This week, rather than talk about my work, I’d like to talk to you about one of my artistic influences. We have influences, both conscious and subconscious, that determine the kind of pictures we draw, the canvasses we paint, the music we compose, the films we produce, etc. I have a number of them myself and today I want to talk to you about one of them. This influence, in spite of being a well-established name in the field of literature and illustration, was only one I recently brought in to keep my work from getting stagnant. That influence I’m here to talk to you about is Richard Scarry.
Richard Scarry (1917-1994) was a world famous children’s author and illustrator. While he wrote a number of children’s books, including select titles for the famed Little Golden Books imprint, Scarry’s claim to fame would be the Busytown series. The Busytown books contained several pages worth of illustration depicting the fictitious settlement of Busytown, inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Recurring characters include Huckle Cat (named after Scarry’s son, Richard “Huck” Scarry Jr.), Lowly Worm, Huckle’s family, Sergeant Murphy, Mr. Fixit and many others. Each page of Scarry’s Busytown books are filled with a whole lot of stuff. Scarry put in many images so that children (and even adults) would keep going back over the pictures as they would not find everything the first time. From what Scarry said, he didn’t want kids to read his books just once and toss them aside. He actually considered it an honor for kids to read his books until they wore out and/or they had to be patched up with tape. Continue reading →
