This colorful, comedic tale, complete with a singing Fish puppet and a dancing Cow, paints the story of young artist Marc Chagall's pursuit of being true to both his art and his family.
How Marc dreams of painting! But Papa wants Marc to be a fishmonger, who fishes for delicious herring, and Mama imagines her son as their Russian village's noble photographer. But Marc's beloved Cow delights in Marc's drawings, so turns his birthday present of an ordinary fishing pole into a magical paintbrush. The vibrant hues Marc paints offend his parents' cultural heritage, forcing him to choose between his joy of painting or his family's professional plans for him. When he abandons his paintbrush, his entire world turns to black and white. The singing Fish and dancing Cow pull Marc through a series of adventures to find his reds, yellows, and blues. On the rooftop, schoolhouse, and studio, he encounters math-crazy Professor Chicken, Auntie with a nose like a pickle, Mrs. Guzzenteit, and violinist Uncle Neuchensteinblattenberg Cohen, who help him in his color search.
Marc discovers that if he paints human bodies with animal faces, he may not be going against his religion after all. His Aunt, who is a berry balancer, understands unusual passion, so whisks him off to get the ultimate permission to draw from Yehuda Pony, the art teacher. Pony decrees at last that Marc has "some ability!" When the entire village witnesses Marc's discovery of his colors, the young Chagall is finally given permission to pursue his art! Marc signs a canvas "Marc Chagall" as his journey as an artist artfully, playfully, comes to life.
ARTIST MARC CHAGALL, born in Vitebsk, July 7, 1887, may have adapted
the Hassidim’s philosophy that the vase of the world that God fi lled
was shattered into innumerable objects, and that each of these contains
a portion of divine love, where reality and legend combine. Chagall
paints beyond mere representation. Nothing remains itself. An acrobat
becomes a winged chicken, the clock folds softly over an arm, the fi ddle
changes to a green donkey face, women are stretched into comets, and a
clown with an open umbrella is riding a four-headed monster.