Museum Visit: The Putnam Museum and Science Center

A few months ago we took a family trip to Davenport, IA, to visit one of my drawings. The artwork is part of the Tails from Tales exhibition at the Putnam Museum and Science Center. Tails from Tales features taxidermy displays and art inspired by various children’s picture books. The exhibition will be on display until May 2024. 

Come one, come all!

I was one of 19 local (from Iowa and Illinois) illustrators chosen to have their art in the exhibit. We created our pieces, then sent digital image files to the museum. The artwork was then reproduced large-scale; my drawing, titled “The Tree of Life,” was reproduced at twice its original size with a faux frame around it!

I love that the exhibition logo is a book with a fox tail for a bookmark!

My drawing is inspired by the book The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. In the book, a man comes to chop down a large tree in the rainforest. He gets tired and lays down to rest. While he is sleeping, many animals (and even a little boy) whisper in his ear about why the tree is important to their ecosystem. When he wakes up, he sets down his axe and leaves.

“Tree of Life” pen and ink drawing on watercolor paper by Haley McAndrews, original size 24”x24”

The pen and ink drawing shows the silhouette of a large tree. Inside the tree is a variety of plants and animals native to the rainforest. There is a small silhouette of a person with an axe at the base of the tree, and even a weeping cut into the tree near him. I did play around with adding some digital color to the piece but in the end I decided to keep it black and white.

I lost track of how many hours I worked on this drawing, but I wanted it to have so many details that a visitor to the museum could come back and look at it over and over again, and still find something new in the tree. There are animals and plants of all types and sizes, including a jaguar, puma, iguanas, various insects, birds, flowers, leaves, and bees. There is even one small boy (who also comes to the tree cutter in the book.) The jungle in the background has a few different types of textures – from lines to dots to geometric swirls (a texture that has reoccurred in my artwork since I was 16.)

My youngest and I posing with my drawing!

I chose The Great Kapok Tree as my inspiration because I have an affinity for trees in my artwork already (which you can read about here). I grew up in a military family (we moved across the country more than once) so trees represent both growing up as well as putting down roots and having a history in one place. This drawing, showing all the different animals that would be affected by the tree being cut down, is a perfect example of a tree of life.

I don’t know about you, but I could spend hours here.

In addition to the art on the walls, there is a cozy reading area set up with benches, a soft rug, pillows for sitting on, and many of the books featured in the exhibition! This way, visitors could read the stories that make up the display. While I didn’t take pictures of everything in the Tails from Tales exhibit, I will show you some of my favorites (to see the full exhibition, go visit the Putnam!)

You know, the story where the mouse saves the lion from the net!

There are also taxidermy displays that depict different books and stories as well! The one above showed the lion caught in the net with a small mouse near his front feet, from the “The Lion and the Mouse” from Aesop’s Fables. Another display showed a tiger in a jungle, from The Jungle Book.

The Polar Bear Son is a story about an unconventional family.

This display featured a polar bear and Inuit, showing a scene from The Polar Bear Son, an Inuit tale retold by Lydia Dabcovich. In this story, an Inuit woman adopts and raises a polar bear as her own son.

“Minn of the Mississippi” digital art by Atlanta Dawn, original size 24”x30”

This piece immediately caught my eye! It has the style and feel of a woodcut, but was actually created digitally by artist Atlanta Dawn. I love the warm, muted, five-color palette. The details and textures in this illustration are beautifully rendered. This piece was inspired by the book Minn of the Mississippi, by Holling Clancy Holling.

“Light and Shadow – Survival” hand-painted, kiln-fired stained glass by Sam McFarland, original size 21”x22”

This piece, inspired by Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, was created by Sam McFarland out of stained glass! It shows five realistic animals (one predator and four prey) painted by hand on the glass as well as a rocky landscape and green foliage, all hand painted on glass. The geometric border around the scene is brightly colored in the three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, and gives the whole piece a great energy with repeating black lines and dots.

"The Wind in the Willows, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" digital painting by Jason Platt, original size 38.5"x48"

This digital painting by Jason Platt is inspired by The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I’ve read this book a few times since I was a kid, as I will always adore anthropomorphic animal characters in books. Platt was able to accurately convey the mixture of both joy and terror caused by Mr. Toad’s reckless driving.

