2014 HCA Award Winner for Illustration – Part 6/6:

Roger Mello is the recipient of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, for his complete work in children’s literature (more than 100 titles, 20 of which he wrote himself!). And he also writes plays. GO, Roger!

The jury said his “illustrations provide avenues to explore the history and culture of Brazil. He does not underestimate a child’s ability to recognize and decode cultural phenomena and images. His illustrations allow children to be guided through stories by their imagination.” According to Project Muse, ‘All his books deal with the concept of time passing and bringing with it transformation. The stories he creates are always found between the images and text, uniting the two through a continuous dialogue. Yet, despite this continuity, there is no set pattern to his work; he does not allow the reader to form expectations, as he continually plays with color, proportions, and perspective. Mello likes to experiment with different painting modes and media. His influences are innumerable, and he draws on the human creativity found in the world all around him, which allows him to look at the world with the pleasure and amazement of a child and the rich experience of an adults.’

Unfortunately, I could not find a single title of his through my library system, which I hope to remedy – SOON! Read a great post on Mello’s win at Literary Vittles – HERE ; excerpts from an interview in this article on Writing and Wandering – HERE

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is given biennially, and this year’s  winners (yep, there is one for authors too!) will receive their awards at the 34th IBBY Congress, to be held on September 10th, in Mexico City. The five finalists in alphabetical order: Rotraut Susanne Berner, Germany; John Burningham, UK; Eva Lindström, Sweden; François Place, France; Øyvind Torseter, Norway. Click on any of their names to read their post in this series.

2014 HCA Award for Illustration – Part 5/6: Øyvind Torseter

Read the posts on more nominees 1here, 2here, 3here, and 4here (winner post to follow soon).

Øyvind Torseter, is an artist, illustrator, comic book artist and author, who lives and works in Norway (Listen to the pronunciation of his name via google here). He debuted as a children’s book illustrator in 1999, and his first as author/illustrator was Mister Random in 2002, the release of which led to an intense discussion surrounding intended audience (can’t find any articles, but would be interested if anyone else does!).

From the IBBY site: “The pictures in his books normally appear as illustrations to the text, often authored by himself, but he also plays and experiments with perspective, cut-out drawings and other effects, before photographing it all and editing it with computer-assisted graphics tools. His comic books are influenced by Surrealism and some other works show traces, hints and tributes to art, literature, film noir from the 1950s and other expressions. Torseter has also decorated several public buildings, and his art can thus be found in many places in Norway.”

I am particularly fond of the effects he creates with 3-dimensional paper techniques in some of his picture books, but to get a quick feel for the scope of his art, google images  – WOW!

I recommended My Father’s Arms are a Boat, written by Stein Erik Lunde , illustrated by Torseter for Perfect Picture Book Friday – HERE

Øyvind Torseter, Sudden Mythology. Photo by Børre Høstland, Nasjonalmuseet

Read Maria Popova’s post (Brian Pickings) on The Hole – HERE 

2014 HCA Award for Illustration – Part 3/6: Eva Lindström

May I introduce Swedish author/illustrator Eva Lindström, third on the IBBY short list – Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE.

“The way I see it, if my story’s going to be the way I want it, I have to be my own target audience. I’m afraid that what I want to say will get diluted if I start thinking about the way anyone else, adult or child, might conceivably want to read my book” – Eva Lindström

Eva Lindström has illustrated for many other Swedish authors for decades, but writes and illustrates her own, and debuted in 1988 with Katmössan – The Cat’s Hat. Her books often deal with heavier subject matter, and she is well known for her expressive use of color.

Eva Lindström, From the book ‘Jag rymmer’, 2006

Olli and Mo, 2012

Lucky you if you understand Swedish – here is a video interview (1hour?, with plenty of her art depicted), the description of which I give you from GoogleTranslate in undiluted form: ‘On November 19 2013 she talked about its authorship and artistry with Asa Warnqvist, Sbi. The program is part of Swedish children’s institution series with author and illustrator encounters.’ Gotta love them for trying!

 

Interesting tidbit: back in art school, Eva Lindström was a member of an activist group, ‘Svarta hämnarna (The Black Avengers), which made political statements through poster art.