{"id":1691,"date":"2009-05-31T00:01:01","date_gmt":"2009-05-31T06:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2018-01-26T08:17:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T14:17:04","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-117-featuring-katherine-tillotson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1691","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #117: Featuring Katherine Tillotson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jules:<\/font><\/strong> See my new doll? This is my kick #1 this week and a gift from illustrator Katherine Tillotson<\/strong><\/a>. I received the doll—we’ll call her Mrs. Petal Pauline McWheely—just yesterday as a thank-you for today’s feature: Katherine’s here today to share some art from her newly-illustrated picture book by author Megan McDonald<\/strong><\/a>, It’s Picture Day Today!<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (to be released in June by Atheneum Books). <\/p>\n

Mrs. Petal Pauline McWheely has a lot in common with the students in McDonald’s picture book — students with names like Buttons and Feathers. Yup, it’s a school full of art materials: Clothespins, Easter grasses, glittering stars, twisty yarns, and lots of wheely things. They all gather for the class pic, only to discover that Glue is missing. (Glue is a popular guy, as you can probably imagine.) It’s pretty much mayhem (and kudos to Katherine for keeping it interesting; I’m no artist, but it seems to me it’d be challenging to animate things like fuzzy pom-poms and string), until the picture gets snapped right before the book’s close, which opens up into a four-page spread — and which I won’t give away. But it has a lot to do with how Mrs. McWheely is structured here: Making order out of scraps, out of chaos, out of what you thought was little to nothing.<\/p>\n

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It probably goes without saying that this title will appeal to art-lovin’ students, but don’t forget your ecologically-minded ones, as well. Petal here was formed from scraps that would typically get trashed. I’ve heard this before: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Well, Mrs. Petal Pauline McWheely—and Katherine—know a little something about the fun you can have in doing so. <\/p>\n

Katherine, who lives in San Francisco with her husband, writes at her site<\/strong><\/a>, “I remember the first time I painted a picture and the paint went where I wanted it to go. I was in third grade, working with watercolors and was very excited by the experience.”<\/em> And, though the art for It’s Picture Day Today!<\/em> is rendered with cut paper, she primarily works with oil paints. Here she is to say hello and a bit about her work. Thanks to Katherine for stopping by and sharing some art with us this morning. <\/p>\n

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“<\/font>I have always loved to draw and paint from models. When I developed the characters for When the Library Lights Go Out<\/strong><\/a><\/em> {also written by McDonald}, I made puppets in order to visualize the characters. I subsequently posed these hand-made puppets for the paintings.<\/p>\n


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One of the first things I did upon reading the manuscript for It’s Picture Day Today<\/em> was to pull out a bottle of glue and many bits of this and that. Below are the first characters I made. I call the tall one Mr. Scissorhead, and the short one, Mischief-Maker. If you look carefully, you can find them on the penultimate spread of the book.<\/p>\n


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{Here are} a few pieces from the creation of the book . . .<\/p>\n


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I hope this book will encourage in children the same excitement in making art that I experienced while making the collages for this story.<\/font>“<\/font><\/p>\n

Thanks again to Katherine! Now on to our kicks . . .<\/p>\n

{IT’S PICTURE DAY TODAY! \u00a9 2009 by Megan McDonald. Illustrations \u00a9 2009 by Katherine Tillotson. Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. New York, NY. Posted with permission of illustrator. All rights reserved.<\/em>}<\/p>\n

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As a reminder, our 7 Kicks posts are our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. So, let’s kick it up. Absolutely anyone is welcome to list kicks — even if, or especially<\/em> if, you’ve never done so before.<\/p>\n

* * * eisha’s kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot in Persuasion1* Why, hello, Mrs. Petal Pauline McWheely. It’s very nice to make your acquaintance.<\/p>\n

