Joel Stewart Biography - Sidelights

Illustrator Joel Stewart may be best known for his mixed-media illustrations for two surreal works, The Adventures of a Nose by Viviane Schwarz and the classic Joel Stewart's imaginative and whimsical mixed-media illustrations depict the nasal protagonist of Viviane Schwarz's funny story about finding a place for oneself in the world. (From The Adventures of a Nose. ) poem Jabberwocky by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. The Adventures of a Nose is the tale of a gigantic, anthropomorphized nose who wanders around the world on his gray-flannel-clad legs (which grow out of his nostrils), searching for a place where he "can fit in, and stick out." The joke, which observant readers will quickly notice, is that the Nose does fit in wherever he goes: in each illustration, objects around the Nose combine to create the illusion of a face. When the nose sits in a library, two green-glass-shaded table lights form eyes, and the book on his lap creates a large white mustache; when the nose lies down on a psychiatrist's couch to explain his problems, the headrest creates his brow. Finally, the psychiatrist is able to explain to the nose what readers have already figured out: "The whole world fits perfectly around you … because you are a Nose!" A Publishers Weekly contributor called Stewart's illustrations "ingenious," while Sunday Times reviewer Nicolette Jones thought that the team of Stewart and Schwarz "clearly has a promising future."

Stewart's illustrations for Jabberwocky were also highly praised by many critics, including a Kirkus Reviews contributor who called them "brilliantly original" and commented that they "suit the wry humor of this nonsense poem … perfectly." Similarly, Nancy Palmer wrote in School Library Journal that Stewart's "almost cartoonish" illustrations "nicely convey the lighthearted mysteriousness of the poem."