As a child I loved my Dr Seuss books: The Cat in the Hat; Horton Hears a Who; Green Eggs and Ham; One Fish, Two Fish. Red Fish, Blue Fish; The Lorax; How The Grinch Who Christmas, And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!
I loved the sing song quality of the words as you read it aloud and I was captivated by his illustrations, particularly his landscape elements. One day as I was touring the flower market, I was knocked out by the fantastic curling onion and garlic scapes and the bright yellow balls of Craspedia. Horton Hears a Who immediately came to mind and suddenly I had to design a homage to this iconic children’s book author!
I searched the flower market’s walk-in refrigerators for the most graphic, weird flowers I could find and headed for the studio using my windshield time to brainstorm. When I took an inventory of my favorite Dr Seuss books, I thought of the fish in their bowls teetering on the Cat’s cane and their reappearance in One Fish….
The bright colors Ted used in his illustration suddenly reminded me of the colorful fish tank gravel in the Beta Fish bowls my mother tended in my childhood home.
Combining the kooky flowers and the brilliant gravels in sedimentary layers in clear containers channeled the 1960’s sand art crafts.
