We went to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art today. It's a hike, about 2 hours away near Northhampton, MA, but totally worth the trip. We broke it up by stopping at Jes' house first in West Stockbridge for coffee. It's so nice to go to a place so geared toward kids.

There are three small galleries.

One features Eric Carle's work and a display that shows the materials and process that he uses for making his collages. I have been interested in this because I think it translates well to quilting. He manages to evoke very specific imagery with very simple materials and lines. I want my next quilt to be for Aidan and he is insisting that he wants one with boys playing ball. I found the idea of that completely overwhelming at first, but I had the idea to draw from Carle's depictions of children. I think I can do that. Origami is interesting to me for the same reason - the art relies on revealing the essence of the subject in the simplest possible way.

The second gallery contained a collection of Book Week posters. It was really interesting to note the styles and the dates that they were from. One from the 40s looked like a communist propaganda poster. There was one with a mime: 80's. I was fascinated with one: The left side shows a group of children holding signs. The signs say "BOOK POWER". One child has a red star on her sleeve. Next to them is a stack of books with another child on the top, facing the group with his fist raised in the air. Leaning against the stack of books to the right is a very small child who has fallen asleep with his sign. The date? 1969. The atmosphere of protest had infiltrated something as everyday as a Book Week poster. It reminded me of a conversation that a friend had told me about after 9/11. She and a friend wondered what 9/11 would mean for Rock-N-Roll. (see post below)

The last gallery had stunning illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. They ranged from images that I recognized from James and the Giant Peach to a series illustrating an early version of the Prince and the Pauper. The complexity of these last images was mindboggling. They were pictured as if the story were staged in Medieval times. I love that sort of thing - it's like the staging in the film version of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead - where a piece of silk waved across the stage is water. It's dreamy and magical and low tech.

There is also a theatre there that had a performance of James and the Giant Peach, a Library where they had story time, a studio where children of all ages could create, and (of course) a store with a fantastic selection of children's books.

Aidan managed to not nap at all on the whole trip there and was sleepy to the point of being close to meltdown the whole time we were there - but I think he liked it anyway.