{"id":22778,"date":"2023-03-17T12:15:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T16:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=22778"},"modified":"2023-03-17T12:18:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T16:18:03","slug":"christian-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/03\/17\/christian-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Robinson’s Books Share The Message Art Gave Him: You Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for me to tell stories that reflect the diverse world that we live in,\u201d picture book illustrator and author Christian Robinson said in a 2016 video for PBS NewsHour<\/a>. \u201cChildren need to see themselves in books, they need to see their gender, they need to see their color, hair texture, their disability, themselves. Picture books especially are many children\u2019s first introduction to the world. Seeing yourself is almost like a message. It\u2019s saying, \u2018You matter, you are visible, and you\u2019re valuable.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson\u2019s diverse subjects and his bright, disarming twist on midcentury modernist illustration by way of contemporary animation have made him one of the standout illustrators of this generation. His paintings, drawings and collages are suffused with kindness, youthful wonder, and Black joy. His books range from \u201cLast Stop on Market Street,\u201d written by Matt de la Pe\u00f1a, which won the Caldecott Honor, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, and the Newbery Medal, to illustrating Meghan Markle\u2019s book \u201cThe Bench,\u201d inspired by her husband, United Kingdom Prince Harry, and their son Archie. His latest book, “Twenty Questions,” written by Mac Barnett, has just been published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 90 original artworks from 17 picture books that Robinson has illustrated are featured in the exhibition \u201cWhat Might You Do?\u201d at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum<\/a> in Amherst from Jan. 14 to June 4, 2023. The exhibition was organized by the National Center for Children\u2019s Illustrated Literature in Abilene,\u00a0Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christian
Christian Robinson. Photo by John Kwiatkowski.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robinson was born in 1986 in Hollywood, California, and was still just an infant when his father delivered him to the child\u2019s nana, Lee Jenkins. \u201cI\u2019ve had Christian since he was five months,\u201d she told the Today show<\/a> in February 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, his father was absent and \u201cMy mother was in prison for most of my childhood,\u201d Robinson told Today<\/a>. \u201cShe struggles with drug addiction and mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Robinson and his brother grew up in his grandmother\u2019s one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, which also was home to their aunt and two cousins. \u201cI grew up in a predominantly Latino community in Los Angeles, and a lot of the backdrop of [his 2018 book] \u2019Carmela [Full Of Wishes]\u2019<\/em> was inspired by the neighborhood I grew up in, from the laundromat to the panader\u00eda to the street vendors and vegetable stands,\u201d Robinson told Publishers Weekly<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Detail
Detail from “Milo Imagines the World” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Basically, the kids slept in the living room on a pull-out couch and a couple of pallets on the floor. It was a little space, but there was a lot of love,\u201d Robinson told Curbed San Francisco<\/a> in 2017. “There wasn\u2019t space for placing my sculptures on the coffee table or putting up my drawings on the fridge. I kept most of my work under the couch, and it was thrown out a few weeks later. \u2026 My grandmother never said much about my art, but there was a quiet admiration there that was beyond words, and that encouraged me. When she had money, she would buy me a box of crayons.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowing up, I didn\u2019t see that many characters that looked like me,\u201d Robinson told SFGate<\/a> in 2020. \u201cI think that sends a message as well, that your life doesn\u2019t matter or isn\u2019t as interesting. My favorite stories were sci-fi, fantasy, stories where kids discover they have some magic power \u2014 those are the stories I wanted to put children of color in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As it worked out, it really fueled my creativity,” Robinson told Curbed San Francisco. “I would get lost in a world I could create. I spent my time drawing the mansions I wanted to live in and the pets that I didn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Making pictures was certainly my way of having some say over the world and what things could look like,” Robinson told San Francisco public radio station KQED<\/a> in 2021. “It was a way to have some control over my circumstances. \u2026 You’re just feeling anxiety and nerves. You feel as a kid, even though it’s your parent who’s being punished, you<\/em> feel punished. You know, when someone you love is serving time, you’re serving time along with them. I just remember a lot of pain, embarrassment, guilt and shame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With encouragement from his high school teachers, Robinson studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, where he worked on a student film about a dinosaur<\/a>. He helped animate some “Sesame Street” shorts. And he moved to San Francisco for an internship at Pixar in Emeryville during the summer of 2008. There he worked in the consumer products department, which produced toys, apparel and merchandise as Pixar was producing the animated feature film \u201cUp.