Re: Mary GrandPré in SLC and the canonicity of her artwork

[grannybat84112]

Dicentra  wrote:

> Mary GrandPré, who created the cover art 
> and chapter illustrations for the Scholastic editions of HP,
> gave a lecture at the Salt Lake City, Utah library on Saturday, Nov.
> 15th.  The SLC denizens from HPfGU and SugarQuill arrived in costume
> ... Dooda, FoxyDoxy, GrannyBat, Dicentra (me), Lilac, 
> Wahlee, and a few others from SQ whom I did not know....

<gigantic snip of nifty write-up> 
> 
> She showed us slides of some of the illustrations she's done over 
> the years. They are all much cooler, IMO, than her HP work.  The 
> faces of Fleur, Cedric, and Krum on the cover of GoF carry signs 
> her trademark facial style but Harry doesn't.   

The bit of the dog (Padfoot, I assume) peeking over the hedge, only 
the top of his head and his brooding eyes visible, is more 
illustrative (heh) of the sense of humor she displays in her other 
work, too. She sneaks her whimsy into some of the chapter drawings, 
I've noticed; the image of Lockhart's beaming teeth and Ron looking 
queasy over a cauldronful of slugs springs to mind. I got the 
impression that the art director doesn't attach nearly as much 
importance to the chapter drawings as to the book jacket, so she may 
feel she has more leeway for humor inside the book.

She must have had a lot of fun drawing the house elf heads wearing 
Santa Clause trims.
 

> She makes three preliminary sketches and they choose one, "they" 
> being the Scholastic editor and art director.  She does not confer 
> with JKR on the illustrations, because the editors want the artists 
> to come up with their own interpretation of the story. 
> ...This means, then, that the illustrations are NOT CANON. 

Should this paragraph be posted to the main list? I debated posting 
something similiar.
 

> However, JKR does approve her preliminary character sketches, but
> she's very willing to let GrandPré bring her own artistic vision 
> into the art -- which means that she very likely approved Snape 
> With Goatee and other renderings that fans dislike.  
> She says that reading is very difficult for her (dyslexia?), and 
> that we fans know the books far better than she does.  

I think it's worth noting that when I asked her why she drew Snape in 
a way other than how JKR described him (couched in terms of who 
approves the final drawings, so as not to appear hostile), GrandPre's 
face went blank for a moment and she asked in a small voice, "How is 
he described?" 

Maybe this is just a projection of my own feelings, but I seemed to 
sense a collective "Huh???!" of disbelief from the audience...at 
least, down the row to my left, where all the black academic gowns 
were sitting. ;) The woman who puts the face on Our Boy Harry says 
she loves him--but she doesn't remember important details like that?
(!)

I gave her a condensed version of canon rather than quote chapter and 
verse. She took a moment, then said, still in that small, somewhat 
intimidated voice, that she thought JKR's description left enough 
room for "other" interpretations.

Clearly the woman does not realize the important function that 
Details Assumed or Deliberately Not Described serve in JKR's text. 
(If Snape had been meant to have facial hair, Harry would have noted 
it. And I'm sure his messy, greasy, teenage-nightmare-of-a-hairdo 
will prove important to character development when Snape's past is 
revealed.) 
 
I can't accept that JKR approved the image of balding Snape with a 
goatee. Maybe it's a personal, private joke of hers--maybe the 
chemistry teacher upon whom she based Our Beloved Potions Master 
really was balding and bearded--but it spoils my mental image of a 
pivotal character.


>(She's left-handed, BTW.) By the time we becostumed folks got to her,
> she had been signing for about 45 minutes (I think).  
> ...  I had her write "To Dicentra: Rictusempra!" though it came out
> "Rictosempra."  I don't think she knew what Rictusempra meant.

That didn't surprise me. If she couldn't remember Snape's physical 
description or which hand Harry uses to hold his wand, it's a cinch 
she wouldn't remember a spell that was used only once throughout the 
books. 
 
 
> She thanked us for coming in costume, and when I mentioned that we
> were a bunch of Internet folks, she asked what site I meant. "Harry
> Potter for Grownups," I replied. "Ooohhh!" she said, recognizing the
> name.  "Did you go to the conference in Orlando?"  I told her that I
> had, and observed that she had been invited but wasn't able to make
> it.  She told me that the move to Florida, plus some recent surgery
> and other stuff made it impossible for her to go.  
> 
> Dooda, FoxyDoxy, GrannyBat, and Lilac will have to tell you what she
> said to them: I wasn't listening.   

When my turn came she asked me if we were all together. I said yes, 
were were all members of HP4GU, and I was the obnoxious Snape 
questioner. She smiled. (I'll confess I was afraid I had scared her 
off during the Q&A.) She confirmed that I wanted her to sign on the 
page that had the Snape-facing-off-with-Sirius drawing for the 
Occlumency chapter, then scribbled my online name, date, and her sig 
in the white space. 

As I moved to make space for the next person in line, GrandPre said 
she liked my lipstick--a deep, metallic green, for those of you who 
didn't see it.  


> --Dicentra, who forgot to ask her why Harry was holding his wand in
> his *left* hand on the covers of GoF and OoP. Rats!

I didn't manage to ask, either, but I'm not worried about this 
anymore. When Jen showed us her copy of the special edition hardback, 
I noticed that the image of Harry in the blue DoM room is used as end 
pages. While we were ooohing and aaaahing over the details of 
Dumbledore's spectacles and the decapitated fairies that grace the 
Black house on the new book jacket, she pointed out that the first 
cover art had been "flipped" inside the book covers. There Harry 
holds his wand in his right hand.

So, aside from GrandPre's potential dyslexia and lack of memory for 
details, whichever hand was drawn in the original artwork has no 
hidden meaning attached to it. 

Grannybat