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Online Gallery features:

Esther Baran
January 2007
Esther Baran's illustration

Esther Baran

North / Central

My interest in art has stemmed from early childhood, inspired especially by reading. This has continued to be one of my primary sources for images, from early fairy stories to folk tales from a variety of cultures. While Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen were my original bed time stories, I later discovered the tales of Russian collectors like Afanasyev and Norwegians Jorgen Moe and Peter Asbjornsen. Many other stories have been passed down and changed from culture to culture. My favorite is the Icelandic story of a young girl whose adventures are much like those of Cinderella, but in this version she rejects the prince as being too superficial, having only noticed her in her finery and gold slippers.

In most of the cultures I have explored, animals play central roles in the stories. Some cultures have animals representing deities, and in some they are comical characters whose behavior mimics humans. Some of the Native American tales use ravens, coyotes, or turtles to explain the origins of the world. Some African cultures have the spider, Ananzi, outwitting Tortoise, or the reverse. The possibilities for imagery are endless.

I am currently doing more watercolors, though my illustrations so far have been in color etchings. I mainly do folktale imagery for educational textbooks.

Esther's Artists Rep. site: www.kirchoffwohlberg-artistrep.com
Esther's website:

Artist of the month featured here! See and be seen! Members Share illustrations in the SCBWI NorCa online gallery. We're interested in showcasing our members' artwork, both published and unpublished. To submit artwork to be considerd for this page please e-mail your regional advisor.

Archive: Previous artists presented in this Online Gallery

Nancy Barnett North/Central April 2003
Carol Benioff East Bay May 2003
Cindy Ann Ganaden South San Francisco June2003
Deborah Nourse Lattimore North/Central July 2003
Sara Iravani Kahn South San Francisco September 2003
Elisa Kleven North/Central October 2003
Jan Adkins North/Central November 2003
Joy Allen North/Central December 2003
Yuyi Morales East Bay January 2004
Liz Cunningham East Bay February 2004
Brooke Scudder South San Francisco March 2004
Paula Pertile South San Francisco April 2004
South San Francisco May 2004
South San Francisco July 2004
Kris Aro McLeod North/Central August 2004
Sherry Rogers North/Central September 2004
Barbara Pollak East Bay October 2004
Kirsten Carlson North/Central November 2004
Jeff Jackson South San Francisco December 2004
Elly Simmons North/Central January 2005
Bob Barner South San Francisco February 2005
Lea Lyon East Bay March 2005
Lin Wang South San Francisco April 2005
Kieren Dutcher East Bay May 2005
Karen Stanton South San Francisco June 2005
Connie McLennan North/Central July 2005
Liz Amini Holmes South San Francisco August 2005
Diana Thewlis North/Central September 2005
Doug Cushman North/Central October 2005
Susan B Katz South San Francisco November 2005
Jim Averbeck South San Francisco December 2005
Gianna Marino South San Francisco January 2006
Diane Perruzzi South San Francisco February 2006
Laurie Wigham North/Central March 2006
Edna Cabcabin Moran South San Francisco April 2006

Susan Michalski

South San Francisco May 2006

Shari Warren

South San Francisco June 2006
Renate Lohmann East Bay July 2006
Erin O'Toole East Bay August 2006
Maria van Lieshout San Francisco September 2006
Anne Hilow North/Central October 2006

 

 
 

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