IBBY Congress, Museo Franz Mayer, and crocodiles

My crocodiles have been getting around lately... they travel much more than I do! This time they were spotted in Mexico City, at the Museo Franz Mayer (home of the largest collection of decorative arts in all of Latin America!).  I am thrilled to bits...

As you can see by the poster, it was an exhibit of the winning artwork from the Nami Island Illustration Concours (where Crocodile Shoes won an honorable mention in 2013, as you may recall). Nami Island, the sponsor of the Andersen Awards, holds this competition every two years. There is an annual and an exhibit which first opens in Korea, then goes on tour around the world — ending up wherever the IBBY Congress is held, I think.

As you can also see by the poster, the exhibit closed over a month ago. But for those of us who didn't get a chance to catch it, here are a few items to give a sense of it.  

First,  some photos from the gallery:

Hey...that's me!

The museum also hosted another children's illustration show at the same time,  Dibujando El Mundo.

It featured many of my illustration heroes — Kveta Pacovska, Shaun Tan, Sara Fanelli, Javier Zabala, Isol and many others. 

Between the museum's lovely ambience and the art on display, I really wish I could have been there! 

Both of the illustration shows were timed to coincide with the IBBY Congress — a bi-annual shindig bringing together all kinds of people from the world of children's books. It's held in countries all over the world, a different one each time.  I would so love to go one day! (The next one's in New Zealand, in 2016... plenty of time to save up!)

IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young Readers) is a fantastic organization — an NGO, in fact, with official status in UNICEF and UNESCO. With chapters in 72 countries worldwide, IBBY plays a role in policy-making regarding children's books, as well as recognizing and awarding excellence, playing a crucial part in the Bologna Children's Book Fair since its inception.

I've been reading this book about Jella Lepman — the gutsy, outspoken, imaginative woman who founded both IBBY and the International Youth Library in Munich, a wonderful place from the sounds of it. 

A Bridge of Children's Books well worth a read.  At the request of the American government, she returned to her native Germany after having fled the Nazis nine years previously. Arriving in 1945 just after the shooting had stopped, the grim rubble of postwar Europe she describes (not unlike The Third Man) is where she did her work of helping children starved for stories and hope. What she started is still thriving today! You can read more about that here, if you can't find the book...

Lastly, this year's Nami Concours is in progress— here's the shortlist of illustrators for the final round. So happy to see friends and acquaintances included here... well done, everybody!

PS. A shout out to Ana Aranda who took the photos in Mexico City — she's a wonderful illustrator I met at the SCBWI Conference, where she won the Mentorship Award for her excellent portfolio.  Merci, Ana!!

Nami Island International Illustration Concours

Good news — my illustrated book project has been selected for the Nambook Festival (aka Nami Island International Illustration Concours) !!  It has to stay under wraps at present, but I can still show you a few glimpses from my selected project.  You'll get a flavour of what I've been up to lately, even though it's out of context.

The Nambook Festival is a yearly children's book event in South Korea, about 70 km south of Seoul on an beautiful tranquil island with groves of giant redwood trees.  Nambook is affiliated with IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young people), as well as being an official sponsor of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards.... presented to the winners each year at the Bologna Book Fair.

The list of winners is pretty impressive—an array of international talent that includes many illustrators who have also been selected for Bologna, Bratislava, 3x3, Ilustrarte, Sàrmede and other places where children's book illustrations are recognized and celebrated.  The grand prix went to the wonderful Korean illustrator Sung-Hee Kim.  A few of the other names that jumped out are:  David Pintor, Eva Montanari, Sonja Danowska, Rashin Kheiriyeh and Irma Gruenholz. And so many others... I'm looking forward to discovering their work!

The illustration exhibit at Nami Island takes place from 25 April to 31 May.  There will be a catalogue/annual of the art show as well.  And if any of you are going to Bologna for the book fair (from 25 to 28 March, in two short weeks from now!), the Nambook Festival has a stand (A36 / H29). Stop by and say hi!

UPDATE:  For those of you going to the Bologna Book Fair, the Nami Illustration Concours will give a brief presentation at the Author's Café on Wednesday 27 March at 16:30 — jury members and illustrators will be on hand for a show-and-tell session. Wish I could be there, too...

Le Metamorfosi del Viaggiatore

I'm very happy to announce that my images have been selected for a group show in Italy! 

Organized by the Associazione Illustratori, the exhibit is called Le Metamorfosi del Viaggiatore (traveler's transformation). Its theme is travel in all its guises—both real and imaginary— and will include paintings, illustrations, sequential art (aka fumetti or bande dessinée) and carnets de voyage. 

