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We are thrilled to add Tim Bowers work to Storyopolisart.com. His talent as an illustrator is fantastic his illustration in Children’s Books leave the reader in love with the characters.
Tim Bowers and his wife now live in central Ohio. He has illustrated over thirty children’s books, including The New York Times bestseller, Dream Big, Little Pig! written by Kristi Yamaguchi and Dinosaur Pet by Neil Sedaka and Marc Sedaka. His work has been published in children’s magazines, his illustrations have been used on a wide variety of products and his characters have appeared on hundreds of greeting cards
Storyopolis is honored to have new work by Glen Barr his work is fantastic , Storyopolis Art owner Matthew Abramowitz
says ” The economy is getting better Glen work is fantastic and is a great investment.”
These words written by J.J. Marcucci gives you a great insight into the work of Glen Barr and his mind
“Does the tale of Glenn Barr’s haunted world end here? Unlikely. The artist is never at a loss for ideas, and his bulging sketchbooks contain evidence of the masterpieces that will evolve in the future. But he still takes the time to revisit lost loves, helping out local rock bands – a CD cover for The Sirens is currently in the works, as are designs for an up-and-coming line of vinyl art. And there’s always the many unending diversions that feed his imagination – another abandoned building, a newly-found kewpie doll to add to his collection, yet-to-be discovered films and music, and of course television. Lurking behind the doors of a 150 year-old Chinese armoire that has permanently taken root in his front room, the infernal device continues to mesmerize the artist, feeding his head with visions of the mundane and the sublime.”
We at Storyopolis Art are honored to have the work of Chet Zar his work is fantastic and his ability to reach within himself in each painting to bring out the beauth or the fear is amazing. This quote below by Adam Jones of (Tool) tell it all.
“Chet’s art is beautiful & scary. His style has a modern twist crashing into a classical approach. I think Chet is a master painter on his way to making a great mark in our little world. Wanna do something smart with your money? Invest in a Chet Zar painting.”
Chris Raschka, who won the Caldecott Medal, awarded for best picture book, also stayed close to home with his picture book, “A Ball for Daisy.” The wordless book for ages 3 and up deals with a dog’s loss of her favorite ball. It was inspired by an everyday incident in an elevator a decade ago involving Raschka’s four-year-old son, his favorite ball, and a dog named Daisy. The dog eventually destroyed the ball, but it also sparked the idea behind the award-winning book.
“My son eventually got over it,” Raschka told USA Today, “but I thought it’d make a good picture book.” The challenging part he said, was “achieving the right balance between empathetic response without making it too upsetting for kids.”
Syoryopolis Entertainment is honored that their Artist the Balbusso Sisters have one ANOTHER GOLD MEDAL BY THE SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS, ILLUSTRATORS 54 COMPETITION
Sunday, 08 January 2012 14:21 NEWS
The Society of Illustrators jury of the Illustrators 54 competition awarded us another GOLD MEDAL for our piece titled pregnant of the The Handmaid’s Tale book, written by Margaret Atwood and published by The Folio Society in 2012. We are very proud and happy to receive this important recognition for two consecutive years: 2011- 2012. We wish to thank the jury of the Society of Illustrators. Of course The Folio Society, the Art Director Sheri Gee and a special thanks to Margaret Atwood for choosing us for this beautiful project. We will attend the awards ceremony on February 3 in New York!
Taking stock of our efforts to improve literacy in America should be a constant exercise in evaluating where we are and where we need to go. Finding smarter strategies to improve the lives of our finest resource, our children-our future, should be paramount. Below are a few areas where we are forward moving, but so much more needs to be STEPPED UP to get it right.
The new and third appointed Children’s Book Envoy, Walter Dean Myers, is a testament to the fact that reading does change your life and maximizes your potential – it creates possibilities. The harsh sociological and tough socio-economic realities of teenage life depicted in his books truly speaks to kids and helps them know that there are adults who do understand, empathize and are working to make the lives of young people better. Mr. Myers own childhood experiences, show us a path to what can be done to improve literacy in America. He grew up with foster parents who themselves faced many hardships and demons that negatively affected Mr. Myers childhood. His foster father could not read, but his foster mother read to him often and he read anything he could get his hands on. Even though circumstances found him dropping out of school and joining the army, he eventually came back to his books and writing. He is a prolific writer and has received two Newberry Awards and five Coretta Scott King Awards. Robin Edelson, the executive director of the Children’s Book Council (one of two groups who choose the Children’s Book Envoy), states that his books give the message and encourage young readers that through life’s difficult challenges, “holding yourself up and believing in what you can do” is important.
For the next two years, Walter Dean Myers’ new role, as an ambassador for young people’s literature, will be to speak out to and for children of all backgrounds. Impressing upon children and adults that reading is not just a nice pass time option competing with the electronic and video world, but is vital to finding academic and economic achievement. The two year post was created in 2008 and Jon Scieszka (“The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales”) was the first ambassador appointed. He was succeeded by novelist Katherine Paterson (“Bridge to Terabithia”). All three have very different writing styles and genres. Walter’s personal experiences, body of work and sensitivity to what is going on in the lives of our teenagers today sends a message about how reading can empower the student. His quote in this month’s Publishers Weekly sends an important lesson. “We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it’s this wonderful adjunct. Reading takes you to faraway places. We’re still thinking in terms of enticing kids to read with a sports book or a book about war. We’re suggesting that they’re missing something if they don’t read but, actually, we’re condemning kids to a lesser life. If you had a sick patient, you would not try to entice them to take their medicine. You would tell them, ‘Take this or you’re going to die.’ We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.”
