Saturday, August 22, 2009

A Note on Collecting:

As I watch my little collection of illustrated art grow, I am reminded of the woman who first inspired me to work harder at supporting my fellow illustrators.

I don't know if many of you know about the life work of Betsy Beinecke Shirley, but she was a phenomenal supporter of the arts. When I was in college I slowly started noticing her name as it popped here and there, once at the Field Museum in Chicago, At the Illustrator's Guild, Here and there at Children's Museums. After a lot of research I found that she had bequeathed her entire collection to Yale University. In all my She Sure is Sketchy nerdiness, nothing has ever said "road trip" so strongly. I can chart my art on a timeline pretty well and I have to tell you that after visiting Connecticut I hit a major run of prolific sketchiness. The pencils rarely hit my drafting table for a good month after I got back to Brooklyn. The collection is vast, awe inspiring and goosebump inducing.

Recently I stumbled on a book documenting her dedication to the arts.

Here's an excellent preview: Drawn to Enchant

It showcases artist's studies and original works spanning centuries of time. Among them are many of my influences, namely:


Hardie Gramatky
Maurice Sendak
and

Ludwig Bemelmans
among many, many more of the most prolific illustrators we've had the privilege to learn from.

The book is available from Amazon and it's a cheapy, considering what a wealth of inspiration it is.
You can buy it here.

2 comments:

Meagan said...

How wonderful to see all the artists that she has inspired! Thanks for sharing.

Beth L said...

OMG. You're right about the goosebumps! Before even finishing reading your post already I forwarded the link and asked for this book for my birthday! This is awesome. My heroes...and 12 little girls in 2 straight lines, and everything.
Thanks for sharing this!

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