Warhola, James 1955–

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Warhola, James 1955–

Personal

Born March 16, 1955; son of Paul and Ann Warhola. Education: Carnegie Mellon University, B.F.A., 1977; attended Art Students League of New York.

Addresses

Home—Tivoli, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Artist and illustrator. Warhol Family Museum, Medzilaborce, Ruthenia, consultant.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Uncle Andy's: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy Warhol, Putnam (New York, NY), 2003.

ILLUSTRATOR

Bruce B. Cole, The Pumpkinville Mystery, Prentice-Hall (New York, NY), 1987.

Susan Pearson, reteller, Jack and the Beanstalk, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.

Susan Pearson, Well, I Never!, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1990.

Peggy Thomson, reteller, The Tinderbox, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

Peggy Thomson, reteller, The Brave Little Tailor, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

Helen Ketteman, Aunt Hilarity's Bustle, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

Sarah Weeks, Hurricane City, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1993.

Oscar Hammerstein II, Surrey with the Fringe on Top, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.

Bill Brittain, The Mystery of the Several Sevens, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Bill Brittain, The Wizards and the Monster, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Oscar Hammerstein II, Rodgers and Hammerstein's My Favorite Things, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.

Helen Ketteman, The Christmas Blizzard, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.

Helen Ketteman, Bubba the Cowboy Prince: A Fractured Texas Tale, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1997.

Tony Johnston, Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella, Putnam's (New York, NY), 1998.

David M. Schwartz, If You Hopped like a Frog, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1999.

Rick Walton, The Bear Came over to My House, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

Ed Koch and Pat Koch Thaler, Eddie: Harold's Little Brother, Putnam's (New York, NY), 2004.

David M. Schwartz, If Dogs Were Dinosaurs, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2005.

Alex Zane, The Wheels on the Race Car, Orchard (New York, NY), 2005.

Ed Koch and Pat Koch Thaler, Eddie's Little Sister Makes a Splash, Putnam (New York, NY), 2007.

If You're Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition, Orchard (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

Artist and author James Warhola was inspired to become an artist at an early age by his famous uncle, artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol. "He was my childhood idol," Warhola was quoted as saying on the Audart Online Gallery Web site. He began his career as a science-fiction and fantasy cover illustrator, designing more than three hundred book covers for texts by authors including Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson. In 1987, he refocused his vocation on illustrating books for children, a career he has continued to pursue by creating art for books by many writers, as well as by writing and illustrating a book of his own.

After completing his first picture-book project, Bruce B. Cole's The Pumpkinville Mystery, Warhola produced artwork for a series of traditional retellings. In creating art for Susan Pearson's Jack in the Beanstalk and Peggy Thompson's The Tinderbox, he incorporates elements of both comedy and fantasy. A Publishers Weekly critic wrote that in The Brave Little Tailor, Thompson's prose is "well supported by Warhola's lively … paintings." Along with these adaptations, Warhola has illustrated Surrey with the Fringe on Top and My Favorite Things, lyrics from popular Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals.

Warhola's illustrations are often noted for their humor. For the odd Santa story told by Helen Ketteman in The Christmas Blizzard, "Warhola's comical ink-and-water-color illustrations capture the author's exaggerated humor," according to Booklist critic Kay Weisman. In Ketteman's Cinderella spoof Bubba, the Cowboy Prince, the author and illustrator's "well-matched flair for hyperbole gives both the narrative and illustrations a one-two punch," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. Ellen Mandel, writing in Booklist, cited another fractured fairy tale featuring Warhola's art, noting that in Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella, Tony Johnston's "uproarious story is further energized by Warhola's luminous, hilarious paintings." The illustrator "matches the text" of David M. Schwartz's If You Hopped like a Frog by combining "wit and whimsy," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.

In some volumes, it is Warhola's interpretation of the text that comes through most. Featuring a text by Ed Koch and Pat Koch Thaler, Eddie: Harold's Little Brother includes "sepia-rich watercolors, reflecting the look and feel of Depression-era New York, [that] are

the perfect accompaniment," in the opinion of a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly critic wrote of the same title that "Warhola creates an engagingly scrappy group of youths in animated illustrations." Of his contribution to The Wheels on the Race Car, featuring a story by Alex Zane, a Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the artist's "illustrations are full of funny details, so there is much to look at, but there's no clutter." In bringing to life a well-known children's song in the pages of If You're Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition, Stephanie Zvirin wrote in Booklist that the "double dose of color and energy" resonating from "Warhola's gleeful pictures turn the song into a great visual joke." Linda Ludke, writing in School Library Journal, concluded of the same book that the "exuberant title will liven up any storytime with exotic sights and sounds."

