Author: The Weirder the Pictures, the Better

He takes an image as simple, or as complex, as a pepper falling from the sky, and turns it into a story about a girl whose school project was to plant seeds.

And for that story, and many more, former Bridgewater resident Davis Wiesner is a five-time Caldecott winner with three first place awards and two second place awards, and many picture books under his belt.

“I have always been drawing pictures,” said Wiesner, who spoke to students at Friday as part of a once-a-year author program. “I realized I like to tell stories with pictures, and I found myself making narratives.”

Wiesner spoke to students of all grades at the school Friday, discussing the process he goes through when creating a story, and reading through his story, “Art & Max,” about two artists—one seasoned and one who has just picked up a paintbrush—with one going through a reinvention through color and creation.

“I did watercolor during my senior year in college,” said Wiesner, who graduated with a degree in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. “And I began to do it exclusively because I loved it.”

But that wasn’t the only medium he loved, Wiesner said, and that change in forms of drawing was the basis for “Art & Max,” in which “Art” is changed through the shift in the uses of different mediums, from pastels to watercolors and line drawings.

“I liked the idea of the layers of mediums,” he said, adding that that idea helped when he began to develop the actual story. “I thought, ‘hey maybe the paint could be in the story, and that could be the catalyst for the change.’”

Wiesner said it is these ideas and “weird” pictures that drive his work.

“My drawings got weirder as I got older, which for me meant they were more interesting,” he said.

“I drew a big pepper in the sky once because I thought it was interesting,” he added of another book he wrote called “June 29, 1999.” “I thought that maybe something went up in the sky first. Like a girl sends the seeds up in the air, and they make peppers that rain down.”

From the time he was young, Wiesner said, he had received hand-me-down art supplies from his siblings, and began working on his craft. He showed several of his drawings from when he was a child to the laughter of the students.

“In third grade, a teacher told my parents that I would rather be drawing than doing work,” he said, adding that he was once a student at .

Over the years, as he has learned more about art Wiesner said, he has begun to take influences from painters and illustrators he admires, like Salvador Dali and Jackson Pollack. And those works, he said, become inspirations for segments of his own pieces.

“I really like Salvador Dali because he used far horizon lines and big skies,” he said. “His stuff was weird, and that was OK in my book.”

From the first page, Wiesner said, he tries to get readers to understand the characters, and he does that with as few words as possible.

“Sometimes I have an idea that suggests a story, and then I figure out the setting,” he said in a separate interview. “But the less text the better. I try to say as much as I can with the pictures.”

Wiesner said his first book was published in 1988, and it often takes about three years to do just one. He said he has published eight books thus far, and is currently working on a longer graphic novel.

“There’s a lot of work involved, but I enjoy it so I don’t think of it as work,” he said.

In a separate interview, Wiesner said he has been doing presentation at libraries and bookstores, but the school visits are fairly new. He said he was approached by the Bridgewater schools several years ago, but he hadn’t done any at that point.

“Now I do these kinds of presentations, and it is really fun to be able to come back here to Bridgewater,” he said.

Wiesner, who now lives in Pennsylvania, said an art teacher from was one of his biggest supporters when he was working, and it was an important time for him when he first started honing his skills.

“I had a teacher who, when he spotted someone dedicated to art, he gave you the freedom to work on whatever you wanted,” he said. “It was really wonderful preparation.”

And Wiesner said he uses that freedom he had then, and what he has now, to get his inspiration from anything.

“I have self-motivation to come with ideas and I motivate myself,” he said. “A mix of things develop as I’m drawing. It could be a doodle, and then I draw it and begin to take it and push it around.”

Pat Gray, library and media specialist at Crim Primary School, said she has been working on these author visits for all 12 years she has been working at the school, and they have been going on even longer than that. She said they are held once a year, and the school has been very happy with those who have visited over the years.

But it was especially exciting to have Wiesner there, Gray said.

“He’s a wonderful author to come because he’s a former Bridgewater student,” she said. “We have tried for about five years to have him come.”

Gray said she was taking tennis lessons with Wiesner’s former high school art teacher, so she was able to get in touch with him again.

And to continue celebrating his visit, Gray said, the school held a contest for the first through fourth graders to design their own stories with only pictures and zero text. Once they were done, four non-classroom teachers and principal Marge Kerr judged the pieces, and 12 students were brought together for a special lunch with Wiesner.

“We really believe this is an important part of literacy and understanding,” she said. “We feel they have a connection to the author’s illustrations.”

“And this further connects their understanding of what they can do,” she added. “We want them to enjoy reading, but this is also a writing venue.”

Wiesner said he loves the work he does, and has advice for those looking to break into the tough world of publishing. He said practicing illustration is the biggest step.

“I think it’s about doing it a lot and doing what interests you,” he said. “You can learn to draw and you can refine, but it’s about explaining the ideas.”

“If you can find a place to draw, do it, but you don’t have to show it to anybody,” he added. “It is just exploring, you just have to do it.”