Jeannie Baker
Q. How did your background influence you to create such terrific illustrations? And what is your background?
A. I think that like for a lot of people there is a certain amount of luck involved. A bit of luck and a bit of persistence. I grew up in England and I went to Art College in England. l did a Graphic Design Course which is a fantastic foundation for doing children's book because I very much now see the book as a whole when I start: the words, the design, the images. I work on everything together.
While I was at Art School, I was doing a lot of painting and mixed media work and I would spend ages on a piece - and it usually was abstract - building it up with different medium that you shouldn't use together, and I wasn't using correctly together, so I used things like crayon and watercolour which I used very thickly and then pastel and oil pastel... All kinds of combinations because each medium had a different feel, which l loved, and they started to crack up. So I though they must be a better way of doing this and I started applying actual material and painting to that as well and I got something I found a lot more satisfying.
And then in my final year at Art School, we could do a project which we chose ourselves, and I decided to write design and illustrate the children' s book which was later published as Grandfather. I just loved it and it was the first I'd done in collage that was representational but was realistic. At the time, l loved doing it but I never it as a possibility for a career because I didn't know anyone who did that...
Q. I must say that your collages using bits of nature are totally unique!
A. In fact, I hadn't even thought of children's book illustrating as a career! I was very influenced by my tutor... When l left Art School, I started doing commissions like illustrating magazines, did the odd advertisement, as well as having exhibitions with collage work, people were getting interested in the collage work. And once I had a piece of collage work in print - I was worried that it might not reproduce very well - it really started me going as I was getting more commissions. Because there are no preconceived ideas, as to how it should be done with collage, because it' s not a medium a lot of people use, there was a lot of freedom...
Q. You seem to try to pass on a message about the environment. In Window, for example, you see what happens to one area during a 24-year span. In Where The Forest Meets The Sea, you have used for your collage things you have found in the rainforest. In The Hidden Forest, you have used seaweeds and so on. Do you find that by using material from where the story takes place, this contributes to conveying a better message about saving the environment? What made you write about the environment?
A. It really came from the environment itself. Each one I have done has got some kind of environmental layer. None of them started off as an environmental book. It was just captivated by that environment, exploring it and understanding it more, realising they were problems, and being concerned about those and then not being able to take those from my mind. It's always come from being totally captivated by a place, exploring it and it then grew from there...
Q. Was it your idea to turn The Story of Rosy Dock and Where The Forest Meets The Sea into animation?
A. Yes and I was very lucky that Australian publishers took them on and that I was able to direct them both.
Q. Have you thought of doing the same for your latest book The Hidden Forest?
A. No, l understand too much what's involved. It's a huge amount of work taking on a film and the kind of money that's involved. When you start, you are working on it some sixteen hours a day, seven days a week for about a year usually, with a lot of people and it takes a lot from you. It's not something I do lightly and this one would be such a huge amount of work just for the sea and the movement...
Q. For example in the ten-minute movie about The Story of Rosy Dock do you consider it to be ten times more work than the book?
A. I worked out the idea for the book, and I designed the size of the book around the proportion of the white screen at the cinema. Then I did the book, and then half way through the book, I did the storyboard for the animation as it takes at least year to get it off the ground and know wether you've got support or not. So by the time the film production started, I had just finished the book, I had timed it this way so that I could go into it immediately. But when I started the film, it had a lot of the artwork that I had produced for the book, so there was an overlap. Some pieces I had to do especially for the film because when I started with the storyboard, I wanted to take as an animation as far as I could and not to be held back by what I had already done as a book. But if I had started from scratch, it would have been a phenomenal amount of work! And not just my work either. That's the nice thing about the film: it involves a lot of other people all with a different perspective. It means that a bit of freshness comes in.
Q. Tell us about The Hidden Forest.
A. It's off Tasmania in the Southern Ocean, just a little bit off the coast where a little child could see clearly and stand in it. But it grows from the edge of the forest to about 30 metres deep where it becomes like a forest canopy. Like any forest on land, you get different layers with different seaweeds and animals. In my mind, a big part of the story is fear, and our fear of the sea, our fear of what we can't see. The boy puts his mask and snorkel on and he freezes. What he sees is amazing and wonderful and totally changes his way of seeing things. This is why in the end he lets the fish go as he discovers why it is so special.
