In Pesare’s art, there are many drawings with the Crescent and the stars.
In Daddy, Bring me the Moon, a little girl’s father climbs up a stair to reach for the Moon and give it to her little girl. The artist chooses such a nice way to say that the little girl’s father fulfills her all wishes!
In other works in which there are stars, we can see characters sitting on a crescent, posh gentleman clinging to The Moon or a starry night in the shape of a cat . A young girl in my class wants to know why is the artist drawing the stars and The Moon that often.
In other drawings we can see a lot of people and animals that are sleeping. I show the kids the cat, the sheep and the lion that sleep and I also show them the shape of the lion’s dreams( that of sheep). A boy is amazed to see that the lion dreams cloudy sheep as he thought lions dream about human meat.
On another slide one can see characters that are flying up away. Some of them have a book in their hand. S. believes that the message the artist conveys in these works is that when you read a book you cannot stop, while V. believes that the characters read fairy tales about people who can fly. V. has another interpretation about these works as well, that reading makes people fly. As I already know, V. genuinely feels the enjoyment, engagement and freedom released by reading as he is one of the few children with an inner motivation to read.
I also speak with the kids about some recurrent objects from Pesare’ s art, like the ladder used by his characters to reach the sky, or the umbrella that has several uses in his work: it not only protects from rain, but it can also help the characters fly or it helps flowers to grow.
In another slide one can see some arts like painting, music or poetry. The last one is suggested by the illustration When she writes her poems, accompanied by Pesare’s poem:
It always snows
when she writes her poems.
And so the town’s people cried:
Why? Why must she write
such snowy lines?
Can’t she see
that we will freeze? And why
can’t she write about the sun and the birds
and a warm summer breeze?
Or why won’t she stop
writing all together?
She should think about others
who don’t like this kind of weather.
She should, but she won’t,
and it always snows
when she writes her poems…
In his turn, S. speaks about the feminine character in a very poetical manner and calls her Lady-Cloud.
I end this activity asking the children: in which of the illustration they looked at today they wanted to live and what characters they wanted to live as? Here are their answers:
I would like to live in the image showing a boy who rides a puppy and fights a dragon. (Ș)
I would like to live in the image showing the girl who has butterflies in her hair.(D)
I would like to live in the image showing the man playing the violin.(Ș)
I would like to be the dreaming lion because I like lions, especially that adorable one. I would also like to enter the granny’s world from Knitter because I wish it was snowing in Romania as well. (S.)
I would like to live in the painting showing the lady with the houses because there it snows very often. I would like to be the boy that flies with the book in his hands. (V.)
I would like to live in the image showing the giraffe, the monkey, the elephant because I love animals and I like to look after them. (F.)
I wonder what will the artist say about the kids’ answers as I plan on translating this article into English and sending it to him.
I give my special thanks to my friend Maria-Nicoleta who helped me correcting the mistakes of this text.
♥
Mr Pete Revonkorpi was very kind to answer the question a young girl in my class asked about his art. Here is his answer:
Why I draw stars so much? Well, whatever I draw I always feel like I’ve been there. That’s one of the most important reasons why I draw anything, that while I draw I get to visit that world that I’m drawing. The real world disappears, and only the drawing exists. And so, when I’m drawing the stars I get to visit the stars. I get to fly around in space like an astronaut! That was always one of my dreams when I was a little boy, and this is the closest I can get to the real thing. And in some ways it is even better than the real thing, because by drawing I can go anywhere. I can visit any star I want. I can live in any world I want.
In addition, the artist has a message for the children from my class: you can tell the kids I liked reading their thoughts a lot. 🙂
Thank you, Mr Pete Revonkorpi for your kindness!
clipe de reverie 