The Colours of Calgary Reads

I like bright colours!

(This sun is on the front of my house.)

A few weeks ago I had the chance to draw some pictures for Calgary Reads, a local early literacy initiative. (Here's the picture I drew!) A group that encourages reading – what’s not to love about that? But there was something else I really liked, too: the colours. Calgary Reads has used colour to make its work space fun, vibrant, and inviting. And in doing so, it’s branded itself as a fun and colourful organization.

---

It seems like a no-brainer: bright colours will make things more memorable, more accessible, and more welcoming! But it’s surprising how seldom folks are willing to take a chance and add colour to their scheme. I guess there’s always the danger that the colour you love might rub someone the wrong way. Taste in colour is pretty subjective. But I’d rather take the chance – especially in the space I’m going to inhabit (or work in) myself. Being surrounded by an inspiring space – which definitely includes colour – makes all the difference to my happiness and productivity. Well, and it helps if there’s also a coffee pot.

Calgary Reads front lobby welcomes you in with bright colours that tell you all about what you’ll find inside. Here is a bookshelf’s worth of sponsor names – a great way to recognize them in a permanent way that’ll never get boring.

---

Everywhere you look, there’s art by local mural artist Dean Stanton. His style is pretty unmistakable. One of his best-known works is the mural on Sunalta School (you can see it from Crowchild Trail. And you can also get a pretty good view of it from Scarboro Avenue – right across the street from the school – which is where I grew up!).

I like how the objects on this wall seem to tell a story – starting small and getting bigger as your eye moves towards the right. You “read” the wall from left to right, just the same way you read the words on the page of a book!

One of my favourite things has to be this wall covered with paintings, many of which feature childrens’ depictions of illustrations from well-loved children’s books. (In case you didn’t know, I’m a fan of YA fiction.) Here’s Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are; Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess; Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree; and Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.

You can find out more about Crockett Johnson in Phil Nel's book, Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature. Phil's book was nominated for an Eisner Award (Best Educational/Academic Work) – pretty cool again. I still have a blog post about that book in the back of my head, but I got distracted from that project by a few things last year (like having a baby). (And yes, I am writing all this in the company of said baby at the really great Telus Spark Science Centre surrounded by a thousand children who can’t play outside because it’s minus twenty-two degrees out.)

And there's Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I have the feeling Calgary Reads' Steacy Collyer, who was the driving force behind all these colours, would get along fine with the German artist Angela Holtermann-Stumpf. Here's a picture of her house in the city of Witten. I wish my house looked something like this, too!

Colours at my house

When I bought my 1911 Ramsay house in 2004, every single surface in the house was painted white. I loved that – it was like a blank canvas just waiting for me to paint. And I didn’t stop until I had done just that.

I like painting skies and suns on the ceiling. (I’m really claustrophobic, so I think it’s really just about creating the illusion that there’s more space over my head.)


Here’s a sun I painted on the ceiling of an apartment I lived in about fifteen years ago (above). The room was already purple. I never would have chosen that colour, but it kind of grew on me. And here’s my own living room ceiling (below). This picture was taken by Rachel Psutka, a interactive reporter at the Regina Leader-Post, during her internship at the Calgary Herald a couple of years ago.

---

Here are some pictures of my house back when we renovated it (and I painted everything!). And down here is a little mural I painted on my son’s wall after he was born. Wasn’t I ambitious back then? We’ll be lucky if my second son even gets a mural at this rate!

I'm looking forward to catching up with the colourful Calgary Reads on March 6th, at their Reading Rally at Ramsay School! What is a Reading Rally? Here's what Calgary Reads' website has to say:

Reading Rallies are reading parties at Calgary Reads schools. This is a joyful time of laughter and fun with dozens of volunteers who join with the young readers in very small groups to share the joy of reading and read stories aloud. A celebrity storyteller joins in the fun by reading a book aloud, demonstrating how fun reading really can be. Every child attending the event gets a book bag filled with goodies and several new books, often the first book some of these children have ever owned.

Doesn't that sound like fun? See you there!