. The heat pipes bang and the elevator gets stuck, but I love it and when I look out my window at noon I see the kids romping around the cement yard of Public School 111.

3. 7-Imp: As book lovers, it interests us: What books or authors and/or illustrators influenced you as an early reader?

Douglas: As an early reader, I loved books with pictures of knights: hundreds, thousands, millions of knights in vast panoramas engaged in wars with their horses, armor, shields, spears, cannons, flags, and pennants. A tiny bit of that snuck into my insectlopedia. Later, between fifth and sixth grade, I grew to love the witty poetry of Ogden Nash.

4. 7-Imp: If you could have three (living) illustrators—whom you have not yet met—over for coffee or a glass of rich, red wine, whom would you choose?

Douglas: I’ve already met so many great artists, but I’m a fan of Sara Fanelli, Henrik Drescher, and Maira Kalman, to name a few. {Ed. Note: Kalman’s self-portrait is pictured here, taken from her site.}

5. 7-Imp: What is currently in rotation on your iPod or loaded in your CD player? Do you listen to music while you create books?

Douglas: I am currently listening to Them (Van Morrison’s take on Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”), Crowded House (“Don’t Dream It’s Over”), and Fred Neil’s “The Dolphins,” all on YouTube.

6. 7-Imp: What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?

Douglas: I would climb to the tops of sycamore trees when I was eight.

7. 7-Imp: Is there something you wish interviewers would ask you — but never do? Feel free to ask and respond here.

Douglas: Who is your favorite artist?

Paul Klee, hands down and hands up.

7-Imp: What is your favorite word?

Douglas: “Yes.” Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, yes, Yes, Yes. Did I say Yes? Yes!

7-Imp: What is your least favorite word?

Douglas: “But,” especially when it follows “Yes.”

7-Imp: What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Douglas: Nature, of course. But also the way other people perceive nature, and the way other people perceive other people, hopefully with an open mind and heart.

7-Imp: What turns you off?

Douglas: Hatred, intolerance, and spiders.

7-Imp: What is your favorite curse word? (optional)

Douglas: Silence. Silence can be the cruelest curse.

7-Imp: What sound or noise do you love?

Douglas: I love the sound of someone saying, “I love you.” As the poet Dante said, “Love that moves the sun and other stars.”

7-Imp: What sound or noise do you hate?

Douglas: I hate the sound of someone saying, “I hate you.”

7-Imp: What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Douglas: Gastroenterologist. I always wanted to do a colonoscopy, or at least a semi-colonoscopy.

7-Imp: What profession would you not like to do?

Douglas: Editor. I would hate to have to judge and criticize other people’s work. I once did it for a friend, and she hated me for it. And soldier, of course.

7-Imp: If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Douglas: “You know all those people who died in wars, and the Black Plague, and the Holocaust? Well, they’re here, and they say Hello and thanks for thinking about them.”

All photos and illustrations—with the exception of the coffee mug, book covers, and self-portrait of Maira Kalman—courtesy of Douglas Florian. All rights reserved.

Spreads from DINOTHESAURUS © 2009 by Douglas Florian. Published by Simon & Schuster—Atheneum Books for Young Readers. New York, NY. Posted with permission of author/illustrator. All rights reserved.