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<\/a><\/p>\nPamela’s delicate and inventive mixed-media illustrations have been seen in two previous poetry collections — Maxine Kumin’s<\/strong><\/a> Mites to Mastodons: A Book of Animal Poems<\/strong><\/em><\/a> from 2006, as well as 2007’s This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, also by Joyce Sidman (“her skill as a poet accessible to young people is unmatched,” wrote School Library Journal<\/em> about Sidman), and both released by Houghton Mifflin. <\/p>\n Since Pamela sent over one hundred images for this interview (I never really counted the images in the Dave McKean interview<\/strong><\/a>, but this might rival it), I’m going to get right to it, and we can find out what’s next for her and<\/em> why she talks to her paintings (which I get. I really do.) For breakfast this morning, she’s having lots and lots of tea. “I get up really early (4:30-5:00),”<\/em> she told me, “to paint, sketch, work on my computer. I have one, two, and sometimes three really big cups of tea, preferably with lots and lots of almond milk. I just love tea — always have! I don’t get hungry until later in the morning, but when I do, I like fruit, nuts, and raisins and brown rice or quinoa.”<\/em><\/p>\n Let’s get the basics from Pamela while we wait for our tea to steep, and I thank her for stopping by. And ESPECIALLY for the whole heapin’ ton of beautiful art. <\/p>\n {Note: I’m not going to put titles under each illustration, for different reasons, but The Really Eager and Curious can right-click on the images themselves—and then go to “properties”—to at least see JPEG names, as basically sent to me by Pamela and which are often the illustration titles as well. Also note that some of these images are details of larger illustrations. Most of these illustrations are hyperlinked to larger versions, too, so click the image itself to see in more detail.}<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: Illustrator. But I am noodling with a few of my own stories.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium, or -\u2013 if you use a variety -\u2013 your preferred one?<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: Mixed media, acrylic, colored pencil, collage, and sometimes computer graphics. My illustrations are a little of everything, usually painted on wood. <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: 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? <\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: Early reader books tend to be more graphic and bold—bolder colors, bolder images—though in My Big Dictionary<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (for early readers), there is a lot of detail on the “letter” pages. Picture books lend themselves to more detail, more subtle colors, intricate designs, and characters, but I think children are very sophisticated. They know and can comprehend a lot from very early ages, if given the opportunity. When you give small children a lot of detail, they take in what they can. My nephew is four and he loves the details. He loves finding the “hidden” things in paintings and illustrations. In the end, I think the differences in how one illustrates comes more from the story line and concept behind the book, not so much the age of the child. <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: I live in Stonington, Connecticut. It is very beautiful here. Lots of moss-covered stones, boulders, stonewalls, fields, trees, and ocean. <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you briefly tell us about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: Out of college, I started working at Weekly Reader<\/em>, doing illustrations for their reader and some magazines. It was with Weekly Reader<\/em> that I did my first book, Windmill Hill<\/em>. After that, I got an agent in New York city. <\/p>\n I did a book with Scholastic, and then with Houghton Mifflin I did My Big Dictionary<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, my first “real” book. After the dictionary, I went through a major life change — a divorce. Out of necessity, I gave up my agent, books, and illustrating for a while, and I got a “real” job. I needed to have a steady income. I started working at this wonderful shop\/gallery, Whyevernot<\/a><\/strong>, in Mystic, CT. (Eighteen years later, I am still working there.) It is during this time period that I started doing very large paintings, mostly for the windows at the shop — many 16 ft x 6 ft long. I painted nonstop, every free moment I had, painting huge paintings, no longer tight and small. Freeing myself up. Moving on. Changed my life and my illustrations. That is why from my earlier books to my books now, the illustration styles are very different. <\/p>\n A few years later, Houghton Mifflin asked me to do a few more board books and then my first picture book, Mites to Mastodons<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, with the poet Maxine Kumin<\/strong><\/a>. Ann Rider at Houghton became my editor. (She is just amazing to work with!) She gave me two books with the gifted poet Joyce Sidman<\/strong><\/a>. It is an illustrator’s dream to have such inspiring words to play with! <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point us to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: For now, just Facebook, but I am currently working on a web page which {will be} zagarenski.com. <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell us about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: I am working on a few stories of my own. We’ll see. This is a new venture for me.