{"id":2073,"date":"2011-02-03T00:01:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T06:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2011-02-03T19:07:19","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T01:07:19","slug":"langston-and-dave-before-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2073","title":{"rendered":"Langston and Dave Before Breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Dave kicked \/ his potter’s wheel \/ until it spun \/ as fast as \/
a carnival’s wheel of fortune.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

I know, I know. I often say “this post will be short and sweet,” and I then I start ramble typing. But it’s been a long week, and this truly will be brief. <\/p>\n

The blog is being graced today with illustrations from Sean Qualls<\/a><\/strong> (who did one of my favorite 7-Imp interviews ever<\/a><\/strong> back in ’09, and that would be because he sent precisely one skerjillion images, and that’s the way I like to do ’em up, my friends — with a metric ton of art) and Bryan Collier<\/a><\/strong>. Sean is sharing over in Facebook land an illustration-a-day in honor of Black History Month, and I secured his permission to share Langston Hughes here:<\/p>\n

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The back cover (and one of the interior illustrations) from Laban Carrick Hill’s<\/a><\/strong> Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, illustrated by Bryan Collier<\/a><\/strong>, is at the top of this post. You may remember that this biography of American artist Dave the potter<\/a><\/strong> received a 2011 Caldecott Honor<\/a><\/strong>, and I’ve yet to feature it here at the ‘ol blawg. If you’ve yet to see this book, what Tony Horwitz at the New York Times<\/em> called<\/a><\/strong> a “restrained and respectful treatment of the historical facts {of his life}” and School Library Journal<\/em> called “{o}utstanding in every way,” you’re in for a treat. <\/p>\n

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Collier’s work in this one is lush and evocative. This is an illustrator I’ve tried in vain to have over for a breakfast interview, but maybe I’ll try again. I think his collage work is some of contemporary illustration’s most engaging. And, quite frankly, most superb. (In the case of Dave the Potter<\/em>, it’s watercolor and collage.) <\/p>\n

Below are some more from the book. Enjoy. (You can click on each spread below to see the collages up close. In fact, I highly recommend it.)<\/p>\n

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“To us \/ it is just dirt, \/ the ground we walk on. \/ Scoop up a handful. \/
The gritty grains slip \/ between your fingers.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“He threw the clay, \/ sometimes sixty pounds at once, \/ and nobody knew \/
how or where it would land \/ except for Dave.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Illustration from Sean Qualls copyright \u00a9 2011 and used with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

DAVE THE POTTER: ARTIST, POET, SLAVE. Text copyright \u00a9 2010 Laban Carrick Hill. Illustration \u00a9 2010 Bryan Collier. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Dave kicked \/ his potter’s wheel \/ until it spun \/ as fast as \/a carnival’s wheel of fortune.”(Click to enlarge spread.) I know, I know. I often say “this post will be short and sweet,” and I then I start ramble typing. But it’s been a long week, and this truly will be brief. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}