by Robbi | Dec 9, 2014 | Bobbledy Birthdays |
We recently received Conrad’s completed hot air balloon birthday card! Happy Birthday (again) Conrad!
His birthday card came with a detailed explanation with what is actually going on (helpful, Mom, thank you!). Conrad’s mom writes:
I was in the balloon named “COCO” and I was racing to the finish line (see the black Stonehenge type shape and two balloons in black? That’s the finish line and balloons at the finish line). I am racing with Daddy and Beckett in one balloon and Lola (who REALLY wants to win) in another. We have to go over the black mountains and along the crazy green path to get there.
Though it seems at first that I am last, evidently I win. Go me!
Conrad has evidently gotten old enough (and wise enough) now to know which side his bread is buttered on, which is really just a fancy way of saying it’s always good to have your mom come in first place if she’s the one who is writing down your story for you. Even better if she thinks it’s because of something she did (note the “Go me!” editorializing at the end there? Classic move, Conrad, classic move).
Thanks so much for sharing your birthday card with us, Conrad. Here’s to a great year ahead!
by Matthew | Jul 29, 2014 | Bobbledy Birthdays |
Every afternoon or early evening, I walk down the spiral staircase from the studio to the front room and then out onto the porch to check the mail. Usually it’s just a pile of bills and advertisements, but the other day there was an envelope that looked different from the rest. The address was written by hand and the shape of it seemed thoroughly un-bill-like. I was intrigued.
When I opened the envelope and peered inside, I couldn’t have been happier. There, in my hands, was a Bobbledy birthday card. Usually people send us scans or photographs of their drawings, but here was a real-live card with kid drawings popping off the paper, the crayon marks so thick that I could feel them with my fingertips.
The drawing below was done by a girl named Page. She lives in Galena, not too far down the road from Chestertown.
I love the rich blue sky that Page has drawn. It makes me think of sunny days with just a cloud or two. I’m particularly impressed with how Page has drawn the cloud below the orange balloon, using a technique called “negative space,” leaving the cloud the white color of the paper while drawing the sky in all around it. That’s pretty fancy stuff, and I’m guessing that Page does not yet have her MFA.
Robbi got the drawing started by adding one balloon, but I like how Page added another, and birds, I think, to make the scene more wonderful. As nice as it is to see a balloon in the sky, how much nicer is it to see two? It’s nice to take a balloon ride alone on a sunny afternoon, but isn’t it much better to be able to glance across the way at someone else who’s floating not far distant, and maybe wave or even shout “hello!”
I love this drawing, and I want to thank Page for sending it to us. In case you’re wondering, after scanning, we sent it back. It is far too wonderful a treasure to keep for ourselves.
Before we go, I think it’s probably important to say one more thing, a thing I probably should have said from the beginning, which is HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAGE! We’re so glad you chose to celebrate with us.
by Matthew | Jul 3, 2014 | Bobbledy Birthdays |
The time has come to celebrate another Bobbledy birthday. This time, the kid in question is Vivien, whose favorite Bobbledy title is The Girl With Frogs in Her Ears. And Henny Wampum Had a Really Big Head. And Even Ninjas Eat Asparagus. She told me this with confidence and flair when I saw her a few months ago.
Vivien has shocking red hair and a mile-wide attitude. I admire here tremendously.
Here is the birthday picture she drew and sent to us. Isn’t it magnificent?
Let me just start by saying that Vivien is not, as you probably suspect, 48 years old and the holder of various degrees in fine art, art history, and anthropology. No. She is still a relatively young woman, and yet already exploring a daring combination of mixed media and abstract expressionism.
According to her father, a simple man named Victor, Crayola “rasperry” is Vivien’s marker of choice. Clearly, this preference has deeper metaphorical significance, but neither Victor nor I (a simple man in my own right) have any idea what it is.
Ditto the preponderance of cat stickers, which I suspect are part of the artist’s emerging critique against early 21st century domestic paradigms.
It is exciting indeed to contemplate what new techniques and media Vivien might explore in the weeks and months ahead. I will keep you posted.
