Christie, R. Gregory 1971–

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Christie, R. Gregory 1971–

(Gregory Christie)

Personal

Born July 26, 1971; son of Gerard A. (a pharmacist) and Ludria V. (a dietician) Christie. Education: School of Visual Arts (New York, NY), B.F.A. (media arts), 1993.

Addresses

Office—Gas-Art Studios, 320 7th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Illustrator. Commercial Art Supply, Plainfield, NJ, worked in sales and stock, 1985-89; Newark Star Ledger, Newark, NJ, intern/spot illustrator, 1989; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, worked in stock and book store sales, 1989, security, 1991-98. Freelance illustrator, creating art for covers of CDROMs, posters, and brochures, beginning 1993; children's book illustrator, beginning 1996.

Awards, Honors

Coretta Scott King Honor Book designation, American Library Association, 1997, for The Palm of My Heart, and 2001, for Only Passing Through by Anne F. Rockwell; New York Times Book Review Ten Best-Illustrated Children's Books selection, and New York Public Library One-Hundred Recommended Book Titles selection, both 2000, both for Only Passing Through; Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honor Book designation, 2006, for Brothers in Hope by Mary Williams; Schneider Family Book Award, 2007, for TheDeaf Musicians by Pete Seeger and Paul Dubois Jacobs; Theodore Seuss Geisel Award, 2008, for Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler.

Illustrator

America, My Land, Your Land, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1996.

(Under name Gregory Christie) Davida Adedjouma, editor, The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African-American Children, introduction by Lucille Clifton, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1996.

William Miller, Richard Wright and the Library Card, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Anne F. Rockwell, Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth, Knopf (New York, NY), 2000.

Barbara M. Joosse, Stars in the Darkness, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

Tony Medina, DeShawn Days, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Tonya Bolden, Rock of Ages: A Tribute to the Black Church, Knopf (New York, NY), 2001.

Tony Medina, Love to Langston, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Rukhsana Khan, Ruler of the Courtyard, Viking (New York, NY), 2003.

Jeron Ashford Frame, Yesterday I Had the Blues, Tricycle Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

Lisa Wheeler, Jazz Baby, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2004.

Barbara M. Joosse, Hot City, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Tonya Bolden, The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali, Knopf (New York, NY), 2004.

Pat Sherman, The Sun's Daughter, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin, A Chance to Shine, Tricycle Press (Berkeley, CA), 2005.

Mary Williams, Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Lee & Low (New York, NY), 2005.

Peet Seeger and Paul DuBois, The Deaf Musicians, Putnam's (New York, NY), 2006.

Carole Boston Weatherford, Dear Mr. Rosenwald, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2006.

Beah E. Richards, Keep Climbing, Girls, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

Anne Rockwell, Open the Door to Liberty!: A Biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2007.

Contributor of illustrations to periodicals, including New Yorker, Village Voice, Madison, Los Angeles, Rolling Stone, Parenting, Travel & Leisure, Golf, Vibe, Cigar Aficionado, Teaching Tolerance, Atlantic Monthly, and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sidelights

In addition to his work for high-profile magazines such as the New Yorker, R. Gregory Christie is an artist whose intensely colored paintings filled with elongated figures have graced the pages of a number of award-winning children's books. In DeShawn Days, a collection of poems by Tony Medina that focuses on life from the per-

spective of a ten-year-old African-American boy, Christie provides illustrations that are suffused with the warmth and joy of a close-knit family scene, and are alternately "bleak and sophisticated," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Wanda Meyers-Hines also praised Christie's work in School Library Journal, writing that the artist's acrylic and gouache paintings "beautifully capture the cultural and artistic aspects" of a young boy's home life in the pages of Yesterday I Had the Blues, by Jeron Ashford Frame. Reflecting the sultry mood of Barbara M. Joosse's summertime story in Hot City, Christie cools his palette of hot pinks, reds, and bright oranges with clear yellows to create "quirky acrylic paintings [that] take playful liberties with perspective and scale," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. His "vivacious, artfully distorted" images for the book "sizzle along with the rhythmic, smooth-as-melted-butter" text, according to a Kirkus Reviews writer.

Anne F. Rockwell's Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth, a biography of the African-American abolitionist, orator, and freedom fighter, is expressively illustrated by Christie, his choice of hues and his manipulation of the human figure working together to give "a powerful sense of Sojourner Truth's … compelling personality," in the opinion of Book critic Kathleen Odean. Another biography, Tonya Bold- en's The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali, was described by a Kirkus Reviews writer as "picture-book biography at its best" due in part to Christie's "strongly hued" and "eye-catching" illustrations.

In his work for Ruler of the Courtyard Christie exhibits his versatility by drawing on images from a Middle Eastern aesthetic. Set in Pakistan, Rukhsana Khan's story focuses on a young girl who is terrorized by the chickens running wild outside her family's rural home. Christie's "vigorous and slightly naive" art warms the story with what School Library Journal reviewer Dona Ratterree described as "hot bright backgrounds" and "attentive detail." While his art "provide[s] the balance between ambiguity and realism that the text requires," Christie also astutely captures the girl's "feelings through her facial expressions and body language," a Kirkus Reviews writer observed of Ruler of the Courtyard. Another multicultural picture book, Pat Sherman's The Sun's Daughter, features a Native-American porquoi story that is enhanced by dramatic illustrations by Christie that "intensify the sense of abstraction from reality common to folklore," according to Booklist contributor Jennifer Mattson.

Returning to his own culture, Christie contributes what a Publishers Weekly contributor deemed "stylized,

boldly hued gouache and colored pencil art" to Carole Boston Weatherford's Dear Mr. Rosenwald. Based on the true story of the way one man's vision and the aspirations of a poor rural community combined to create a school for black children during the 1920s, Dear Mr. Rosenwald presents "a heartening sliver of American history," according to the Publishers Weekly critic. In Booklist Hazel Rochman wrote that Christie's "exuberant gouache and colored-pencil illustrations" bring to life the "vibrant family and community" at the center of Weatherford's tale, and School Library Journal reviewer Catherine Threadgill deemed the book's art a "good complement" to the "rough-around-the-edges" account of its young narrator.

Christie once told SATA: "I began painting when I was thirteen, drawing even before I could speak. My art has naturally taken a leading role in my life and the creation of it is the form of a conversation that I feel the most comfortable executing. Painting is a personal endeavor that serves as an outlet for my emotions. I feel that a painting is only half done until it's viewed by others. Therefore, I see art and painting as a type of conversation between the creator and viewer. Not an audible word needs to be uttered during this exchange, but in order for there to be a learning process or for an image to be appreciated the two participants must speak the same visual language.

"Often I receive questions regarding the exaggerated body proportions and color choices of my paintings. The answer simply lies in my use of the compositional elements as a directional device. The same way an orator will use highs, lows, and iambic pentameter to keep the listener's interest, I use color, form, and shape to appeal to one's visual sense. Everything beyond that is a matter of rhythm and instinct.

"I enjoy showcasing my images in the form of the children's book format. I am comfortable with it and I feel as though it is making a difference in the world. I usually spend one to three months painting the books, then, once they're published, one to three weeks in order to forget about them. I move on to the next project with a full focus. Although I may appreciate the accolades and the challenges presented from previous projects, moving on to a new job keeps me humble. In the end the books are more for the children than for my ego."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Book, May, 2001, Kathleen Odean, review of Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth, p. 80.

Booklist, October 1, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Rock of Ages: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, p. 334; November 1, 2003, Jennifer Mattson, review of Yesterday I Had the Blues, p. 500; March 15, 2005, Jen- nifer Mattson, review of The Sun's Daughter, p. 1292; May 1, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of Brother in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, p. 1584; February 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Keep Climbing, Girls, p. 70; October 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 61.

Christian Parenting Today, March, 2001, review of Only Passing Through, p. 62.

Horn Book, March-April, 2003, Susan P. Bloom, review of Ruler of the Courtyard, p. 204; January-February, 2004, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Yesterday I Had the Blues, p. 69; January-February, 2005, Kathleen Isaacs, review of The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali, p. 106.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2002, review of Ruler of the Courtyard, p. 1851; August 15, 2003, review of Yesterday I Had the Blues, p. 1072; May 15, 2004, review of Hot City, p. 493; March 1, 2005, review of The Sun's Daughter, p. 295; December 15, 2004, review of The Champ, p. 1198; December 1, 2005, Beah E. Richards, review of Keep Climbing, Girls, p. 1279; August 15, 2006, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 853.

New York Times Book Review, November 19, 2000, Linda Villarosa, "Serving No Master but the Truth," p. 61.

Print, January, 2001, Ariana Donalds, "Home and Away," p. 104.

Publishers Weekly, May 21, 2001, review of DeShawn Days, p. 107; January 6, 2003, review of Ruler of the Courtyard, p. 59; July 12, 2004, review of Hot City, p. 63; March 21, 2005, review of The Sun's Daughter, p. 51; October 23, 2006, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 51.

School Library Journal, July, 2001, Patti Gonzales, review of DeShawn Days, p. 96; February, 2003, Dona Ratterree, review of Ruler of the Courtyard, p. 114; October, 2003, Wanda Meyers-Hines, review of Yesterday I Had the Blues, p. 119; June, 2005, Mary N. Oluonye, review of Brothers in Hope, p. 131, and Cris Riedel, review of The Sun's Daughter, p. 144; February, 2006, Julie Roach, review of Keep Climbing, Girls, p. 124; October, 2006, Catherine Threadgill, review of Dear Mr. Rosenwald, p. 129; November, 2006, Genevieve Gallagher, review of The Deaf Musicians, p. 112.