A selection of the Junior Literary Guild.
Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an influential and award-winning sculptor, a beloved figure in the Bay Area art world, and a devoted activist who advocated tirelessly for arts education. This lushly illustrated book by collage artist Andrea D'Aquino brings Asawa's creative journey to life, detailing the influence of her childhood in a farming family, and her education at Black Mountain College where she pursued an experimental course of education with leading avant-garde artists and thinkers such as Anni and Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, and Robert Rauschenberg.
"Charcoal-and-colored-pencil drawings combine with hand-painted and monoprinted paper in a striking collage representation of Asawa's work. D'Aquino provides close-ups of the snail and dragonfly, a landscape layout of basket craftsmen, and a geometric kaleidoscope of squares layered upon squares, offering a variety of perspectives and media. An author's note explains her inspiration for the book and offers sobering facts about the Asawa family's internment in various camps. Additional resources enable young artists to discover this artist's work for themselves and offer step-by-step instructions to create a folded paper dragonfly. This distinctive biography brims with artistic vision as it informs about a signature sculptor."
- Kirkus Reviews