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Dilys Evans
“Dilys Evans, a trailblazing representative of children’s book illustrators, and a fierce champion for recognition of their contributions to the fine arts world, died on July 23 at age 88,” reported Publishers Weekly.
A native of England, Evans moved to the United States in 1959 after completing training as a nurse. While working at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, she met the artist Nell Blaine, who hired Evans to be a live-in caretaker as Blaine recovered from polio and adjusted to using a wheelchair. For six years, she accompanied Blaine to galleries and museums. Evans also studied painting and drawing at the Art Students League, the New School, the Riverside Museum in New York City and received a fellowship to the Yaddo artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs.
In 1972 she entered the world of children’s publishing as the assistant art director for a new children’s magazine, Cricket. This brought her in contact with many illustrators and impressed upon her that children’s books could be a fine art form.
Evans opened Dilys Evans Fine Illustration in 1978, representing children’s picture book illustrators. Her first clients were eight artists she’d worked with at Cricket.
In a 2009 interview, Evans described how she selected clients. “I was looking for one thing, and one thing only, and that was imagination,” Evans told a Society of Illustrators meeting. “You can learn all these other things, but if you don’t have imagination, you don’t really have anything special to say. I built my portfolio around people who had imagination.”
Illustrator David Wiesner’s website offers a piece he wrote for Celebrate Cricket: 30 Years of Stories and Art (Cricket Books, 2003) describing how he was invited to do a Cricket cover after art director Trina Schart Hyman visited the Rhode Island School of Design during his senior year.
“As it turned out, my cover came through Trina’s hands just as her assistant art director, Dilys Evans, was creating an agency to represent children’s book illustrators. Dilys called me to see if I would like to be a part of her portfolio. Twenty -four years later we are still working together, in what has been my most gratifying, and fun, professional relationship,” Wiesner wrote.
In the 1970s, picture book illustration seldom got more than a sentence in book reviews. Evans conceived a plan to highlight the fine art being published in picture books and in 1980 organized a show at the Master Eagle Gallery in New York City. She asked young illustrators to help frame and hang the art.
Wiesner was one of those illustrators. He described the event’s “unbridled excitement” on his website. “I recall the big question was, ‘will anyone show up?’ Did they ever…. Editors, art directors, agents, publicists, and artists spilling out into the lobby. Dozens of artists had crawled out of their studios to celebrate each other.” He wrote that Evans oversaw it all. “Fielding a seemingly never ending stream of questions from dozens of people, she managed to stay (outwardly) calm and handle the endless last minute emergencies that came up. Through sheer force of will she brought the Original Art into existence.”
The SCBWI called starting the annual Original Art exhibition Evans’ “most memorable achievement.” In 1990, the Original Art exhibit moved to the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. The Dilys Evans Founders Award is presented each year for the most promising newcomer to the field.
Evans also compiled poetry anthologies including Monster Soup and Other Spooky Poems, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers (Scholastic, 1992), and Fairies, Trolls & Goblins Galore, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers (Simon & Schuster, 2000).
Evans’ most well known book is Show and Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration (Chronicle, 2008), which focuses on the work of 12 award-winning illustrators to discuss what makes a satisfying picture book. Marcia Leonard, co-founder of the Original Art exhibition, interviewed Evans about the book for the Society of Illustrators in 2009 and their entire conversation is available on the Society’s YouTube channel.
Kate Feirtag, deputy director of the Society of Illustrators offered an online tribute to Evans and shared a quote from Evans. “‘The definition of ‘art’ has been debated for centuries, but to my mind art happens when a particular creation stops us in our tracks. It makes us think. It touches our deepest emotions and oftentimes it teaches us something new.’ I would say this definition perfectly describes Dilys as well,” Feirtag wrote.
James Proimos
“Children’s author, illustrator, animator, and designer James Proimos, known for his quirky picture books and boldly hued cartoon characters, died on July 8. He was 66,” wrote Shannon Maughan for Publishers Weekly.
Proimos worked in the advertising industry as a copywriter and art director, including the Taco Bell campaign featuring Nacho and Dog.
He published his first picture book in 1998, Joe’s Wish (Harcourt, 1998), followed by The Loudness of Sam (Harcourt, 1999) the following year. Around the same time he helped create the Generation O! animated series that aired on Kids’ WB. There he worked with Suzanne Collins and encouraged her to write children’s books. Collins dedicated The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) to Proimos, and he illustrated her picture book, Year of the Jungle: Memories From the Home Front (Scholastic, 2013).
Proimos created more than 20 books for young readers, spanning many categories and age groups, from illustrated picture books, to a young adult novel, 12 Things To Do Before You Crash and Burn (Roaring Brook Press, 2011) to an illustrated poetry collection, If I Were In Charge The Rules Would Be Different (Scholastic, 2001). He authored his most recent book, Over the Moon, illustrated by Zoey Abbott (Chronicle, 2020)
Cynsational Notes
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She serves as board member for Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She’s active in Austin SCBWI and has taught creative writing workshops for the Austin Public Library Foundation. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.