"Dream and Dream Again" ABC Book
Book project for my illustration class at university. It combines two of my major interests back in the day: rusty vehicles and abandoned places overgrown with grass, paired with some of Mark Twain's more critical, but charismatic works. Made with watercolours.
The main idea behind the project was to focus on each of the things that directly or indirectly affect and destroy nature and peace: in my understanding these were wars, slaughter houses, exploitation of Earth, miseducation, ...
Above is the cover illustration with flowers taking over a chain-link fence evoking feelings and images of a sanctuary and enhancing the book title Dream and Dream Again. Below are illustrations of disused vehicles emphasizing the idea that any lethal weapon out of man's reach is nothing but a pile of rust. Here a fellow student made the comment 平和というサビ which roughly translates from the Japanese as "the rust of peace".
In "How Picture books Work", Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott use the term 'complementary' for picture books where the images reflect and expand what is in the written text or where each fills the other's gaps.
The complementary aspect is beautifully described by a friend who found coincidental meanings and connections between word and image. You can read her interpretation on the following link. Below, I quote her readings of the letters M and K.
I like the fact that everything is blue in this one. It is interesting connecting the letter to the colour. As for the quote and the picture together, it seems like the platform is getting swayed by the sea, the same way that the human mind gets swayed by religion (and politics). It is almost implied that we cannot fight it; it makes us go crazy.
Vast limits in itself is a paradox, an oxymoron, because you cannot have limits that are vast. But the way that it seems here, you have this vastness conveyed by the fact that you can see the sun—the horizon. At the same time you have an oil rig, which means this is our limit, because literally oil is limited. But if you go from a moral viewpoint, the fact that we are taking these resources from the earth and using them for ourselves we are consequently actually destroying the earth and ourselves. And K stands for knowledge—the knowledge that we have these vast limits. Some of the cranes actually look like K's.
Another friend pointed to the contrast between form and content: the vividly and colourfully illustrated objects are soft, round and harmless, in contrast to their original i.e. real-life form and function featuring sharp edges, dull colors and pain-inflicting purpose.
She goes on to add that "many people, having read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, think of Mark Twain as a writer for children, unaware of his many sharp and satirical essays on religion, society and politics." Further elaborating that "sometimes we imagine we know or understand something, but in reality what we choose to know is just the peak of an iceberg. So we have to relearn many lessons from the ABC; and just as there are ABC books for children, there should be ABC books for adults, because there is a tendency for grown-ups to disregard the basics—thinking we are too advanced beings to do such things". Her full interpretation can be read on the following link.
Thank you for watching ✱
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