Award-winning author, illustrator and filmmaker Vashti Harrison recently visited Todd Elementary School, and used her art and storytelling to convey a message of self-acceptance, self-love and the power of words.
Harrison met with kindergartners and first graders and began her presentation by sharing a photo of herself as a young girl doing what she loved best: drawing.
“I love mixing stories together with pictures,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a movie, sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s a project that’s just for myself. I love being able to explore things through my art, and more than anything, I love to make my art feel like it can pull you into a book and take you on an adventure.”
She shared a video of her drawing process.
“I’m not worried about being perfect,” she said. “My art truly is just about being able to express something. I think that what’s special about art is that we can communicate a feeling through it. If you look closer, the character doesn’t have a nose or fingers, but the feeling is still there, and I think that that’s what’s so powerful.
“Sometimes I don’t have the words to express what I’m feeling, but through art, I can bring people into some of those feelings on the page and other people can experience and feel them, too.”
She read aloud her picture book, “Big,” which has won the Caldecott Medal. It is a story about a young girl’s journey to self-love that focuses on the emotional impact of anti-fat bias.
“Sometimes emotions can be so big we don’t know what to do with them,” she said to the students. “In this book, the character goes through some intense emotions, and I wanted to be able to show how she deals with them.”
She discussed how she creates sketches for her books and did a drawing demonstration for the students.
“There’s no one right way or wrong way to draw,” she said. “It’s just about practicing and figuring out what you like.
“Ultimately, the message from ‘Big’ is about not letting people define you,” she said after the presentation. “You get to decide who you are, and that may change; you’re allowed to grow and change, and you deserve love, peace and joy, but sometimes pressures from adults will get in the way of that. I hope that what adults can take away from this book is that we should be thoughtful about the language that we use around children, and give them the space to grow and change and be free for as long as they need to be.”
