He hid with a pair of storks in a nest of twigs, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
want to give me your problem, I’ll solve it. If not,
encouraging. There was a parent-teacher meeting
give it to somebody else.”
and my mother said to one of the teachers, “Who
VALERIO: You went to public school in Philadelphia.
did all those nice pictures that are hanging in the hallway?” And the teacher said, “Your son.” My
SANTORE: I went to the Meredith School until
mother had no idea. I was always encouraged by
second grade, then transferred to the Campbell
the teachers in school.
School, an elementary school in the neighborhood. I drew a lot at home and had an aunt who would buy me drawing materials. When I started school the teachers really encouraged me. From a very young age I was always, it seems, doing a frieze. They used to call them friezes in those days. They had these
I went on to Bartlett Junior High School, but there was a lot of racial tension, a lot of fighting. I grew up right where the Fleisher Art Memorial is, but I was never in the building. I would sit on the steps outside with my friends and make fun of the people going into Fleisher, but I would never go in. It was
big rolls of brown paper and teachers would ask me to draw something. One teacher used to spend her vacations in Mexico, so she would ask me to draw scenes of Mexico. Maybe in second grade, I’m
important to me to be able to hold my own with my friends. That’s one of the things you had to do. VALERIO: You hung out with the rough kids?
doing these big friezes of Mexico for her. It was very CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
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