Uniting Words and Images: The Artist as Author
 
William Parks
Daggett Middle School, Fort Worth, Texas
North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts
Transforming Education through the Arts Challenge
Grade Level: Six
 
Rational and Overview
 
Words and images are two fundamental means of human communication and expression. Each makes a powerful statement about life regardless of culture or language or location. Uniting words and images in a book usually delivers the shared vision of two people: the author and the illustrator. This can easily be seen in many children's picture books. Authors of such books communicate engaging stories for young people by way of brief sentences and simple story lines while the underlying ideas are expanded and enhanced by the images developed and added by an artist or illustrator.
 
Yet when the same person is both artist and author of a book, exciting opportunities are afforded to more meaningfully communicate one individual's dual vision. Many individuals have served as both author and artist for the same books and we will explore three from different cultures through this unit. They include Chris Van Allsburg, Faith Ringgold, and Carmen Lomas Garza. Each began as a fine artist before becoming an author through books that combined their words and pictures. They were also chosen for the unit because both reproductions and books are available on all three.  The suggested grade level for this unit is grade six but the materials can be adapted by the teacher for other levels as desired.
 
Enduring Idea: The need to communicate stories is common to the human experience.
 
Enduring Idea about Art: Artists who are also authors can communicate their stories, perhaps more meaningfully, with both pictures and words.
 
Key Question
 
·         How do words and images communicate an artist/authors dual vision?