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" digital collage by Kelvin Mason, original size 48"x48"

A favorite book in our house, our copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar has seen better days. I’ve never seen a rendition quite like this one by Kelvin Mason! I love the little violet shoes on the butterfly’s feet, and the way Mason digitally collaged the various foods to create the butterfly wings.

"A Party for Pooh" digital illustration by Kylie Morency, original size 48"x32"

The last piece I’ll mention specifically is also digitally created. The word I keep returning to to describe this illustration is “soft.” The colors are soft, not too bright, and the outlines aren’t in black but instead in the same hue as the solid colors. The style and characters are drawn in a distinct, adorable way. My girls also loved this piece – enough to pose with it!

There is so much more to see in the Tails from Tales exhibit, I couldn’t possibly fit it all into one blog post. And this only covers one room in the Museum and Science Center! We really loved exploring the different levels of the building, and my girls were well-engaged the whole time (their favorites were the interactive parts, of course!)

Visitors to the Putnam Museum and Science Center will be able to experience the Tails from Tales exhibit until May 2024. You can find more information about it on the Putnam’s website, www.putnam.org. You can also follow the Putnam on Facebook.

Illustration Isn't Real Art

When I was in art school I took a variety of art classes. I ended up getting my Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art Photography as at the time I wanted to make a career out of digitally editing and restoring photographs. Now I think I would’ve been more suited (despite a great love for photography) to majoring in drawing. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

In one class in particular, the professor (who shall remain nameless) assigned us a handful of written essays in addition to our art projects throughout the semester. The first essay is one I will remember until the day I die: she assigned us to write an essay about how illustration isn’t real art.

A glimpse into my sketchbook, circa 2007.

I was completely floored, and spoke to the Dean of the Art Department. “Illustration is what I do!” I exclaimed, frustrated beyond belief. Looking back, I’m not sure what I was hoping to accomplish with the meeting. I wasn’t looking for her to be reprimanded or anything, but couldn’t I at least write about something else? His response was to say “I don’t want you to feel like I’m just siding with my professors, but…” He sided with his professor. He theorized that she was trying to get me to “expand my horizons.” By stifling an entire genre of art? That doesn’t seem right.

But I have always been a good student, and not a fan of confrontation, so I wrote an essay defending illustration. The original essay has been lost for many years, but it went a little something like this:

Merriam-Webster defines the word illustration as “something that serves to illustrate, such as: 1. A picture or diagram that helps make something clear or attractive. B. An example or instance that helps make something clear.” I believe we can all agree that for many years (since 1828, according to their website) Merriam-Webster has been a trusted dictionary for accurate definitions of words in the English language.

(When I got my graded paper back, the professor had written some comments in the margin – the one for this paragraph just said “No.”)

If it's on the internet, it must be true.

Andy Warhol, prior to his widespread fame and success, worked as an illustrator for Sears catalogue. I don’t think anyone would dare argue that Andy Warhol’s drawings and paintings aren’t art, or that he isn’t considered a “real” artist.

(The professor made a note here that said “always an artist, not always making art.”)

And finally, according to the definition given above, the majority of art history can be labeled as “illustrations.” Ancient cave paintings were created to help tell and record stories. Before photography, portraits were painted to make it clear who the important people were in society. Even stained glass windows, sculptures, and paintings in churches were created solely to illustrate stories from the Bible, so the masses could understand without reading the book themselves. A perfect example is the Sistine Chapel. Nobody in their right mind would claim that the Sistine Chapel ceiling isn’t art, but it sure falls under the definition of “illustration.”

(She didn’t have a comment for this one.)

In the end, I got the lowest grade possible on my paper: a check minus. Her grading scale apparently has three checkmark levels; a check, which I guess was like a C; a check plus, which was an excellent grade; and a check minus, which was on par with an F. She asked me if I wanted to talk about my paper face-to-face after she graded it, and I said no (again, fear of confrontation.)

Although thinking back, this wasn’t the first time I wrote a paper like this. Back in high school, we had to write a paper about Beowulf, and mine was a persuasive essay on how Grendel’s mother was just a mom grieving the murder of her son, and Beowulf was actually the villain in the story. My English teacher gave me an A on that one. 😉