<\/p>\n 1.<\/font> 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: What exactly is your process when you are illustrating a book? You can start wherever you\u2019d like when answering: getting initial ideas, starting to illustrate, or even what it\u2019s 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?<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: This is a hard question. It is hard to put into words to my process. I go on autopilot. Painting and drawing takes place somewhere else. <\/p>\n When doing a book, I obviously read the story, then read it again, again, and again. I read it at night before bed, so it is the last thing I think about before sleep. Like an actor reading his\/her lines for a play, I let it become part of me. I rehearse the part. I get to know it. I take it with me everywhere. I tuck it into a small pocket in my brain. I think about it all the time. Ideas then come anytime and anywhere. <\/p>\n I have a journal with me {see two journal pages below}<\/em> at all times to put ideas in. I do spend days, weeks, months sketching, having ideas, and then committing them to paper. I always do several page layouts first — to see how many pages I will have and how they will fall. After sketching the pages, I paint some of them immediately. I just can’t help it. I want to see how they will feel as finished paintings. <\/p>\n After tightening up all my sketches, I send them off to be reviewed. Once I get the okay, then onto the painting. I give the illustrations all of their final bits and pieces. Believe it or not, I talk to them, asking the paintings what they would like. I feel the characters and landscapes become real. When I first start painting, I never really know where each one is going to go in the end. Hand in hand, they lead me down the road to a finished page. It sounds a bit strange but, I can’t “think” about it too much. I can’t have too many preconceived notions; the paintings can then just become and evolve freely. <\/p>\n 2.<\/font> 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Describe your studio or usual work space for us.<\/font> <\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: I have two studios. One is beautiful and spacious, a big barn, open and light. But alas, it does not have any heat. (Yes, I am saving up.) So, in winter—feels half the year—I work in a tiny room in my house. So, I tend to paint big paintings in Summer, late Spring, and Fall, and I do more of my journal, computer, and idea-fishing during the winter months. <\/p>\n 3.<\/font> 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: As book lovers, it interests us: What books or authors and\/or illustrators influenced you as an early reader?<\/font> <\/p>\n Oh, there are so many loved books, loved pages. I could go on and on.<\/p>\n 4.<\/font> 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: 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?<\/font><\/p>\n Pamela<\/font><\/strong>: Maurice Sendak<\/strong><\/a>, Sara Fanelli<\/strong><\/a>, and Kv\u011bta Pacovsk\u00e1<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\nIllustrator Pamela Zagarenski is here this morning for a breakfast chat. Together, she and poet Joyce Sidman<\/strong><\/a> created one of my favorite picture books thus far this year—if not my very<\/em> favorite—Red Sings From Treetops<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, released by Houghton Mifflin in April. You can read a bit more about it here<\/strong><\/a> — in a short post I did early this month. Red Sings<\/em> is a poetry collection that brilliantly, in more ways than one, celebrates colors as you’ve never quite seen them celebrated before. <\/p>\n<\/a>
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\n<\/a><\/p>\nOkay. Our tea’s ready. Nice and strong. Time for our breakfast chat. Thanks to Pamela for sharing her art, and let’s keep at it…<\/font> <\/p>\n<\/a>
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\n {Ed. Note: Pictured here is one of Pamela’s drawings from age four.}<\/em> <\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\nPamela<\/strong><\/font><\/strong>: The Little Prince<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (my favorite); Winnie-the-Pooh<\/strong><\/a><\/em>; Charlotte’s Web<\/strong><\/a><\/em>; Stuart Little<\/strong><\/a><\/em>; The Velveteen Rabbit<\/strong><\/a><\/em>; All of Dr. Seuss’<\/strong><\/a> books; Shel Silverstein<\/strong><\/a> (“If you are a dreamer, come in , come in…” I love the The Giving Tree<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, A Light in the Attic<\/strong><\/a><\/em>); Maurice Sendak<\/strong><\/a> {and} The Nutshell Library<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (tiny beloved books that they are); Beatrix Potter<\/strong><\/a> (I just love her characters. Oh, I love Peter Rabbit<\/strong><\/a><\/em>); Billy Goats Gruff<\/strong><\/em><\/a>; I had some old illustrated editions of Pinnochio<\/strong><\/a><\/em> {pictured here} and Alice in Wonderland<\/strong><\/a><\/em> that my grandfather gave me, that I adored, even though the illustrations were a bit scary; Little Black Sambo<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (I absolutely loved how the tigers turned to butter. I found it so magical.) Starting at about four, I was in love with Charles Shulz<\/strong><\/a>, Peanuts<\/em>, Snoopy, and Woodstock. I remember aspiring to be Charles Shulz when I grew up. I drew Snoopy<\/em> on everything (much to my mother’s dismay). <\/p>\n<\/a>
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