Kinuko Y. Craft

Kinuko Y. Craft (1940 – ) is a Japanese born American contemporary painter, illustrator and fantasy artist.

Biography

Craft came to the United States in 1964 where she continues to live and work today. Her art has included paintings for the book covers of many well known fantasy authors such as Patricia A. McKillip, Juliet Marillier, Tanith Lee and many others. She has also designed opera posters, fairy tale books and covers for many national magazines such as Time, Newsweek and The National Geographic. Craft illustrated the cover art for the older editions of Shakespeare's work for the Folger Library. She has a passionate love of fine art and draws on a deep knowledge of art history in creating her work. She is most inspired by the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, the Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolist painters. Her paintings are done with a combination of artist oils and watercolor on clayboard gesso panels. Ms. Craft is a graduate (BFA 1964) of the Kanazawa College of Art (Kanazawa Bijutsu Kōgei Daigaku). She later studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she continued her studies in design and illustration. A majority of her earlier work was for the editorials and advertising market. Since the mid 1990’s, she has been illustrator for children’s picture books, fantasy book jackets, and posters.. Her fairy tale books are currently distributed in the USA, other English language countries, Europe, Greece, China and Korea. Her art has also been licensed on calendars, posters, greeting cards and other consumer goods. She has received numerous awards for her work, including several gold and silver medals from The Society of Illustrators, New York City, NY. Ms. Craft’s work could be found in the collections of National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, The Museum of American Illustration in New York City, The National Geographic Society, and other corporate collections. Her work has been recently added to the collection of National Portrait Gallery (United States). Ms. Craft was also gave lectures and workshops in numerous schools and organizations, including the Society of Illustrator, San Jose State University, Rhode Island School of Design, etc. [cite web|url=http://kycraft.com/biography.html|title=Kinuko Y Craft Biography]

Ms. Craft is as much as an illustrator as a story teller. But instead of using words, she uses color, texture, her sensibility and imagination to tell stories. In an interview with Locus Magazine, she told the interviewer,“I choose my jobs by instinct, by my reaction to the theme or manuscript. It must have a welcoming sensibility. The writer's sensibility must meet me half way. There must be room for my imagination, for my heart. I can't just be a hired hand. If something is not right, if I read the story and it's like a blank, then I know I can't do it. If the story is so offensive or alien, or too much for my psyche to take, I will know long beforehand, even before I can take on the research.

“Stories have a color, a certain smell and taste. I have to spend time with that, inhabit it, taste it, know it. I want to bring out my fantasy about that flavor.’’‘My mission is, I really feel, to tell my version of the story. To show my reaction to it. That's why I spend so much time on it. The more time I put in, the more something lives in the image. I actually live in the book while I work. I function much like an actor taking on a role. The outside world fades away. It can be a real problem, especially when we run low on food during an ice storm, and I've just spent twelve hours in my studio. But I think I've been in a fantasy world all my life.’’ [cite web|url=http://www.locusmag.com/2002/Issue08/Craft.html|title=Art & (Kinuko Y.) Craft|author=Locus Magazine Online]

Bibliography

Children's Picture Books::Pegasus (1998)::Cupid and Psyche (1996)::The Twelve Dancing Princesses (1989)::Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave (1994)::Cinderella (2000)::King Midas and the Golden Touch (1999)::The Adventures of Tom Thumb (2001)::Sleeping Beauty (2002)::Mother Goose ABC (1977) ::Bear, Wolf and Mouse (1975)::What Is It::Gingerbread Children (1973) ::Come Play With Me (1975) ::Cookie House (1978)::Treasure Island (1980)::Classics (1977)::Rumpelstiltskin

Ms. Crafts illustrated book jackets for the following Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors:::Isaac Asimov::Stephen King::Orson Scott Card::C. S. Lewis::Glen Cook::Sheri S. Tepper::Ursula K. Le Guin::Guy Gavriel Kay::Robin McKinley::Brian Aldiss::Katherine Kurtz::Sile Rice::Tanith Lee::Andre Norton::Raymond E. Feist::Pat O'Shea::Marion Zimmer Bradley::Patricia A. McKillip::Juliet Marillier::R. Garcia y Robertson

Museum Exhibitions

*The Cornish Colony Museum, Windsor VT "Heroines in Literature" (Winter 2006/2007)
* [http://www.kanazawa21.jp/ The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa] , Kanazawa Japan "A Spring Night's Dream" Spring 2006

References

External links

* [http://www.kycraft.com/ The art of Kinuko Y. Craft]
* [http://www.tendreams.org/craft.htm Ten Dreams Galleries]
* [http://www.duirwaighgallery.com Duirwaigh Gallery]
* [http://www.celestialseasonings.com/art-inspiration/profiles/kinuko-craft.html Ms. Craft’s profile on Celestial Seasonings]