‘Just living life’: Illustrator urges Brookwood students to develop abilities

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, February 29, 2020

Illustrator R. Gregory Christie discussed the importance of creativity, imagination and inspiration with students at Brookwood School on Tuesday.

“I work in different styles, and not everybody is going to love your art, but the most important thing is that you like it,” he said. “There are many ways to learn, and sometimes inspiration comes from just living life.”

Christie, a graduate of New York City’s School of Visual Arts, began his career illustrating album covers, but he now works primarily as a freelance illustrator, best known for his Coretta Scott King Award-winning books “No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller,” “Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal” and “Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Only Passing Through,” as well as the NAACP Image Award-winning “Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack and the Pioneers of Change.” Primarily an illustrator, he also teaches art to all ages, and he did write and illustrate one book, “Mousetropolis.”

Cindy Wagner, Brookwood’s media specialist, met Christie at a conference, and he immediately shot to “the top of the list” of authors she wanted to bring to the school, she said. “I love his books, (some of which) I read every year with kids.”

“The way he illustrates them brings the stories to life,” Wagner added. “You feel like you’re in the books.”

Christie, who has illustrated more than 50 books, is slated to exhibit his work this summer in Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, and he recently collaborated on “In the West End” for the summer reading program of that city’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, he said. That’s only one of a handful of Christie’s current projects, as “I’m always working.”

Freelance illustrating shares similarities with acting, he said. “I get to see a manuscript of the book like an actor gets a script, and I decide if I want to do it or not.”

“When I first get a children’s book, it’s just words,” he explained. As an illustrator, “you have to come up with the whole look of everything.”

Christie, who now resides in Georgia, described 2007’s “Jazz Baby,” with text by Lisa Wheeler, “as a turning point for me.”

He’d been focused on illustrating books featuring historic African Americans, and while those can help youth appreciate “difficult dynamics,” they can also be at times melancholy, he said. “Jazz Baby,” in contradistinction, “is just a fun book,” and the tale of a baby who won’t sleep, leading his father to play a jazz record, “really resonated with audiences.”

He’s also immensely proud of “Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal,” which is especially beloved by fathers and sons, he said. “It can be a struggle to get boys to read, but this has a cowboy (figure), and it deals with some Oklahoma history before it became a state.”

The knowledge Reeves had of Native American languages helped lead to his being recruited for law enforcement, according to The Norman (Oklahoma) Transcript newspaper. At the time of his retirement in 1907, he claimed to have arrested more than 3,000 felons in his career, and some historians have posited Reeves was an inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

Christie’s criteria for choosing projects is simple.

“I look for the book I wish I had as a kid,” he said. For example, “I would love to have read about Bass Reeves” as a child.

A native of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Christie was a “very shy” youth, but drawing was his passion, and he picked up early tips from a neighbor who was a graffiti artist, he said. He also learned more art in school, but really “you have to teach yourself art; others can teach you techniques, but you have to practice.”

Initially, he “wanted to draw things as realistically as possible,” but he eventually liberated himself from strict hyper-realism and found “you learn more when you allow yourself to make mistakes,” he advised the students. “You have to keep trying.”

And “a big part of being an artist is luck,” he said.

Christie gained a wider audience by collaborating on projects with Queen Latifah and Chris Rock, he did a Kwanza stamp for the United States Postal Service, his “The Subway Soiree” piece was displayed in every New York City subway car for a year, and a painting of Christie’s that was purchased by Marcus Samuelsson has been featured in numerous photo spreads of the famous chef’s home.

“I love demystifying how a book is done and explaining how many opportunities there are in art,” he said. “Some kids think they can’t understand art, or that it’s only for wealthy people, but I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid,” and his art has taken him all over the world, from Australia, Canada and France to the Netherlands, Senegal and Thailand.

Christie details his travels to the students for multiple reasons.

“The world is a bigger place than just where they live,” he said. “Traveling is a great way to educate yourself and learn about culture.”

Through funds raised during Brookwood’s book fairs, the school is able to host multiple authors each year, and those individuals demonstrate to students “they can do this when they grow up,” Wagner said. They also provide “other viewpoints.”

Christie’s travel knowledge can be valuable for students, she added. “We have some kids here who have barely been out of Dalton.”

Christie encourages all students to nurture “their individual gifts,” whatever those might be, he said. “I want them to focus on their talents.”