Children's Writer & Illustrator AGY WILSON: FROM INSECURE TO CONFIDANT

Christal Cooper      1,274 Words

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CHILDREN’S WRITER & ILLUSTRATOR

AGY WILSON:

FROM INSECURE TO CONFIDANT

www.agywilson.com

  www.agyart.blogspot.com

Children’s writer and illustrator Agy Wilson, 56, had her first claim to fame being born premature in 1957.  She made the news in the local newspaper, with a photo of her in the incubator on the front page.   

“Because I was premature, I've always had eye problems though most people didn't realize I wore glasses from second grade. I'd lose them or "forget" them, and learned to recognize things.  There's a lot of ways to see."

       Her life in art is pretty much the same story:  she had the gift of art, but chances of her even immersing in art as career were not that good.

       Wilson is the oldest of three children and was reared in Gorham, Maine, by her father, who worked as a paper-coating engineer, and a stay-at-home mom, who worked part time jobs.  

       “I was a very sensitive kid with lots of hard knocks I survived. I found out one boy who'd been rather a poopy head on the nickname front actually had a crush on me. I incorporate a lot of that ribbing and those feelings into my work, because I don't think I was or am the only sensitive kid.”

Her first memory of drawing was when her mother told her to go draw so there would be quiet time in the house.  In fact, that was the only time her parents encouraged her and her artwork. 

       Her grandmother, however, encouraged her to draw and showed off her artwork with pride.

       Wilson credits her father for giving her the love of reading and books.  She read encyclopedias, dictionaries, and Reader Digest books. 

“One of the things I loved doing when I was a kid was copying some of the drawings of well-loved stories from the Reader's Digest.”

She then devoured comic books, science fiction, and supported her “habit” by babysitting.  She’d sty up until 4 a.m. reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula and books by Andre Norton, Taylor Caldwell, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

“I lived inside my head a lot as a kid.  I didn't read a lot of children's books when I was young. Ironic, eh?”

It was these books and with her father's famous saying of “Look it up!” that educated her and made her into the writer she is today.   Wilson also credits her teachers and librarians for making nurturing her into the artist she is today.

       She never took art courses in high school and never even aspired to be an artist because she didn’t get the encouragement from home and the lack of art courses available.

She developed a close relationship with her high school art teacher, Ms. Sandy Gordon, who helped her develop her art portfolio.  As a result, she was accepted into art school.   

       The same year she moved out of the family home, and was on her own at the age of 19.  She changed her name from Agnes to Aggie because it felt better.

       “I hated the way people said the "g" and "n" sounds together. People made fun of the French pronunciation. Aggie was forever taken as a handle.”

       She made another name change to Agy when she hit the web.  “I liked the way Agy looked and its uniqueness.”

Wilson worked numerous jobs to make a living and to support her art:  banks, Chinese restaurants, gay disco, shoe factory, key operator, past up and layout artist, teacher, maid, and nursing assistant.  She also helped put together the art school’s library as the school was going through accreditation.

 “As much as creating things is a part of me, I’ve had to balance it with other things, and usually other things won.  I don’t mind it.  It’s most certainly given me something to write about.”

Wilson tries to do something creative every workday, even when she is not motivated, and especially when she has artist’s block. 

“You can have one day off, but don't wait for the "mood" to strike. It takes doing it and sometimes making the caca de poopoo as I call it, to get to the good stuff, to make it all seem like second nature it has to be a part of you, and that can't happen if you pick and choose to mostly set it aside.”

Wilson places her family as number one priority and makes sure she has family time – she has two daughters 23 and 14 and one grandson, 4. 

Wilson gets up in the morning, drinks coffee, checks email and Facebook, and then spends most of her time in her studio, located in her attic.

“It’s next to a window and the stairwell is to my immediate other side. It feels kind of camp-ish, and I love that. I only need my computer for my writing and illustrating and they sit on a couple of wooden tables.”

In order to function as an artist, she has coffee, which she says helps settle her brain, and listens to new age music.

