Art at the Library -- the Library as Art

No posts last week!  This is a very busy time for me – Signed, Abiah Rose is coming out next Tuesday, and I am rushing to get the details in place for my virtual book tour all next week.  More details tomorrow.

I did find time last week to go to the Downtown Los Angeles Library to do research for a new book dummy and to see an exhibit of some of William Joyce’s book illustrations, drawings and dummies.  They're gorgeous, of course – none of those little messy repaired bits or corrections.  The original work is even more beautiful than the reproductions!

The Downtown LA Library is an old love, and I cried when an arsonist set fire to it several years ago.  I’m getting used to the new wing, but the old part is still my favorite.  The Children’s Department is off the rotunda on the second floor.  The rotunda is a wonder to behold.  Dean Cornwell, who designed and painted the murals, was an internationally known illustrator in the 1920's and 30's.  He used soft, muted colors to go with the mosaic-like ceiling.  The compositions and details are fun to study, and the figures look like they just stepped out of a storybook.

This amazing globe chandelier is made of cast bronze, weighs a ton and is nine feet in diameter!  Isn’t it magnificent?

Love this! In the new wing the insides of the elevators (and the elevator shafts!) are papered with some of the library’s seven million now-obsolete catalog cards.  Personally, I preferred the old system, and miss the cards and drawers, pre-historic though that sounds.

This view looking down into the depths of the new wing made me dizzy!

Check back tomorrow for my blog tour schedule!