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Australian artist Nick Stathopoulos painted a great portrait of children’s illustrator and writer Shaun Tan (The Red Tree, The Arrival, The Lost Thing). Stathopoulos’ painting has made the finals for the 2008 Australian Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. I love Shaun Tan’s illustrations and picture books (see my review of The Red Tree; the artwork is stunning), so it was fun to stumble upon this. I really like how Stathopoulos incorporates the fantasy that Tan uses in his work; this makes the portrait all the more appealing and visually interesting. A great piece!

“Shaun’s World: Portrait of Shaun Tan”painting by Nick Stathopoulos

Thanks to Justine Larbalestier who posted about this on her blog.

This is a small piece from Sam Bennett's New Shoes. Sam and Papa finally free the wagon from the spring-time mud, while Molly the pup watches.

(Personally, I'm looking forward to that spring-time mud!)

I’ve blogged about those photos of bookshelves arranged in the colors of a rainbow–they are so beautiful to look at, but I couldn’t stand having my books that disorganized (imagine searching for a favorite book or author you want to read right now, and realizing you don’t know what color the cover of the spine is).

Well, Chad Norman has arranged his son’s Dr. Seuss picture books in the spectrum order–a task that both seems both more manageable to me, and more reasonable–all one author, and all picture books. It looks beautiful, to me–a  way to bring a visual pleasing effect while still enjoying the books. I can imagine leaping to do this, myself, if my books weren’t all in boxes right now, waiting for my move.

photo: Chad Norman

What do you think? Can you imagine arranging your books this way? Picture books, by just one author?

Harry Potter fans will be happy to know that the first three images from the cover art of Harry Potter books will be available for purchase this month through Clampett Studio Collections. The artwork was created by artist Mary GrandPre. The prints will also be available to collectors as a complete set. I don’t see the artwork there yet, but the information comes from Cynopsis Kids, so I trust it.

You know how I love book art. Well, this isn’t exactly book art–it’s pencil art. But some of us writers still write longhand (I do), and still use pencils (Yep, me again. Pencils, pens, whichever feels best at the time). Many editors use pencils, too, for editing.

So art work about writing utensils–or using writing utensils–appeals to me.

This sculpture by artist Jennifer Maestre is created out of pencils, and is entitled Aurora. (It looks like a flower, to me.) You can see more of her work here.

I love this miniature typewriter with the beginning of the novel Paul Clifford, now famous for that line. To me, this is both the perfect gift for a writer, and book/writing art. AND it’s jewelry, too–a pin/broach. And the price is amazing–$5.00 US. Wow, huh? I love looking at it.

You can get yourself one from Ptierney Designs over at Etsy.

There’s a lovely animation from Sesame Street about “Sometimes All I Need Is a Book to Read” on YouTube. Some of you might remember it; I sure do. I love how the art moves from one image into another, the way imagination can, and how positive it is about books, about the stories inside. I think this is a really neat way to encourage children to read (in addition to many, many other things)–a short, fun animated clip. Check it out.

I love anything that has to do with children’s books and writing them, and I love cartoons. Put the two of them together, and it’s delightful. Over at JacketFlap, there’s a new weekly children’s writer cartoon “Joe Hemingmouse”, about the trials and tribulations of a mouse aspiring to be a children’s book writer and illustrator.

The cartoon is created by Peter Hannan, who is the author and illustrator of Super Goofballs. Hannan also created and executive produced the Nickelodeon animated TV series CatDog.

I love the debut cartoon, which is all about procrastination, something that I–and many other writers–know a lot about.

I think the cartoon will appeal to anyone who likes children’s books and is interested in an inside view of a children’s author, as well as children’s writers. Take a gander over there and see for yourself.

Elizabeth over at Fuse #8 has written two fantastic posts about various sculptures created from characters in children’s books, and she includes some great photos. The sculptures are just beautiful, and if you love children’s books, or particular characters from those books, then it’s also heartwarming. You’ll probably find many of your favorite children’s books represented. Check out her original post, and her next in the series about sculptures based on children’s books.

