An illustrious bit of work

Deirdre Newman

EASTBLUFF -- By the time most people reach 35, they have gone through

a few careers. For Robin Preiss Glasser, 35 was the age she finally

realized her childhood dream of becoming an illustrator.

Last year, her long road to attaining her artistic aspirations took a

meteoric turn when she was chosen by Lynne Cheney, Vice President Dick

Cheney’s wife, to illustrate a book about patriotism.

On Friday, Glasser, whose child attends Eastbluff Elementary School,

visited the school to talk to students about illustrating “America, A

Patriotic Primer” and the experience of working with Cheney. The visit

was in advance of the book’s official release Tuesday.

She encouraged the students to follow their passion, however long it

takes.

“It took me my whole life, plus four years of art school, plus five

more years of trying to be an illustrator,” Glasser said. “But I didn’t

give up.”

Glasser, whose humorous drawing style has imbued a bunch of children’s

books, said she was shocked when she got the call letting her know of

Cheney’s interest. Cheney had seen the illustrations Glasser did for “You

Can’t Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts.”

“It was scary and daunting, because I think of myself as a comic

artist,” Glasser said. “I think it helped because I took a heavy subject

and made it fun.”

Cheney devised the idea to write an alphabet book before the terrorist

attacks of Sept. 11. But after that fateful day, the concept and the

timeline changed dramatically, Glasser said.

“‘H’ was always for heroes and ‘I’ was ideals, but we had traditional

heroes [at first],” Glasser said. “We changed it to heroes of today,

which is what kids can understand.”

Heroes are now represented with illustrations of firefighters, nurses

and teachers.

The deadlines were also moved up, forcing Glasser to work with only

one dummy -- a layout of the pictures -- cutting and pasting new versions

on top of the old ones.

Despite the hurried pace, Glasser said the experience was cathartic in

dealing with the emotions the events of Sept. 11 created.

“When all of us were thinking, ‘What can I do?,’ I had a project

already,” Glasser said.

In addition to discussing the illustrating process, Glasser also

regaled students with anecdotes about taking hand towels from the vice

presidential bathroom (after asking for permission) and trying to eat on

Cheney’s couch without making a mess.

Students said they were inspired by Glasser’s presentation.

“I thought it was great because I learned to always do your best,

encourage yourself to do things and never give up,” said third-grader

Hailey Senske, 8.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .