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ARTS & CULTURE | KANSAN.COM
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015
44
9B
MADISQUILLE/KANSA
Lindsey Yankey, an author and illustrator from Lawrence, made the 2015 Kansas Notable Books List for her children's book "Bluebird." The book tells the story of a bluebird attempting to fly for the first time without the wind.
Author and illustrator lands on Kansas Notable Books list
MADI SCHULZ
@Mad_Dawgg
Growing up in Leon in a creative family — both her brother and sister went to art school, her father is a ceramicist and draws and her mother often wove baskets — Lindsey Yankey, an author and illustrator from Lawrence, spent her time playing outside, painting and playing sports.
"It was a solid background for kind of establishing that love of creating and making," Yankey said.
That love for creating paid off; this year, Yankey, a 2009 graduate, landed on the Kansas Notable Books list with her children's book "Bluebird."
"Bluebird" follows a small bird as she attempts to fly for the first time without the wind. The little bluebird sets out to find the wind and also finds her confidence along the way.
When she was younger, Yankey loved children's books but always gravitated to a particular illustration style, namely the work of the American author Jan Brett, which Yankey said featured a main illustration but had a "more than meets the eye" style in the details around the border of the page.
"I had an affinity for the books that had lots and lots of detail and the ones where you can keep findings every time you read it," she said.
Yankey's creative interest waned as a teenager, when she participated in sports.
"Our school didn't really have an art program and so I kind of checked out for a while, but when I got to KU I started to show more interest," Yankee said. "Underlying was a lot of want to keep making things."
Yankey began school at Hutchinson Community College on a softball scholarship. She transferred to the University in her second year after she began to feel "antsy with a desire for something more."
While initially interested in elementary education, Yankey switched to art education, where she found herself in the studio as a part of the requirement for the major. With story ideas already in mind, she knew she wanted to make books and switched her major to illustration.
The idea for her first children's book, "Sun and Moon," came about in a simple way.
"I was walking home from class one day and thought, 'Wow, this is such a beautiful day.' It was springtime and beautiful and I thought, 'The sun gets to see everything cool! Then I was thinking, 'The moon's missing out,' she said.
"Bluebird,"her second book and the one on the Kansas Notable Books List, came from a simple, one-line idea about a bird missing the wind.
"I had an affinity for the books that had lots and lots of detail and the ones where you can keep finding details every time you read it."
LINDSEY YANKEY
Author and illustrator
"I was thinking about a bird looking for the wind; well, then you have questions," Yankey said. "Why is she looking for the wind? Where would she look for the wind? What is the wind and the bird's relationship? How do they know each other? How did that even start?"
focuses on doing something for the first time without a friend or someone you depend on, Yankey said.
After college, Yankey traveled to England for a few months and started working on posters for an art collaborative group. When the group started putting her work in its mailing list, she got in touch with the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris and began making bags, posters and signs for the store.
In 2014 she traveled to the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy to try to find publishers for her books. She found one in Simply Read Books, which published "Sun and Moon" and "Bluebird."
"She plans her books out quite carefully and has great attention to detail." Mitchell Cranfield said. "Working with her gave me a lot of insight into how illustrators experience working with a graphic designer, and I brought some of that experience into my teaching."
Through Simply Read Books, Yankey worked closely with Robin Mitchell Cranfield, principal of Hundreds and Thousands Book Design and Illustrations, as well as a visiting professor in the publishing department at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
After the books were published in 2014, Yankey participated in library and bookstore readings and received positive feedback from her audience.
“It’s exciting. I got recognized by two little kids on the street,” she said. “I had a reading at the Raven [Book Store] a couple weeks ago. It had just happened so I think it was really fresh on their minds.”
Yankey also makes cards and prints in Lawrence, which are sold at Au Marché, a European foods and gifts store on Massachusetts Street, and Essential Goods, which sells prints,
cards and other gifts but focuses on local artists.
