Sgouros's and Macaulay's artistic influences were vital to Wiesner's development into the acclaimed picture-book author he is today.ĭavid Wiesner has illustrated more than twenty award-winning books for young readers. These two men not only taught Wiesner the fundamentals of drawing and painting but also fostered his imaginative spirit and helped him comprehend the world around him. There he met two people who would figure prominently in his life: Tom Sgouros, to whom Tuesday is dedicated, and David Macaulay, to whom The Three Pigs is dedicated. His books somehow convey the sequence of thoughts leading up to and following each picture, and that quality explain why they are frequently described as cinematic.Īt the Rhode Island School of Design, Wiesner was able to commit himself to the full-time study of art and to explore further his passion for wordless storytelling. Wiesner has always been intrigued by and curious about what comes before and after the captured image. As he got older, he would sit, inspired by these masters, at the oak drafting table his father had found for him and would construct new worlds on paper and create wordless comic books, such as Slop the Wonder Pig, and silent movies, like his kung fu vampire film The Saga of Butchula. In time, the young Wiesner began exploring the history of art, delving into the Renaissance at first - Michelangelo, Dürer, and da Vinci - then moving on to such surrealists as Magritte, de Chirico, and Dalí. The images before him generated a love of detail, an admiration for the creative process, and a curiosity about the hand behind the drawings.

When the everyday play stopped, he would follow his imaginary playmates into the pages of books, wandering among dinosaurs in the World Book Encyclopedia. His home and his neighborhood became anything from a faraway planet to a prehistoric jungle. Perhaps it was this decor which awakened his creativity and gave it the dreamlike, imaginative quality so often found in his work.Īs a child growing up in suburban New Jersey, Wiesner re-created his world daily in his imagination. During David Wiesner's formative years, the last images he saw before closing his eyes at night were the books, rockets, elephant heads, clocks, and magnifying glasses that decorated the wallpaper of his room.

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