\u201d \u201cMost of my time there was spent exploring illustrative styles for children’s books,\u201d he wrote on his blog that September. At a meeting with leaders, a director noticed his art and said, \u201cOh, he should do a book for us,\u201d Robinson recalled in a 2016 talk at the San Francisco Public Library<\/a>. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how I got my first book deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His 2009 book \u201cBeware of Dug,\u201d<\/a> adapted by Annie Auerbach, about the dog in \u201cUp,\u201d didn\u2019t immediately lead to additional opportunities. So Robinson worked as a live-in nanny, did web merchandizing, taught kids how to make \u201cJunk Art\u201d out of recycled materials at an afterschool program, animated a music video for friend. In the meantime, he made up illustration assignments for himself, worked on samples, and posted the results at his Moss Covered Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kind of wandered, but through great luck an agent of children’s books found my blog,” Robinson told Abilene Reporter News<\/a> in Texas in 2020. New York agent Steven Malk emailed, saying he was a fan. \u201cThey asked me if I wanted to make books, and that’s how I got into picture books.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson illustrated 2012\u2019s \u201cHarlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills\u201d written by Rene Watson, a nonfiction picture book about the turn-of-the-20th-Century African American singer and dancer pushing against the bounds of segregation. Robinson\u2019s books turned out to often be about characters who stand up to the meanness and narrow-mindedness of the mainstream, from 2014\u2019s \u201cThe Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade\u201d to 2014\u2019s \u201cGaston,\u201d written by Kelly DiPucchio, about a bulldog in a family of poodles and a poodle in a family of bulldogs who meet and find love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for Gaston by Kelly Dipucchio (Atheneum). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2014 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robinson went on to illustrate a 2014 biography of the dancer Josephine Baker, written by Nancy Hruby Powell, and a 2021 biography of singer Nina Simone, written by Traci N. Todd. \u201cI began working on sketches and illustrations for \u2018Nina\u2019 during the summer of 2020. Making pictures can often be an escape, where I can create some other kind of world that I want to see,\u201d Robinson wrote on Instagram<\/a> in September 2021. \u201cWorking on \u2018Nina\u2019 that summer didn’t allow for that. Escape wasn’t an option. What I was seeing in the world, the conversation around Black Lives Matter and the pandemic, all of that allowed me to see the thread between Nina’s fight for justice and our current struggle today. Her indomitable spirit and the way she channeled her pain into her art, helped me get through and was an inspiration as I made the pictures for this book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s surprising seeing Robinson\u2019s illustrations in person at the Eric Carle Museum is how small his artworks are. Many illustrators work big and their original art is shrunk down for reproduction, which can help the drawing feel sharper, more precise. The scale of Robinson\u2019s work suggests it gets enlarged slightly in reproduction, which likely adds to the loose painterly feeling of his art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson\u2019s illustrations often begin when he receives the picture book manuscript. \u201cThis is the place where I just use my imagination. I just figure out this world. I figure out what the characters will look like. I figure out what the setting will look like,\u201d Robinson said in his 2016 talk at the San Francisco Public Library. \u201cTypically it involves a lot of research and reference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sketches
Sketches for “Rain” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then he sketches out the whole book in \u201cstoryboards\u201d on Post-it Notes. The final illustrations mix paintings, collage and details added in colored pencil. Sometimes he works in watercolor too. He favors simple shapes that can evoke a child\u2019s drawings rendered with a modernist flair. \u201cTypically when I illustrate, I’m all about simplicity, so I’m always simplifying things,\u201d he told NPR<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson\u2019s agent introduced him to writer Matt de la Pena. Their first collaboration became the award-winning 2015 book \u201cLast Stop on Market Street,\u201d about a boy and his nana attending church, then riding a bus to volunteer in a soup kitchen. It was partly inspired by painting Robinson had made for a benefit auction of him and his nana riding a bus. He had posted it to his blog<\/a>, writing, \u201cNana ( my grandma ) didn’t drive, I remember spending a lot of time on the bus growing up. I don’t find comfort in riding a bus, but in this case being with my grandmother who was and has always been there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pe\u00f1a (G. P. Putnam\u2019s Sons). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2015 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robinson and De la Pena\u2019s 2018 book \u201cCarmela Full of Wishes\u201d is about a young girl in a vibrant Spanish-speaking neighborhood wishing for candy, for her hotel housekeeper mother to have a life of luxury, for her deported father \u201cgetting his papers fixed so he could finally be home.