An artist talk and book signing with Allen Crawford

Thursday, May 15, 2014 – 6:00pm – 7:00pm

Join us for a talk with artist Allen Crawford, as we explore his personal and artistic voyage through Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself. Crawford will share the context to his approach illustrating the text, detail his relationship and struggle with Whitman’s work, and illuminate his own creative process.

Walt Whitman’s iconic collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, has earned a reputation as a sacred American text. Whitman himself made such comparisons, going so far as to use biblical verse as a model for his own. Crawford has turned the original sixty-page poem from Whitman’s 1855 edition into a sprawling 234-page work of art. The handwritten text and illustrations intermingle in a way that’s both surprising and wholly in tune with the spirit of the poem—they’re exuberant, rough, and wild.

Allen Crawford is an illustrator, designer, and writer. He and his wife Susan are proprietors of the design/illustration studio Plankton Art Co. Their most notable project to date is the collection of 400 species-identi?cation illustrations that are on permanent display at the American Museum of Natural History’s Millstein Hall of Ocean Life. They also created the Rosenbach’s logo! Under the pseudonym Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy , he wrote, designed, and illustrated The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One.

Free for members! Program cost included in general admission. Advanced registration is recommended. For more information or to register, call (215)732-1600, ext. 100 or e-mail rsvp@rosenbach.org.