![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Castillo’s art technique and conceptualization is superb. Her version of the city has authenticity. The version of New York she chose to illustrate is not a pretty street, clean subway car, or upscale apartment. Castillo’s art in the real environment of New York. This pools the pigment close to the salt crystals creating speckles and uneven, craggily, dried edges. Then there’s her watercolor technique: she has applied washes of color and at the right time sprinkled salt over the paper. ![]() This is like tasting the terroir of a fine wine but visual. Castillo placed her paper over New York cement to create a rubbing of that rough surface. There are a number of areas that look like Ms. They are detailed but their lack of color keeps them from fighting with the foreground for attention. Heavily textured backgrounds (possibly a digital masking technique over handmade rubbed texture) show brick buildings with their iconic water towers. The city is a nuanced character the city is a stand-in for humanity. The city is New York and the next page opens up to a double page spread of the Brooklyn Bridge with ferries and boats traversing the East River and Manhattan behind it. Much like how small town America might see the city. The protagonist, a little boy, fears for his Nana because she is living in an unfamiliar environment filled with otherness. Otherness is anything or anyone who is unlike you, or is unfamiliar. This is not an “I love my Nana because…” book. Deep Read Nana In The City About this title: ![]()
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