ElisaKleven.com
Title
ElisaKleven.com
Contact
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Description
I write and illustrate picture books because I've never outgrown a deep childhood urge to enter a magical world. As a child growing up in Los Angeles, I used to wish that my huge, congested city were more like the places in the books that I loved - places where forests grew and seasons changed, where animals talked and anything was possible. I envied those characters who slid down rabbit holes, or visited with Charlotte and Wilbur, or flew with Peter Pan, or floated with Mary Poppins, or journeyed to Oz.
Since I couldn't actually visit these wonderful worlds (except, of course, by reading), I made little imaginary worlds of my own, using the materials at hand. My favorite project was an enormous dollhouse in my closet. The house was filled both with"store-bought" toys, and with dolls and creatures which I made myself, from paper,cloth and clay. I'd lose myself for hours making up stories about these characters. I loved to make them treasures from scraps of this and that : a paper doily would become a lace tablecloth; half a walnut-shell would be a baby's cozy cradle; a postage stamp would make a lovely portrait on the wall. Around the dollhouse I painted a mural, a fanciful landscape of forests, fields, mountains, blue skies - the world that I wished I could live in.
Like all authors and illustrators, I love to make up characters, and build stories and environments around them. To make my pictures I combine many media: watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencils, pastels, markers, crayons -- anything that works! I also use lots of collage. As I did in childhood, I snip and glue old scraps into new shapes: a piece of wool becomes a lion's mane or a child's hair. A doily, snipped to bits, becomes a snowstorm.
Additional Information
- Blessings
- Cactii
- Children's
- Children's Literature
- Dollhouses
- Elementary School
- Family Life
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Grandmothers
- Grandparents
- Latin American
- Maguey
- Monsters
- New York City
- Paper Dolls
- Pasadena Rose Parade
- Pinatas
- Prayers
- Pre School
- Princesses
- Puddles
- Puerto Rico
- Rain Forest
- San Fransisco
- School Visits
- Siblings
- Teacher Activities
- Pre-school