What would a picture book be without the pictures?  Not much! And while it’s debatable whether a picture is really worth a thousand words, it is clear that the illustrations in children’s books are as important as the words. Many of us remember at least a few pictures from favorite childhood books, even if we have long forgotten the names of the books. For artists, illustrating stories from different cultures pose special challenges –the pictures need to help tell the story and to portray the cultures and settings accurately.  Stories from Native America are often best illustrated by Native American artists who use their insider’s perspectives to portray the stories honestly and respectfully.

Striking illustrations add to the meaning and appeal of printed stories – both traditional and original ones. The current display of books in the Library Vitrines (July-September, 2004) focuses on seven talented artists whose works reflect their lives and cultures. They are among the growing number of Native American artists who are illustrating and writing children’s books. A list of the featured books is available in the Children’s Library, which is located near the Group Entrance.

Here are brief introductions to the featured artists:

C.J. Taylor, also known as Carrie-Jo, was born in Montreal to a Mohawk father and white mother. Ms. Taylor was taken out of school at sixteen and around this time she discovered an old set of oil paints and began to teach herself to paint. While raising her five children and working odd jobs, she stopped painting, but she returned to it fifteen years ago. Since then Ms. Taylor has been painting eighteen to twenty hours a day, almost daily, and has produced hundreds of paintings. She has written and illustrated nine children’s books based on Native stories, animated a television production, and organized exhibitions of Native art.

“As much as possible, I try to speak to people from the particular nation…In selecting a story, I try to look for one that, first of all, visually presents itself to me and also one that has a good moral to it, good lessons to be learned from it. You can read one of my stories three or four times, and each time you’ll find another meaning.”
www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/profiles/taylor.html

Murv Jacob, a painter and pipe-maker of Kentucky Cherokee and European heritage, studied for twelve years with Cherokee master artist Cecil Dick and is well-known for his intricate, ornately patterned, and thoroughly researched paintings. Mr. Jacob’s award-winning art has illustrated over sixty children’s books and is also displayed in several museums. He and his wife, Deborah Duvall (Cherokee), have written several children’s books together.

“There is a story that has become central to me.  It is the story of the stick ball game between the birds and the animals, and I like that story for personal reasons.  I like all the animals; I like all the birds.  In painting that story, you get to portray all those guys.  It’s a battle for supremacy between the mammals and the birds.  In the story, the animals don’t want two little mammals, but the birds adopt them and take them onto their team – I really like that part of the story.  These creatures become Bat and Flying Squirrel.” 
From “Talking Animals: An Interview with Murv Jacob”, by Sean Teuton in American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2 2002.

Shonto Begay attended federal boarding elementary schools on the Navajo Reservation and went to high school in Kayenta, Arizona. He earned an Associate of Fine Arts degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1980. His drawings, painting, and words reflect his experiences and tell the stories of his people and homeland.

“I have always had a love for art. From a very young age, I found excitement in the experience of drawing. To recreate facets of my universe in varying degrees has always been my life’s adventure. I was born in a hogan in Shonto, Arizona. My parents are traditional Navajo people. My father is a medicine man, and my mother weaves rugs and herds sheep. My message is simple. Build bridges through the arts and stories of your culture, validate and share these visions and voices. Celebrate your personal identity through the arts. In my talks, I am as much a student as I am a teacher.”
www.shontobegay.com

John Kahiones Fadden was born into the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation in the Akwesasne community, and grew up in upstate New York, on the border between the United States and Canada. Mr. Fadden attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and taught art in the Saranac Central School District for 32 years. His artwork has appeared in more than 60 publications as well as in film and video, and his paintings have been exhibited worldwide. Mr. Fadden and his family own and operate the Six Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota, New York.

“American Indians, or Native Americans, often turn to nature to find symbols that represent ideas to their cultures. The natural environment is very important to the American Indian…Haudenosaunee means People of the Longhouse.  The symbols of the Haudenosaunee, such as the pine tree, the eagle, the longhouse, or even their clan names, such as Bear or Beaver, are all related to their natural surroundings.” 
From Symbols of the Haudenenosaunee, a Field Workbook Leaflet by John Kahionhes Fadden.  New York State Historical Assoc., 2001.

David Kanietakeron Fadden is the son of John Kahiones Fadden and a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation. He received formal art training at the Saranac Lake Central School, the North Country Community College, and from his father and mother (Elizabeth Eva Fadden, a wood sculptor). His particular area of expertise, “nurtured by learning from his paternal grandfather Ray Tehantorens Fadden,” is the creation of images of Native Americans and Native American themes. (www.breakfastserials.com)

S.D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Lakota Tribe and it was his interest in art and traditional Lakota teachings that led him to the Moorhead Department of Art and Design at Minnesota State University.  For years he taught middle school art in Arizona and now devotes all his time to his painting and storytelling.  His distinctive style draws on the spiritual symbolism of colors and on ledger book art.

“As a child my very favorite stories were not from books, but they were tales about the olden days told by my mom and dad. I was especially enthralled by my mother’s Native American “coyote” stories and true stories about my Indian ancestors. But when it comes to books, I remember being surprised and delighted by the Dr. Seuss stories. And with all children’s books I was captivated by the illustrations.”
www.leeandlow.com/booktalk/summer1.html

Virginia A. Stroud was born in 1951 in California.  She is of Cherokee and Creek heritage although her Kiowa upbringing largely influences her painting style. She majored in elementary education and art during college and started winning prizes for her art in 1970. Since then her art work has appeared in many journal, books and museum collections and is often easily recognizable as she does not paint facial features.

“...a viewer approaches a painting.
The painting greets the viewer. The space between the painting and the viewer is where the spirit world lives. That small space separates us. I paint for my people. Art is a way for our culture to survive... perhaps the only way. More than anything, I want to become an orator, to share with others the oldest of Indian traditions.”
www.amerindianarts.info/artistprofiles/virginiastroud.html