Aunty Catie’s use of basic shape to convey form and line to suggest detail is a nod to mid-century modern artists such as Charlie Harper and David Klein. In creating ‘An Awesome Alliterated Alphabet’, inspiration was drawn from her favourite books from childhood – Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, Richard Scarey’s ‘Busy People’, the simplicity of Eric Hill’s ‘Spot’, and Dick Bruner’s ‘Miffy’. The pictures that accompany each sentence are often amusing, sometimes poignant, and always strikingly well rendered.
About the author
About a year ago, Aunty Catie wanted to create a book that would involve her nieces’ and nephews’ names. In her misguided optimism, she thought this project would take no longer than a week, and would be an easy Christmas present for the littlies. A year and a half later, ‘An Awesome Alliterated Alphabet’ was born!
Aunty Catie is the moniker of Cate de Carteret, a singer songwriter, educator, designer and illustrator who is about to make her first foray into the world of children’s books. Her debut release ‘An Awesome Alliterated Animal Alphabet’ will be launched during the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival in late September.
“I love the puzzles and peculiarities of language, whether it be the topsy-turvy grammar of Japanese, the rolled ‘r’s in Italian or the surprisingly precise science behind the language of music! “The comedy and cadence that is the result of alliteration is a fun aspect of language and has been so much fun to write and chat about with friends over a coffee – or even to think about while waiting for a bus!”.
Lucky enough to have artists in her family (uncle Allen de Carteret and stepmother Jo Rietze), de Carteret recalls receiving her first pack of 72 Derwents in the ‘80s. “At first, I thought Graeme Base the only illustrator worth their salt and I would fervently copy pictures from ‘Animalia’ and ‘The Eleventh Hour’. “In my teens I was listening to a lot of heavy metal music and would buy tattoo magazines for my stepfather as joke presents. The images in them, and the sleeves of Guns N’ Roses and Led Zeppelin albums were so detailed and interesting to me. I would happily spend a weekend with my favourite tunes blaring whilst replicating or creating new (often gruesome and unbeknownst misogynistic) images.
“Terry Denton came to my high school when I was twelve and made it all look so easy. He and Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s resident cartoonist Andrew Fyfe were great influences on the many caricatures I created of my new teachers…perhaps not the best way to ingratiate them into my favour.”
Cate de Carteret’s studies and career have spanned from an undergraduate Psychology degree, working and teaching all ages in rural Japan, to working as a financial consultant with clients of varying degrees of incapacity due to illness and/or disability. It wasn’t until she moved to Melbourne’s creative hub Thornbury and started playing music and took up drawing and painting again, that she realized the importance of art and making art and its validity in the modern world.
‘An Awesome Alliterated Animal Alphabet’ is the result of Cate taking a sideways step from creating band logos and posters, and yes, she may have started writing music to accompany the book!
Funds will be used to cover printing costs of 1000 Hardcover copies of An Awesome Alliterated Alphabet. (Any extra funding will go towards printing more copies) Cost will include.:
Printing cost: $6000
Publishing with VIVID Publishing $500. Allocate VIVID Publishing ISBN, generate barcode, list with relevant book trade directories and databases enabling your book to be easily found.
Distribution costs: $1000
Postage: $500