Myers’ efforts are not happening in a vacuum. Progress is happening in other areas too. According to an article in the American Library Association, The Fiscal Year 2011 funding from Congress for Improving Literacy Through School Libraries had been “zeroed out”. The Senate and House realized for 2012 that the short sightedness in 2011 cut the primary source of federal funding to school libraries. Thus, the Fiscal Year 2012 budget is appropriating $28.6 million for literacy. At least half of this will go to low income school libraries and the rest will go to national not-for-profits that work for childhood literacy. In addition, the budget has approved money for the Institutes of Museum and Library Services in which $185 million will go to Library Services and Technology Act.
The January 3 New York Times article, Libraries Speak the Mother Tongue, discusses a growing trend in many New York public libraries. Libraries are embracing and recognizing the diversity of its communities and are attracting people of all different backgrounds and languages into their stacks by having books, DVDS and CDs in the languages spoken in their neighborhoods. They are finding success in first capturing their attention and desire to find materials in their native tongue which later draws them to books in English. As their customers become more comfortable and familiar with their community library they start navigating toward the books in English and the desire to learn English is increased. These local libraries are smartly globalizing their collections and in turn promoting literacy across all generations. Of great importance to the children of adult newcomers to America is the fact that many libraries are able to meet the needs of immigrants by teaching English to adults. This is integral to raising children who will be readers. This is a crucial step to improving the academic and economic achievement among immigrants.
Furthermore, improving parent’s literacy is key to helping their children find success in school. About 30 years ago the national movement for family literacy was born and many libraries now have great programs in place, but more needs to be done to implement these programs in all public libraries. Access to free children’s activities nurturing a love for reading with parent involvement and tutoring for parents in reading, as well as, parenting classes is crucial. The Public Libraries are an important tool that should be well funded to have these programs in place – it is an important path that we need well traveled in order to raise a literate, well educated society that can compete in the global market. It is time to Mind Up and Step Up!
Finally, we would like to celebrate the life of Simms Taback who passed away December 25. His children’s picture books touched the lives of many families and his life’s work is a legacy of which his family can be so proud. We had the great fortune of bringing this talented man to our children’s elementary school about 6 years ago and he made a difference in the way students appreciated reading, he sparked a desire to read and a love for great stories that is priceless. Once he captured their attention by telling them he designed the art on the first McDonald’s happy meal, he quickly had them eating books instead of fries out of the palm of his hand. His literary and artistic talents that blessed our lives are truly representative of the wonderful Hebrew phrase “Tikun Olam”, he made the world a BETTER PLACE.
Illustrator C.F. Payne
Allen Public Library
Saturday, Jan. 14, 2 p.m.
TIME magazine commissioned illustrator C.F. Payne to create its cover for the special edition of President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. His work has adorned Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, and The Atlantic Monthly. He has also illustrated ten children books, including The Remarkable Farkle McBride and Micawber, written by John Lithgow.
C.F. Payne will appear at the Allen Public Library at 2 p.m. Saturday, January 14. Sponsored by Bach to Books and Storyopolis Entertainment, this event is free. Storyopolis will offer books for sale that can be signed by the artist after the event.
In grade school, C.F. Payne knew that becoming an illustrator or a baseball player would be his career. When he decided that his curve ball was not impressive, Payne elected to attend Miami University in Ohio and obtain a bachelor of fine art. In the 1970s, abstract art was extremely popular, and admitting admiration for Norman Rockwell was considered foolish. However, C.F. Payne persevered, and like Rockwell, his art captures the mood, feelings, detail and aura of his diverse subjects.
When asked about the importance of illustrators to the art world. Payne notes, “Gallery artists often admire illustrators. For example, Van Gogh admired Howard Pyle.” He continues, “The small difference between illustrators and fine arts is only in the mind of the illustrator. In earlier times, when the most people were illiterate, they served as storytellers and their services were invaluable. Today, it is important to recognize and appreciate what artists do; they create something new from blank paper.”
Even though he did not realize his dream of becoming a baseball player, Payne has illustrated numerous articles for sports magazines such as Sports Illustrated and books on baseball, including the Curse of the Bambino by Dan Shaughnessy.
When Payne is not illustrating, he is also the current chair of illustration at Columbus College of Art and Design, as well as a visiting instructor at the Illustration Academy. Payne encourages his students to develop their visual language.
He lives in Cincinnati with his wife Paula and their sons Trevor and Evan.
Call Tom Keener at 214-509-4911 for more information
Storyopilis Art is excited to offer Jerry Van Amerongen exceptional Prints in our gallery.
Jerry Van Amerongen is a cartoonist based in the United States.[1] His work includes the comic panel Ballard Street, which has run since 1991. Before 1991 he drew a comic panel entitled The Neighborhood for ten years. He has been recognized with the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Award for 2004 and 2006 for his work on Ballard Street. Van Amerongen’s work is currently distributed by Creators Syndicate
Leith O’Malley was born with pencil in hand in the Adelaide Hills town of Mount Barker, South Australia. Storyopolis Art owner Matthew Abramowitz say’s “Leith art is fantastic and at this point is a great investment with a termedos upside.”
His passion for drawing came at a very early age, being influenced by the illustrative style and cartoon work of American “Mad magazine”, and later by notable Australian newspaper cartoonist Paul Rigby, Michael Leunig and American poster artist Rick Griffin.
Leith’s early work in Adelaide included freelance illustration contributions to various magazines, before moving to Whyalla in the late 80′s. He was quickly snapped up to provide regular cartoons to Steel City Times and later became the editorial cartoonist for the Whyalla News.
Storyopolis Entertainment announces Signed Classic Print from Maurice Sendak from The Emperors New Clothes called ” The Imperial Prime Minister ” Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are, although the book’s depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first released, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance. Before Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak was best known for illustrating Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear series of books.[6]