Of Pigeons & Peace

Imagine by John Lennon ill by Jean Jullien

History Lesson
Listen up, kids. A long time ago (1960) four young British  musicians formed a rock band. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr called themselves The Beatles. They became quite famous. Initially they composed and recorded songs with titles such as "I Want to Hold Your Hand." But as time went on, they experimented with several other types of music. The lyrics of their songs were varied, ranging from the frivolous to love ballads to philosophical concepts.
Eventually the band broke up and the four artists went their separate ways, making their own recordings. Imagine, written and performed by Lennon, was released in 1971 and is one of the all-time top performing, best selling singles. It is traditionally performed at venues which promote peace and unity or healing from tragic events.
The lyrics to Lennon's song form the text for this picture book .

Graphic artist Jean Jullien is well known for creating the Peace for Paris symbol in 2015 following the attack on Paris. It is appropriate that he is the illustrator for this picture book celebrating a world without conflict. He uses a limited color pallet and flat images of a pigeon traveling by land, sea, and air to deliver messages of peace and hope.

Messages of Peace

Inspired by Jullien's pigeon, I looked around for other pigeon images and discovered these lovely cut paper pigeons by artist Elise Gravel.  I decided to create my own pigeons, write messages of hope and peace, and send them out into the world.  This was a project that involved equal parts creativity and thoughtful reflection.

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Looking through galleys of old picture books, I found papers perfectly suited for creating my own pigeons. I used a hole punch for the white eye circles and a black sharpie for details.

A Google search for "peace quotes" resulted in many appropriate messages. I picked three

Peace messages were carefully folded and secured with Washi Tape.  My birds were ready to take flight.

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Each pigeon found a special resting place: a plant, a keyboard, and a window. It was fun to imagine each of these messages of peace being discovered.

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Bonus: Imagine Video

Want to know what Lennon's music sounded like? View this recording by Lennon and his wife Ono. Can you sense the plea imagining world peace in this video?