Q. What inspired you to write The Hidden Forest?
A. First I explored the area a lot as I couldn't take so much in in one go. I went snorkelling - I wanted to show things a child could do. As with all my books, I then planned the whole book and we discuss it with the publisher and made any changes if necessary, and when we were all happy, I started on the collages themselves. Most of the kelp in the book is made from translucent plastic as I couldn't get things the right scale. Some of the pink and red seaweeds are real and I could reuse them. I collected a lot of samples and then I could look for other things that had the same structure or make things myself which looked the same. I also check things with experts at the museum. I also draw straight after I see something.
Q. What was the reason behind Rosie Dock?
A. I love the central desert area. It' s just so incredibly beautiful and just my concept about the desert as I always thought there was nothing in the desert. The colours are stunning and there is an incredible variety of vegetation. There were huge amounts of this red plant, in some places nothing else but them, like in the last page of my book. Nothing else but Rosy Dock and rabbits!
Q. What is your next project?
A. I'm working on an idea already but it takes me so long to do a book, I shan't tell you about it!
First published in Lollipops What's On For Kids in the April/May 2000 Issue.
© 2004 Cécile Ferguson.
To learn more about Jeannie Baker, please visit her website.
Reviews
The Hidden Forest
Jeannie Baker
If only he could find something worth keeping in his trap. This is Ben's feeling when he tries to capture creatures in a kelp forest. However, when the trap becomes stuck Ben is launched into a strange and amazing adventure. Follow Ben and his friend Sophie as they break through the reflective surface of the ocean to discover a new world of wonder. As Ben and Sophie equipped with snorkel and mask work to loosen his trap, Ben sees a mysterious, somewhat frightening, but interesting world. Not only does he see something new under the water, but discovers something new within himself. This work is less about the biology of the sea and more about a young boy's awakened sense of wonder at the beauty and magic surrounding him. Using an intricate form of collage art and alluring writing, Jeannie Baker takes the reader on a fascinating journey through a kelp forest. The collage process is so well done it is hard to believe that they are illustrations and not photographs. This is an outstanding book and is appropriate for preschool and early elementary school. 2000, Greenwillow Books, $16.95. Ages 3 to 9. Reviewer: John D. Orsborn (Children's Literature).
Ben's fish trap gets caught in the kelp off the coast of Tasmania. Needing help, and a bit afraid of what lies beneath the surface, he asks his friend Sophie to retrieve it. She agrees, if he will come with her. Together they explore the beauty and marvels of the plants and creatures under the sea. Enlightened, Ben releases the catch from his trap, because "He feels this is where they belong." Baker continues to create her collages of natural objects plus more traditional art materials that fill the double pages with almost awe-inspiring mystery. There is the contrast between the quiet calm on the surface, with children playing on a beach, to the sudden fright of staring into the eye of a whale. The esthetic quality of the collages aids measurably in getting her message of "live and let live" across. 2000, Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers, $16.95. Ages 6 to 10. Reviewers: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, 2001 ; H.W. Wilson; United States
Kirkus Book Review Stars, 2000 ; United States
Parent's Guide to Children's Media, 2000 ; Parent's Guide to Children's Media, Inc.; United States
Awards, Honors, Prizes:
Giverny Book Award Winner 2003 Best Children's Science Picture Book United States
ISBN: 0-688-15760-2
ISBN: 0-688-15761-0
Home
Jeannie Baker
A young couple has moved into their new home. Theirs is a rather grim looking neighborhood with cement covering almost every surface, ugly and without a green plant in sight. We are in the house and can see them through the window standing in their gray garden, the young man and the young woman, a baby in the woman's arms. We turn the page, and once more we are at the window looking out. Now the child is splashing in an inflatable toddler pool, a little older than when we last saw her. There is grass in the small garden, a splash of fresh greenness in a man-made world. With each page turned the child is older and there is more greenery, more plants, more of the beauty of nature in the neighborhood. Slowly but surely the area is coming alive and looking less and less like a junkyard. We are looking through the same window and yet what we see is very different from what we saw on the previous pages. We are able to share the stepping-stones of growing up the girl. There is her 10th birthday when she has the flu; then there is the teenager putting on makeup as she looks out of the window. Not needing words to explain her story, the author has created a notable and unique picture book. The artwork is in collage form, each double page spread revealing a new and a very detailed multi-media piece of work. We can see the growth of the girl, Tracey, tied to the greening and blossoming of the neighborhood in which she lives. We can see the people who live in the "cement jungle" take back their streets and empty lots and turn them into a charming place to live. This is a book with a keen and warm environmental message; a message children will readily understand and appreciate. 2004, Greenwillow, $15.99. Ages 3 up. Reviewer: Marya Jansen-Gruber (Children's Literature).
