Here's an image I created on a big pad of paper during a visit to the Lunt School in Falmouth, Maine in 2006. My friend, Maribeth Bush, who is the stellar guidance counselor at Lunt, took a photo of this page from the pad I left behind. I almost had forgotten about this, so I'm happy Maribeth sent it along. She has a much better memory than I do and can probably tell us what prompted the art, but I do know that this is theme I love exploring. In "The Dot," Vashti's teacher prompts her to sign her work. I am always reminding people to be proud of their work, their name, their contributions and ideas - their voice! Reminding others helps remind myself.
I'm still learning to love my voice.
More on that to come.
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11 comments:
We love your voice too. I always remind myself and my children to make a mark and see where it takes them. I learned this from best. (smile)
Awesome little doodle, Peter. I know it might not do much for some, but to a literacy teacher, voice is everything. I am planning to reprint this as large as possible to put on our literacy classroom walls. If you decide to make a poster out of it, let me know. Would love to have one.
By the way, my wife and son loved the book (So Few of Me) you gave me at Constructing Modern Knowledge. My son thinks it is way cool that the author and illustrator would write him a message inside the cover. Thanks again.
Scott, funny you should say that about voice and literacy, because that's exactly what inspired Peter's "I love my voice!" poster. He was doing an author visit at my school for our 150ish 2nd graders (I'm at a K-2 school), and in planning for his visit, I shared with Peter that our second graders had been learning a lot about "voice" in their writing, and in their reading. Peter then talked with the kids a bit about "voice" as well during his visit, and the "I love my voice!" poster spontaneously appeared from the end of Peter's paint brush. Wish I knew where he buys those MAGIC paint brushes! ; )
Anyway, creating it as poster would be a great idea!
This reminds me of the book, Ellison the Elephant, written by Eric Drachman. Weasel counsels Ellison, "Okay. Okay. Now, close your eyes and look inside. When you find your voice, let it out..." James Muscarello's illustrations are soft, expressive, and cozy, but accompanied by the audio CD that comes with the book, they make your heart melt! Eric employs his nephews and nieces to help him create the CDS. We first stumbled upon Leo the Lightning Bug at the library, fell in love with his voice, and have been big KIDWICK BOOKS fans since!
Your voice is heard, Peter...and everywhere I go, I love sharing your voice with others. You are such an inspiration to little old me, and to children of all ages! May your gentle spirit and doodling continue to inspire, and may your voice continue to radiate around the world.
I love the doodle. Everyone's voice is important. Without every voice, we would lose some of the best insights out there. Thank you for the reminder.
Thanks for the kind words. : )
wow. I would like this as a print for my daughters room. Fantastic and inspirational.
I will be creating a limited edition Glicee print which I will blog about when they arrive. These will be signed and numbered. I am having the original framed for my home studio to hang right next to the french doors that lead out into my garden.
I love this illustration, Peter! I saw that you mentioned that you were planning to make a glicee print of it to sell - is that available?
I know this post is a year old, but I recently found it after I was mentioned in a blog. I googled around to find out where else I might've been mentioned and saw that in the comments to this post, Stacie said that your illustration reminded her of my book, "Ellison the Elephant." I was very flattered that my books would be mentioned on your blog!
We met briefly at the silent auction at BEA when my friend, Kathryn Otoshi won your artwork!
I'm a fan of your work, Peter and I hope our paths cross again one day...
Eric Drachman
For some reason your words inspire hope and give me a bit of confidence to keep writing! Takeflightbooks.com
Thank you!
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