I See a Story: The Art of Eric Carle at the High

In time for Spring Break, Acclaimed Artist, Eric Carle is at The High Museum of Art in Atlanta. He is a bestselling children’s book artist and author and I had the priviledge along with a few others, to take a tour hosted by Ellen Keiter, chief curator of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Eric Carle is well known for “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “The Grouchy Ladybug.”

When visiting you get to explore Carle’s personal interests, materials and techniques and all the while you are taken on an educational journey not just for children, but adults as well.

Shown above is the “dummy book”, now Walter the Baker, but at the time it was Walter the Pretzel Baker.

To create his beautiful collage illustrations, he uses acrylic paint over white tissue paper and then cuts and tears the papers and pastes the shapes on an illustration board to form his images. Below is a sample of some of the tissue papers,in all different types of shapes and colors.

Rarely do you see the actual wears of the artist, and below you see his shoes, smock and broom and below this picture you see him actually working in them.

Ellen managed to find a secret in the painting below and that is the initials of his two children on the lower right corner.

Carle in addition to the children’s book art, he also has what he calls, “Art, Art.” It is just as vibrant, beautiful and appealing as all of his other pieces.

Guests were able to hear a snippet of the world premiere play based upon Carle’s book “Pancakes, Pancakes!” presented at the Alliance Theatre.

I could not show every piece of art that I took a picture of, but  believe me you will want to make sure you see this exhibition which will be featured from April 2, 2016 through January 8, 2017. It is catered to children and is very family friendly. The pictures are hung low enough so children can see the pieces and join in on the conversation.

When was the last time you seen an exhibition like this?