| Woman
Illustrates Children's Books |
By Jackie Allder
Observer Staff Writer |
| Her illustrations decorate the pages of over a dozen children's
books. Vibrant images of little girls and boys so real that
readers sometimes reach down to touch them, to feel their
silky hair, their woven garments, their buttery skin. |
| Like a camera, Adjoa Burrowes, a Herndon resident, captures
the words of other people's stories, and sometimes her own,
and brings them to life through an unusual technique: cut-paper
collages. |
| "I've been able to maintain this child's perspective,"
the mother of three said of her illustrations and books. Burrowes
has written three children's stories, "Grandma's Purple
Flowers," "Everybody Wears Braids," and "Go
Go Gumbo," all of which she illustrated with cut-paper
collages. |
| Burrowes's collages begin as outlines traced on a piece
of paper, a hard copy of how she imagines a page will look.
She then paints other pieces of paper in varying colors and
designs, which she later cuts out and afixes to the outline
to create a three-dimensional picture. |
| The process seems simple, but it requires the precision
of cutting minuscule pieces. This is a time consuming procedure,
especially for Burrowes who also holds a full-time job as
a graphic designer. A two-page spread, Burrowes said, can
take anywhere from eight to 24 hours to finish. |
| "You have to stay true to the words," Burrowes
said, describing a task that sometimes involves creating complex
scenes with numerous characters to simple designs showing
the weather. |
| When she received an assignment for "America: My Land,
Your Land, Our Land," she had only four words to guide
her illustrations: "rough land" and "smooth
land." |
| But Burrowes, who attended a high school for the arts in
Chicago, said she prefers having fewer words to illustrate
as it allows her more creative leeway. The chill of her hometown
Chicago influenced her work in that book, where the rugged,
crinkly texture of rock evoked the image of "rough land"
and the glistening delicacy of a lake frozen over brought
to life the phrase, " smooth land." |
| Her technique has advanced through the year, moving from
simple construction-paper collages to the hand-painted designs
she now creates. The transition came as a result of Burrowes's
desire for more vibrantly colored pictures. |
| Wearing blue as bright as a summer's sky and a smile just
the same, she proclaimed visually and vocally her love of
color. "I live in color; I live for color," she
said with a child-like enthusiasm perfect for an author and
illustrator of children's books. |
| She used to make her characters by layering their facial
features, attaching red-paper lips and multicolor eyes to
the flesh-toned face. As her designs have progressed, she
started painting the faces of the characters, combining the
cut-paper technique and classic painting. |
| "I'm really a painter at heart," said Burrowes,
a graduate of Howard University's fine arts program. In her
most recent work, "Destiny's Gift," which will be
released in October, Burrowes painted the faces of the characters,
further blending her love of painting and her talent for cut-paper
collages. |
| She even created dimensionality in the pictures, similar
to the cut-paper technique, by manipulating the texture and
appearance of the paint by pressing plastic wrap against the
thick paints or by running a comb through them. |
| She said she has seen her style evolve through her art.
|
| And that evolution is one she hopes to continue, perhaps
one day being able to work full-time as an author and illustrator.
|
| Burrowes's books are available at most major bookstores
and online at Amazon.com. Call 703-923-3913 or e-mail Adjoa4art@aol.com. |
| She will hold a workshop on entering the field of children's
literature at the Anacostia Museum in Washington, D.C., on
Saturday, Sept. 25, at 11 a.m. For reservations, call Joanna
Banks at 202-610-3292. |
