This project marked my first experience illustrating a non-narrative text.

 

I kept returning to the bald eagle from the US coat of arms and the rose, the national flower, letting them drift through the book as recurring visual clues. I chose not to draw any recognisable historical figures, and instead stayed with those who are often left out of grand narratives.

 

Through this process, I tried to return to this classic text using a poetic, restrained visual language attentive to contemporary sensibilities.