Courtesy of Mary Engelbreit
Plenty of people spend their summers working their way through reading lists, catching up on those stories and novels that seem to take too much time the rest of the year. But artist Mary Engelbreit took her summer reading to another level.
Engelbreit, free from any deadlines for a while, spent this past summer revisiting formative stories, poems, novels, and nursery rhymes from her childhood, creating an illustration for each one.
“I had always thought about illustrating the books I liked as a child and that were inspirational to me,” says Engelbreit. “I decided I would do one illustration for each book, and that would be a fun way to spend the summer.”
The result: Engelbreit’s newest exhibition, Picture. Book. On view through December 31 at Green Door Art Gallery, the collection includes 24 new illustrations for such stories and poems as The Velveteen Rabbit, Jane Eyre, The Wizard of Oz, “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat,” and “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat,” as well as the original illustrations for Engelbreit’s newest book, The Littlest Night Before Christmas, which was published earlier this year.
Courtesy of Mary Engelbreit
Engelbreit shared some of the illustrations on Instagram as she was working on them, which she says elicited quite the response from her followers, who are excited to see their favorite books featured. (Nancy Drew was a “big winner” with them, she notes.) Many followers even recognized more obscure titles right away, says Engelbreit.
“People seem to have a really strong connection to certain books, especially books they read as children,” she says. “I just hope that this show reminds them of how much they loved them, and they’ll pass those stories on.”
With Picture. Book., the artist hopes to not only share her joyful memories of characters and stories with patrons, but also to inspire them to share their own. She says she hopes visitors pass that joy along to young readers, so they, too, can someday look back on the titles that meant so much to them.
“It’s such a shame in this day and age that they’re banning books again,” she adds. “So anything that will make people read, that can help foster that, I think is great.”
Courtesy of Mary Engelbreit
A Christmas Story
Mary Engelbreit puts a new twist on “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
In Engelbreit’s new picture book, The Littlest Night Before Christmas, the creatures are, in fact, stirring—especially the mice. A family of mice is at the center of Engelbreit’s retelling of the classic Christmas poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (often referred to as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), and they’re joined by a host of woodland creatures. “I wanted to re-illustrate the story but using animals,” says Engelbreit. “I also wanted to change that poem around a little bit, which I know sounds sacrilegious, but there are things I thought would be fun to change.” The Littlest Night Before Christmas is Engelbreit’s second iteration of the poem, which she first illustrated in 2006. That version, simply titled The Night Before Christmas, became a New York Times bestseller. Both versions are available at maryengelbreit.com.