\u201d Robinson told Publishers Weekly<\/a> in 2018. \u201cI can\u2019t relate specifically to having a father deported, like Carmela, but my mother was in and out of prison for most of my childhood. There was something healing about illustrating a book that touches on a subject not often seen in picture books, but an experience that affects so many children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson and De la Pena\u2019s 2021 collaboration \u201cMilo Imagines the World\u201d is about a boy and his sister riding the subway to visit their mother in prison\u2014and the stories he draws in his sketchbook along the way of other riders and the oppressions and joys they find, and finally Milo imagining sitting on a stoop eating ice cream with his sister and their freed mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of the books that me and Matt have worked on, we’re dealing with, you know, real world situations,\u201d Robinson told KQED<\/a> in 2021. \u201cI guess Matt is like giving us a taste of the real world. And all I’m doing is just reminding … that, yeah, there’s challenges, there’s greediness, but there’s also beauty. And there’s joy in all these experiences. And I think that’s what we’re trying to do, is just honor the lives of everyday people, working class people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn any project I work on, the most, like, essential element is fun,\u201d Robinson told NPR<\/a> in 2015. \u201cI really have to enjoy what I’m doing. I really have to sort of give it a spirit of play and enjoyment. And I feel oftentimes books that focus on diversity, there tends to be an element of heaviness, maybe because the history is heavy and serious. But I feel like a part of evolution of telling diverse stories that can reach wider audiences is making sure it’s, like, told in a way that is playful and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for You Matter (Atheneum). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2020 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Feeling priced out of the Bay Area, where Robinson shared a four-bedroom apartment and had a nearby studio, he relocated to Sacramento, California, by 2019, before moving to Oakland in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the summer, my brother and I were overwhelmed with concern for our mother who we hadn\u2019t seen in over two years. Last we\u2019d heard, she was living unhoused on Skid Row in LA,\u201d Robinson posted on Instagram<\/a> in December 2021. \u201cSo we went looking for her, and after hanging posters and speaking with folks, we found her in a few hours. I know I\u2019m not alone in loving someone who struggles with addiction and mental health. It\u2019s beginning to occur to me that a lot of what drives me might be connected to the powerlessness I feel towards helping my mother. I can\u2019t help but wonder how things would be different for my mother today if as a child she saw more images that made her feel seen and read enough stories that made her feel understood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson affirms in his 2020 book \u201cYou Matter\u201d: \u201cSometimes you feel lost and alone. But you matter.\u201d It feels like it could be a message to his mother. It feels like a message back through time to his young self. It feels like the message he wants the Carmelas and Milos, all the children growing up in difficult situations, to hear\u2014and find hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2023 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Page
Page from “Last Stop on Market Street” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Studies
Studies for “Last Stop on Market Street” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pages
Pages from “Last Stop on Market Street” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fogliano (Roaring Brook Press). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2019 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for Another (Atheneum). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2019 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for When’s My Birthday? by Julie Fogliano (Roaring Brook Press). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2017 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pages
Pages from “Rain” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sketches
Sketches for “Rain” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A page from “Rain” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant (Schwartz & Wade). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2016 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown (HarperCollins). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2016 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for Leo, a Ghost Story by Mac Barnett (Chronicle). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2015 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Drawing
Drawing for “Leo: A Ghost Story” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Detail
Detail of page from “Just in Case You Want to Fly” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Page
Page from “Another” in the exhibition “What Might You Do? Christian Robinson” at the Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christian
Christian Robinson, Illustration for School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex (Roaring Brook Press). Collection of the artist. \u00a9 2016 Christian Robinson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s important for me to tell stories that reflect the diverse world that we live in,\u201d picture book illustrator and author Christian Robinson said in a 2016 video for PBS NewsHour. \u201cChildren need to see themselves in books, they need to see their gender, they need to see their color, hair texture, their disability, themselves. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107],"tags":[211,1018,635],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22778"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22822,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22778\/revisions\/22822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}