Books explore emotional themes of illustrator's life
By Jolie Jean Cotton
Special to The Advertiser
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| Allen Say's illustration of children in an internment camp appears in "Home of the Brave," a haunting allegory about a man who confronts the trauma of his family's World War II incarceration.
Allen Say illustration Read to Me Conference Rx for Life: Read! Read! Read! 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., June 19 and 20, Hawai'i Convention Center For parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians Research-based information on the value of reading in development, practical ideas for reading activities, personal testimonies, talks by writers, book-signings Featured writers: David Shannon, 1999 Caldecott Honor Book "No, David"; Allen Say (see story) Speakers: Perri Klass, Reach Out and Read National Center; Carol Hampton Rasco, Reading is Fundamental; cookiemaker, writer and inspirational speaker Wally "Famous" Amos Information: Read To Me International, 1833 Kalakaua Ave, Suite 301, Honolulu, HI 96815; 955-7600; Web site. |
But, says Say, the book is a fairly accurate account of his own solitary young life and his introduction to the world of the professional artist.
From these beginnings comes much that informs his work as an artist and writer, and as a featured speaker at the Read to Me International conference, June 19 and 20 at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
Say, son of a Korean father and a Japanese-American mother, was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1937 but was sent to live with his maternal grandmother in Tokyo shortly after World War II, when his parents divorced.
Say says his early emancipation came because he and his grandmother didn't get along. "We took to each other like a match to gunpowder," he recalls. "Eventually, I was allowed to live alone in a one-room apartment of my own." He was only 12, but he knew his mind well enough to seek out his favorite cartoonist, Noro Shinpei, and to succeed in becoming Noro's disciple.
It is this time in his life that Say exquisitely chronicles in his young adult novel "The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice" (Houghton Mifflin).
Say didn't set out to become a children's book illustrator; he just creates the work that he feels the need to create. Famed editor Walter Lorraine wooed him solidly in the direction of children's literature, but his work often has a double-edged appeal, nuances that only an adult would understand. Say's most recent release, a haunting allegory that's as much for adults as children, is "Home of the Brave," about a man who, in the midst of a dream sequence, stumbles into a World War II internment camp and confronts the trauma of the incarceration of his own family.
Say's picture books often explore the emotional themes that have shaped his life: World War II, emigrating from Japan to America, the struggle between two cultures.
"Ideas, inspirations first come to me in images," Say said. "Then I try to find words to fit them." To explain, Say shared the painful story of the death of his cat, Tofu.
"No one has ever managed to live with me for 18 years. He was the only constant in my adult life," Say said. "When the vet told me he was dead, I touched him and he was warm. This is the first shock. Then I caught myself repeating that famous line, Romeo's line, 'Why art thou yet so fair?'
"I hated myself. In this moment of profound grief, I'm looking for words as if to give shape to my grief."
Pain and artistic expression have played primary roles in Say's life. Say's mother claimed he was drawing before he could walk. "She always told me that, but you have to remember that mothers are always full of wonderful stories," Say says with a laugh. "It may be true, I don't know. My house was always full of drawings."
The drawings that filled Say's childhood home were part of the world-class Matsukata Collection, which included works by Whistler, Monet, and Cézanne. Financial troubles forced the Matsukata estate to sell part of the collection. "My understanding is that my father was one of the agents that they hired to liquidate some of the lesser items, like the drawings, prints, some paintings," Say says. "Famous art critics and collectors and experts would come to our house to look at the collection. I was, for instance, familiar with the names Picasso and Matisse when I could barely speak."
Say's mother also claimed that one of the most prominent art critics in Japan, visiting their home, inquired about one of the boy's drawings. The critic predicted that one day her son would become an important artist. "This is another story that my mother told me, you have to remember," Say says. "Both my mother and my father were horrified at the thought, particularly my father, who was a successful businessman and a beautiful athlete. He was disappointed in me to begin with, this sickly first-born heir of his, showing the feminine, effete, artistic tendencies. And this confirmation was a disaster for him.
"And of course, the more they tried to dissuade me into other directions, I rebelled," Say said. "So rebellion is a lifelong passion, obviously."
