This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Children's book illustrator and author, Sylvia Long, was creative and artistic since childhood and her parents encouraged her to pursue a career in art. Long graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.
After four years of working with clay she discovered that she preferred to draw on the pots more than forming them. She switched mediums and soon a gallery in Wyoming began showing her work.
In the early 1980s while living on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Lander, Wyoming she read "Watership Down" by Richards Adams. Inspired by the rabbit characters in the book, Long created art which featured large Native American rabbits. Long's friend and writer, Virginia Grossman, approached her about using the rabbits in illustrations for a children's book. Grossman wrote and Long illustrated, "Ten Little Rabbits." Three publishing houses rejected the book and the artwork was set aside.
It wasn't until the early 1990s when Sylvia Long was living in Scottsdale, Arizona that she was encouraged again to submit the book to publishers. This time Chronicle Books optioned the book. "Ten Little Rabbits" went on to earn the International Reading Association's award for best children's book. The book has had over 15 printings and has been translated into several languages.
Long became a full time children's book illustrator and she has worked with some of the best children's authors in the world as well as written her own story "Hush Little Baby "(2002).
Along with fan mail from her young readers, Sylvia Long has been honored by the Arizona Libraries Association and was named the Judy Goddard children's book author/illustrator of the year (2002).
Sylvia Long has illustrated the following books:
The Most Timid in the Land
Ten Little Rabbits
Fire Race
Alejandro's Gift
Liplap's Wish
Any Bear Can Wear Glasses
Hush Little Baby
Mother Goose
Deck the Halls
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Hawk Hill
Source: The Arizona Sentinel, July 2002; Duley Jones Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ |
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