New Work: Lyle and Shirley Throw a Party

Lyle and Shirley Throw a Party
image size 11" x 14"; painted papers on art board

As a kid I can remember reading storybooks. I inherited quite a few from my brother who is six years older than me. Many of the books pre date my birth year of 1970. The illustrations are dated now of course but the images and the words are still irresistibly charming in their simplicity. There is a real innocence about some of these books that I find to be wonderfully soothing even now. Many years ago my mom collected up what was left of the books and gave them to me. They sit on a shelf in my studio and believe it or not, I look at them fairly often. I find the stories to still be calming and familiar after all of this time. Over the years I have added to the collection with fresh books picked up at library sales or books that I have purchased new.  I find the illustrations to be refreshing and actually helpful in my art practice. 

The piece above wasn't initially inspired by anything. I started with the larger blue green piece on the right hand side. It was already cut into a sort of shape so I simply cleaned it up and trimmed it down to fit the space. That piece prompted other shapes and colors. Several of the shapes had been cut previously as experiments. I decided that now was the time to use them and in they went. Before I knew it, I had a little story going in my head about Lyle. Lyle is the main character in a book from my childhood. The book is titled Lyle and The Birthday Party and was written by Bernard Waber.  It's a lovely little story and as I was working this piece the blue green shape made me think of Lyle (who is a crocodile). I imagined him with one of my favorite contemporary artists, Shirley Jaffe. Together, Lyle and Shirley decide to throw a party. I also experimented with some new acrylic pens by Montana. I made some doodlings on the painted paper and used that for some of the pieces. I didn't really care for writing on the white space though. Give me time I guess.

OK, hope everyone is having a good weekend. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Libby

PS-Here is the Lyle story line in a nutshell: Lyle is a crocodile who lives with a family. The little boy of the family has a birthday party and Lyle, normally a fun and generous sort of crocodile, becomes jealous. His jealousy upsets him so much that he becomes ill. Once at the hospital (for humans), Lyle redeems himself by helping the other patients. He feels better and when he gets home, the parents have arranged a surprise birthday party just for him.