Report from Philippa Werry:
The mouth of the whale (the power of pictures)
Gavin Bishop is the 2013-2014 President
of Honour of the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA). On Monday 10 March, he
delivered the annual Janet Frame Memorial Lecture, a literary “state of the nation” address. This year, for the
first time, the Janet Frame Memorial Lecture was included as part of the
Writers Week programme, which also featured some wonderful talks and workshops
with children’s and young adult writers, illustrators and designers such as
Jack Lasenby, Ulf Stark, Leo Timmers, Elizabeth Knox and Aleksandra and Daniel
Mizielinsky.
Gavin’s talk was
entertaining, evocative and provocative, right from the beginning when he
commented that his appointment as NZSA President of Honour was “daringly different” because writers for
children aren’t always taken as seriously as others in the literary world. He spoke in praise of picture books, but was
clear about the challenges faced by those who write and illustrate them.
Many people think they know
what a picture book is, but opinions vary widely. To Gavin, a picture book is
like a little movie with a storyboard structure that moves through time (as a
movie does) and uses text as a movie uses dialogue. He traces his lifelong love
of movies back to the time when his parents took him, aged four, to see Pinocchio at the Picture Palace in
Invercargill. One image from that movie - the gigantic open mouth of the whale -
lodged in his mind and he has never forgotten it. The whale’s open mouth became
a touchstone in his life, a reminder of the power of a picture to stay with
children forever.
Gavin holds firm views about
picture books, in terms of both content and publication. His own pictures have
to “work hard”; they should provide “fresh new ways of seeing the ordinary” and
the finished book should be “a delight to the senses.” He believes that the
best picture books are produced by one person, and decries poor production
values that leave many books looking like “shadows of their potential selves”. Even
if children are amused by bodily functions and catchy tunes, he queries the
need to preserve such topics in print.
Picture book illustrators
face particular challenges. Their work is often viewed as being of lesser
importance. Illustrators are commonly given second billing and are not
mentioned at all in the weekly best seller lists. The royalty split between
author and illustrator is usually 50:50, which Gavin feels doesn’t reflect the
hard work put in by the illustrator. Up until 2004, books of fewer than 48
pages (ie most picture books) didn’t meet the criteria for the Public Lending
Right. Picture book writers are seldom successful in obtaining Creative NZ
funding, applying for residencies or winning major literary awards.
But there are signs of a
more hopeful future. Today’s picture book illustrators are producing some amazing
work, and there is more support available in the form of tuition and awards, including
the LIANZA Russell Clark Illustration Award, the Mallinson Rendel Illustration Award
and the Storylines Joy Cowley Award and Gavin Bishop Award. Gavin’s ending was
hopeful and optimistic: “I can see the sky above picture book land full of
fireworks and sky rockets… The Mouth of the Whale forever open to astonishment
and delight.”
Question time afterwards
gave the audience some sense of Gavin’s generosity in mentoring and sharing his
experience, as he offered advice and explained some of his working methods.
There was more discussion
about the idea of a Children’s Laureate, who could who not only raise the
profile of children’s writing and illustrating but also focus on literacy
issues and the importance of reading. Gavin said that there was a lot of
support for the idea here and all that was needed was money. The Children’s
Laureateship in Australia only began a few years ago but already much has been
achieved there (see http://www.childrenslaureate.org.au/) and other countries such as England and Ireland also
have a high-profile Children’s Laureate.
You can see Gavin Bishop’s wonderful
website here: http://www.gavinbishop.com/
You can also hear several interviews with
him on Radio New Zealand, including You Call This Art? - Part 6: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/youcallthisart
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