Picture That
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Beth Parrocha captures the imagination of children and any inner child.
Born and raised in Caloocan City, she kindled her love for the visual arts at an early age. Her sister, Nell, drew lovely ladies in profile. “I would gather them from the waste bin,” she remembers. “I drew shy little ones over them until I was able to draw them by myself.”
Parrocha has a fine-arts degree with a major in visual communication from the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City. It was at the UP that she learned about picture books, that is, stories told through art that even nonreaders could enjoy.
Her first job as a children’s book illustrator was Marla Yotoko Chorengel’s The First Cashew Nut. She enjoyed the process of being allowed to make visual concepts that show how a story unfolds through art.
From thereon, she never looked back, and she became a full-time children’s book illustrator in no time. In the Philippines, most of the children’s book illustrators are women, and Parrocha thrived easily. She also saw the importance of an organization. Accordingly, she is the founding member of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), a group of visual artists dedicated to illustrating children’s picture books.
A writer’s work is done with the text, whereas Parrocha’s duty starts with the visuals. She reads the text just enough to understand the story. “Too much immersion with words would interfere with my visual-communication process,” she tells me.
She considers a picture book to be a mini-movie. The book cover is like a movie poster. It should be able to urge the reader to a watch the mini magical movie that is usually 32 to 36 pages long, which is the usual number of pages for a picture book. Think of each spread as being a segment of a movie. So, each spread should feel like it is moving, though the images are still. Each page urges the reader to move on to the next until the movie is finished.
Imagination is the key to being an effective children’s book illustrator. “The illustrator should take into account the imagination of a child and that of a child again, that is, the inner child of any person,” she elaborates. Her goal is to capture the heart of the story visually and effortlessly, so that each child will readily understand it. Also, she tries to capture the essence of the child in her.
Parrocha recently illustrated the children’s book, Cecile Guidote Alvarez: The Philippines Is a Stage/Ang Pilipinas ay Isang Tanghalan (Carayan Press, 2022). Written by Rey E. de la Cruz in English and Tagalog, it is a picture-book biography on Cecile Guidote Alvarez, who is widely recognized as the “Mother of Philippine Theater.”
Picture-book biographies give children an idea of the person they might want to become one day. “Women are underrepresented in this genre,” Parrocha explains. “Alvarez is a good female role model for children. In founding the Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA) at the age of 23, she exemplified courage, innovation, leadership and creativity. That was no mean feat, especially for a woman.”
In her illustrations, Parrocha used Alvarez’s childhood as the springboard for her dreams and imaginations. Alvarez as a child is shown as a keen observer of the rich Philippine customs and traditions, especially the Holy Week rituals. Vibrant and animated, Parrocha’s illustrations are stylized, and they appeal to a wide range of children.
In the U.S., the book answers the need for multicultural children’s books, especially for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). They need to see themselves in literature, as well as be exposed to diverse stories.
Parrocha seldom communicates with writers before doing illustrations. But she knew de la Cruz before they worked together on the book. De la Cruz has a pen pal in Finland, Satu Vaverka. They have been writing since 1966 when they were 11 or 12 years old. Using watercolor and colored pencil, Parrocha paid tribute to the long friendship of de la Cruz and Vaverka in the artwork: Patches of Color: Satu and Rey. The images of de la Cruz and Vaverka are suggested, but the colors bring them to life.
Beth Parrocha makes a difference in the lives of many people, especially children. Her illustrations transport them to a world that is above and beyond imagination, where time and space are fluid. Life there is colorful, and it is good, better, or best!
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Ivan Kevin Castro is based in Chicagoland. A photography enthusiast, he has an artistic temperament with paintings. An audiophile, he can’t go without music. Although he only has dreams, he is an aspiring global explorer of the world’s richest cultures.
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