![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/barrymoser.jpg\")
Welcome, dear readers, to an interview I very much enjoyed formatting. I’m not only a long-time fan of Barry Moser’s<\/strong><\/a> printwork and watercolors, but I also particularly enjoyed reading his honest and insightful responses to my questions. Though you will read below his perfectly understand-able reasons for expatriating from the South, a part of Moser still feels affinity towards it; he, in fact, grew up in East Tennessee (born in Chattanooga, to be exact, in 1940), where I also lived for quite some time. And, speaking of the South, his response to the Pivot pearly-gates question is my New Favorite Ever. <\/p>\n
Moser is not only an accomplished and renowned illustrator (in both painting and print-making); he is also a printer, typographer, calligraphy artist, designer, lecturer, author, essayist, and teacher. And a “booksmith,” as he told Anna Olswanger in this<\/strong><\/a> 1999 interview, adding “{m}y skin goes a little rankly on ‘children’s book illustrator.’ That’s an artificial subdivision. You’re either a book illustrator, or you’re not.” As the owner of the private Pennyroyal Press<\/strong><\/a>, his own imprint, Moser strives “to do…as beautiful a book as I can possibly do” (source here<\/strong><\/a>); he has illustrated and\/or designed over three hundred titles for both children and adults. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Working primarily in watercolors for children’s titles, Barry’s most recent title is the beautiful Once Upon a Twice<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Random House, August 2009), written by Denise Doyen<\/strong><\/a>. You can re-visit this<\/strong><\/a> post to read more about the book. Moser’s paintings in this clever title are “a marvel of nighttime beauty,” wrote Publishers Weekly<\/em>. In describing his illustrations for Cynthia Rylant’s<\/strong><\/a> Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Harcourt, 1991), I think Publishers Weekly’s<\/em> comment captures well what Moser brings to any title he illustrates: “Moser’s masterfully executed paintings…find beauty in plainness, capturing the culture and people…with affection and sensitivity.”<\/p>\n This morning, Barry is joining me for some “Eggs Benedict.”<\/font> I’m all for that. Let’s set the table for our breakfast chat and get the basics from Barry in the process. I thank him for stopping by. <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: Both, but primarily illustrator.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: Ninety-three (or so) for children; nearly three hundred for adults. You can find a complete bibliography on my website<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium, or–\u2013if you use a variety—your preferred one?<\/font> <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: For children\u2019s books: transparent watercolor.<\/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 Barry<\/font><\/strong>: For me, there is no difference other than tone. The younger the audience, the more humorous the pictures.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font><\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: Western Massachusetts.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you briefly tell me about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: My publishing history began when I saw my first hand-made book at Leonard Baskin\u2019s Gehenna Press in 1968. As a result of that event, I learned how to set type and run a printing press and published my first book, The Red Rag<\/em> by James A. M. Whistler<\/strong><\/a>, in 1970 under my own press name, Pennyroyal Press. I did nothing but hand-made, limited edition books for years, until I was asked to illustrate Moby-Dick<\/em> in 1978<\/strong><\/a>. That introduced me to the world of the trade books, since it was subsequently published by the University of California Press. (The original edition was from the Arion Press in San Francisco in a limited edition). In 1984, I was invited to illustrate Jump!<\/em> (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich); that was my first book for children.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point readers to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: www.moser-pennyroyal.com<\/strong><\/a>. You can also find out a lot about my travels at my wife\u2019s blog<\/strong><\/a>. {Ed. to add, Thursday morning: The link provided here seems to be broken. I’ll try to dig and find the right one.}<\/em><\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: If you do school visits, tell me what they\u2019re like.<\/font> <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: I rarely do school visits. I do not have the ability to speak with\/to children any differently than I do to adults, so I tend to bore kids in a classroom. Thus, I am not good at it and resist invitations to do so. Most of my public appearances take the form of formal lectures or demonstrations at the university level.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: If you teach illustration, can you tell me how that influences your work as an illustrator?<\/font> <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: I teach printing and typography at Smith College<\/strong><\/a> but have taught illustration at Rhode Island School of Design<\/strong><\/a>. The only influence that comes to mind is that hearing myself articulate solutions and problems inherent in the craft of illustration often clarifies my own issues and problems back at home in the studio.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell me about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Barry<\/font><\/strong>: Once Upon a Twice<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Denise Doyen<\/strong><\/a>, Random House) is just out. It\u2019s a nonsense poem that is also a cautionary tale for mice, warning them not to go out in the bush at night. It\u2019s a marvelously witty poem that is challenging for kids, but we\u2019ve heard two or three kids who have memorized the entire poem. We just found out that it has been chosen by Kirkus<\/em> as one of the Best Books for Children of 2009. Makes us proud. <\/p>\n I am just about to do the jacket painting for O, Harry!<\/em> (Roaring Brook), another poem, but this one written by Maxine Kumin<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s about a horse, named Harry, who has a calming effect on the high-strung show horses he stables with. Along comes the son of the owner, a real hellion, who learns to be calm after meeting Harry. And I am just beginning work on Christmas in the Time of Billy Lee<\/em> (Jerdine Nolen<\/strong><\/a>, Disney\/Hyperion), a story about an African-American girl, whose invisible companion introduces her to snow and the miracles of Christmas.