Dancing Through Fields of Color: The Story of Helen Frankenthaler

Author Elizabeth Brown and illustrator Aimee Sicuro’s picture book Dancing Through Fields of Color:The Story of Helen Frankenthaler is a biography about the artist’s breakthrough into the art world.

They said only men could paint powerful pictures, but Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) splashed her way through the modern art world. Channeling deep emotion, she poured paint onto her canvas and danced with the colors to make art unlike anything anyone had ever seen. She used unique tools like mops and squeegees to push the paint around, to dazzling effects. Frankenthaler became an originator of the influential “Color Field” style of abstract expressionist painting with her “soak stain” technique, and her artwork continues to electrify new generations of artists today.

Dancing Through Fields of Color discusses Frankenthaler’s early life, how she used colors to express emotion, and how she overcame the male-dominated art world of the 1950s.

“A pitch-perfect expression of a little-known artist in text and illustration alike, this is a top-notch example of the picture book biography.” —School Library Journal

Elizabeth Brown holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and teaches writing and humanities at Saint Augustine College. Dancing Through Fields of Color is her debut picture book.

Aimee Sicuro is an illustrator, picture-book maker, and surface-pattern designer. She graduated from Columbus College of Art and Design with a BFA in illustration. She lives in Brooklyn.