Visiting Author in Sun Gazette

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Author says to illustrate and inspire creativity, show no fear


By GREG HAYES,
ghayes@sungazette.com
January 25, 2010


When Peter Catalanotto first began telling stories, he didn't tell them with words or by writing them down.

He told them with pictures.

While that may seem like standard practice for an author who began his career as an illustrator, Catalanotto did so because of his battle with dyslexia.

Despite that, the New York City native said he loved telling stories using pictures, particularly of animals - a subject of passion for him at young age. In elementary school, he was already a self-declared artist.
"If you love to tell stories with pictures and draw, you're just as much of an artist as I am," he told students at Schick Elementary School in Loyalsock Township on Thursday morning.
Catalanotto's career as a children's book author and illustrator began as an artist for newspapers, magazines and book covers - a progression of work that eventually led him to provide the artwork for Cynthia Rylant's book "All I See."

To date, Catalanotto's work is published in 38 books - 13 of which he has both written and illustrated.

Catalanotto described the evolution of illustrating scenes for a children's book in a presentation that showed the progression from a page of mere stick figures, which helps establish the location of characters, to the near-finished "dummy" product before publication.

When pitched with the idea of writing a book himself, Catalanotto told students he was hesitant because of his childhood struggle, but overpowered it by forming his own method of using pictures to help describe the story.

In describing the importance of brainstorming, he said to write down everything - no matter if the spelling or drawings are correct - because, from that, one can sort through "the mess" and develop a story.
First ideas "always stink," he said, but never throw those away, as they are the foundation from which to progress creatively.
The trick is to not worry about messing up, he said, because when people start fearing mistakes, "they stop being creative and become too scared to try anything new."

Catalanotto is the author and illustrator of such books as "Dylan's Day Out," "Ivan the Terrier" and "Matthew A.B.C."

Today, he lives in eastern Pennsylvania.