A Fine Artist's Caldecott Acceptance Speech

From the Shelf Awareness newsletter, here's this beautiful meditation on an artist, a prize, and the nature of creativity. Be sure to visit Beth Kromme's website for interesting insight on painting, etching, and the life of an artist.

A Fine Artist's Caldecott Acceptance Speech

Beth Krommes took the podium

At the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers last week

Dressed elegantly in black with a gold necklace and earrings.

She seemed to embody the artwork

For the book that earned her the Caldecott Medal,

The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson:

Classical, radiant, deceptively simple,

Predominantly black and white, with just a touch of gold

Where it counts.

Monday, January 26, 2009, was a teacher workshop day,

Krommes recalled.

Her two daughters were home from school,

And the artist was "terribly aware it was 'Caldecott day.'

"At 9:20 a.m. the phone rang.

A woman named Nell Coburn was on the line.

Thinking Coburn was a potential client, Krommes began to take notes.

For this is what Krommes has done for 20 years

As a fine artist selling unique wood engravings.

Only for the last decade has she illustrated children's books,

Switching to scratchboard because it achieved similar results

But was more efficient timewise.

It took Krommes six months to plan the art

For The House in the Night,

And at least another six to create the final artwork.

She did not mention on this night of celebration

That, after House, there were no more manuscripts for a full year (Shelf Awareness, February 3, 2009).

Beth Krommes deliberated about leaving children's books

And returning exclusively to the world of fine art.

But she'd fallen in love with the books

She'd discovered with her daughters:

Madeline; Millions of Cats; Bedtime for Frances;

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile; Miss Rumphius; Owl Moon;"

Absolutely everything by James Marshall" but especially

The Stupids and George and Martha;Max Velthuijs's Frog books;

For bedtime--And if the Moon Could TalkAnd Goodnight Moon.

That call from Nell Coburn, chair of the 2009 Caldecott Committee,

Was just the affirmation she needed.

In her illustrations for The House in the Night,

Beth Krommes said she included many of her favorite things:

A shell mobile she and her daughters had made

On vacation at the Jersey Shore,

Scamp, her childhood dog,

The rolling hills of her native Pennsylvania,

Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night,

Wanda Gág's Tumble Timbers,

And a tip of the hat to Seuss's Cat

With the mother's foot visible in the door

Of the young heroine's bedroom.

Twice in the months since she won the Caldecott,

Krommes found life imitating art.

Once was on her way home from taping the Today Show.

As she looked out the window of her airplane,

The sky changed from radiant twilight colors to black.

Tiny windows lit up in tiny houses across the land,

Much like that stunning sky filled with stars in The House in the Night.

And again when, for nine days in her hometown

Of Peterborough, N.H., she and her neighbors were without power.

Krommes went to gather more wood to keep the house warm

And when she looked up into the night sky,

With candles lit in her neighbors' windows,

There it was again: the heavens of The House in the Night.

If you walked out of the Sheraton and across the Chicago River,

Less than a mile north,

You'd come to the Art Institute of Chicago.

If you walked down one flight of stairs,

The first piece of art on the wall facing you,

Is the starry sky of The House in the Night."

Photocopy of scratchboard, with watercolor on paper," the caption reads.

Beth Krommes is a fine artist and a children's book illustrator.

She is one and the same.--Jennifer M. Brown