Dennis Nolan: Do What you Love

singled out for recognition. Among them are The Castle Builder, (Fig. 4) winner of the Prix de Zephir in France; and Dinosaur Dream, (Fig. 5) a season’s choice in both Newsweek and New Yorker, and an SCBWI Golden Kite Honor Book. He has illustrated T. H. White’s classic The Sword in the Stone, and two of

Fig. 4 Dennis Nolan, The Castle Builder, 1993, pen and ink, book cover.

Bruce Coville’s retellings of Shakespeare’s

plays, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, andRomeo and Juliet, along with numerous other books, including titles by Jane Yolen, Ann Turner, Diane Stanley, and William Hooks. He collaborated with author and illustrator Lauren Mills on the illustrations for her story Fairy Wings, (Fig. 6), winner of the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, and returned to the primeval past in Shadow of the Dinosaurs, which he wrote and illustrated. Among recent publications are an illustrated biography, St. Francis of Assisi, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Skywriter, by Dennis Haseley, and his own wordless picture

book, Sea of Dreams.

Professor Nolan seems to have crossed

Fig. 5 Dennis Nolan, Dinosaur Dream, 1994, watercolor, picture book cover.

into the area of the inter-connection of artists. One of his assignments, titled the "Dream Assignment," presents an opportunity to abandon topics and methods chosen for career advancement in favor of subjects that are personally meaningful. This is the essence of Professor Nolan’s presentation which was more about the inter-connection of artists rather than a portfolio of his work. Professor Nolan took us through the earliest illustration and

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