Sunday, January 4, 2009

Memory Lane

Greetings from Florida! I'm visiting my parents in an extended vacation/slash/wedding decoration-making frenzy. So, what better way to take my mind off of the 1001 things left to do than take a trip down memory lane?

My mom's a saver, and I came across this book that I wrote and illustrated in the third grade:
 
I distinctly remember this day in school! We had someone come into our classroom to teach us how to bind the books, and we had a nice selection of wallpaper scraps to choose from for the binding. I don't remember how long we were actually working on the stories, though...

A little discouraging to see that my humor has not changed much since the third grade.

I remember being rather proud of the viewpoint of this picture. The story lags a bit from this point on, so I'll skip right to the denouement...

I also remember thinking this illustration was spot-on in terms of feeling and emotional tenor, but I was frustrated that I didn't keep all the chairs on a straight line.

This illustration, I recall, I considered to be the crowning glory of the book, and perhaps of my artistic life to date. A silhouette, against a movie screen, complete with fine cross-hatching skills?!? Top notch.

I guess I do still have an interest in barnyard animals.

I had some blank spreads at the back, so I added some illustrations. I think I was reading a lot of books from the library with color plates at the time.


Ahh, memories!

8 comments:

Al said...

This is brilliant! I think the silhouette is a masterstroke.

I think parents are great for keeping all this stuff, even if mine forever moan about lack of attic space because of it.

Nina Crittenden said...

That was great! You don't see enough about burping horses these days....

Adam said...

I would totally frame the burping horses. Totally.

Anonymous said...

This is some super funny stuff, Victoria! What a great post! Thanks for sharing such a gem.

Tracy said...

Wow, you had a great sense of humor at such a young age! This is wonderful; I'm sure you are so glad that your parents saved this. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

By the way, I'm bestowing upon you a couple of blog awards, Vicki: http://christinaerodriguez.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-awards.html

Stop by to pick them up (download from my Flickr) and pass 'em on if you like!

Matt Phelan said...

It looks like you depicted the "Can You Read My Mind?" scene from the first Superman movie. Nice. I also like that the cow's name is Glendale (another small PA town). I think the time is ripe for Super Cow.

Vicki said...

Thanks, everybody! I really hit my peak in the 3rd grade- my fourth grade book, "A Dinosaur Disaster" didn't hold a candle to Super Cow. Even though it was based on a Jamieson classic tale, our family trip to the La Brea Tar Pits. My little brother lost no time in falling into one. He was ok, don't worry- I just remember spending a lot of time in the bathroom with my mother, watching her try to clean a bunch of tar off of him.