{"id":3572,"date":"2014-11-11T06:54:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T12:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2015-10-27T21:52:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T03:52:51","slug":"seven-questions-over-breakfast-with-rick-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3572","title":{"rendered":"Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Rick Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It’s such a pleasure to have printmaker and illustrator Rick Allen<\/a><\/strong> visit 7-Imp this morning, especially to read his thoughtful responses to my questions below — and, of course, to see his compelling prints as well.<\/p>\n

Rick is up in cold, windy Minnesota in a city on Lake Superior’s north shore, and as you’ll read below, it’s just the right place for him to be. His first book was self-published via Kenspeckle Letterpress<\/a><\/strong>, which he describes as “original letterpress artwork, giclees, notecards, prints and posters…[with] his creative muse: Marian Lansky<\/a><\/strong>.” His other two books were published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and written by award-winning children’s book author and poet Joyce Sidman<\/a><\/strong>. The first, Dark Emperor & Other Poems of The Night<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, received a 2011 Newbery Honor<\/a><\/strong>. And I wrote here<\/a><\/strong> at Kirkus<\/em> about their latest collaboration, Winter Bees & Other Poems of The Cold<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released just last week. Allen’s illustrations for each are exquisite.<\/p>\n

For our fake cyber-breakfast, which I very much wish were real and in-person, Rick’s going to be brave and go for coffee. “Breakfast,” he told me, “is multiple cups of tea, usually black tea of varying strength, depending upon how long I forget it\u2019s been steeping (credit chris<\/a>). In the last few years, I\u2019ve been experimenting with drinking coffee in the morning; to make it palatable I generally lash in great quantities of half-and-half, so perhaps it\u2019s coffee-tinted cream that I\u2019m drinking. We had a Swedish great-grandmother, who used to slurp coffee from a saucer into my siblings and me when we were just months old, and it may have taken a half-century to overcome that early cultural conditioning to try coffee, or near-coffee, again.”<\/p>\n

I can always<\/em> help people find their way to coffee!<\/p>\n

I thank him for visiting. <\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/strong><\/span><\/center>Jules<\/span><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/p>\n

Rick<\/span><\/strong>: Illustrator — and definitely not author slash illustrator. I tend to be wordy but haven\u2019t ever tried to push those words around into anything like a narrative, beyond the title for a print. And since book illustration itself hasn\u2019t been a primary focus for me, I should probably say I\u2019m a printmaker\/illustrator, just for accuracy\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rick working on a block<\/em><\/center>Jules<\/span><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Rick<\/span><\/strong>:<\/p>\n