Muscatine Art Center presents Mo Willems exhibition ‘Elephant & Piggie in WE ARE ART’
The Muscatine Art Center presents a Mo Willems exhibition, ‘Elephant & Piggie in WE ARE ART.’
The exhibit runs November 3 through February 5. According to a release:
Mo Willems has entertained children and adults for more than a decade with his award-winning ‘ELEPHANT & PIGGIE’ early reader series. Willems is a master of rendering emotional expression. A mere raise of Piggie’s eyebrow or Elephant Gerald’s toothy smile provide visual clues to the characters’ feelings. Willems uses simple vocabulary, 40 to 50 unique words per book and clever text treatments, including various sizes, bolding, ALL CAPS, and italics, to maximum effect.
Muscatine Art Center
Mo Willems, Illustration for There Is a Bird on Your Head! (An ELEPHANT & PIGGIE book). Collection of Mo and Cher Willems. © 2007 Mo Willems. ELEPHANT & PIGGIE is a trademark of The Mo Willems Studio, Inc. Mo Willems, Sketch for The Thank You Book (An ELEPHANT & PIGGIE book). Collection of Mo and Cher Willems. © 2016 Mo Willems. ELEPHANT & PIGGIE is a trademark of The Mo Willems Studio, Inc. Mo Willems, Illustration for We Are in a Book! (An ELEPHANT & PIGGIE book). Collection of Mo and Cher Willems. © 2010 Mo Willems. ELEPHANT & PIGGIE is a trademark of The Mo Willems Studio, Inc.
The exhibition features Willems’s hand-drawn illustrations from all 25 ‘ELEPHANT & PIGGIE’ books, as well as his digitally-colored final renderings. The exhibit showing Willems’s creation process, utilizing early sketches, dummy books and size charts. All artwork in the exhibition is from the collection of Mo and Cher Willems, and the exhibition was organized by The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
“The adventures of Elephant and Piggie are so much fun, while also demonstrating the value of friendship,” Muscatine Art Center Director Melanie Alexander said. “People of all ages can relate to the quirky duo and will find that their conversations are laugh-aloud funny.”
The ‘Elephant & Piggie in WE ARE ART’ exhibition is on view at the Muscatine Art Center, located at 1314 Mulberry Ave., Muscatine, from November 3, 2022 through February 5, 2023. Admission is free of charge, and donations are accepted. For more information, click here.