For now, I hope you will all join me in issuing a heartfelt HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Vivien.
by Matthew | Jun 28, 2014 | Bobbledy Birthdays |
In our recent proud tradition of not wishing kids a happy birthday until at least a week has passed, we are happy to extend our most Bobbledy birthday wishes to Milo!
We are happy, pleased, delighted, and almost overjoyed to have received this drawing from Milo.
Milo’s drawing arrived without any accompanying text or explanation, which means I have the fun of diving in without any sort of frame or filter. Which is to say, I may completely misinterpret Milo’s intentions. But isn’t that half the fun of making a drawing or looking at one? Even though Milo might have had one thing in his mind when he made his picture, if I have a completely different thing in my mind when I look at it, didn’t the collective imagination of the world get a little bit bigger?
That said, here’s what I see when I look at Milo’s drawing: Two five-legged octopi jumping out of a hot air balloon into the Amazonian jungles below. They are twin brothers, and it is their eleventh birthday. To celebrate, they are skydiving. Milo has captured them in the moment between leaping from the basket and pulling the ripcords on their parachutes. Their jumps were so death-defying, so bold, so utterly synchronized that the cameraman octopus who they hired to shoot a video of their amazing leap was moved to utter “Wow!” in spite of his being in the habit of witnessing awesome, surprising, and (frankly) terrifying things on an hourly basis.
Which is to say, thank you, Milo. That particular story above would never have existed in my head if you had not sent me your amazing picture.
Milo is actually already quite famous for making things. If you are interested, you can follow his craftiness over on Hideous, Dreadful, Stinky, where his projects are filed under Milo Makes.
For those of you who are sitting there wondering what the artist (and newly anointed six year old) looks like, here you go.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Milo. We are so glad that you sent us your card. We hope that you are enjoying being six. We hope we get to meet you some time. Bug your parents to bring you to Chestertown. And please ask them, when they come, to bring a plate of cookies, fresh from the oven.
by Matthew | Jun 24, 2014 | Bobbledy Birthdays |
First off, this birthday post is WAY overdue. Weeks and weeks! Jude may be a teenager by now, for all we know. So, please accept our apologies, Jude. We hope that you have been diving right into enjoying your new year and haven’t been losing any sleep over our failure to properly acknowledge it.
In spite of the belated status of this post, it makes me very happy to share Jude’s birthday card with you today.
Here’s what Jude had to say about his drawing:
“Ecoan” is ocean. They are mountains under the ocean. Thanks!
I love the ocean of Ecoan. First of all, pointy mountains have always been my very favorite kind, though I wonder about the dark patch at the top of each one .I’m accustomed to pointy mountains being covered with snow at the top, but this seems like the opposite. Are the underwater mountains of Ecoan actually covered with chocolate sauce? Or squid ink? Or something else entirely?
Perhaps if I were floating in a bright red hot air balloon just above the surface of the ocean of Ecoan, I would be able to get a closer look. Maybe I would know for sure. Maybe Jude knows. Maybe he will tell us. Provided he’s not too upset about the lateness of this birthday post.
Though something tells me that Jude is a forgiving sort of fellow.
Regardless, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDE. All of us at Bobbledy Books are so happy for you! Please keep drawing pictures. Please keep sending them our way. And please tell us what’s on top of those mountains.
by Matthew | Jun 4, 2014 | Bobbledy Birthdays |
Any day I receive a Bobbledy birthday card with a new picture is a good day, and so I smiled when Julia’s dad emailed this to me yesterday.
Julia is also the first kid to send us a picture using our newest birthday card design, an empty hot air balloon and an empty sky to fill.
As you can see, we ask a question in the upper, right-hand corner: Who is inside this balloon? Dutifully, Julia has answered: she is.
And she seems to be smiling inside her balloon, in spite of the winds, in spite of being blown off course. And why not? It is her birthday. The sky is bright blue. A great yellow sun is shining in the sky.
I like so much about this drawing: the curlicue gusts of wind; the bold, expressive strokes of Julia’s marker, and the care she took to make sure we knew that she is both the subject and the author of this scene.
Looking at Julia’s drawing makes me know that it is going to be a very good day.
Here’s hoping that yours is just as good, Julia. Thanks so much for sharing with us, and HAPPY, HAPPY birthday!
