CONVERSATIONS WITH ART: Exhibit at Belmont Village Westwood, Los Angeles, CA

It was a pleasure to be part of the gala opening of the exhibit Conversations in Art at the Belmont Village Senior Living Westwood in Los Angeles today. I was one of twelve artists whose work is featured. Each of us had five minutes to tell a little bit about ourselves and our work, which ranged from paintings and drawings, to photography, calligraphy, jewelry and reimagined puzzles. I showed giclee prints of four illustrations from my Australian animal books—A KOALA’S WORLD, A KANGAROO’S WORLD, A PLATYPUS’ WORLD and A WOMBAT’S WORLD. I thank Alicia Thomason in Community Relations at the Belmont for doing an excellent job of organizing and hanging the exhibit.

Conversations with Art features works by UCLA Emeriti and Retirees. (I am a former instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.) The exhibit is a collaboration of the Belmont Village Senior Living community with the UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center. It will be on display through February 2026 and can be viewed Monday-Sunday between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm. Belmont Village is at 10475 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

GRINNELL COLLEGE LIBRARY--A Complete Collection of My Books

Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa.

I am proud that Burling Library, the Grinnell College library in Grinnell, Iowa, has all of my books in its collection. To my knowledge, it is the only institution that has copies of every one of my published books. (Note: the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota, one of the few national archives of children's books, has many of my books, as well as the accompanying manuscripts and correspondence. They also have my original art used for the books I illustrated.)

Five Nests (1980), my first published book.

I graduated from Grinnell College in 1966 with a B.A. in Art. My first book for children, Five Nests (E.P. Dutton) was published in 1980 and the publisher sent a copy of the book to the college library. Since then I have been sending copies of my books as they have come out. The books are kept in the Special Collections Room of Burling Library on the ground floor of the library along with books by other Grinnell College graduates.

Burling Library, Grinnell College.

I am the author of 170 books for children. Most are illustrated by other people. But between 2006 and 2015 I illustrated 16 of my books published by PictureWindow Books (Capstone). On my recent trip to Grinnell I brought 16 giclee prints of illustrations from those books--one from each book--and donated them to the library. (See list below.) I am glad to have them become part of the Grinnell Library collection. I thank Christopher Jones, the librarian in charge of Special Collections, for making my books and art available to students and users of the college library.

Giclee prints of cut-paper illustrations by Caroline Arnold for the following books are in the Grinnell College Library:

DAY AND NIGHT SERIES (2015)

Illustration from A Day and Night in the Desert 

A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE DESERT, pp 16-17 (PictureWindow Books, 2015)

 A DAY AND NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE, pp 12-13 (PictureWindow Books, 2015)

 A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE RAIN FOREST, pp 6-7  (PictureWindow Books, 2015)

 A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE FOREST pp 16-17 (PictureWindow Books, 2015)

BLACK AND WHITE ANIMALS SERIES (2006)

Illustration from A Panda's World

A PANDA’S WORLD, pp. 4-5 and 20-21, (PictureWindow Books, 2006)

 A PENGUIN’S WORLD, pp. 20-21, (PictureWindow Books, 2006)

 A KILLER WHALE’S WORLD, pp. 8-9, (PictureWindow Books, 2006)

 A ZEBRA’S WORLD, pp. 18-19 and 20-21, (PictureWindow Books, 2006)

AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS SERIES (2008)

Illustration from A Kangaroo's World

A KANGAROO’S WORLD, pp. 18-19 and  20-21, (PictureWindow Books, 2008)

 A KOALA’S WORLD, pp. 12-13,  PictureWindow Books, 2008)

 A PLATYPUS’ WORLD, pp. 14-15, (PictureWindow Books, 2008)

 A WOMBAT’S WORLD, pp. 16-17, (PictureWindow Books, 2008)

ARCTIC ANIMAL SERIES (2010)

Illustration from A Bald Eagle's World

A BALD EAGLE’S WORLD, pp. 10-11,  (PictureWindow Books, 2010)

 A MOOSE’S WORLD, pp. 6-7,  (PictureWindow Books, 2010)

 A POLAR BEAR’S WORLD, pp. 18-19, (PictureWindow Books, 2010)

 A WALRUS’  WORLD, pp. 8-9 and 18-19 , (PictureWindow Books, 2010)

 

AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS is Now a Kindle Book

My book, AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. It was originally published by HarperCollins in 2000 and is out of print. The cover has been redesigned but the text and full color photos inside are the same as in the original book. AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS is illustrated with pictures that I obtained through photo research from a variety of sources including my own collection. Many came from my several trips to Australia, including an extended stay in 1999 when my husband was there doing a research project. I am happy to have AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS now available to new readers as an e-book. You can read it with a Kindle app on various devices (I use my iPad) or on your computer.