My contribution is artwork from a sketchbook I kept during a previous visit to California, with scenes in and around my parents' home and walks taken in the Hollywood Hills.

This view of the rooftops and hillside is what I see from my work-room window as I sit at the computer typing this post!

These are birds that come by every day.  

They fascinate my cat Pomelo —and are objects of enormous yearning and desire for him.

The images are in gouache, and the line on top added later in ink and brush.  They were painted en plein air, for the most part — not my usual materials, technique or method (as often happens with travel sketchbooks), and all the more energizing for it...

For those of you are able to go, the show takes place in Milan from 18 October to 2 December, at  the Palazzo delle Stelline (Galleria Gruppo Credito Valtellinese).  Check the blog for updates and more details. 

PS. I really hope I get to go see it this autumn... there is a really great line-up of artists participating in this show!

Salon du Livre, Montreuil — pt. 3

(A still image from "O'Moro", by Eva Offredo and Christophe Calissoni)

In this most recent Salon, a few new features were introduced.  These innovations included the Librairie EUropa (featuring books, authors and illustrators from further afield in the European Union... Eastern Europe's contributions were especially wonderful!) and the AniMix.

The AniMix was a film festival within the Salon — a first in its 26-year history!  Around 35 films were screened: all animated, there were shorts, pilots and feature-length previews.  They all had in common some connection to children's books — either adaptations based on an existing children's book, or originals created by the illustrators themselves.  These included: Kitty Crowther ("Le Banc"), Anne Herbauts ("Jean perdu dans ses pensées"),  Albertine ("La génie de la boîte de raviolis"), Samuel Ribeyron ("Beau Voyage"),  Eva Offredo ("O'Moro"),  Jean-François Martin ("L'Inventeur") and Michèle Lemieux ("Nuit d'Orage").

For me, a few of the memorable and enjoyable films were these:

"O'Moro", by Eva Offredo and Christophe Calissoni

"Beau Voyage", by Samuel Ribeyron

"La Génie de la boîte de raviolis", by Albertine.

"Nuit d'Orage" (also known as Stormy Night), by Michèle Lemieux.  Superlative!

For the full list of films screened at the Salon, see here.

To view some of the films mentioned, here are links to video clips:

O'Moro

La Génie de la Boîte de Raviolis

Nuit d'orage

Enjoy!

Salon du Livre, Montreuil — pt. 2

With so many fantastic and inventive books on display at the Salon, it was hard to choose just a few to show you.  Here are some books — and the illustrators who created them— that stand out in my memory.  It was great to have a chance to meet and chat and peruse!!

L'Ange des Chaussures (Editions Notari, 2009) by Giovanni Zoboli, art by Joanna Concejo.  

Joanna Concejo's work is beautiful, with images in graphite and gouache that are poetic, delicate and startling.  She has illustrated books for many publishing houses all over Europe, such as Topipittori (Italy), Editions Notari (Switzerland), OQO (Spain), Rouergue (France).  I discovered her work a few years ago when I got Grand et Petit (published by Atelier du Poisson Soluble, 2008) — a book about two brothers, one tiny and the other gigantic, which is a great favourite of mine.

 

Her latest book is Les Cygnes Sauvages (aka The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen)— published in Italian by Topipittori and in French by Notari....

...looks intriguing!

Next up is Clotilde Perrin, whose work I have long admired....

 Le Colis Rouge (Rue du Monde, 2007) is a wordless book about a mysterious red parcel.

Educated at Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, Clotilde Perrin works in a variety of mediums: color pencil, watercolour, gouache and even cut paper —check out the wonderful Patron et Employee (from Didier Jeunesse, 2009). 

And she must have been working around the clock in recent times — six of her books were published in 2010!!  They included: Pedro à 100 à l'heure(Mango); La Farandole des Mots (Nouvel Angle); Tout Autour de Moi (Rue du Monde), and J'ai mis du sable dans mon cartable (Sarbacane)... about a little boy nostalgic for his summers at the beach.

Lucille Placin was at Rue du Monde signing her new book, Le Petit Oulipo, an anthology of wordplay and poetry.

I like her fresh and playful imagery —

—it's no surprise that she's also gotten commissions from Djeco, the fabulous Parisian toymakers!

And at the stand of Bayard Presse, there was Hervé Tullet and Bridget Strevens.

In addition to illustrating children's books and magazines (for Albin Michel, Tourbillon and Bayard, among others), Bridget teaches at Parsons Paris Art School and is very active in SCBWI.

As for Hervé, his lively and interactive books (like Turlututu and Moi c'est Blop) many of which have been translated to English and released in the USA— got a lot of acclaim at the Bologna Book Fair in recent years.

