Written & Illustrated by
Gerald McDermott

The words and images of my book, Creation, grew out of my desire to cast in a new light the often-told and much beloved story of creation and to welcome everyone, regardless of the direction from which they come, to enter into this ancient mystery with an open heart. The voice of the story is an inner one that begins with a breath and a whisper, a spark ignited within us all that grows to illuminate the universe.

 


My telling is based on Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 of the Hebrew Bible, with an eye toward its antecedents in the ancient Near East, such as the Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish, and sources as diverse as the illuminated Bibles Moralisées of thirteenth-century France and the Sarajevo Haggadah of fourteenth-century Spain.

A long journey - figuratively through the stories of many different cultures and literally far from home - gave me new perspectives. I conceived the words in Santiago de Chile and sketched the first images in Tokyo. I returned from Japan with a portfolio of handmade mulberry-bark paper whose organic textures inspired the swirls and shadings of my gesso-and-fabric-color paintings. As in all of my work, Creation is an outer expression of the inner reality that connects every human soul.

G.M.

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Dutton Children’s Books
October 2003
ISBN 0-525-46905-2