Illustrator Insights

My favorite part of any book is finding the visual story that can be told in a way that doesn’t trample on the sovereign territory of the text. 

In the instance of When God Made Light, my task was to create a story that would illustrate the music of Matt’s words but would still remain separate and distinct.

When I first read the text, I immediately sensed his poet’s joy of the painterly materiality of words and their inherent ability to travel light speed from when to then and back again.  Time travel is, of course, within the prerogative of the author but it presents challenges to the illustrator who is compelled to provide the reader with a beginning, a middle and a resolution of some sort.

The other part is finding a cast of characters who, first, can tell the two stories- but will also connect in a way that makes the reader feel they are on the ride themselves.

I think the book turned out to be a ride I want to take over and over again.

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