My Cup of Art

Selected for the CBC’s 2022 December Hot Off The Press Reading List (https://www.cbcbooks.org/cbc-book-lists/december-2022/).

"This playful pop-up book imagines how various artists might create a tea or coffee cup. Vincent van Gogh’s vase-shaped cup (because he often painted flowers) has an ear for a handle. Yayoi Kusama’s cup hides in a sea of polka dots." ―2022 NY Times Holiday Gift Guide

"Gr 1-3–Using the loosest of phrases, “inspired by,” Karolik recreates such pieces as van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Kandinsky’s Composition VIII, Mondrian’s Composition II with Red, Blue and Yellow, and Hopper’s Nighthawks with the inclusion of cups or mugs to show how looking at the world with an artist’s eye can inform everything. She puts a bright yellow mug of steaming liquid against the familiar starry sky in van Gogh’s field of blue with a just-as-vivid sunflower. The handle gives way to reveal beneath a flap the artist’s ear. Egon Schiele’s extraordinary gaze at viewers is concealed in the mug that replaces his head but flips up to reveal it. Next to each creation are facts about the featured artist, the choices Karolik has made, and prompts—often with answers—as to what has inspired the painting. It’s a challenging book, a riveting set of decisions and worthy of rereadings. With its flaps and lift-ups, it’s not ideal for institutional use, but worth the risk. The conversations students might have about that ear-handle alone are worth the cost of replacement copies.VERDICT A thoughtful work of art about works of art, and about the artists behind the work." ―Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal

"This Czech import uses a coffee cup as a way to interpret the art of nine modern artists. Karolik introduces the book with short paragraphs explaining that “Great artists painted ordinary things…” She takes a well-known artwork from each artist and re-imagines it with a cup as the centerpiece. Each of nine spreads contains the re-imagined image, along with a description of the artist’s painting style and several keywords that describe their work. And each spread has a pop-up component. These showcase the artist’s personality or trademark style. The Egon Schiele spread explains the importance of line and emotion, and the flap under the cup lifts up to reveal an emotional face as shown in a self portrait from 1912. The last spread invites the reader to add their own cup drawing in a framed insert. Although not specifically labelled as a book on modern art, the work examines artists from several modernist movements, from impressionism’s Vincent van Gogh to pop art’s Yayoi Kusama. I like that readers get an overview of their philosophy through words and an image. The book is a playful exercise in style for older readers who won’t confuse the images with artwork from the profiled artists." ―Youth Services Book Review

"The cool thing about this book is all the pop-ups, flaps, sliding pages, and die-cut openings. It’s very clever how each page has something different and interesting!" ―Luminous Libro Blog