This new TPFF Visual Arts program creates an illustrated children’s book. Offered by two professional graphic artists, Michael Tudor David Akey, the book is built on  10 original poems with accompanying illustrations.  The story traces the developmental stages of a child. The setting is a prehistoric cave, where a young child sneaks out of the family cave to go explore the world for himself. Along this journey, the child meets various dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. Each creature corresponds with a milestone stage of child development. In this journey, we meet  Baby Explorasaurus who encounters a Velociraptor and learns how to sneak through the undergrowth of the forest. This adventure represents his first encounter with the world. In other explorations, he learns about sounds, like roar, and movements like stomp and jump.

This program has two components:

• Creating a children’s book  with a lead character that happens to be black. The writing, is comprised of short rhyming poems that will accompany each of the developmental stages of the child and corresponding dinosaur. The artwork will use  mixed media, watercolor, and pencil techniques combined with digital art.  Further technical finishing techniques to be done on computer.
• Offering a workshop with children from our community with who will participate in the development of original art work under the direction of the authors and graphic artists as they create their own pictures in response to images from the Explorasaurus.  This interactive session offers art education as they create expressive works of their own.  The experience aims to encourage communication and creativity that will build confidence, reduce stress, and enable a sense of community and belonging