<\/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 Barry<\/font><\/strong>: First of all, I am offered a job by a publisher. I suppose that goes without saying, but I sometimes generate books on my own\u2014books that are published in limited editions and with original art. Once the job has been accepted, contracts written and signed, I then design my book. <\/p>\n I set the type and leave spaces for images. (And mind you that I don\u2019t have a clue as to what those images are at this point.) The fact is that my books are usually type-driven rather than picture-driven. (I hope that that is never apparent, because if I\u2019ve done my typography well, the reader should never notice it. It\u2019s a very subtle art form.) I consider myself a typographer more than an illustrator and can get really picky about the type and its composition. <\/p>\n Once the typographic “cradle” has been constructed, I begin filling in the blanks I\u2019ve left for images. These days I do my compositions in the computer. I build what, if done with paper, would be called a collage. I borrow and steal bits and pieces of photographs from here and there, often photos I made myself, and arrange them into what I hope is a coherent and harmonious picture. <\/p>\n Once the composition has met my standards (and the approval of the editor), I trace the image off onto hand-made watercolor papers and paint it. I\u2019ve never had any instruction in watercolor, so I don\u2019t know what I am supposed to do or not to do. I often start off with the darkest rather than the lighter areas, which is pretty much backwards from what most watercolorists do.<\/p>\n 2.<\/font> 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Describe your studio or usual work space.<\/font> <\/p>\n {Ed. Note: Pictured below is Moser’s drawing of the legendary Jabberwock<\/strong><\/a>.}<\/em><\/p>\n Barry<\/strong><\/font><\/strong>: I was not an early reader. I did not begin to read seriously until I was an adult, and that happened as a direct result of learning to set type\u2014the most intense form of reading there is: upside down and backwards. That happened when I was studying with Leonard Baskin<\/strong><\/a>, and his work was a powerful influence on me. The Wyeths<\/strong><\/a> had influenced me long before I began to read seriously. So had Mark Rothko<\/strong><\/a>, Adolph Gottlieb<\/strong><\/a>, Franz Kline<\/strong><\/a>, and a host of other non-objective, expressionistic painters. As well as the old masters, which almost goes without saying: Rembrandt<\/strong><\/a>, Vel\u00e1zquez<\/strong><\/a>, ![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/barrymoser22.jpg\")
7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/when-birds-could-talk.jpg\")
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<\/em>When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing<\/strong><\/a>
(Blue Sky Press, 1996)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/the-widow-and-the-tree.jpg\")
\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/those-building-men.jpg\")
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(Blue Sky Press, 2001)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/cowboy-stories-bull-3.jpg\")
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\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/call-of-the-wild.jpg\")
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(Simon & Schuster, 1994)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/nick-and-nora.jpg\")
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(Scholastic, 1995)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/dogs-of-myth.jpg\")
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<\/em>Dogs of Myth: Tales from Around the World<\/strong><\/a> (Simon & Schuster, 1999)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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-asham’d; \/ He rambles past the haven reeds.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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(Click spread to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/jack-giant.jpg\")
\nOur table’s set now for seven questions over breakfast, and we’ve got coffee and eggs all set. Let’s get a bit more detailed, and I thank Barry again for stopping by.<\/font> <\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/shiloh1.jpg\")
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(Aladdin Fiction, 2000)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/great-ghost-stories.jpg\")
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(HarperCollins, 1998)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/just-so.jpg\")
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(HarperCollins, 1996)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/jabberwock4.jpg\")
Barry<\/strong><\/font><\/strong>: My house, which I designed and built twenty-three years ago, is on a hill in the middle of acres and acres of woods. The studio is the largest room in the house. It is two-storied, with a cat walk that defines the second floor. This is where we store inventory. My bedroom opens off the cat walk. Downstairs there are three work areas: my assistant\u2019s desk and files; my desk and reference book, where I do my computer work; and my work table where I paint and engrave. My work table faces a fireplace that has a K\u00e4the Kollwitz<\/strong><\/a> etching hanging above the mantle. Behind my work table (an antique English desk with a portable drawing board) are three large windows that look out into the woods. On either side of the fireplace are book shelves that house a thousand or so books. Part of the left-hand book case is where my sound system is, and that might just be the most important part of the studio, given my devotion to and need for music (Palestrina<\/strong><\/a>, Bach<\/strong><\/a>, Mozart<\/strong><\/a>, Sibelius<\/strong><\/a>, etc.). There are oriental carpets on the floor and scads of pictures on the high, two-story wall facing the area where my assistant works. Adjacent to that wall of pictures is a wall of glass that is twenty-odd feet high. It faces north, so the light in the studio is always constant. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/flannery.jpg\")
3.<\/font> 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: As a book lover, it interests me: What books or authors and\/or illustrators influenced you as an early reader?<\/font><\/p>\n