Once reluctant, artist thrives in kids' lit
Illustrator Kadir Nelson finds success and fulfillment
ADRIENNE JOHNSON MARTIN, Staff Writer
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CORRECTION
A report Friday in Life, etc. had an incorrect birthplace for author Carole Boston Weatherford. She is a native of Baltimore.
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To think, at first, Kadir Nelson didn't want to illustrate children's books. When asked that first time, he hesitated. The book required a "cartoony" style; his work was "painterly," more realistic. Besides, he didn't want to be seen solely as a children's book illustrator.
Then, for the some of the same reasons, he reconsidered. "It was a challenge," he says, "and I thought I would give it a shot."

The challenge became 1999's "Brothers of the Knight," a collaboration with director/actress/choreographer Debbie Allen. And now, more than a dozen books later, Nelson is very much a children's book illustrator, very successful at it, and very happy to be one.

"A whole world opened up to me," he says by phone from his home in San Diego.
Nelson will show some of his work tonight at a free event at the St. Joseph's Historic Foundation in Durham as part of the center's Jazzy Friday events. Included will be illustrations from "Ellington Was Not a Street," written by poet Ntozake Shange, for which Nelson won the prestigious Coretta Scott King Award; "Please, Puppy, Please," a collaboration with director Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya; and the recently released "Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom," written by Baltimore native Carole Boston Weatherford. Children are welcome.

The visit by the 32-year-old illustrator brings him to a familiar place. His mother, Emily Diane Gunter, lives in Durham.

On the phone, Nelson speaks softly and thoughtfully, but not easily. He admits he's "not the biggest people person in the world." In art, it seems, he finds his voice.

That voice came early, his mother says. His uncle Michael Morris, an artist himself, saw ability when Nelson was just 3.

One day, Morris was baby-sitting Nelson, his siblings and cousins. Morris gave the children some paper so he could have some peace while working. The other children took the paper and pencils and crayons and went to town. Nelson held his pencil perfectly, then watched his uncle's artful sweeping motions and mimicked them perfectly. Morris soon realized this was no fluke.

When Gunter came home, Morris told her 'I think Kadir has a genius.'
"He asked me to watch him and see, to really observe him," Gunter says. "But I forgot." With four kids, she had plenty to do. "I missed two years of his work."

Filling his walls

But at 5, Nelson brought her a painting of Mickey Mouse. "It was paint-by-number but he couldn't follow the numbers so he did his own colors and it was beautiful."

Nelson filled the walls of his room with art. Once while he was out, his mother took all the work taped to his walls down, framed them, hung them in the living room, then left blank canvases for him to fill on his room's walls.

He had his first show at 13. At 17, he illustrated a book written by Gunter.
At New York's Pratt Institute, he studied figure drawing. Later he worked at Dreamworks film studio, creating illustrations of scenes so that directors such as Steven Spielberg could better envision them and find inspiration.

These days, Nelson stays busy not just with his children's book illustrations, but with commissions and shows. His works are in the homes of celebrities such as Will and Jada Pinkett Smith (he also illustrated a book with Will), Shaquille O'Neal, Sharon Stone, Spielberg and Denzel Washington. A baseball fan, he has done work for the San Diego Padres and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Married, he and his wife have two daughters, 6 and 10. The girls are "shy" about having a father whom they watch create at home, but they also seem to have developed a bit of his eye.
Once, he says, when his oldest daughter was 4, he was painting a mural of the late singer Marvin Gaye. A sketch he was working on included an image of a woman tinted purple. "She looked at it and said, 'she shouldn't be purple,' " he says. He considered her words and changed the woman to a more golden, orange and yellow color. It worked better.

What the kids say

He trusts his young fans in the same way. "I haven't heard any criticisms," he says. "Which is good. Children are honest and they notice everything."

Nelson's next collaboration, due early next year is "Michael's Golden Rules," written by Deloris and Roslyn Jordan, the mother and sister of basketball legend Michael Jordan. And then there's "Henry's Freedom Box" in the spring.

The world of children's book illustration has proved to be fulfilling.

"There are librarians, children, families, schools," he says, sounding as if he's counting blessings. "There are many components that make up this wonderful world."

Staff writer Adrienne Johnson Martin can be reached at adriennj@newsobserver.com or 829-4751.