I’d like to add two sculptures based on Canadian children’s books. There are a series of beautiful bronze sculptures based on Franklin in the Dark in Toronto on Center Island, and a sculpture of Anne of Green Gables in Cavendish.

The parking lot for the public library in Kansas City, Missouri, has one of the most beautiful, book-loving exteriors of a library–or any building–that I’ve ever seen.

Photo: jonathan_moreau @ Flickr

Isn’t it gorgeous? Makes a book-lover’s heart swoon.

According to DeputyDog blog, “local residents were asked to nominate influential books that represent Kansas City. Humongous versions of the winning nominations were then used as the exterior of the library car-park.”

And if that isn’t beautiful enough, this temporary structure while the Cardiff Central Library in the UK is being built is also beautiful–a visual testament to books and a visual draw to book lovers and readers. I think it should be permanent, not temporary.

Photo: Athanasius @ Flickr

Sandra Love Nichol from Best, Sandra sent me these arranged titles she did after seeing my post on arranged titles. I love that she got inspired to create some art from books! You can see some more of her arranged titles on her blog. Yay, Sandra!

J. Ignacio Diaz de Rabago created a beautiful book installation titled Babel Library IX at the University of California in 2005. The books appeared to float in the air around the staircase, and were suspended by thin metal cables. This installation evokes the beauty and magic of books. I would love to be surrounded by books like this!

Babel Library IX installation by J. Ignacio Diaz de Rabago

To read more about this installation and see some inspiring close-up photos, check out this article. You can also visit Rabago’s site, and see many of his other beautiful book and word installations here (under gallery/installations).

I had so much fun putting together titles to create book art (inspired by Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books) that I had to do some more. Below are my results.

Because I was so inspired by Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books, I thought I’d give it a try. I had a lot of fun.

If you want to give it a try and share it with me, I’d love to see it. Send me the photo and I’ll post it here.

If you love books, you may enjoy the series of photographs artist Nina Katchadourian has taken and arranged in what she calls the Sorted Books project. Katchadourian goes through collections of books, sorts them by title, and then arranges the books so some titles can be read together in a sequence, like a sentence or series of sentences. The results are interesting and fun to read.

Photo by Nina Katchadourian

The Sorted Books project began in 1993 and is ongoing. The books come from a variety of sources, ranging from people’s home collections to public collections. It almost makes me want to go through my bookshelves and put together my own title-speak. And maybe that’s what good art does–inspires others. Minimally, it speaks to others, and many of these photos spoke to me. How about you?

I love art that celebrates books and reading–especially when it’s done well. This large steel sculpture titled “The Book” by Toronto artist Ilan Sandler is just beautiful. It makes me feel good just to look at the photographs!

The artist says: “‘The Book’ is a steel sculpture with two pages torn away from its spine. The spine is perpendicular to the ground, the covers are open, and the pages appear to blow in the wind. From the highway viewers see a book that looks as if it were lifted by the wind and oriented towards a sheet that has already escaped its binding.”

You can visit Ilan Sandler’s website here to see more photos and read more about his sculpture.

There are a lot of sculptures that I like–but “The Book” is one is now among my favorites.

Thank you to BookLust for pointing me in this direction.

This beautiful book quilt was quilted by writer and quilter Heather Haapoja from Needles and Pens blog for a writer friend. The book spines are embroidered with titles of her friend’s favorite books and authors. What an incredible gift! And how multi-talented of Heather. The quilt is based on a pattern by Christine Thresh at Winnowing.com, so for any of you quilting-inclined book lovers, this is a great idea!

The wall hanging is an inspiration for both readers and writers. It makes me feel good to look at, any way. If you want to see a larger photo of this quilt, or any of the many others that Heather has created, check out her photos at Webshots. You can find her book quilt in her 2003 quilts folder.

I found Heather’s beautiful quilt through a WriterMama post. Thank you, WriterMama.