Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
One of Canada's most pronounced book publishing companies decided to colour outside the lines for their 50th birthday. Their creative surge reached into Prince George for its brightest hue.
The national publishing house Tundra Books was founded in 1967, making it the oldest children's bookbinder in Canada. To celebrate this golden anniversary, parent company Penguin Random House Canada created an award to showcase the unsung talent on Tundra's beloved pages. Authors get their name in lights, but illustrators are usually obscured behind their easels and computer screens.
Canada, meet Madeline Kloepper. She's an award-winning artist from Prince George and she's the first winner of the Tundra Books Emerging Artist of the Year honour.
She won for her work on Little Blue Chair, the charming tale of a small chair as it is passed on from person to person and purpose to purpose through time. It was written by celebrated Toronto author Cary Fagan who also penned such popular titles as Gogol's Coat, The Market Wedding, the Kaspar Snit novels and others.
Kloepper was a rookie in the book publishing realm, but a highly regarded young artist thanks to her high-grade results at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Now she is the toast of the industry.
"Newcomer Madeline Kloepper's detailed illustrations are the perfect accompaniments," said the Globe & Mail in their review of Little Blue Chair.
"Canadian artist Madeline Kloepper beautifully enhances the picture book through her illustrations. The use of soft colours and lines featured in the illustrations on each page perfectly suit the pleasant story," said CM Magazine in their review.
Quill & Quire added, "Madeline Kloepper works in a soothing, mute palette and her tender ink-and-pencil style is part Ruth Krauss and part Julie Morstad, with a vintage tinge. But Kloepper also infuses her style with several modern touches... The result is a very sweet little marriage between old and new, with magic officiating the ceremony."
These accolades spin the mind of the humble artist. The applause of national media was not what she envisioned. She calls the rush of attention "surreal" but appreciates what this means for the place the book will now have in the national consciousness.
"When I first read the manuscript I was so excited, not only because it would be my first picture book but it instantly felt like a classic story," she told The Citizen. "Since the text was understated and sweet, I felt that it would be important to have images to compliment the mood and not overpower the text. I also wanted to keep the colour palette limited, not only because I love doing that, but in reference to mid-century/vintage illustration."
She only met Fagan by introductory email. As is typical in the publishing business, the author and the illustrator rarely cross paths. Fagan gave one instruction as to how the chair, the inanimate protagonist, should look and the rest he entrusted to the professional. Kloepper said she and Tundra's staff were in regular contact over the way the pictures were turning out, but that was a natural part of the process and she enjoyed the experience even before the award was known of.
"We're so delighted to be presenting Madeline with this honour," said Tara Walker, Penguin Random House Canada's vice-president in charge of children's publishing. "We were immediately drawn to the sweet, winsome faces of her characters in Little Blue Chair, full of quiet emotion and subtle expression, and the way she captures intimate everyday scenes and vast landscapes with equal beauty and curiosity. Her art is so assured and has such a classic feel, and she's brought Cary's wonderful story to life in such a sensitive and poignant way that it's remarkable to think this is her very first picture book."
As a prize, the book will receive an enhanced marketing plan, and Kloepper will be presented with a special edition of Little Blue Chair "which I can't wait to see," she said. Walker sent her flowers the day the award winner's name was announced.
It's a lot of attention for someone who recently
moved away from her Lower Mainland home for a quieter life.
"Post graduation, my partner, Ben and I wanted to get out of Vancouver not only for some 'breathing space' but for more affordable living," she said.
"The two of us also wanted to do more remote hikes and you can't get too remote in the Lower Mainland when you see dozens of people on a trail. We decided to come up to his hometown, Prince George, since we'd be able to find work and have the space to explore. Until very recently I've worked a part-time job in addition to being an artist but had I still been living in Vancouver I probably would've had to work full-time and had less time for my art."
She's putting the rebuttal to the cliched argument that professional artist is an oxymoron. Contrary to the stereotype of the artist as starving left-wing flake, she stands for the artist's actual station in life: shrewd entrepreneurs with powerful work ethic and agile minds.
"I think being a professional artist is considered an impossibility because if you get an arts-based education the piece of paper you get at the end of it doesn't guarantee you work. That being said I can work anywhere, in a professional sense, as long as I have internet, a desk and power," she said.
When you take note of all the career momentum she has gathered so far - exhibitions from Dawson City to Los Angeles and half a dozen awards along the way, dating back to 2011 - and it's clear that she and art will be just fine together.
"I've just finished illustrating a children's poetry book for Groundwood Books (coming out in early 2018), a wonderful publishing house based in Toronto, but this time I don't think I will have too much time to breathe in between projects," she explained.
"I have a couple more picture books in the works at the moment, but a quickly approaching project is that Ben Hawkins and I will be having a two-person exhibition at Island Mountain Arts in Wells, titled Unfixed Presences from June 16 to July 9. I'm excited to take a small break from
children's illustration to work in a gallery-based context again. I will also be heading to Dawson City later this summer to participate in an artist residency at the Klondike Institute for Art and Culture's in September.
"For my own artistic practice the holy grail is finding a balance between commercial and personal work so I'm thrilled to be finding opportunities for both," she added.
