Lane+Smith's+Biography

=Biography of Lane Smith, illustrator and author= It seems as if Lane Smith’s whole upbringing has lead him to the dark, satirical and humour-filled illustrator that he is today. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 25th, 1959 and at the age of three moved to California, returning to Oklahoma for summer visits. On the family front, Lane had a brother named Shane (a glimpse at the humour that existed, even with his parents to have sons with rhyming names). Lane shares his love for the season of fall, celebrating Halloween, watching monster movies, reading horror stories and wandering around empty haunted mansions (Smith, 2000). It’s not hard to see where some of his early childhood experiences have played into his choice of dark color palettes, textural, surreal images and satirical humor. In an interview with //Adventures Underground// writer Amanda Divine (2006), Lane details his more formal education as an illustrator. It all began with a push from a high school art teacher that saw some talent in Lane’s work. According to Lane, his teacher actually drove him to Pasadena to meet with the recruiters at Art Center College of Design. While attending the ACCD, Lane was part of a group of students who were looking for more in the world of illustration art. He took one course from the Otis Parsons School where he learned about book design. It may have been this experience that spurred Lane to begin envisioning a possible future as an illustrator. He did end his formal education at the ACCD with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. A fascinating part about Lane’s time attending art college in California was how he worked his way through and paid for his education; he was a janitor for Disneyland! Had he hoped to possibly work for Disney as an animator? In a podcast interview (Smith, 2008), Lane confesses that he may have had some hope to work for Disney’s animation studios but feels that it was more his time thinking and staring at the monstrous characters that later influenced his illustrations of animals. Ironically, Smith eventually did a few projects for Disney including conceptual designs and sketches for //James and the Giant Peach//, as well as //Monsters, Inc//. With a BFA under his belt, Smith worked for several magazines in California and illustrated a few album covers before making his way to New York (Divine, 2006). After developing a few published pieces for his portfolio, Lane was able to get his first job in New York with the New York Times doing illustrations. However, it seemed his true passion was with oil painting. After returning from his job at the New York Times, Smith began work on what would eventually become his first published children’s picture book (as the illustrator), //Halloween ABC .// He painted all the letters in a macabre, dark style and Eve Merriam wrote the poetry to accompany his illustrations of the letters. Today it has been republished under the title, //Spooky ABC.// Shortly thereafter, Lane was introduced to Jon Scieszka, an up and coming author, through a connection between their wives (Smith, 2005). Lane’s wife, Molly Leach is a book designer and has worked on many of Lane’s projects over the years, several of them with Jon Scieszka as well. Molly brought Lane’s artistic talent to Jon’s attention because he had written a parody on the classic fairy tale of the three little pigs but couldn’t get anyone to publish the book. With Lane’s collaboration on the illustrations, they found a publisher in Viking (a subdivision of Penguin Books) who took a leap of faith with the book, unaware of the popularity it would have with children, teachers and librarians. With this new found friendship came a powerful combination of artist and author. Their partnership over the years has created several unique and well-loved children’s books; one of them being the Caldecott Honour Book in 1993, //The Stinky Cheeseman and other Fairly Stupid Tales//; the ultimate recognition for any children’s book illustrator. This wasn’t the end of awards for Lane Smith. He has won or been honoured for several of his illustrated books but more recently for his picture book/historical account, //Jon, Paul, George and Ben (//of which he both wrote and illustrated). //Jon, Paul, George and Ben// has won the School Library Journal Best Book of the Year in 2006, Horn Book Fanfare Best Book in 2006 and BCCB Blue Ribbon Book in 2006 (Library Thing, 2010). With Lane’s latest publication, //It’s a Book// (which is absolutely hilarious), I can only anticipate another award just around the corner. References Divine, A. (2006). // Lane Smith: Stinky Cheese and Big Underwear //. Retrieved from [] Library Thing (2010, September 29). Retrieved from [] Smith, L. (2000). Interview by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. New York, NY: Penguin Publishers. Retrieved from [] Smith, L. (2005). Interview by Reading Rockets.org [Video recording]. Greater Washington Telecommunications Association Inc. Retrieved from [|http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-472668362258986419#] Smith, L. (2008, August 25). Interview by Rock Stars of Reading [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from [].