In a passage from "The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice," Say describes the sensation of floating above himself while he's drawing. I wondered if that still happens.
"No. I've lost it, and I feel very sad about it," Say tells me. "It actually happened, just the way I describe it. And I thought it was so peculiar that I couldn't really tell anyone about it for a long time, because I knew, particularly somebody like my father would be sure his son was a lunatic.
"I still get into a kind of a zone; I call it a zone, which I'm in right now, because I'm desperately trying to finish this book before I leave for Hawai'i."
Say won the Caldecott Medal for "Grandfather's Journey," and a Caldecott Honor Medal and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for "Boy of the Three-Year Nap." Yet his mastery of the craft continues to blossom.
"I'm painting the best paintings of my career," Say says, referring to his newest picture book. "It's a biography of a remarkable woman and my intention was to capture this woman's spirit." The working title, "Music for Alice," will probably change before the book's release next spring.
Say plans to present a slide show of the picture book at the upcoming Read to Me conference.
"Allen Say's books are exquisite; they are rich, but simple in a way that children immediately understand," says Honolulu Waldorf School librarian Cammy Doi. "In Hawai'i, where we have such ethnic diversity, Say's books are exceedingly relevant. His work so eloquently addresses, sometimes overtly and sometimes subtly, the differences and alikeness of us all."
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"Home of the Brave" (2002) A dark story of a man who dreams that he meets himself at an internment camp in the western desert. All ages.
"The Sign Painter" (2000). A period piece about a boy's encounter with a sign-painter in the middle years of the 20th century. Ages 5-8.
"Tea with Milk" (1999) Raised near San Francisco, Masako (her American friends called her May) is uprooted after high school when her parents return to their Japanese homeland. They wish her to learn to be a "proper Japanese lady," but she rebels. The story is that of Say's mother. Ages 5-8.
"Allison" (1997) A girl realizes she is adopted and spends a lonely and alienated period. For preschoolers.
"Under the Cherry Blossom Tree" (1997) This classic makura — a short story told in Japanese joke houses to warm up the audience — is about a miserly old Japanese man who swallows a cherry pit and has a tree growing from his head. Ages 5-8.
"Emma's Rug" (1996) Young Emma is a gifted artist whose inspiration appears to come from a fuzzy, white rug at which she stares for long periods of time; what will happen if the dingy rug is washed? Will the magic disappear? Ages 5-8.
"Stranger in the Mirror" (1995) A young boy finds himself suddenly bearing the face of an old man, until he realizes that it doesn't matter what he looks like. All ages.
"The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice" (1994) The author's story of his own youth, living on his own and learning about art as an apprentice.
"Grandfather's Journey" (1993) Both the narrator and his grandfather long to return to Japan, but when they do, they feel anonymous and confused. Ages 4-8.
"Tree of Cranes" (1991) A Japanese boy's first Christmas tree also is the occasion for, at first, estrangement and then revelation, from his mother, who grew up in the West. — Kirkus reviews. Ages 4-8.
"El Chino" (1990) The stirring, true story of Arizona-born Billy Wong, the first-ever Chinese bullfighter. Ages 4-8.
"The Lost Lake" (1989) A boy and his father search for an elusive, deserted lake. As they persevere, their relationships, formerly cold, grows warm. Ages 4-8.
"The Boy of the Three-Year Nap" (1988) By Dianne Snyder, with Say as illustrator. Toro, whose laziness is legendary, convinces the richest man in the village that his daughter must marry the laziest boy in the village. All ages.
"A River Dream" (1988) A boy's fantasy fishing excursion with his uncle; deceptively simple, characteristically serene. Ages 5-8.
"How My Parents Learned to Eat" (1984) By Ina Friedman with Say as illustrator. An American sailor courts a young Japanese woman and each tries, in secret, to learn the other's way of eating. All ages.
"The Bicycle Man" (1982) The amazing tricks two American soldiers perform on a borrowed bicycle are a fitting finale for the school sports day festivities in a small village in occupied Japan. Ages 5-8.
