Illustrations © D. Yael Bernhard
For the past few weeks I’ve been hearing a cardinal singing outside my house. Its song is so distinctive, I wonder if it’s an individual bird who nests in the spruce trees along my driveway each year. Responding to the gaining light rather than the lingering cold, the cardinal’s song has changed; clearly meant to mark territory and attract a mate, it seems like a sure sign that spring is around the corner.
The chickadees are also more vocal these days, signaling to each other with robust “deedeedees” and falling “fee-bees.” So much activity among the bare bushes and trees! Even on a snowy morning when the world is blanketed in silence, these birds are out there singing. It always makes me smile, and brings to mind these two facing pages from a picture book I wrote and illustrated over twenty years ago, Earth, Sky, Wet Dry: A Book of Nature Opposites (Orchard Books, 2000). The day I painted the winter scene, it actually snowed! What a treat, to paint snowy branches right outside my window.
The proposal for the book was submitted several years earlier, immediately after completing the most research-intensive book I had ever done: A Ride On Mother’s Back, a compilation of baby-carrying (a/k/a attachment parenting) practices from around the world. After doing so much multicultural research, with over 50 library books spread out on my studio floor (this was pre-internet), I was eager to create a book about a local subject that I could find right outside my door. The result was this rhyming picture book of nature opposites, showing the many life forms that exist in and around a single pear tree.
How refreshing, to work on sketches by roaming on foot through the fields and forests near my home! I was living on the banks of the Hudson River at the time, and found my pear tree in a nearby fruit orchard. I had to paint this tree, or portions of it, over and over again. I mixed up five shades of grey for depicting the bark, and kept them in sealed paint cups so the colors would last throughout the three months it took to do the final illustrations. Consistency of color throughout a picture book is very important. Usually I mix skin tones for this purpose, but in this case the main character had bark for skin. Scaling up and reducing the texture of the bark was challenging. By the end of the book, I had it down to a science.
Then there were the myriad creatures who lived in and around this tree. Such diversity! The back of the book had a six-page glossary – a mini field guide showing each species of plants, birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fungi, and lichen. Alas, no fish. I developed a certain affection for all the little players in this theater of life, and hoped my illustrations would help young readers feel that, too. Each creature was accompanied by a short paragraph of fun facts. Later, I brought the book into local schools and used it as a model to guide the students in creating class field guides of their own, with each child assigned one species to write about and illustrate.
The pairs of nature opposites in the book, such as light/dark, spring/fall, winter/summer, big/small (notice the rhyme) are meant to convey a sense of nature’s harmony, and the forces of duality and change that keep the seasons turning. (There’s that Taoist influence again, such as I wrote about in my post two weeks ago, “Sun & Moon.”)
In the midst of winter it’s always hard to imagine the opposite season of hot days and lush green leaves, blooming flowers and ripe fruit. But even as I’m carrying firewood inside on a frigid morning, the birdsongs are a reminder that the wheel of time is turning. The cardinal knows better than I that the earth is slowly tilting toward the sun. Soon its song will be joined by those of other species that arrive in these mountains each spring, such as the Baltimore Oriole shown above, and the migrating ducks that fish in our stream each April. I love all birds . . . but I’m especially grateful to the cardinal, who gives me hope when the world seems locked in a frozen state, and reminds me to be patient.
Unfortunately in today’s publishing world, it seems a pear tree protagonist does not make a lively enough subject. Gone are the days when quiet picture books could satisfy with subtle messages and simple depictions of life. Our children are raised to be enthralled with social media and technology, not the ordinary miracles of nature. It wasn’t long before Earth, Sky, Wet, Dry went out of print, earning no royalties – though it was translated into Korean and published there (I wonder, how many of the creatures in the book may be found in that part of Asia?). When reading the book aloud to local school kids, I used the Korean edition to prompt them to guess the pairs of opposites, since they could not read the words. I challenged them to “read” the images instead. Illustration, after all, is a form of visual communication. What I cannot sing, I can paint.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
children's books • fine art • illustration
posters • cards • calendars
Have you seen my other Substack, The Art of Health? In addition to being a visual artist, I’m also a certified integrative health & nutrition coach with a lifelong passion for natural food cooking and herbal medicine. Now in its second year, this illustrated newsletter explores cutting-edge concepts of nutrition. I strive to make relevant information clear and accessible, and to anchor essential health concepts in unique images. Check it out, and if you like it, please subscribe and help spread the word. Your support keeps my work going!