This eloquent story of childhood and urban renewal is told, without words, through richly detailed collage illustrations. A meager, ugly city space, in which Tracy starts her life, is tended through the years by her family until it is transformed into a lush, loved environment -- a beloved home. Simultaneously, and just as gradually, her family and neighbors convert bleak, surrounding streets until they become welcoming, park-like, people-friendly and clean. Each collage looks through the frame of a window from inside Tracy's bedroom out onto her backyard below, and at yards, streets and buildings nearby. As she grows up, objects on her windowsill mark passages in her life. We see the changes in Tracy, and we also see the changes in her yard and neighborhood that she can see through her window. Pre-schoolers will find something to enjoy in the beautiful images, but the concept of urban renewal, in combination with city signage, graffiti, and Tracy's cards and letters that are incorporated into the collages, make the book more appropriate for primary and elementary grade students. With its cultural references and dual story concept, this is a rewarding book for adults and children to share. 2004, Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers, $15.99. Ages 4 to 10. Reviewer: J. H. Diehl (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
Booklist Book Review Stars, 2004; United States
Kirkus Book Review Stars, 2004; United States
ISBN: 0-06-623935-4
ISBN: 0-06-623934-6
The Story of Rosy Dock
Jeannie Baker
What an incredibly beautiful book! The text and author-artist's fabulous collage illustrations almost seem to merge together in describing this ecological story. Minimal words tell of the Australian desert and its cycle of nature. Photographs of the collages, full of detail, texture, and depth, show readers the story of the plant called "rosy dock". Introduced into the area by a settler, its eventual proliferation had great unintended consequences for the landscape and its native animals and plants. Educational in its message, this book is also a delight for the eyes. 1995, Greenwillow, $15.00. Ages 6 up. Reviewer: Barbara B. Disckind (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
Booklist Book Review Stars, 1995 ; United States
Los Angeles' 100 Best Books, 1995 ; IRA Children's Literature and Reading SIG and the Los Angeles Unified School District; United States
Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, 2002 ; California Department of Education; California
ISBN: 0-688-11491-1
ISBN: 0-688-11493-8
Window
Jeannie Baker
Complex, full-color collage constructions in a thirteen-part sequence show the view from one person's window. At the beginning, an adult holding an infant is inside. Several years elapse between each turn of the page, and the child grows up as the book's images unfold. Over the years, each neighborhood change is seen as exacting a cumulative toll on the landscape. What was once a green residential area a commercial district throughout two or three decades. A final double-page spread displays the former child, now a parent himself, looking out the window of his new home located beyond the suburbs. Distant green hills appear to be newly scarred by construction. This disturbing, provocative wordless essay invites reflection and discussion as well as observation and action. CCBC categories: Issues In Today's World; Picture Books; The Arts. 1991, Greenwillow Books, 32 pages, $13.95. Ages 9 and older. Reviewer: CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1991).
Best Books:
Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K-Grade 6, Tenth Edition, 1993 ; National Council of Teachers of English; United States
Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, 2001 ; H.W. Wilson; United States
Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, 2002 ; California Department of Education; California
Awards, Honors, Prizes:
Children's Books of the Year Awards Winner 1992 Australia
Young Australians' Best Book Awards (YABBA) Winner 1992 Picture Story Australia
ISBN: 0-688-08917-8
ISBN: 0-688-08918-6
Added 09/01/2004
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