We launched Yusof Gajah's latest book, 'Elephabet - Amazing Activity Book' at Kinokuniya, KLCC on Sunday 13 Dec 09. The crowd started coming before the scheduled time and Daphne Lee, our coordinator, kept the children occupied. Yusof and Zakiah arrived on the dot! Soon Yusof was showing the eager children how to draw and engaging them by getting them to draw as well. The four best drawings received the Elephabet Magnetic Pad while consolation prizes were the Elephabet stickers. Everyone enjoyed themselves, not least Yusof himself!

SCBWI Malaysia: Supporting Malaysian Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

I'M taking a break from recommending Christmas gifts to write a little about the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Malaysia.

Founded in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles-based children's writers, the SCBWI now has regional chapters in other parts of the United States, as well as international chapters in countries like Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Monolia, the Netherlands, Russia Spain and Taiwan. This year, the Malaysian chapter was registered and on Nov 20, it held its first conference, at the LimKokWing University of Creative Technology.

The president of the Malaysian chapter is Linda Tan Lingard who is an avid reader and collector of children's books. Like many Malaysians with a passion for children's literature, Lingard is aware of the dearth of quality Malaysian children's lit. She ventured into publishing to address this dearth and, to date, her company, Oyez!Books, has published over a dozen titles by Malaysian and expat writers and illustrators.

Lingard decided to start the Malaysian chapter of the SCBWI because she felt that Malaysian authors and illustrators need support and would benefit the most from being part of an international and well-established organisation.

It is hoped that the SCBWI Malaysia will provide Malaysian children's book writers and illustrators with professional advice and information, as well as a platform for networking. The society hopes to hold regular conferences and organise talks and workshops for its members. The conference last week featured an exhibition of illustrations from Malaysian picture books; a talk by artist, illustrator and writer Yusof Gajah (on becoming a children's book writer and illustrator); and two panel discussions.

I moderated one of the discussions (about the importance of creating Malaysian children's literature for Malaysian children), while the other (on the use of illustrations in Malaysian children’s literature) was moderated by picture book illustrator Sarah Joan Mohktar. Panelists included graphic novelist Chin Yew; Linda Tan Lingard, providing the publisher's perspective; and Sireh Anuar, cartoonist and lecturer at University Multimedia.

The illustrations shown at the exhibition showed that Malaysia boasts illustrators of great promise. Artwork on display included award-winning pieces from [right] Yusof Gajah's Gajah Sejati (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka); Steven She's minimalist line drawings from Kindness from a Great Ape (Future Ace Publications), Emila Yusof's beautiful watercolours from Sedna the Eskimo Girl, a story in the Oyez!Books's collection Wonderful Folktales from Around the World; Chin Yew's acryllics from the graphic novel The Boy Who Loved Clouds [below left]; and Mie Mambo's comic art from his soon to be published Tapir series (Kaki Komik).

I am excited about the SCBWI as I think it's hightime we had a society that encourages, supports and nurtures those who wish to write and illustrate children's books, as well as all those involved in one way or other (directly and indirectly) in the production, promotion and distribution of Malaysian children's literature.To join the society please email lindalingard@yusofgajahlingard.com.

ART: Elephant man
2009/11/18

SUZANNA PILLAY

Artist Yusof Gajah draws inspiration from these gentle animals for his works. SUZANNA PILLAY writes.

TO most people, the humble elephant is just another creature that calls the jungle home. But for Malaysian artist Yusof Gajah, the animal has come to represent much more.

Apart from being a versatile muse for Yusof’s art, it is now synonymous with the artist as a brand which makes his artwork distinctive.

“In this era, branding plays such an important part in marketing and selling a product. The same goes for art. Everyone can paint but to be known as an artist takes time.

“If you have a huge capital, you can spend a lot of money making a name for yourself through branding, but for most artists, this is very difficult. I guess I was lucky that my passion for drawing elephants earned me the nickname of Yusof Gajah, and the name stuck.”

He believes his work conveys the message that sometimes you don’t have to look for complicated subjects to paint, as he is able to reinvent and showcase his favourite pachyderm in different styles of painting all the time.

His work is loved in Scandinavia, England, Japan, Indonesia and Germany and looks set to win over new fans worldwide.