2* We had a goodbye party for my co-worker who’s moving away this week. Mood-wise, it was a bittersweet affair, but it was a truly lovely party. We brought some old dead guy’s silver tea service out from the vault for a centerpiece, and people brought in scones and cucumber sandwiches and such. It was even more lovely and gratifying to see so many people from so many different library departments turn out for this. It’s a testament, see, to just how awesome my friend is and how many people adore her and are all broken-hearted about her leaving.<\/p>\n

3* My boss’s dad is visiting from Scotland. She’s brought him in to work with her a couple of times, and he’s a hoot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

4* I’m finally almost over a nasty spring cold — the kind that renders me utterly useless for any kind of productive task, while making me a social pariah from all the nose-blowing and deep-diaphragm coughing.<\/p>\n

SufferJets vs. Roc City5* My neighbors and I have started a little tradition where every so often we get together at one of our apartments and watch a Jane Austen film while having high tea. On Monday I hosted and made goat cheese & watercress sandwiches (with the crusts cut off, natch) and we watched the 2007 version of Persuasion<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

6* Saturday night we went to the opening match of Ithaca’s roller derby team, the SufferJets<\/strong><\/a>. Our girls didn’t fare too well in the first half, but rallied for a surprise victory over Roc City<\/strong><\/a> (sorry, adrienne<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n

7* And then we had The Poets<\/strong><\/a> over for pizza and completely-made-up-mixed-drinks-that-had-to-include-rum and bad movies. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

2). I’m making pretty significant progress—with help from others—on my birthday idea for one of my good friends (an idea I mentioned last week<\/strong><\/a>).<\/p>\n

3). My husband and I watched the ’07 re-make of 3:10 to Yuma<\/strong><\/em><\/a> this week. I’m CURSING myself now for joking about hyperbole last week, as we were<\/strong><\/a>, because you may not believe me now when I tell you it is a superb<\/font> movie. Absolutely riveting. Where was the Oscar love for Christian Bale that year? His performance brought me to tears. And Ben Foster<\/strong><\/a>? Creepy-good in this film. <\/p>\n

4). John<\/strong><\/a> sent me some early Linda Ronstadt tunes when I mentioned last week that there was a dearth of them in my life. How thoughtful was that? <\/p>\n

5). My husband cracked a joke the other night while we were eating out that nearly made me choke on my food from laughing. Not to be a tease, but it’s probably inappropriate to share, seeing as how we both have a fairly sick sense of humor. <\/p>\n

6). I swore I’d never be Braggy Mom, but these are kicks, right? Things that make us very happy and for which we’re very grateful? My five-year-old is reading the books in this series<\/strong><\/a> to me. Of course I have to help with words here and there, but it’s like she skipped beginning readers (with the exception of Elephant & Piggie OF COURSE), and she went straight to these little chapter books of sorts. And, since curling up with my children and reading is my favorite thing, I like it even better when she reads to me. <\/p>\n

(Did I sound like Braggy Mom? If so, I didn’t mean to. I swear. I’m just excited.)<\/p>\n

7). Remember this post<\/strong><\/a>? I finally read a copy of Bird<\/strong><\/a><\/em> this week, and the art and the writing are beautiful. It’s a poignant and wonderful read. <\/p>\n

BONUS: Birthday party yesterday at a friend’s place. Cake. Ice cream. Pirates. TIRE SWING!<\/p>\n

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P.S. If anyone’s interested in a free autographed copy of Linda Ashman’s<\/strong><\/a> Come to the Castle: A Visit to a Castle in Thirteenth-Century England<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Roaring Brook Press; April 2009; illustrated by S.D. Schindler), there’s one more day to try to snag one. The info is here<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font> kicks this week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jules: See my new doll? This is my kick #1 this week and a gift from illustrator Katherine Tillotson. I received the doll—we’ll call her Mrs. Petal Pauline McWheely—just yesterday as a thank-you for today’s feature: Katherine’s here today to share some art from her newly-illustrated picture book by author Megan McDonald, It’s Picture Day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}