Art in a Nut Shel: Art Inspired by the Writings of Shel Silverstein

And here we see the invisible boy
In his lovely invisible house,
Feeding a piece of invisible cheese
To a little invisible mouse.
Oh, what a beautiful picture to see!
Will you draw an invisible picture for me?

In celebration of the writings of Shel Silverstein, local artists have been invited to select their favorite work by Silverstein and create book-inspired art. Thanks to International Galleries, you’ll have the opportunity to view this unique display of local creativity at The Urbana Free Library from August 1 – September 15 in the Library’s Gallery.

Since local teens are some of our favorite artists, The Urbana Free Library has decided to display your poetry and artwork too! This month’s Art Day @ Your Library will focus on creating Silverstein-inspired artwork, which will be featured in the Library’s 1st floor display case.  Joel and Amber’s favorite book by Shel is Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein, so the poetry from this book will be the creative inspiration for the program.

Here’s how it’ll work: we picked our favorite poems, and wrote the page numbers on slips of paper for a drawing. Art Day participants will each draw a number, and then create their own personal artwork based on the poetry pages that were drawn. Not in the mood to draw? No problem. Teens can also create their own poetry using the words from their assigned poems.

What are you waiting for? Come join us next Monday, July 23rd for the “Shelebration”!

Art Day @ Your Library is held on the 4th Monday of most months from 4:00 – 5:00 pm in the Lewis Auditorium.

The poem Invisible Boy can be found in Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein.  You can find it on the shelf at your library by the call number J / 811.54 / SIL.