Image of the Week: Waiting in India
Note to readers: Have you received my new illustrated newsletter, The Art of Health?
If you subscribe to this newsletter, you should have already received three articles.
If not, please check your spam folder for emails from dyaelbernhard@substack.com.
Subscriptions are free – but you may contribute if you wish.
(Health subjects take significant time to research, write, and illustrate.)
Thank you!
© D. Yael Bernhard
This simple illustration is part of my picture book Love Is – my only self-published book, which also serves as a greeting card. It's a tiny paperback that fits in a 5"x7" greeting card envelope, and may be mailed with just two stamps. I created Love Is for children, but it's really meant for all ages. This "crossover" book defies publishing categories both by crossing age groups and by being two different types of merchandise at once. Publishers are wary of such products, as they can be tricky to market. Thus, my agent could not find a home for the book, and I decided to publish it myself.
The book was inspired by a linguistic phenomenon: the realization that in English, the word for "love" is exactly the same as both a noun and a verb. This is not true of other languages, for example in French the noun is "amour" and the verb (in first person singular) is "aime." I've always liked the expression "Love is a verb" – and it's certainly a noun, too – so I decided to explore the many forms of both that children can relate to. The result was a rhyming poem and simple illustrations that depict love both as actions and abstract "things" – such as affection, forgiveness, comfort – or in this case, patience.
Every parent spends a lot of time waiting for their child, whether holding a toddler's hand and allowing him to walk at his own pace, encouraging her to sound out her first words, or sitting at a bus stop waiting for the school bus to arrive. Most recently I spent two hours at an airport waiting for my daughter to disembark from a plane. These occasions try our patience, but love enables us to hold out, for we could never abandon our loved ones. In other countries such delays are more common than not – so in the spirit of diversity I decided to depict an Indian family, patiently waiting at a train station for their relative to arrive.
All the illustrations in this book are storytelling images, in which the reader may perceive a single moment in an imagined narrative. In this case I chose the moment of fulfillment – when the train finally comes around the bend, and the gleeful child is nearly bursting with anticipation at her father's imminent arrival. We've all experienced this feeling, and the idea here is to convey a sense of commonality among all cultures. Notice the hearts on the mother's and grandmother's saris and the little girl's dress – a little something for young readers to find.
Thanks to the internet, I quickly discovered many trains in India are painted red and yellow. Apparently this enables travelers to distinguish between reserved and unreserved coaches; while blue may indicate coaches for sick or disabled passengers. I learn the most uncanny things as an illustrator!
I enjoyed acting as my own editor in creating this book. Nobody told me what to do – and with dozens of published picture books already to my name, I felt fully qualified to shepherd this love child through the production process. I found a printer in Canada, and off it went to press. Truly, Love Is was a labor of love, as no one paid me to do it – and no one marketed it for me. Like many artists, here is where I fall short. I put the book up for sale on my website, and did my best to announce it through my own networks. But in the end, I barely broke even on my printing cost, and often give the book away as a gift to friends, or to buyers who purchase other books or artwork. That's fine with me – it's like giving away a smile. Love truly does come in many forms and flavors – including that of a cute little book.
If you would like to order a copy of Love Is, you may find it for $9.95 in my webstore, including shipping. It comes with a greeting card envelope, and has a page where you can inscribe the book to the recipient of your choice.
Happy Valentines Day to all my readers! I love all your comments and responses. Merely the fact that you open and read these newsletters warms my heart.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard