Terrible Yellow Eyes

I know I did a blog post for this over at Yet Another Children's Book Blog but it is just too good not to share everywhere. Terrible Yellow Eyes is the brainchild of Cory Godbey, and is a blog tribute to the amazing Maurice Sendak and particularly his book Where the Wild Things Are. Cory has invited various artists to create artwork based on the book which are then posted to the site. The responses have been astounding. There are some downright amazing contributions to the blog and everything is so varied and fabulous. As a side note, the blog just stepped out of the blogosphere and became a gallery show at Gallery Nucleus in California.

When I was growing up I remember reading Where the Wild Things Are over and over. In High School when I was asked to translate a story into Japanese, I chose Sendak's book. I was fascinated with Max's ability to sail off into the unknown. There is a moment when his room becomes a forest that as a child I always wished would happen to my room. So this blog is of special interest to me. Plus with the movie opening soon and hopefully a resurgence in interest in the book (as if Where the Wild Things Are has ever gone out of style) this will be even more interesting. By the way I'm not above eating crow. When I first did a post about movies made out of picture books I mentioned that I was not particularly excited about this adaptation. But the more that I have seen of the visuals, the more excited I am. I only hope that it will keep the tone of the book unlike another picture book/film that has come out this past month.

But my griping aside, Terrible Yellow Eyes is one of the most beautiful tributes I have ever seen to a book. Each piece is beautiful and interesting in its own way. There are paper cut-outs, dioramas, oil, acrylic, watercolor.... on into infinity. The variations of theme and medium are stunning in themselves. If you have ever enjoyed this book, or just like incredible art, check out this site. And thanks Cory. This was a fantastic idea and has become a thing of beauty.