"We first saw Lindsey's work at WheatFields [Bakery] and immediately knew she was really talented," said Molly Crook, the owner of Essential Goods. "I got in touch with her and we kind of went back and forth and now she sells her cards in the store."
For Yankey, the cards are little ways to experiment with her designs. Although her go to is oil paint, she often experiments in different mediums for her cards and prints.
Last fall, Yankey glued leaves onto paper, and she said they eventually formed into characters, which she made into a print. For another print that appears in "Sun and Moont" she made intricate slices in linoleum to make a stamp of fireworks to illustrate a page.
"I think that a lot of my style comes from keeping my options open with materials" she said. "That's something that really helps free me up to illustrate however [the piece] would be the best illustrated."
Throughout her life, Yankey said she had always been a creative person, an artist. Art matters because it is a part of what "makes us human," she said.
Yankey has two stories in the works. This summer, she read her stories for an audience at the Lawrence Public Library and the Toy Store.
— Edited by Emma LeGault
“[Art] is our celebration, our filter, our vent, our questioning, our understanding, our exploration, our play.” Yankey said. “Everyone is born creative and continuing to encourage creativity throughout our lives is enriching for everyone.”
August shows to see for under $10
Varma Cross with Red Francis and Narkalark
When: Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 10 p.m.
Price: $3(21+)
The established groups Varma Cross and Narkalark will team up with the band Red Francis, based in Chicago, for a Wednesday at Replay. Signed to Wet Lettuce Records, Red Francis has been on a month-long North American tour that will conclude at the end of August.
Where: The Bottleneck
Tyler Gregory with Rolling Foliage
When: Friday, Aug. 28 at 9 p.m.
Where: The Bottleneck
Price: $8 (18+)
Kansas-born singer-songwriter Tyler Gregory & The Bootleg Band will return to the Bottleneck on Friday for a performance. Founded in 2010, Tyler Gregory & The Bootleg Band blends country, roots and blues music. Rolling Foliage, featuring the violinist Paul Coleman of The Bootleg Band, will also play.
Field Division with PLAINS
Price: $3(21+)
When: Friday, Aug. 28 at 10 p.m.
Where: Replay Lounge
Hailing from Des Moines, Iowa, and signed to Station 1 Records, Field Division is a folkwave duo of Evelyn Taylor and Nicholas Frampton.
Pink Royal with Not A Planet and La Guerre
Guerre
When: Saturday, Aug. 29 at 9 p.m
Where: The Bottleneck
Price: $6 / $4 with KU ID (All Ages)
Price: $6 / $4 with KU ID (All Ages) The experimental groove-pop group Pink Royal will return to the Bottleneck on Saturday night for this back-to-school show. Pink Royal will be joined by Not A Planet, based in Kansas City, and the Lawrence act Katlyn Conroy, formerly of Cowboy Indian Bear, who performs under the moniker La Guerre.
Russian Girlfriends with Four Arm Shiver and The Hemorrhoids When: Monday, Aug. 31 at 9 p.m. Where: Jackpot Music Hall Price: $7 / $5 if 21+ Fellow Lawrence punk bands Four Arm Shiver and The Hemorrhoids — dubbed "The Best Worst Band in Kansas" — will be joined by the five-piece band Russian Girlfriends, based in Albuquerque, at Jackpot. Russian Girlfriends describes itself as "aggressive adult contemporary."
Harrison Hipp
University selects "A Farewell to Arms" as 2015 Common Book
A University committee
A university committee made up of faculty, staff and students selected "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway as this year's Common Book.
Each year, the University gives incoming students a book at orientation to spur discussion, critical thought and reflection, according to the Office of First-Year Experience website.
The University hosts forums and activities throughout the year for students, staff and faculty
to discuss the Common Book.
Facts about the author: Hemingway won a Pulitzer prize for his short story "The Old Man and the Sea." Before that, he worked as a reporter for The Kansas City Star after he graduated from high school and later wrote a series of short stories that launched his career. He also lived in Paris with an expatriate group of artists and writers, according to Biography.com.
Notable quote: "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."
-Vicky Diaz-Camacho
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