“I work in all kinds of different ways.  Sometimes an image comes, sometimes the words. I get stuff in dreams, taking a walk or a shower, or just plunking away. I try to write down my gut instinct, and then I make sure it was correct. Each project is different, so it's hard to quantify it.”

She has mild dyslexia which causes her hands to go too fast and for her to read things at a very slow rate, which she describes as “Freudian slips” which she welcomes as long as they make her giggle. 

“I try to look at some of my oddities more as serendipity. Sometimes I slow it down or switch gears entirely if it's too much of a problem. The coffee helps me quite a bit with concentration and balance.”

       The toughest struggle she had to overcome in order to continue making art was the health issues that began after the birth of her second daughter, when she was 42 and the death of her mother in 2005.   At the time she was awarded two scholarships:  the SCBI picture book workshop and the Highlight’s Foundation’s Chautauqua Workshop; but due to her health issues and the death of her mother had to put all artistic pursuits aside until she discovered Photoshop and the Wacom tablet.    

“Will Terry (http://www.willterry.com) gave an inexpensive course on Photoshop and Folio classes.  A friend sold me her Wacom tablet for just a little bit and I've been able to draw again. The tablet allows me a lot of control, my monitor is a good size, and I've always had decent hand/eye where drawing is concerned.”

       She found an illustrating job for the Chemical Safety Administration and the Sandy Gilmour Agency.  Her illustrations appeared on the web, USA Today, online version.  This was the boost she needed.

       “I decided I had a little bit more play and my work was worth trying to get done and out there.” 

       She’s illustrated four book covers:  Eleven From The Southside written by B.R. Stateham, Angel On My Shoulder written by Mariam Hees, The Revenge of Thelma Hill, written by Margot Finke, and Down Under Calling, written by Margot Finke.        

 

She’s illustrated two children’s books:  Windows of Gold and Other Stories written by Marianne Mitchell and The Magic Moccasins written by Tim Goodblood.

She’s written and illustrated Nana’s Gift; written the short mid-grade story Room Wars; and will publish a midgrade novel, Sara LeClere, in a few months.  

“I've done a lot of things, and in many ways I've felt compelled to create, but it's only recently I felt comfortable calling myself an artist or a writer or anything like that. I

just do stuff.”

PHOTO DESCRIPTION AND COPYRIGHT INFO

Photo 1 and Photo 33.

Agy Wilson, today.  Copyright by Agy Wilson

Photo 2.

Agy Wilson in 1957.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 3.

Agy Wilson in 1957.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 4.

Agy Wilson in 1960.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 5.

Illustration by Agy Wilson.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 6.

Readers Digest, Australia editions.  Public Domain.

Photo 7.

First edition jacket cover of Dracula by Bram Stoker.   Public Domain.

Photo 8.

Bram Stoker in 1906.  Public Domain.

Photo 9.

Taylor Caldwell.  Attributed to James Seneca.  Public Domain.

Photo 10.

Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Public Domain.

Photo 11.

Self-portrait drawing by Agy Wilson.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.

Agy Wilson in 1975.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 17.

Self portrait of Agy Wilson by Agy Wilson.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 18.

Illustration by Agy Wilson.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 19.

Newspaper clipping of images of Agy Wilson in 1975.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 20.

Illustration by Agy Wilson.  Copyright by Agy Wilson.

Photo 21.

Jacket cover of Eleven From The Southside written by B.R. Stateham. 

Photo 22.

A cup of coffee. Attributed to Julius Schorzman.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

Photo 23.

Jacket cover of Angel On My Shoulder written by Mariam Hees.

Photo 24.

Jacket cover of The Revenge of Thelma Hill written by Margot Finke.

Photo 25.

Jacket cover of Down Under Calling written by Margot Finke.

Photo 26.

Wacom Bamboo Capture graphics tablet with supplied inductive pen.  Attributed to DragonLord.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Photo 27.

Jacket cover of Windows of Gold and Other Stories written by Marianne Mitchell

Photo 28.

Jacket cover of the Magic Moccasins written by tim Goodblood.

Photo 29.

Jacket cover of Sara LeClere written and illustrated by Agy Wilson.

