By Richard Lewis
Illustrated by Children from New York City Public Schools
Touchstone Center Publications, 2002
Based on a poem by Richard Lewis and illustrated by twenty-two luminous cray-pas drawings by children from New York City Public Schools, this unique book explores the nature of the imagination through the flight of a bird evolving into the flight of our human imagining. The children’s art work in the book came from a series of arts and education residencies of The Touchstone Center at the Central Park East # 1 and #2, The River East School, and the Children’s Workshop School in 1989 and 1996.
The second in a series of books highlighting texts instrumental in developing the Center’s various thematic residencies in schools, The Bird of Imagining is a book which can be savored and enjoyed by persons of all ages.
42 pages • paperbound • $16.00 • Order Form
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The Bird of Imagining Video
An interpretive video of the book created by Geoffrey Jones. Music by Geoffrey Jones. Narrated by Richard Lewis. Touchstone Center Publications
5 Min, 31 Sec • DVD or VCR • $10.00 • Order Form
A stunningly beautiful book, this selection of drawings by children! Drawings in the form of a bird, the bird of imagining, with an amazing variety of color and form, all inspired by the verses of Richard Lewis. Putting together color and form with such depth of texture gives the sense of primordial immediacy to these drawings. They have an entrancing beauty that comes from some wonder world available only to children. Even for us older folk, these children awaken us to our own singing bird within.
—Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth
…brings fresh ideas and wondrous creative energies to the minds of young and old. The simple yet vivid pictures and the memorable verse make The Bird of Imagining a unique collection of young people’s talents.
—Reviewer’s Choice, Midwest Book Review
…drawings whose neon vibrancy makes the birds fairly fly off their black backgrounds. A mesmerizing book…
—Audubon Magazine
Lewis’ words have inspired the images, and the images, as if in gratitude, give further lift to the author’s words….Living, and growing, and an implicit sense of understanding, are three qualities communicated clearly in the pages of The Bird of Imagining. All the birds are fantastic, unlike anything in ornithology, but in their own way, each is realer than real. The 7 x 10-inch book is as intimate as a sketchbook; and as any artist would declare, a sketchbook, like a diary, contains the most personal of all impressions. The images here don’t illustrate Lewis’ text, but more importantly, express their own genuine reactions to it.
—Big Apple Parent, March 2003
The Bird of Imagining