"The continent of Australia is home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife. Tasmanian devil, koalas and echidnas make their homes in leafy forests and woodlands. Other animals, such as kangaroos and wombats, inhabit dry grasslands. Still more species, like the bilbies, live in the hot desert, while along the coast fairy penguins parade to their burrows in the sand. Young readers will discover how each animal--from dingo to glider, quoll to platypus--is able to adapt to its own special environment in the wild." (from the flap of the original book)


REVIEW
School Library Journal
Arnold divides her well-organized text into sections that cover the four diverse biomes that are found on the Australian continent and focuses on particular creatures that inhabit these areas. The two-paragraph text describing each of the 17 animals is encased in a beige block to set it off from the full-color photographic background. Striking, close-up photos complement the author's comments.

Favorites

What is my favorite book, animal, food, color, place to visit?  I often get asked these questions when I do school visits.
Of the books I have written, it is really difficult to pick just one, but among my favorites is The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers. The Hodag is a creature with the head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur and tail of an alligator. It roams the north woods where lumberjacks cut down trees. I first learned about the Hodag when I was a child and went to camp in northern Wisconsin. My story is an original tall tale.
I love learning about animals because each one is different.  However, if I have to pick one as a favorite, it would be cats.  I have always had a pet cat. I especially liked writing about members of the cat family in my books about lions, cheetahs, and bobcats.
My favorite food is bread.  I like sweet breads, whole grain breads, quick breads like muffins and pancakes, bread sticks, flat breads, and just about any way that flour can be made into bread.  I like to eat bread and I like to make it too.
My favorite color is green.
Picking a favorite place to visit is really hard.  I have traveled all over the world and have been to every continent except Antarctica.  Every place is fascinating.  But, one of the places I have visited numerous times is Australia, so I think that would go on the top of my list.
What are your favorites?

School of the Air, Australia

School of the Air main classroom in 1999

   The School of the Air is one of Australia's solutions to teaching children who live in remote places.  To find out how it got started, go to my travel blog, The Intrepid Tourist for my entry on Alice Springs.  The School of the Air teaches about 200 children, some of them living as far as 1000 kilometers from Alice Springs.  In 1999, when I was in Australia, I visited the main facility in Alice Springs. I listened in as a teacher gave a lesson to a six year old student.  Kids get group lessons by grade level each morning for an hour and then once a week each child gets an individual lesson.  The kids get lesson packets every two weeks in the mail and the work is supervised either by a parent or a governess.  We saw samples of work on display at the school headquarters and it was well done.  In many ways these kids have all the advantages of individual attention in their home schooling and at the same time they are able to grow up on their cattle stations and be part of that life too. 
    School of the Air goes to grade 7 and after that the kids go to boarding school.  Our tour guide on the cattle ranch where we stayed (it was also a B and B) had grown up there and went to School of the Air with his brother and two sisters (in the 1970's and 1980's).  We saw the room that they had used for their lessons, which has been preserved as it was when they were growing up.  Although we had driven into the ranch on a dirt road that was in bumpy but reasonable condition, until recently there was no road at all.  Getting into town was an ordeal, especially if it rained and the creeks filled with water, so School of the Air was the best option. After our visit, I had an increased appreciation of the challenge of bringing up children and educating them in remote places like Australia's outback.

Turning a Jumble of Facts into an Idea

When I was a child, my favorite lunch was Campbell’s alphabet soup. I loved to fish out the noodle letters and arrange them on my plate until they spelled a word. Writing and illustrating a book is a little bit like that. I take a jumble of facts and put them together so they make sense. Just as the letters in my soup could be made into a variety of different words, facts can be arranged to tell a variety of different stories.

In my book A Penguin’s World, I followed two Adelie penguin chicks through a year of their life. The organizing principle is time sequence. In this book, I illustrated each step with my own cut paper art.
In Australian Animals, I grouped the animals by the places where they live. The organizing principle is a common space. This book is illustrated with photographs, many of them taken by me on my several trips to Australia.
In Birds: Nature’s Magnificent Flying Machines, I showed how each part of a bird’s body helps it to fly. The organizing principle is the physical act of flying. This book is illustrated with beautiful, scientifically accurate art by Patricia Wynne.

Each of these books is organized in a different way, but by the end of each one, all the pieces fit together in logical order to make a unified whole.