Gerald McDermott
, 1941 - 2012
Gerald McDermott was a filmmaker, illustrator and storyteller with an interest in trickster tales, creation myths, and folktales from cultures around the world. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, and his family nurtured his creativity from an early age. He studied music and ballet, and began art classes at the Detroit Institute of Arts at the age of four. He went on to study at Cass Technical, a public high school renowned for its art program, and won a National Scholastic scholarship to the Pratt Institute of Design in New York. During this period he became the first graphic designer for Channel 13, New York’s educational television channel, produced his first animation, The Stone Cutter, and toured Europe where he met with other filmmakers.
After completing his degree in 1964, he produced several short films, including Sun flight (1966), Anasi the Spider (1969) and the Magic Tree (1970). His friend Joseph Campbell served as a consultant on these projects, and several of the films were adapted into picture books. Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti was named as a Caldecott Honour Book, and another work, Arrow to the Sun: A Tale from the Pueblo won the Caldecott Medal in 1975. McDermott’s artwork uses vibrant colours and strong shapes, and draws on the iconographic traditions of the cultures from which the stories derive.
Bio prepared by Miriam Riverlea, University of New England, mriverlea@gmail.com
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