Books · illustrated children’s story · 2010
SteamPotVille
An illustrated town of improbable animals, teapot houses and visual surprises.
Explore the WorkThe story and its images
Steven wrote and illustrated SteamPotVille under the author name Steve Ouch. An independent edition was circulating by early 2009, followed by the Running Press edition in 2010. The book brings improbable animals, familiar objects and impossible structures together in a town that rewards looking closely.
A teapot becomes architecture, a cow appears beside a finish line, and animals drift through the sky beneath balloons. These three illustration strips show how the story’s humor is carried by the images as well as the writing.
Publication and related work
Steven’s artist history records the book being signed in 2009 and a SteamPotVille exhibit at the Portland Children’s Museum that year, before the 2010 publication. The project brought his digital collage practice into an illustrated story for children.
In a 2009 interview, Steven described moving from writing and sketches to photographs and repeated digital composition. The resulting combinations of scale, place and character connect the book with his wider photomontage practice.