At the recent Frankfurt International Book Fair this year, two of his latest books Elephabet and Mother & Child were a big hit with visitors there.

“I take the elephant as the main focus in my art and I can do anything with it. You just need a creative mind and skills,” said Yusof.

His fascination with elephants stems from the fact that these majestic creatures play a very important role in many societies and cultures around the world.

Apart from representing deities in some religions, they are used as a means of transportation and weaponry.

They are also easy creatures for people to recognise and relate to because only two species remain in the world — the African and Asian elephants. Yusof paints both in his work.

He recently launched both books together with his solo exhibition Yusof Gajah@Aliyaa.

The exhibition will be on until Nov 29 at the Aliyaa Island Restaurant and Bar in Lorong Dungun, Damansara Heights. Incidently aliyaa is Singhalese for elephant.

“It seemed like a fitting place to hold my exhibition considering it was in keeping with my elephant theme.”

“The books are the first two printed for adults and are a series of sketches and water colours which I did while travelling around the world. They are like a journal to me. I think it’s time artists in this country have more of their work printed in books,” he said.

Mother & Child is a selection from a series of water colours celebrating motherhood and the family.
Meanwhile, Elephabet is a book using elephant drawings to illustrate the 26 letters of the alphabet and is an ABC of inspirational messages on life as seen by Yusof. It has been received well both here and at the Frankfurt book fair.

Elephabet flash cards are also available for children and Yusof is also in the process of completing EleDoodles for them too.

Images from the SCBWI Malaysia Conference 20 November 2009 at Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology, Cyberjaya. Top to Bottom:

1. Yusof Gajah's colourful Elephabet form part of the Illustrators Exhibition
2. Linda Tan Lingard, President of SCBWI Malaysia presenting a token of appreciation to Yusof Gajah. Looking on is Dato' Dr Yeoh, Vice-President of Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology (LUCT). Sarah Joan Mokhtar, Vice-President of SCBWI Malaysia is the MC.
3. The audience and front row: Mrs Zakiah (Mrs Yusof Gajah), Yusof Gajah, Dato' Dr Yeoh and Linda Tan Lingard
4. Yusof Gajah and well-known APO? Cartoonist and MMU Lecturer, Sireh aka Anuar Hassan
5. Panel discussion moderated by Sarah Joan Mokhtar. Panelists from Left to Right: Sireh, Yusof Gajah and Leowania Leong, Editor.
6. Sireh talking animatedly during the panel discussion
7. Part of the audience

 A senior Malaysian artist produces two beautiful and inspiring picture books.

AT first glance, you would think artist Yusof Gajah’s latest projects, two picture books entitled Elephabet and Mother & Child, are meant for children. They are filled with his signature elephant drawings, whimsical and inspiring. The colours are vibrant and jump out at you.

Upon closer inspection, however, you realise that both books are also filled with nuggets of information that provide intriguing and sometimes cryptic glimpses of Yusof’s thoughts.

Known for his penchant for all things elephant (he even adopted Gajah, which is elephant in Malay, as part of his moniker), Yusof is best known for his Naive style paintings.

Yusof, whose real name is Mohd Yusof Ismail, developed a passion for pachyderms after one of his works featured in an exhibition with the famed Anak Alam artist collective in the mid-1970s prompted the show’s catalogue writer, Johan Jaafar, to eloquently describe the artist as having “beberapa ekor gajah menjerit dalam otaknya ... (a few elephants shouting in his head)”.

In an interview with The Star in 1998, the Negri Sembilan-born artist cheekily confessed to seeing elephants everywhere – give him a leaf and he will read an elephant in it, he said!

As for his style, its roots lie in several decades spent exploring Naive art. Also known as Naif art, this style refers to the work of artists who reject conventional representation or expression of real objects. Brilliant, saturated colour; chaotic detail; and an absence of perspective are hallmarks of this form.

The style’s two-dimensionality lends itself well to children’s picture book illustrations, an area in which Yusof has excelled over the years; he has won several prestigious awards including the 1997 Grand Prix award at the UN-organised Noma Concours for Children’s Picture Book Illustrations.

While children would certainly love the illustrations in these two new books, their words would be better appreciated by adults.

