LISSA ALEXANDER
reporter@pqbnews.com
A dynamic and diverse book of stories illustrated with artwork by local artists has now sold out and the proceeds were presented to The Old School House Arts Centre last week.
The Memory Shop was conceived by former TOSH artist Jody Schneider and brought to fruition with TOSH 10 artist Patricia Carroll and David Fraser of Ascent Aspirations Publishing. The vision was to create a book with 10 stories accompanied by illustrations which would appeal to children and young adults.
It began with a contest for online submissions run by Fraser and about 100 came in from around the Island, the mainland and as far away as Australia.
Blind judging was done to choose one winner and nine other writers to be included in the anthology.
Schneider and Carroll then invited ten local artists, all which have been resident artists at TOSH, to create a painting that would represent each story.
Fraser put it all together and the book was launched in November 2012 and the paintings were put up for sale. The book went into a second printing once the first batch sold out, and the last of the books were recently shipped to a buyer in Australia for a total of 175 books sold.
Schneider said she knew once the book was put together it would do well.
“Those were great stories and there were a lot of contributions from great people,” she said.
Carroll said her goal was to bring children closer to art.
“My idea was to have a children’s art book to encourage young people to appreciate fine art,” she said.
Schneider, Carroll and Fraser handed executive director at TOSH, Corinne James a cheque for $1,788 last week, and previously about another $1,200 was raised from the proceeds.
James thanked the three artists and commented that the project was a great success from start to finish.
Copies of The Memory Shop are available on loan from branches of the Vancouver Island Regional Library.