best friend: apes

Showing posts with label apes. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2011

Simona & Simone

I've been wanting to take some photos of these beautiful volumes since I bought them

at the Bologna Book Fair, but only now I've found the time to actually do it.

Last year I had already posted about Topipittori, one of my favorite Italian publishers

of illustrated children's books, and this time at the fair I had a chat with its founders,

Giovanna Zoboli and Paolo Canton. Turns out that Paolo and I knew each other

when we were teenagers! Anyway, I really love what they do, and was very happy

to get a copy of the wonderful Vorrei avere signed by the artist SImona Mulazzani...

GIovanna Zoboli's Vorrei avere (I wish I had) is an ode to the beauty and wonder of animals

sung through the poetic words of a child enamored with nature. Mulazzani's enchanting

illustrations interpret every verse with great sensitivity and a richness of visual inventions.

Love the endpapers with the illustration sketches!

I have also previously featured the works of SImone Rea, one of Italy's brightest young illustrators.

His elegant paintings illustrate this new translation of Aesop's Fables with warmth

and a wonderful sense of color and composition.

Coincidentally, I have already posted the equally sophisticated Aesop interpretation

by Jean-François Martin which won the Bologna Ragazzi Award this year.

To each his own, I love them both!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Bric-à-brac Creatures

Many thanks to Miquel Aparici for writing and inviting me into his magical world.

Just looking at his artworks makes me happy, hope to see them in person someday!

Miquel's wonderful recycled sculptures are assemblages of disparate vintage materials

that he collects from junkyards and antique sellers. He then catalogues, stores and
transforms them in his workshop located inside an old industrial ship near Barcelona.

Thanks to La Factoría Plástica and pad blog for the studio photos.

A fantastic box of toys made for a lucky someone called Lucas.

On Miquel's website you can also find his series of animals painted with coffee,

sugar and a teaspoon. And check out his blog to get the latest news!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Living in Color

Gentle Giant

Looking at the artwork of Minneapolis-based artist and animal lover Jennifer Davis

I am struck by her brilliant color harmonies and by the delicate strangeness

of her menagerie. Her paintings to me are like windows onto ethereal worlds

and stories that I don't fully understand but would love to inhabit.

Poodles

When I wrote to Jennifer about being featured on Animalarium,
she was very sweet and linked me to some interesting interviews
on Paper Darts magazine, Minneapolis citypages and MPLSART in
which she talks about her life, passions, work process and projects.
I am not going to add any more words, but I'll let this gallery
of some of my favorite artworks
do the talking.