Family memories of visits from his eccentric and famous uncle serve as the subject of Warhola's first self-illustrated title, Uncle Andy's: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy Warhol. Warhola's father was Andy Warhol's older brother, and Warhola recalls being packed up with his siblings to go visit his famous-artist uncle, unannounced. Told from the perspective of young alter-ego Jamie, Uncle Andy's is "an outrageously prosaic chapter from his uncle's ultra-hip life," according to a critic for Publishers Weekly. Although [Warhol's] … world is very different from his own, Jamie notes the similarities between his "junkman" father and the man's brother. "The author renders people and clutter in exact, loving detail," wrote a contributor in an appraisal of Uncle Andy's for Kirkus Reviews. Noting that young readers may not be familiar with cultural icon Warhol, Ilene Cooper wrote in Booklist that "celebrity doesn't really matter here because children will be enamored with this off-beat artist." Although Warhol may be unknown to a young audience, one of his philosophies resonates within Warhola's text and art, according to Marianne Saccardi writing in School Library Journal. That theme: "Art is everywhere."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 1994, Frances Bradburn, review of The Mystery of the Several Sevens, p. 600; September 15, 1995, Kay Weisman, review of The Christmas Blizzard, p. 170; December 1, 1997, Lauren Peterson, review of Bubba, the Cowboy Prince: A Fractured Texas Tale, p. 641; December 1, 1998, Ellen Mandel, review of Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella, p. 668; November 15, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of If You Hopped like a Frog, p. 631; March 15, 2001, Lauren Peterson, review of The Bear Came over to My House, p. 1406; February 15, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Uncle Andy's: A Faabbulous Visit with Andy Warhol, p. 1071; February 1, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of The Wheels on the Race Car, p. 966; January 1, 2007, Stephanie Zvirin, review of If You're Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition, p. 118.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June, 2003, review of Uncle Andy's, p. 426.

Horn Book, March-April, 2003, Lolly Robinson, review of Uncle Andy's, p. 207.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2003, review of Uncle Andy's, p. 481; July 15, 2004, review of Eddie: Harold's Little Brother, p. 688; January 15, 2005, review of The Wheels on the Race Car, p. 127; October 1, 2005, review of If Dogs Were Dinosaurs, p. 1089; February 15, 2007, review of If You're Happy and You Know It.

New York Times, November 28, 2002, John Leland, "For Warhol's Family, a Pepper Pot of Gold," p. F1.

New York Times Book Review, May 18, 2003, review of Uncle Andy's, p. 16.

Publishers Weekly, August 16, 1991, review of The Tinderbox, p. 57; June 1, 1992, review of The Brave Little Tailor, p. 62; May, 1993, review of Hurricane City, p. 84; July 18, 1994, review of My Favorite Things, p. 243; September 18, 1995, review of The Christmas Blizzard, p. 100; November 17, 1997, review of Bubba, the Cowboy Prince, p. 61; November 2, 1998, review of Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella, p. 81; August 30, 1999, review of If You Hopped like a Frog, p. 83; January 15, 2001, review of The Bear Came over to My House, p. 75; January 27, 2003, Nathalie Op De Beeck, "A Visit with Uncle Andy," p. 123, and review of Uncle Andy's, p. 259; August 16, 2004, review of Eddie, p. 63; February 12, 2007, review of If You're Happy and You Know It, p. 84.

San Francisco Chronicle, November 30, 1997, Regan McMahon, "Cinderfella Finds True Love in Texas," p. 10.

School Arts, September, 2003, Ken Marantz, review of Uncle Andy's, p. 66.

School Library Journal, April, 2001, Maryann H. Owen, review of The Bear Came over to My House, p. 124; April, 2003, Marianne Saccardi, review of Uncle Andy's, p. 156; November, 2004, Larualyn Persson, review of Eddie, p. 108; March, 2005, Wendy Woodfill, review of The Wheels on the Race Car, p. 190; October, 2005, Kathleen Whalin, review of If Dogs Were Dinosaurs, p. 146; March, 2007, Linda Ludke, review of If You're Happy and You Know It, p. 189.