Artist Statement
Little Raccoon and the Paper Heart
My illustrated series is about finding acceptance as an LGBT person. I chose to visualize this topic because it affects me in a deeply personally way. Many others in my community may also be going through the same strife as I am experiencing. During the development of this series, I received encouragement and validation from others relating to the story of my series. Finding acceptance is quite a heavy topic and hard to visualize so to lighten it up, I chose to illustrate this topic in a style that functions as children’s illustration.
I chose to illustrate a raccoon character dealing with unsupportive people and yet ultimately finding company with others like them. To many humans, raccoons are seen as a pest and not wanted. Same goes for the other animals I chose to illustrate, the opossum and the skunk. The concept of the little raccoon who finds friends who like them for who they are is a meaningful analogy for finding acceptance in the LGBT community. The cuteness of the animal characters and the symbolism of a paper heart makes my narrative accessible to a more general population outside of the LGBT community.
As an illustrator specializing in children’s book illustrations, I chose to make the featured animals look like they fit into the visual world of my children’s book pitch. The topic for my picture book deals with the journey of self-acceptance as an LGBT person as well. In my children’s book pitch, the plot revolves around a little boy and his journey to find out what his fuzzy feelings mean regarding his special friend. He takes on this journey with the help of his little rubber ducky – who comes to life in his imagination as his companion and the magical talking fox who acts as a guide to show him that he is in fact not all that different from other kids and that it’s okay to be a little different.
This illustrated series is created traditionally with gouache, ink, and pencil crayon on illustration board. The illustrations are painted as vignettes against a white background to focus on the character “Little Raccoon” and emphasize how they feel in the framed sequence.
I would like my audience to gain an understanding of how acceptance makes a person feel and hopefully influence the way they deal with others in a more supportive way. Most people are finding more acceptance in the world but there are still many who are dealing with unsupportive settings around them.