Artist and book illustrator Rafael López poses for photos in his studio on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, in San Diego.
Eduardo Contreras | The San Diego Union-Tribune (TNS)
The new children’s book “The Little Book of Joy” tells the story of two little boys who grew up to be very big deals.
One of them is His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The other is the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died last December. They are two of the world’s most influential and beloved men, so when San Diego artist Rafael López was approached about doing the illustrations for their book, he did what any self-respecting creative person would do.
He said, “No.”
“I hesitated at first. Not because they were the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu. It was the fact that they wanted it right away. They wanted it delivered within three months, and I said, ‘I can’t do that. I’m just gonna blow it. There’s no way. I can’t do this to these amazing people I admire so much,’” López said during an interview from his loft studio in the East Village.
“I talked to my agent, and I said, ‘I would love to do this if they would give me a little extra time,’ and they did. They found me another three or four months, and then I got to work.”
What López did with the gift of time became its own kind of windfall, one that rewarded the artist with an infusion of inspiration, heaping portions of philosophy and yes, many jolts of joy.
Released in late September, “The Little Book of Joy” is a picture-book adaptation of 2016’s “The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World,” the thought-provoking bestseller that was the result of the week Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama spent together celebrating the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday, talking about their lives and contemplating one deep question:
“How do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering?”
The children’s version, which was co-authored by longtime Desmond Tutu cowriter Douglas Abrams and writer-literary agent Rachel Neumann, uses the boyhood stories of the two spiritual icons to tackle that same question in a way that young minds will understand.
When we first meet the boys who would become giants, they are two lonely kids who live on opposite sides of the world but long for the same thing — friendship and connection. And as the young Desmond Tutu hunkers down in the patchy grass outside his house in South Africa, he sees a multicolored flower springing up from the dry ground. And as the Dalai Lama perches on a hilltop outside his Tibetan palace, he notices a brilliantly hued butterfly hovering just over his head.
“We wondered if we would always be sad and lonely,” the book says. “But when we sat still and breathed in the quiet, we noticed something beautiful.”
The words of hope and comfort came from the lives of these two Nobel Peace Prize winners. The glowing images of beauty rising out of the darkness came from López.
In his sweetly meditative illustrations for “The Little Book of Joy,” López shows how two boys from very different circumstances could still end up sharing so much, including the ability to find rainbow glimmers of wonder everywhere, from the murky depths of a rain puddle to the warmth of a mother’s hug.
“Working on this book reminded me that when I see these two giants of world peace and understanding, they had very challenging lives. The Dalai Lama was kicked out of Tibet, and now he lives in exile in Northern India. And then we have Archbishop Desmond Tutu, living through apartheid for so many decades and feeling so much oppression,” López said.
“These two men could have ended up being very bitter people. And yet, they chose instead to look for kindness and commonality, compassion and reconciliation.”
Just as “The Little Books of Joy” is a summing-up of these two life experiences, the illustrations speak colorful volumes about the man behind the art.
Born and raised in Mexico City, López is the son of two architects who encouraged him to follow his artistic dreams, no matter where they took him. He attended the prestigious ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, and after a few post-graduate years as a struggling freelance artist, he moved to Texas to work in advertising.
López was not a good fit for the world of suits, ties and meetings, so he moved to San Diego to reacquaint himself with the artistic dream that started it all.
More than 30 years later, López is the award-winning illustrator of such inspiring children’s books as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s “Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You,” and Jacqueline Woodson’s “The Year We Learned to Fly.” Earlier this year, López created 57 portraits for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino. He also designed the U.S. Postal Service’s first-ever stamp series featuring mariachi musicians, released in August.
López and his wife, design educator and art activist Candice López, co-founded the Urban Art Trail Project, which has brightened downtown San Diego with murals, painted utility boxes and other pieces of community art. Rafael López has also done mural projects in Northern California, Seattle and Colorado.
After years of illustrating other people’s stories, López is now working on a picture book about his own life. Technically, it will be for kids. But as the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop Tutu taught him, the best lessons are timeless, ageless and limitless.
“It will be about the experiences that we all have and we all come through,” said López, who splits his time between San Diego and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. “It’s about the things that teach us to be more flexible in life. I want it to be a universal message that everyone can relate to and say, ‘You know, that’s pretty cool.’”