Of course this looooooooooooooong blog post doesn't begin to scratch the surface.... these are only a few of the illustrators I managed to talk with. If you are interested in seeing some of the Salon's prize-winners, check their site!

Salon du Livre, Montreuil — pt. 1

Here, as promised—and only two months late!— is a whirlwind tour of the Salon du Livre at Montreuil, which I attended back in early December.

Entrance:  this image, which could be seen all over Paris in the run-up to the Salon, is by the lovely Charlotte Gastaut.

Here is an overview of the Salon, looking uncharacteristically calm and sedate. 

In reality, it is wall-to-wall people, including eleventy million roaring children, on school trips or family outings, or just hoping to meet their favourite author.  In this aspect, the salon at Montreuil differs from the one at Bologna, which (I'm told) is open only to professionals.

Founded 26 years ago, the Salon has grown in both size and reputation. 

This time, there were about 350 maisons d'éditions present. These publishing houses (large and small) are mainly French (or from francophone countries) — and spread out on three floors. 

As well as selling books, their stands also serve as meeting points for writers, illustrators, editors, art directors and publishers. Some of them are mini-gallery spaces, featuring originals, prints and posters from their illustrators, like the one above from the wonderful publishing house Rue du Monde. And—not least— there are signings and reading, where the authors and artists meet their adoring public face to face!  But more on that in a future post...

                    

If you're an illustrator, you're most likely at the salon to show your work.

There is the infamous Rencontres D.A. (above, left) which can be a bit of a mêlée: 20-25 art directors (in a small space) do their best to see as many hopeful artists as they can at something like 20-minute intervals.  This must be arranged (in writing) long in advance. The alternative is to take your chances and find an art director at the stand (above, right) who will sit down briefly to look at your portfolio and chat with you.

Of course there is more to the salon at Montreuil than publishers' stands.

From art exhibits to workshops and signings, and even a film festival, there's always something to catch your eye and engage your mind—but more on all that in a future post(s)!  All in all, the whole experience is inspiring, exhilarating...and exhausting.  When you come home with the huge pile of catalogues that you will have gathered, you can both prolong the experience and rest your feet! 

Kveta Pacovska!!

Kveta Pacovska has an exhibit of her artwork— original drawings, prints, posters and her books (dating back to the early '60's) at Les Libraires Associés, in Paris.  A few nights ago, there was a vernissage for it, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend it — and even luckier to have a chance to meet and chat with Kveta herself!

82 years old and still going strong as ever, she has just put out a new book.

Couleurs du Jour (Editions Grandes Personnes, 2010) is an amazing achievement.  A bit over 5 inches square and almost as thick (it's the cube of paper you see in her hand above) , it is a 90-page accordeon-fold book which measures over 10 meters when opened!  It's hard to give a sense of it in photos, but it took up a whole wall of the gallery space. when displayed.  PLUS, it's printed on both sides — and larded with little paper doors and windows and mirrors, so that the pages are interacting with each other.

It's a bit like a kaleidoscope, in a sense — same elements, but different every time you look at it. And (it goes without saying) the images are just brilliant.  I will be showing more soon...

It is a wordless book, but the driving idea of Couleurs du Jour is that colours are chosen according to their sound, and each day of the week has its own sound and colour— Monday is green, Tuesday is blue, and so on.
Of course —according to one's mood, age or point of view — the colours could change.

That is how Kveta saw things when she was 10 years old...



If any of you have the chance to go, the exhibit runs until 30 October at:
Les Libraires Associés
3, rue Pierre l'Ermite
75018 Paris

It's open every day, but by appointment.
Phone:   01.42.57.20.24.

PS. Kveta Pakovska does not have a website but to find out more look here:  Ricochet article (French only) and Links list.

((((((Thanks, Kveta!!!))))))

Mogu Takahashi at L'Articho

I just got word of another illustrator's art opening coming to town soon*— to L'Articho (Paris), starting 2 October 2010.

Mogu Takahashi is a wonderful Japanese illustrator who creates works (illustrations, dolls, zines —entre autres) in a fresh and spontaneous way. I am quite smitten with her playfulness!

As for L'Articho, it is a collective of illustrators of all stripes who come together to organize events, exhibits, parties, and the like. 

Among its members are Chamo (here too) and Yassine, who you may already know... 

More on Mogu here, here, and here.

To attend: 

L'Articho, 28 rue des Trois Bornes, 75011 Paris

Vernissage: Saturday 2 October 2010, 2:00 to 10:00 PM 

and Sunday 3 October 2010, 2:00 to 10:00 PM.

*For those of you who can't make it to Paris, Mogu will also be showing in Barcelona, from October 8 to 23 at Dudua. Don't say I didn't warn you!!