Photo 30.

Jacket cover of Room Wars written and illustrated by Agy Wilson.

Photo 31.

Jacket cover of Nana’s Gift written and illustrated by Agy Wilson.

Photo 32.  

Illustrated page from Nana’s Gift, written and illustrated by Agy Wilson.

Christal Cooper – 612 Words

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Facebook @ Christal Ann Rice Cooper

HER PLEASANT COMPANIONS

“The tree sways ever so gently.

It’s not a building; it’s a living thing.

Trees have their own personalities,

 and they are very accepting and comforting.

You’re up there and you are a part of it.

It is just you and nature.”

Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice

Active Tree Climber and Tree Climbers USA member Naomi Ruth (which means Pleasant Companion In Hebrew) Waggener Rice fell in love with trees at an early age.  As a six year old, the shy Rice did not feel as comfortable with people as she did with trees.  She lived in Alabama and considered her backyard of woods her own playground, and the trees her playmates.  Later, something happened that changed her perspective on trees.

       “When I was six I was bouncing on the branch in this dogwood tree.  The branch broke and I broke my femur and fractured my jaw.”

       The active six-year-old was constrained into a half body cast.  The accident also resulted in her not climbing trees for the next three to four years.  She still spent her time exploring the woods and its animals and taking walks with her cat Smokey. Smokey would kill animals and the animals he didn’t kill Waggener tried to rescue.  Flutter, a small bird, managed to escape Smokey’s claws.  Waggener fed the bird with an eyedropper tube and made the bird a little hammock from cloth to ease the bird’s suffering.  When Flutter died she was crushed until she moved to the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia at the age of ten.

       “One day I was looking at the tree in our front yard and thought, ‘Why did I stop climbing trees?’  I don’t remember too much (of the accident) because my brain tends to delete my bad memories.  I told myself, ‘I do love climbing trees.’”

Waggener took the trees as her pleasant companion once again.  Her love and interest in trees grew even more when, at the age of twelve, she spotted her brother Tim reading an article about tree climbing.  After reading it herself, she was thrilled to learn that the experience the article described was exactly what she experienced while climbing trees.  She contacted the tree climbing club mentioned in the article and attended their classes. When she was thirteen she bought her own equipment and has been climbing trees ever since.

“Tree climbing is a lot freer than rock climbing because with tree climbing you can stop, rest, swing, and bounce off the tree from branch to branch.” 

The necessary equipment for tree climbing is not as expensive or complex as mountain or rock climbing equipment: a tree climbing harness; a long rope; a “D” shaped tool that clicks the climber to the rope being climbed; and a throw line which is a small yellow line with a bean bag attached.  The double rope technique, where the rope goes up and over the branch and then is tied by a series of knots, is the most common technique used in climbing trees. 

Waggener says climbing trees is not always a bed of roses.  When she starts on the ground she is sometimes attacked by swarms of hungry mosquitoes.  On the other hand, Waggener prefers the bottom part of the tree because the rope is at its longest which enables her to get the best and widest swing.  There are also those times when the tree’s inhabitants stalk her.  One such evening Waggener fell asleep in the tree boat (hammock connected to two limbs) only to be awakened by squirrels squawking, and spitting pieces of acorns on her head.  

       “Tree climbing is like a dream.  I can do this all the time.”

Photo Description and Copyright Information.

Photo 1.

Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice.  Copyright by Namoi Ruth Waggener Rice.

Photo 2.

Scrapbook page of Maya Angelo poem and image by Christal Cooper.  Copyright by Christal Cooper.

Photo 3.

Naomi climbing a tree.  Copyirght by Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice.

Photo 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Married couple Jody Rice (left) and Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice climbing the Naomi Tree.   Copyright by Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice.

Photo 9.

Naomi in the tree boat.  Copyright by Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice.

Photo 10.

Squirrell.  Photo by David Iliff.  Licnse:  CC.BY.SA 3.0

Photo 11.

Naomi sleeping in the tree boat in the tree.  Copyright by Naomi Ruth Waggener Rice.