He was inspired, he said, by a favorite children’s book, Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,’’ which has an underlying message about generosity. He e-mailed some 300 artists and illustrators and asked them to paint or illustrate a three-dimensional cardboard tree, which he had manufactured in Colombia. (It was cheaper there, he said.)
Hoping that artists would not only respond but that “each artist would make an incredible, very different tree,’’ Isy’s plan was to donate the trees to Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit that promotes early literacy, to be auctioned at their annual fund-raiser.
It was hard to know where to start: He only knew one artist, his school art teacher. He found others by searching illustrators and artists on the Web, contacting artist associations, through referrals from Reach Out and Read, and by shooting for the stars. He wrote, for example, to glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose work he’d seen at the Museum of Fine Arts. (“If he wanted to do a glass tree, Isy was all there for it,’’ said his mother, Becky Behar.) He wrote to Michelle Obama. She isn’t an artist, but she’s big on children’s literacy, Isy explained.
The question was: Would any of the artists come through for him? At first it didn’t look good. It took about 50 e-mails before he even got a response.
A few, including Chihuly, said they wanted to participate but didn’t have time, so they sent autographed books and prints. Michelle Obama’s office sent him a supportive if generic e-mail.
But about 35 artists did respond, and those who did threw themselves into the project with such enthusiasm that their trees will be exhibited at the Danforth Museum and School of Art’s Children’s Gallery in Framingham, beginning in May. The auction, held online, will run concurrently.
Author-illustrator Grace Lin of Somerville, a Newbery Honor book winner who is enamored of large origami animals, painted a tree with tiny origami birds.
