# 6- Magic Trash, A Story of Tyree Guyton & His Art (2011)

Magic Trash, A Story of Tyree Guyton & His Art (2011)

J.H. Shapiro

Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

This book brings to mind the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” telling the story of Tyree Garden, a painter and sculptor who used trash and color to create art.

Brantley-Newton uses mixed media to illustrate Guyton’s biography. The coollages include text in the framework of buildings, cutouts of brand names and images, keys, buttons, bottle caps, and other realia. Like Guyton, the artist has “zapped fun into amazing junk that others tossed away.”

The narrative in this story has the potential to inspire students to continue developing their talent throughout their lives. Tyree experiences shifting neighborhoods, riots, as well as taking on many forms of employment (soldier, car part inspector, firefighter). Though his parents warn him that being an artist is “not a job,” Tyree persists and decorates his street as an adult. The endpages feature actual photographs of the polka dotted house in the illustrations alongside a picture of the artist.