About the Holiday

Established in 2004 by Canadian Romantic Realism artist Chris MacClure, today’s holiday celebrates artists working in all mediums from painting to sculpture, photography to music, writing to dance, and many more. Creative expression is a universal language, and society benefits when art and artists of all types are embraced and celebrated. The goal of International Artists Day is to celebrate the contributions of artists and to raise their stature and visibility around the world. A love of the arts can start at the youngest ages by exposing children—and even babies—to a variety of creative mediums and allowing them to explore their talents. For more information about International Artists Day, visit the IAD  website.

My Art Book of Love

Written by Shana Gozansky

Don’t be surprised if you feel a flutter of the heart upon opening the cover of My Art Book of Love. Page after page of gloriously reproduced paintings from thirty-four artists from the past and working today demonstrate love in all of its actions, forms, colors, and meanings. Divided into six sections, the paintings touch on what love is, how love feels, what love looks like, and other qualities of this tender emotion.

Courtesy of Phaidon Publishing, copyright 2018.

Accompanying each painting is a lyrical phrase that describes its feeling or subject and combines with the others in the section to create a moving verse that will warm the hearts of  little ones—and even older children. To begin, “Love is… soft snuggles…” represented by a detail from Gustav Klimt’s The Three Ages of Woman, in which a mother and child sleep cuddled together with the mother resting her head on her child’s soft curls. Love is also “tender nuzzles,” and any animal lover or child with a pet will recognize the shared affection as a little girl strokes her pet in Pierre Bonnard’s Little Girl with Cat.

Courtesy of Phaidon Publishing, copyright 2018.

The comfort an older sister provides for her younger sibling tugs at the heart in Paul Gauguin’s Piti Teina (Two Sisters), and Alan Katz demonstrates that growing up with a bunch of sisters can be an adventure in The Ryan Sisters, in which four girls walk down the road barefoot with their arms around each other. As an African-American boy wears his dad’s fedora while getting a big hug in Emory Douglas’s Father and Son, “Love feels… Safe.” A father’s encouragement can make a little one feel “brave” as in Vincent Van Gogh’s First Steps, after Millet, where a father spreads his arms to welcome a baby toddling his way.

Courtesy of Phaidon Publishing, copyright 2018.

In all the ways it is expressed, “Love is Beautiful.” Salvador Dali captured the joy a father feels for his child in Fiesta at the Hermitage, a fragment of which spotlights a father playfully lifting his infant above his head. Henry Moore’s sculpture Family Group lets children visually experience the solidarity of the family unit as a mother, father, and two children are connected through touch. Two vibrant and familiar artworks close out this poignant tribute and remind readers that “Love is for everyone!” as the linked figures dancing around a red heart in Keith Haring’s untitled painting and the bold and boxed letters L-O-V-E in Robert Indiana’s Philadelphia Love beautifully demonstrate.

Back matter presents thumbnail images of each art piece along with information on the artist, the work, and which museum it can be found in.

Courtesy of Phaidon Publishing, copyright 2018.

Exquisitely curated to offer a range of artistic styles, cultural touchstones, and emotional responses, My Art Book of Love is a sophisticated board book that is part museum, part love letter and a completely original and moving way to share and talk about love with babies, toddlers and older kids during quiet, cuddly story times. The book can also be used in classrooms to accompany reading, writing, and art lessons. The book makes an inspired choice as a gift or to add to any home, classroom, and public library.

Ages 2 – 4 and up

Phaidon, 2018 | ISBN 978-0714877181

International Artists Day Activity

I Love Blocks

Bare wooden blocks can provide lots of artistic fun for both young and older kids. Painted with craft paint or chalk board paint, they can be written on or drawn on with chalk. They can be stacked to make sentences or towers or sculptures.

Connected with glue or adhesive Velcro tape, blocks can become a robot or a giraffe, laid end-to-end they can be a train or a snake. Supply some cloth, play jewels, googly eyes, foam shapes, glitter, or other items and let kids play with their imagination and creativity!

You can find My Art Book of Love at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound

Picture Book Review