Ilse Plume Bio Ilse Plume’s book The Bremen-Town Musicians won the 1981 Caldecott Honor. Her other books include The Twelve Days of Christmas, Saint Francis and the Wolf, Night Story, The Hedgehog Boy, The Year Comes Round, The Story of Befana and The Velveteen Rabbit. She is also a recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats Fellowship. Ilse is of Latvian and Lithuanian descent and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of six. She was inspired to illustrate children's books by her daughter Anne-Marie. Her love of folklore from around the world was nurtured by her grandfather. Ilse received her BFA and MFA from Drake University, and studied printmaking at the Santa Reparata Studios in Florence, Italy. Recently teaching at Tufts/SMFA, she has previously taught at RISD, MCAD, Simmons College, Radcliffe Seminars, the De Cordova, and the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts. Currently Ilse is a resident artist at the Umbrella, where she continues to dream and create art. www.IlsePlume.com Ilse Plume Artist Statement Helen Keller wrote, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” For me, the act of creating a picture book, which has the capacity to teach, inspire, and delight children of all ages, is that daring adventure. The early process of creating a book is often very fragile. Much of this process is driven by faith and belief in the unknown. E.L. Doctorow once said, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Illustrating is much the same. It is a journey that takes you to many places, and sometimes creates some adventures along the way. Often it leads to surprising, unexpected results. The main thing is to continue to dream and to explore artistic visions and to work hard. People often ask what I like about being an illustrator. 1) Being able to create a magical world... a fantasy kingdom. 2) Doing research and finding out about places, people and things. 3) Being able to travel and to see the places where I might set a story. 4) Loving the actual process of working on illustrations. 5) Working alone in my studio, (which feels like being in a dream world, cushioned from reality) and drawing. After Michelangelo’s death, someone found a piece of paper on which he had written, in the hand of his old age, a note to his apprentice: “Draw Antonio, draw Antonio, draw and do not waste time.”