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Through the eyes of a child
(by Sara Porter - September 28, 2005)
No one is better known for capturing nostalgic scenes of an idyllic childhood than Mary Engelbreit.
The St. Louis-based artist’s illustrations have graced countless children’s books, greeting cards, calendars and other items. With her vibrant colors and playful characters, Engelbreit captures a visual Neverland and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I enjoy illustrating warm nostalgic scenes because I think other people relate to them, whether their own childhood was like that or it’s the kind of life that they hoped for,” Engelbreit said. “There are so many dark things in the world that I think people like to see art that is fun, cheerful and warm.”
Engelbreit’s latest project, Mother Goose: One Hundred Best Loved Verses, gives those “warm and nostalgic scenes” to a childhood favorite. Page after page, readers of this collection of nursery rhymes are treated to fully clothed animals, cherubic children and colorful scenes from familiar nursery rhymes such as “Jack and Jill” and “Humpty Dumpty” and some not-so-familiar rhymes such as “Three Little Ghostesses” and “I Saw a Ship A-Sailing.”
Engelbreit worked on Mother Goose for a year and a half and drew more than 120 illustrations for this project. Engelbreit said it is the book that she is “most proud of.”
“I loved Mother Goose rhymes as a little girl, so it was fun to put my own spin on them and try to modernize them a little, while still keeping a very nostalgic look and feel,” Engelbreit said.
With the many different Mother Goose interpretations, it would be difficult for Engelbreit’s version to stand out. After all, how many different versions of Little Miss Muffet and the spider can there be?
“I enjoy illustrating warm nostalgic scenes because I think other people relate to them, whether their own childhood was like that or it’s the kind of life they hoped for. There are so many dark things in the world that I thinkpeople like to see art that is fun, cheerful and warm.”
— Mary Engelbreit,
author and illustrator
As a child, Engelbreit herself was confused by an earlier volume of nursery rhymes.
“If you look closely at the words, the rhymes don’t make much sense,” Engelbreit said of the earlier work. “When I started illustrating, I wanted to give kids really great illustrations to help them enjoy the rhymes and not just to get confused.”
“I also wanted them to find plenty of things to look at with the pictures, so I’ve added a lot of details,” she said. “I love looking at other artists’ work, but I’m more often inspired by words, so I really focused on the verses of these rhymes as I illustrated them.”
The care and attention to the details in her artwork could also describe the care and attention to the details of Engelbreit’s own life. Engelbreit describes her childhood as something out of her own artwork: a paradise of games, loving parents and sisters, stories and — of course — drawings.
Inspired by the artwork of children’s illustrators Johnny Gruelle (the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy), Jesse Wilcox Smith and Joan Walsh Anglund, a young Mary would lock herself in her first “studio,” the family linen closet, and draw for hours on end. “Once I understood [the other artists’] styles, I started making my own illustrations for the stories my mother read to my sisters and I,” Engelbreit said.
She also created greeting cards for her family and friends and, in an almost prophetic move, sold them through a local card shop. Engelbreit said she believes this affected her early career as an up-and-coming artist in 1977.
“My dream as a little girl was to illustrate children’s books, but because my friends and I were always making gifts for each other, I just made a lot of cards early on,” she said. “When I first started my career, I was a little disappointed when a book publisher rejected my work for books, and suggested that my style was better suited for greeting cards. Looking back on it now, I can’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it myself since I already had so much experience with cards.”
She also began to illustrate children’s books, a feat she considered a lot more challenging than the greeting cards. “[Greeting cards] are a single snapshot illustration whereas books are more challenging because of the characters’ clothing and faces and everything having to stay consistent,” Engelbreit said.
By 1986, Engelbreit’s illustrations and greeting cards had become so popular and so much in demand that she licensed her cards to Sunrise Publications and began working on her own business, Mary Engelbreit Studios. Now, ME Studios has produced more than 65,000 products based on Engelbreit’s work, including greeting cards, children’s books, calendars, paper dolls and a magazine called Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. Though Engelbreit is involved deeply in running ME Studios, she focuses more on the artistic side and estimates that she has drawn more than 4,000 illustrations since beginning her professional career.
Everyone at the company understands their respective industries and helps to translate the art into different products, she said.
“I’ve had wonderful advisers along the way. I know it doesn’t sound very glamorous, but the input of a lawyer early on was crucial because copyright protection is so important for artists,” Engelbreit said. “My lawyer was my friend, Greg Hoffman, who’s now the company’s CEO and my business partner.”
Besides her studio and her work is her family, which consists of a supportive husband and sons and a granddaughter to whom Mother Goose is dedicated and whom she considers her “biggest fan.”
Engelbreit is equally proud of First Book, a national charity that her company partners with. First Book’s aim is to provide books to economically challenged children who would otherwise be without them.
“Books were such an instrumental part of my childhood that I can’t even imagine a child not having books in their home,” Engelbreit said. Through that end, Engelbreit’s studios and shops have hosted book drives and a portion of certain products’ proceeds are donated to First Book.
As for herself, Engelbreit said she hopes that children appreciate the timeless message her artwork creates.
“I hope that people will still enjoy my work and that the messages in my children’s books and other art are still relevant,” she said. “I love the timeless style and messages in my mother’s own children’s books, and I try to convey that in my drawings.”
Engelbreit said she hopes to capture these idyllic childhood scenes for a long time. Not bad for a girl who once drew in a linen closet.
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