Two BIG houses at play

A BIG city stretched and grown across long distance and 
late night magazine making. 

A bridge between two houses, two worlds. 

 

(Not a tug of war)

We are now in the final few weeks of design for the third edition...Game On! 

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TODAY :)

By Lilly Blue and Jo Pollitt (copyright 2012)

SIDE BY SIDE: fotoplay

{cat bodies completed by 7 and 8 year olds}

 

Marcie Jan Bronstein is an artist, a teacher, and the very proud mom of an 18 year old jazz musician. She has long been fascinated with children's drawings, and has featured their work in a number of large scale commissions and projects. We love Marcie's 'side by side' inspired work at  inthisplayground.com, particularly her fabulous fotoplay project (soon to be published as a first of its kind book) which uses the photographic image as a prompt, and as an invitation for collaboration. Ohhhh those cats!

"I've found that a photographic prompt (in comparison to a hand drawn "doodle" prompt) elicits a unique response, in that it allows a young (or not so young) artist to move between two realms, in two mediums. The resulting images are magical, mysterious, not ever predictable, and always delightful". 

{elephant conversation completed by an 8 year old}

{complete the elephant's body by a five year old}

Here are Marcie's wordless responses to our questions of Bravery, Imagination and Generosity (we can't wait to see her contribution to our Treasure Maps edition!):

 

Bravery

Imagination

Generosity

A Mama Inspired by the B.I.G Artcard project

A mother sits with her four children as they pour over the BIG pages.
Inspired, she takes to creating something in response herself. 

Bravery is to take a small step in an unknown direction

Imagination is to let go and let your mind fly

Generosity is to give your heart away

Sydney based Katrin has been a mother for 12 years and with her littlest now at kindy her world shifts in new ways. Trained as a doctor she has always harboured a desire to be an illustrator. She tentatively hands over her designs in response to the BIG Artcard project and we take our hat off to her and this little mole in all of his bravery, imagination and generosity.

SUBSCRIBE to BIG Kids Magazine and enjoy it side by side with your children!

A beauty of birds in incredible Kindy colour

The kids at Lady Game Kindergarten in Sydney have been responding to the BIG pages in flocks. Here they have collaged photographs of birds onto large pieces of paper and completed the images in crayon and coloured wash with beautiful results. Their class is now in the running for the BIG Giveaway! You have till tomorrow night to email us your creative responses to your favourite BIG pages or upload them to our facebook wall...we know so many kids have been writing/drawing/colouring and creating on the pages - they just need a grown up to take a quick photo and send it in OR comment on facebook or below with a description of your/your child's response. 

Bravery in waiting

"There’s nothing wrong with fear; the only mistake is to let it stop you in your tracks". Twyla Tharp

We are waiting for the magazine. The relief of finally signing off and letting it go quickly replaced by an anxious wait.
Wonderful people are subscribing. The launch date is set. The magazine is printing. But where we imagined we would a little bit breathe again, we are not. The learning curve is steep and relentless still. Paypal. BAS. Banking. Invoicing. Blogging. Selling. Distributing. Communicating. Mistaking. Trusting. Waiting. Worrying. Saving. Lurching. Spending. Editing. Decision-making. Dead-lining. Printing. Designing. Form-ing. Phoning. Issn-ing. Statistic-ing. Prioritising. Platforming. Commenting. Surfing. Waving. Washing. Learning.

Phew.

Lilly and I work like wonders when it is the creative magazine-making at play, but the world AROUND it is invigorating at best and mostly just hard slog. I am literally swaying in my chair and try to spin it around on its BIG axis until it stops again at researching, writing, creating, dancing, dreaming. Breathing.

What has given us space is our foraging toward the next edition, and the creative folk who have been having a party on arrival in our inbox!
We fell instantly in love with Gerry who is the brainchild of author and app-queen, Melissa Northway. Melissa once helped to get a magazine off the ground in Japan and it was great to connect with someone who shared an instant understanding of our journey. Following her success with her first storybook app Penelope the Pirate, Melissa tells us her latest work is a story about overcoming obstacles and demonstrates that if one works hard - good things just might come your way! You can read about Melissa's story of perseverance and her interest in the world of storybook apps here. Gerry the Giraffe is soon to be released and you can follow news re the launch date here. Thanks Melissa!

Sketch of Mama and baby by Jennifer Mercede for Gerry the Giraffe by Melissa Northway  

Sketch Gerry born

He is newborn, a bit shaky on his legs but also strong and ultimately brave.

The Co-authored Land of Grumpilotta and Little Miss Apple Tree

Jo and I create worlds in the space between us, and tend not to work with the traditional collaborative approach of writer and illustrator. Our ideas grow in a co-authored landscape. Jo writes worlds and words for stories I have dreamt forever. She sends ideas for shapes and shades. I paint with her fingers. Our worlds overlap to the point that we cannot remember which, or who, came first. It is a responsive dialogue that finds a different form depending on the demands of each new world we collide in. The Grumpi ladies have an incredible written history but the story does not arrive in a linear frame. I illustrate what resonates and Jo recalibrates her text in the slipstream and viceversa. Though a very specific aspect of the BIG ship, this practice of co-authorship very much informs and continues to drive our bigger working process in many ways. Here, we are working on a series of online and print-based  limited edition artists books of illustrated prose for the grown and the growing: Books that grow.

Text for the grown...

On the day before autumn, Lotta hitched layer coloured skirts and took whisper steps to a new river. To her first born she spoke, "I will find you there under pebbles and ash and pull you out from the other side of the world, earth covered and brave from the journey". The child had been wanting to land for centuries, drawing maps of imaginary treasure to pass the time until her mother was finally ready to catch her. With strings loose all around her that held tight to her thoughts and dreams, she dived into the future and into the arms of Lotta who wept and sighed and sank in awe at her wondrous girlchild.

...and the growing...

The world is a tree

here, come travel with me

and I'll secret a storm in your name.

You're the wondrous one,

your tale's just begun

oh such joy at the world in a day.

May you splash in the puddle

and unmuddle the muddle

to dance in new ways on the map.

We will follow

and fold you

and love you

and hold you,

and catch you whenever you SPLAT!




Images by Lilly, words by Jo. Ideas, content, and response for images and words and the space between them belong to both artists. All rights reserved.