°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°

Well, I have an idea for creating the cover art for the first book my daughter and I will be preparing for publication, Story Without Words.  First, I will show you something I just finished and mailed off to one of my gardening sisters that I created using the same media and technique I will use for my cover art:

I have nearly finished a pair of swing dancers for my son’s 28th birthday.  These “action figures” as my friend calls them, bring me many smiles as I create them.  The one I see in my mind’s eye for the cover of Story Without Words will not bring me or anyone else — smiles.  In fact, the image will create opposite feelings in its viewers — as well is should given the subject of this book.

It is my plan as I begin the work on this cover to make all the parts moveable so that both a front cover image and an altered back cover image can be created using the figures (made of wire, reused plastic grocery bags, masking tape, tissue paper and Mod Podge).

Even though current statistics report that 1,825 cases of child abuse and neglect are confirmed DAILY in the United States — a figure that does not include the thousands of cases that are never reported — nobody wants to SEE images of harm to children.  Nobody would want to see those scenes in a movie or in a photographic image.  This fact is very much connected to the very title of this book.  Not only do stories of infant and child abuse (crime reports) most often remain silent, but the images are gone, as well.

I can create the exact image I want for the cover of this book using this rather silly and certainly very humble craft technique.  While images on Kindles remain black and white, the brilliant colors that will be a part of my image will show up somewhere for someone to see.  In the meantime — I will see them — and I might post progress of my work on the blog as the image comes into being.

Our family has no budget whatsoever for creating a cover for this book (or any of the other ones).  My daughter is getting very close to arranging her week off of work to edit.  So — I better get to work!

°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°<>°

Please click here to read or to Leave a Comment »

++++