The Monster Engine

Today’s post is about a book.

It’s not an editing reference, or a writing reference, or a how-to of any kind. It’s a children’s book, of sorts, which takes an interesting perspective on children and imagination.

In The Monster Engine, Dave DeVries has taken children’s drawings of monsters, creatures and things that go bump in the night and fleshed them out into vividly colored 3-D creations. He has then gone back and interviewed each child artist, asking them about their monster.

You might worry that perhaps the children might feel disempowered by this; their creation taken away from them, their own rudimentary skills dwarfed by the attention of a professional artist. Don’t. The children all seem to love seeing their visions transformed. In some cases (even though DeVries is quick to qualify that he’s no psychologist), it even seems to have helped them put their fears into perspective.

It’s a brilliant concept, very well executed. DeVries has gone on to gallery shows and school tours. He works with college students on mixed media and digital art technique, and with elementary school students with a stage show geared toward introducing children to art.

I’m not including any sample pictures here because I want you to go to the site and see them for yourself.