Sixty-six of Pitre\u2019s pen-and-ink illustrations, inspired by books and their authors, are now on display in a new exhibition called \u201cPermanent Record,\u201d on the second floor of Kansas City Public Library\u2019s downtown location.<\/p>\n
![\"Heidi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771069089_212_.jpeg\"\/)
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Heidi Pitre’s illustration for “The Art of Badminton,” by George Thomas.<\/p>\n
Pitre\u2019s checkout card series was sparked during a\u00a02015\u00a0art residency in Navasota, Texas.\u00a0An avid reader, one of her first stops in the small town was the library.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to the library with my list and I started looking through the books, and they had a new (computer) system in the front but the back of the book still had the card,\u201d remembers Pitre, a native of New Orleans who moved to Kansas City in 2022. \u201cSo, I went to ask the librarian\u00a0\u2014\u00a0he was wonderful\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and I said, \u2018Can I have these?\u2019\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the library\u2019s permission, she began collecting cards from\u00a0classic titles and other books that resonated with her. Most\u00a0were adorned with typewritten\u00a0author names and\u00a0book titles,\u00a0and library patron names signed carefully in cursive.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
The collection\u00a0sat on her desk for a few weeks while she considered doodling or\u00a0sketching\u00a0on\u00a0the cards.\u00a0Then Pitre had an idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo illustrate something from the book,\u201d she says. \u201cSome kind of symbolism, or the author, or some kind of play on the title or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Pitre\u2019s\u00a0first card,\u00a0\u201cThe Hotel New Hampshire,\u201d she\u00a0sketched\u00a0a bear balancing on a motorbike. Since then,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0created about 160 illustrations on these vintage cards, and\u00a0she collects more as\u00a0she\u00a0shows her work in galleries and libraries across the country. People have even mailed her\u00a0new additions, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the\u00a0card for \u201cThe Art of Badminton<\/a>,\u201d a popular checkout in the 1930s, Pitre includes a very Kansas City reference: a giant shuttlecock in the bottom right corner, like the ones on the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art\u2019s lawn.<\/p>\n There\u2019s\u00a0also a card for Jack London\u2019s 1904 novel, \u201cThe Sea Wolf<\/a>.\u201d This copy was last checked out in 2005,\u00a0and the card now features a\u00a0seal-hunting schooner on calm, blue waters.<\/p>\n “I just wanted to go for those books that people could relate to, and that mean something,\u201d Pitre says. \u201cBooks, we hold them close to our heart, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Heidi Pitre’s library card art for Jack London’s 1904 novel, “The Sea Wolf,” at left, and for William Faulkner’s 1929 novel, “The Sound and the Fury.”<\/p>\n Pitre began her\u00a0artistic\u00a0career as a painter, creating 6-by-6-foot paintings and murals, so the cards are the smallest format\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0ever used.<\/p>\n And besides the\u00a0size,\u00a0she says, she\u2019s\u00a0also working with a material\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0hard to replace.<\/p>\n “I\u00a0get\u00a0one shot \u2014 it’s\u00a0one and done,\u201d she says. \u201cI’ve\u00a0messed up two, I believe, in the entire 10 years.\u00a0But I\u00a0have to\u00a0be\u00a0very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n After that long on a project, Pitre\u2019s audience is still growing, but her supply of cards is running low\u00a0as libraries shred or discard more of them over time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0not like I can go pick up another \u20181984\u2019 someplace and just start over,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cThere’s\u00a0no starting over.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Permanent Record<\/a>,\u201d from Saturday, Feb. 14 to Sunday, April 19 at the Mountain Gallery in Kansas City Public Library\u2019s Central Library, 14 W. 10th\u00a0Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64105. For more information, go to KCLibrary.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few decades ago, checking out a library book meant\u00a0writing your name\u00a0on a lined, 3-by-5-inch card that a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-468132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Heidi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771069089_279_.jpeg\"\/)
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