In Elephabets, Yusof fashions the letters of the alphabet out of (what else?) elephants. While the drawing takes centre stage, it is the musings that come with each letter that beg a second look. On the page for the letter D, for example, he talks about a dream he had about an elephant making a path in the jungle, and alludes to his desire to follow his own direction in life.

The letter D talks about the author striving to follow his own direction in life.

In Mother & Child, Yusof explores the relationship between parent and child, again through his drawings and various inspirational quotes. And again, the drawings are outstanding, and would not look out of place framed on a wall.

“These are my first adult books,” says Yusof, 55. He had previously published children’s books under Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, most famously, Tiga Ekor Gajah.

“I wanted them to be fun, humorous and witty,” says Yusof of this latest effort.

He has also produced a set of flash cards for children, so young and old alike get to enjoy the illustrations.

For inspiration, he draws on his childhood, which he calls “wonderful”. “I enjoyed every moment of it,” he says. “Children are honest, happy, fun, curious and see the world differently from adults.”
Yusof strives to capture that innocence in his books, giving his readers fantastical renditions of the humble elephant, which run the gamut of Byzantine-inspired to Picasso-like.

“The books are inspired by elephants and children,” he says. “Also by my relationship with God, and humans and nature.”

Though these two books are meant for adults, Yusof is working on an Elephabet activity book for children. He is also working with talented children in visual arts.

> ‘Elephabet’ and ‘Mother & Child’ retail for RM40 each, and the accompanying flash cards are RM10 each. They are available at all Borders bookstore outlets and, from next month onwards, at Kinokuniya Bookstores at Suria KLCC.

by Badrolhisham Mohamad Tahir

Yusof ‘Gajah’ is known as Malaysia’s foremost naïve artist and children’s picture book author and illustrator but is hardly known as an art businessman who paints and sells his artwork by himself. By doing that, he is determined to cast out the myth of an artist living in a garret isolated from society. He believes that an artist should live successfully by selling his art work: ‘I don’t want to be a great artist but live in poverty ’. Artists have to struggle in their careers and are subject to the same market forces that affect lawyers and plumbers. With that in mind, Yusof dreams of having his own museum to develop and compile documentation on his legacy. Yusof will not waver from his dream until the task is complete. Therefore, he is painting and extensively developing his iconic elephant character, to pave the way to turn his dream into reality.

Yusof’s elephants can be considered as the things that people usually paint, like the human body, a dog, bottles and so on. For him, the elephant is the ‘gentle giant’ from which, if we want to relate to the remarks made by Grace Chin from the Edge upon his character as ‘gentle and calm’, we can understand why he sees himself in the elephant. ‘My personality is in the elephant’. Now we can see that his painting is not about the elephant per se; as I  see it, it is more about himself. Simply put, he wants us to see him through the elephant. With the elephant, he invites us into his world that is filled with dreams, dreams of being an artist and a businessman. In other words, he uses the elephant to give visual effect to the imagination that drives him to dream and to follow his goal: ‘I have studios and later I opened two galleries’. Who knows – he may be close to having his own museum.

The paintings exhibited are sophisticated and masterfully executed. But for Yusof, to depict elephants naturalistically is not enough. It is not enough for him merely to ‘paint what he sees’. He uses his paintings to evoke non-visual content, his life experience, in a visual way. Through such techniques as successive distortion, inclusion and exclusion of form, and the simplification and abstraction of shapes; he builds up components to form the elephant so that it signifies and simultaneously depicts aspects of his experiences.  We may thus regard his contribution to this dialogue an aesthetic, rather than a naturalistic depiction. By engaging in such a  strategy,  Yusof is able to to engage us in non-mundane communicative modes rather than naturalistic ones.

To end, we can say that his paintings are not limited to the production of perceptual surrogates or inferential aides memoire but that each painting itself is an essential site, in which the ‘gajah’ personality can constitutively guide and fulfill his dream of becoming a successful art businessman: ‘I want to keep on dreaming and encourage people to dream … to imagine … ‘.

YUSOF GAJAH LINGARD LITERARY AGENCY INGIN MENGAMBIL KESEMPATAN UNTUK MENGUCAPKAN SELAMAT HARI RAYA KEPADA SEMUA KAUM MUSLIM. MOHON MAAF LAHIR DAN BATIN