see | visual art
The Trouble with the Alphabet
Written + Illustrated by Caryn West
Click here to view a gallery of paintings from Caryn's book, The Trouble with the Alphabet.
Commercial artist Caryn West did not intend to create a book that could help change the world as well as the way we see it and participate in it, but that’s exactly what she has done. It certainly has changed her world.
What started out as a casual project to paint the alphabet on canvases for her young son’s room, became a labor of love driven by compassion and a newfound interest in the realities facing children around the globe.
What Caryn produced is a full-color, high quality, coffee table book with vibrant portraits, moving poetry, profound essays, and resourceful information to help readers understand and support solutions to major ills of the world. In particular, it addresses the plight of hundreds of millions of children in 25 countries that suffer under a variety of afflictions – AIDS, poverty, hunger, war, rape, genocide, and child labor to name a few.
Her book, The Trouble with the Alphabet: Through the Eyes of Innocence, is not just a book that merely catalogs problems and provides a few charities to donate to. It is much more. It is moving, inspiring, and deeply touching in how it presents the emotional portrait of voiceless, forgotten children left behind by a world of rage that most can’t comprehend, a world of discrimination and inhumanity most can’t fathom, and a world of greed and corruption most wouldn’t tolerate if they only knew.
“As the project evolved it changed my world, or at least how I saw it,” writes Caryn. “The realization that I have a responsibility not just to my own family, but to this life that I have been given, has become my inspiration. The children behind the issues compel me to reach farther and work harder. Innocence sacrificed to the mistakes of humanity feeds my creativity, empathy guides my brush, and conviction encourages me to put my thoughts to paper. But at the end of the day, it is the hope that I can make a difference that keeps me company when the brush falters and the words get lost in the darkness.”
With one country represented by each letter of the alphabet, the book addresses the many heart-wrenching issues plaguing the world’s children.
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Author/Artist Caryn West will be signing her new book The Trouble with the Alphabet at "Off the Beaten Path" bookstore in Steamboat Springs, CO. The event will take place on December 5th which is also the 1st Friday Art Walk. On display in the bookstore will be the 26 vivid and compelling portraits of children from around the word that are included in the book. Meet the author, see the images of the world’s children, learn their stories and move with us from apathy to activism. Make this years Chrismas gift “the gift that gives back.”
The paintings will be on exhibit through the holidays with the booksigning taking place on Friday the 5th as part of the 1st Friday Art Walk.
Friday December 5th, 2008 | 5PM - 8PM
Off the Beaten Path bookstore
68 9th Street
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
970-879-6830
Additional Signings:
Borders in Broomfield, CO
December 4 | 4 - 6 PM
As part of their Educator Appreciation Day.
Whole Foods in Bel Mar, CO
December 20
In support their Whole World Program
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Artist Info
Website: http://www.thetroublewiththealphabet.com
Email: caryn@thetroublewiththealphabet.com