Author collaborates on children’s book series
By Amy Batista, Special Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY — The Firehouse Gallery opened its doors during Small Business Saturday and invited shoppers to stop in to meet the artist and have a book signed.
“It was a really fun process and we are all ready starting to work on our second collaborative book now,” said Eric Gibbons, author and art teacher at Northern Burlington High School for the past 21 years. He is also the co-owner of Firehouse Gallery at 8 Walnut St. and co-owner of Firehouse Publishing.
The next holiday book signing is scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Firehouse Gallery.
The gallery features original artwork from the book “If Picasso Had a Christmas Tree,” many prints, holiday cards, and much more. Mr. Gibbons will be available to sign books, talk about his book and his gallery.
He said he started a couple of years ago working on his book.
“I was going to do it by myself and it just became a little overwhelming,” he said. “I’ve been having this idea in the back of my head for many years and it’s a pretty common project to have students research artists and then try to have them do a painting in their style,” in order to understand what the artist does visually and then work in that mode to create their own work of art, he said.
“So none of these artists painted Christmas trees as far as we are aware of but if they did we would make sure to do it in a way that was in their spirit and teach people visually about their specific style,” he said.
He pointed out the original artwork he started with that was on display at his gallery.
“People are welcome to come and enjoy and see some of the original artwork that we have here available,” he said.
“If Picasso Had a Christmas Tree” is a children’s book featuring 44 works of art and is an illustrated introduction to art history for children by art teachers from around the world. It was published on Sept. 11 by Firehouse Publishing. Firehouse Publications is an outgrowth of Firehouse Gallery, he added.
“We’ve been teaching here now for 21 years,” he said. “The things that we practice here often go into the books and then are used across the country in programs in schools so this children’s book is kind of an outgrowth of that as well. It’s got the education connection.”
“I connected with other art teachers through Facebook,” he said “That’s what we are really doing with the book — connecting art to other curriculum as teachers.”
There were 30 people who signed on to help, he said. He said they wanted to make the book as balanced as possible between male and female artists.
“Most of them took on one or two artists and helped us kind of complete the book at least visually,” he said.
Each teacher, which ranged from elementary to high school, was asked to emulate an artist of his or her choosing and include a Christmas tree in a way that honors the work of that artist.
He said he spent the whole month of August writing poems to go with each piece that was submitted.
“I spent all of August rhyming, which was interesting,” he said. “I never worked intensively in rhyming before.”
The book is featured on Amazon.com.
“We won an Amazon Editor Favorite: Books of the Year which was really nice,” he said. “It’s one of the best books of 2014. That was nice and it brought us a lot of attention and it has been picked up by several museum book stores, including the Detroit Institute of the Art.”
He said they are expecting the book to “explode next year. We’re kind of lining up things,” he said.
“First off, the colors of the illustrations in this book are truly vibrant,” said Kiki Smith in a review on Amazon.com. “They are sure to grab the attention of children and adults alike. Secondly, the artist emulations are spot on! The number of artists emulated exceeded my expectations of the book. This book would be a welcome gift for an art educator, parent, or Christmas enthusiast. Although the illustrations depict Christmas trees, this book in no way is religious so it would be welcome in a public or private school setting.”
“What a fantastic way emulate artists by having art educators create in their styles,” said another person in a review on Amazon.com “This text sends all a powerful message that — art educators are artists, too! Predictable text puts it within the readability of young readers. I am excited to utilize this within my first grade classroom. Please create more books in this fashion.”
The group has already started working on a second book which is expected to be titled “If Picasso Had Went to the Zoo.”
“So we are going to make something that would be appropriate all year around,” Mr. Gibbons said, adding this book intends to connect art, history and biology.
Any art teachers who are interested can visit If Picasso Facebook Page Group and learn about the next book. Mr. Gibbons said they have to be art teachers.
Plans are also in the works for a book that is going to be art, history and geography.
For more information, visit www.firehousegallery.com.

