Here’s Tomie’s art-mail from 2017 for the Feast of Pentecost. (Bob)
REMEMBERING TOMIE on May 30, 2020
From the book, “Tikvah: Children’s Book Creators Reflect on Human Rights,” Copyright 1999, by the University of Connecticut. “Tikvah” is the Hebrew word for hope. Tomie’s contribution, abridged": “A child’s first confrontation with human rights can often occur at a very early age. Maybe not human rights in the larger context that involves racism, sexism, homophobia… Still I have a strong conviction that the attitude toward human rights that an individual carries within himself or herself is formed when very young… The image here has its roots in 1942… [The assignment was to draw a Christmas tree.] Little Tomie’s [drawing] wasn’t hung up because he drew an angel instead… In my real and true life, the art teacher who came around every six weeks recognized me and my angel. I learned human rights from her. I was special because she was special. Just because neither of us fit into the mold didn’t mean we weren’t human and didn’t have rights…” (Bob)
REMEMBERING TOMIE on May 29, 2020
Tomie loved to paint. He didn’t care if he was painting for a book illustration, or for enjoyment, or for a gallery exhibition. He loved to paint. He had plenty of materials available for his book work, including hundreds of sheets of French and Italian handmade watercolor paper. For his non-book projects, he liked to have a blank canvas, or two, available in case he was in the mood and he had the time to paint on a canvas. It was yesterday when we donated SOME of those blank canvases - NINETY! - to the Art Department at Colby-Sawyer College in New London. The canvases ranged in size from four feet by six feet to five inches by five inches. (Thanks to Professor Jon Keenan for helping make this happen.) (Bob)
REMEMBERING TOMIE on May 28, 2020
2013. Jemi Broussard and Red River Theatres (Concord, NH) knew of Tomie’s childhood love for movies, so they asked him to select movies for a Saturday morning film series for children. He chose: National Velvet (1944), Red Balloon (1956), White Mane (1953), Lassie Come Home (1943), and Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925). Here’s the video clip that was played before each movie presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oA7uz7mYCQ (Bob)
REMEMBERING TOMIE on May 27, 2020
Do you Roku? Jim Lewis, pictured below, just alerted us that Tomie’s Hallmark Channel television series, “Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola,” is available on Roku. ALL 26 episodes from 2001. Jim was part of the writing team for the producer of the series, the Jim Henson Company. (Jim was also the co-writer with Tomie of Tomie’s “Andy & Sandy” books with Simon & Schuster.) https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/aface91ef95e562c9d618ea8445cc0f1/telling-stories-with-tomie-depaola/season-1 (Bob)
