I picked up a book by Bronwyn Bancroft, illustrator from the the Bunjalung aborigines of Australia and was thinking how many details are very similar to the Gond style of art. Just in time comes Gita Wolf’s post on ‘The Politics Of Voice‘, a post on folk and tribal art in children’s literature. How can I not do a post on ‘Tribal art in children’s books‘?

Unlike Gita, who talks about the publisher’s perspective on creating a children’s book with tribal art illustrations, I decided to stop with the commonalities I observe in tribal art across the world.

While you are at it, check out the art of Sue Coccia. Very Gond in spirit don’t you think? Thanks to Kodi’s mom for introducing this artist to me.

Three years back while reading Tulika’s Sweet and Salty for Chula and Meija, I distinctly remembered villu pattu artist Subbu Arumugam. The train of thought later lead to the art of story telling. After reading Hanuman’s Ramayana, also by Tulika, the concept of stories being molded by the story teller and how myths came to be, really appealed to me. Inspired by this is the post on Stories of The Flood, my last and final contribution to CROCUS2010.

Bye bye CROCUS2010.

Edited to add: Submitted post for Shruti’s Artsy-Craftsy June 2001 Folk art challenge.

I have done numerous lesson plans for course work. Two years back, one such lesson plan was on Tulika’s Sameer’s House, an all time favorite at home. That is when I realized how today’s kid’s-lit is so versatile and can be integrated in to a classroom setting. The seed was sown.

For CROCUS 2010, my category assignment was arts and crafts. For this I decided to do a post on how Warli can be integrated in to a classroom. Check out my post at Saffron Tree. I am eager to hear back from you all.