{"id":68576,"date":"2012-11-09T09:03:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T14:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=68576"},"modified":"2012-11-28T16:29:41","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T21:29:41","slug":"illustration-artist-comes-full-circle-at-childrens-book-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/11\/illustration-artist-comes-full-circle-at-childrens-book-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Illustration Artist Comes Full Circle at Children’s Book Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alison<\/a>
Alison Paul leads a critique during an illustration class at the Art Building. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When she participates in the 21stannual Connecticut Children\u2019s Book Fair this weekend in the Rome Ballroom on South Campus as a member of the Art Department faculty, Alison Paul will have come full circle in her involvement with the event.<\/p>\n

She first arrived at the Book Fair in 2007 as the author and illustrator of her first book, The Crow<\/em> (Houghton Mifflin), when she lectured to attendees as one of the many authors who are invited each year to Storrs in November for the event. Cora Lynn Deibler, professor of illustration in the School of Fine Arts, heard Paul speak that day and asked her to return to campus to critique students’ work in illustration classes.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Illustration art for the book ‘The Crow’ by Alison Paul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat started a nice working relationship, where she would have me come once a semester to give a lecture and give a critique,\u201d says Paul, who now is an instructor in illustration in the School of Fine Arts and is teaching the illustration class of students who made submissions for the Raab Prize, the illustration competition awarded during the Book Fair.<\/p>\n

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Paul at the time was an art director for children\u2019s books at a Boston company that worked with a variety of publishing houses. She also was working on her second children\u2019s book, Sunday Love<\/em> (Houghton Mifflin, 2010), and critiquing student work at her alma mater.<\/p>\n

\"Sunday<\/a>
Illustration art from the book ‘Sunday Love’ by Alison Paul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be working with about 30 books at a time, overseeing their process,\u201d Paul says. \u201cAs an art director you have these intense critiques with the illustrator, talking about art and what\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Diebler later invited her to teach an illustration class in Storrs as an adjunct professor, Paul would drive to campus from her home in Rhode Island. She continued to teach each semester and when Diebler took a sabbatical last year to teach in Italy, Paul added additional classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite honestly, from the first day, I felt it was right,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is where I\u2019m supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

However Paul\u2019s path to teaching art was not so direct. Growing up in California as the daughter of parents who met in a painting class, Paul saw her mother struggle trying to establish a career in art. She started college, spending some time as a theater major, before leaving college briefly. While taking an art class at a community college, her portfolio was reviewed by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and she headed east to major in illustration, with a minor in English.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought I wanted to write the stories that I would illustrate,\u201d Paul says. \u201cI think that\u2019s every illustrator\u2019s desire to some extent, to have full control over the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Paul wrote a children\u2019s book that will be illustrated by another artist, the first time she will collaborate on a book in that manner. \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel like my art would go with it,\u201d she says. \u201cI gave it to my editor and she gave it to another illustrator. It will be interesting to see how that will come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A still from an animation made by Alison Paul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to her children\u2019s books, Paul has done other illustration work and has also developed animation. She works not only with drawing, but also uses collage in creating illustrations, as well as utilizing digital technology. It is something she encourages with her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be a photographer who illustrates; you could make whole three-dimensional dioramas and photograph them,\u201d Paul says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be watercolor filling in the lines. As long as you are getting across a message, whatever medium you use is fair game. I\u2019m pretty old school in that I still like to cut paper out and glue it by hand. I like to think of the computer as just one more tool. I try to get my students to understand that it can be part of it. You don\u2019t have to create the whole thing digitally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul continues to seek new ways to explore ideas in her work. Teaching a basic drawing class has caused her to think more about her own drawing skills and technique when she returns to her studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes just explaining something to someone else makes it clearer in your head,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m also aware when I\u2019m making my own work that I\u2019m trying to think about things I\u2019ve noticed that a student will really benefit from, that you should be trying some methods that will take the work to a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A still from an animation made by Alison Paul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul is in the process of developing ideas for a new animation that she will work on next summer as part of preparing for a class in animation she will teach. She is also hoping to create ideas to collaborate with the Puppetry Program in the Department of Dramatic Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also feel the need to be more well-informed about what\u2019s going on in illustration today, to get out of my bubble,\u201d Paul says. \u201cI\u2019m well-informed about what\u2019s going on in children\u2019s illustration, but I want to broaden my knowledge to other avenues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Connecticut Children\u2019s Book Fair is free and open to the public and will take place Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10 and 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Rome Ballroom on UConn\u2019s South Campus. It is a project of the UConn Co-op and the UConn Libraries to benefit the Northeast Children\u2019s Literature Collection of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. For more information visit the Connecticut Book Fair website<\/a>,\u00a0or call 860-486-5027.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illustrator and children’s author Alison Paul joins the faculty in the School of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":68581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-68576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 10:30:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68576"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69398,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68576\/revisions\/69398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/68581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68576"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=68576"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=68576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}