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Interview with Douglas Florian
zoo’s who |
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Biography |
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Douglas Florian is the creator of many award-winning picture books and poetry collections, including omnibeasts;
bow wow meow meow; lizards, frogs, and polliwogs; mammalabilia; and insectlopedia. He lives in New York City. |
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Synopsis |
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Climb on into Douglas Florian's latest poetry compendium, featuring twenty-one original poems and paintings about creatures from across the animal kingdom.
With sleepy sloths and portly pigs, lazy lizards and regal eagles, this creeping, leaping, sweeping collection of zoological delights is certain to have animal enthusiasts everywhere rattling their cages for more.
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Q: Most of your Harcourt poetry books center on animals, including beast feast (1998), mammalabilia (2000), lizards, frogs, and polliwogs (2001), and your newest book, zoo's who (2005). Where did you develop your love of nature?
A: When I was a boy, we kept a large zoo in our backyard. Actually, when I was young, my family would travel to the Museum of Natural History in New York as well as the Bronx Zoo. We had a great many books about the natural world. I also enjoyed watching my father set up an easel and painting in the woods or on a sand dune by the ocean. I acquired a great love of nature from him, as well as an understanding of how artists view and interpret nature.
Q: zoo's who characterizes penguins, pigs, puffins, and other likely creatures. The poems are short and imaginative, and the paintings are original and full of colorful detail. How would you describe your style?
A: With a barrage of collage, I wanted zoo's who to be playful, lush, and imaginative, with details that can be explored. For example, in "The Ladybugs" poem, I string variations of the word lady along the edge of the leaf—señora, señorita, Ms., and madam, to name a few. I wanted the art to have a life of its own in addition to illustrating the poem. I looked at Asian and African art as influences, to give the book a more international look. My slugs climb Mount Fuji. My eagle is a prince of India. My penguin has an Inuit simplicity.
Q: To create your illustrations, you use many different materials: "watercolor, gouache, colored pencils, inks, tin foil, candy wrappers, shredded papers, stencils, rubber stamps, and much collage on primed brown paper bags." When starting a painting, where do you begin?
A: Duluth. No, actually I start a painting with a sketch of an idea. For example, the lines of an old tortoise I drew looked like the lines of an ancient cliff. So I added a boy and a coyote for scale, suns and moons to denote time. I often make the figurative literal. So the eagle, often viewed as regal and majestic, sits atop a seagull, which, in turn, sits on a football. All the various tools helped to enrich the pieces with variety and odd connections. Sharks don't really swallow V-8 engines, palaces, and pliers, but wouldn't it be great if they did?
Q: When you're creatively stumped, what do you do to ignite your imagination?
A: . I eat Chinese food. Actually, I try to keep my eyes open for inspiration all the time. Billboards, graffiti, sidewalk scrawls, advertisements, children's art, outsider art, and primitive art are all sources of inspiration.
Q: You began creating poetry books for Harcourt with Monster Motel, published in 1993. Since then, what have you learned about yourself as a poet and an artist?
A: The most important thing I've learned is both to build upon what I've done and to keep growing and learning. I don't think I could have done zoo's who ten or even five years ago. I've tried to create poems with different rhyme schemes, rhythms, and formats. I've tried to paint pictures with different densities, complexities, and expressive qualities.
Q: Which one of your Harcourt books is your most loved—and why?
A: That's very hard to answer. beast feast was the first book in my animal series, and it got things off to a great start. insectlopedia (1998) was very adventurous for me, and it was a national pestseller—I mean, bestseller. mammalabilia and lizards, frogs, and polliwogs both won awards. But my most recent book, zoo's who, is definitely one of my favorites. It has a variety and richness that I worked hard for.
Q: From your perspective—with more than twelve years of experience in creating picture books—what do children love most about your work?
A: . I think children love the freedom and humor of the work. They like the fact that a poem can have a shape, that I can invent new words, use bad grammar, spell words wrong, and that I can exaggerate. They love that I take poetic license and artistic license. They feel that this gives them license to do creative things.
Q: You and your wife have a full house in New York City—one bustling with five kids. How do you encourage them to be creative?
A: I give them paper, pencils, and paint, and let them do their own thing. I don't push, cajole, or coerce them. You can't make somebody an artist or writer. They have to catch it themselves, like the flu. I can only take them interesting places and encourage them to be observant and open-minded.
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