Spring is definitely my favourite season. It's been sunny almost every day over the weeks here and my son enjoys playing outside a lot. Our eyes have been pleased by spring blooms in pink, yellow, white, and now in violet of wisterias and hyacinths in our garden.
In the lovely afternoons, I purposely take him for a walk so that he falls asleep on the stroller. If I succeed, I have a bit of me-time in this garden for one hour, more or less. So, I am writing this article in the sunny spring garden, hoping to finish it up before he wakes up, and remembered that I wanted to show you this Italian picture book titled NEL GIARDINO (IN THE GARDEN).
We found this book during the past winter in the city library. He immediately loved it so much that he started to read it in the park on our way home. Does the image he is looking at reminds you of something? For me it looked like one of the paper-cutting artworks by Henri Matisse, or simply a pair of leaves or seaweeds in different colours. The author, on the other hand, describes it as SORELLE (SISTERS); that works! Actually, it could be nice to ask your kids to find their own word for every illustration while covering the other half of the opened pages, and then to share your answer or to think about other expressions together.
Coming back to this big trade fair after four years, I was actually more overwhelmed than excited by the tasks I have assigned myself to. Unlike the last time when I attended as part of my master's thesis research, this time I was trying to get more professional networking and opportunities there. The hectic four days were full of ups and downs, but even when there were downs, many beautiful works by famed and emerging illustrators pleased my eyes and heart.
However, one corner of the exhibition walls was an exception. The special exhibition dedicated to the Ukrainian illustrators was silently calling for actions to the participants from the world. Most impressive works for me were these two illustrations. The left seemed to tell the "despair" and the right seemed to show "hope."
It's not just when I saw this exhibition, but my thoughts often travel to all the innocent people, especially the children, in the battlefield and to the family of my Ukrainian friends. I pray that the war ends today and many participants from Ukraine will come back to Bologna next year.
I am not sure if I will be attending the next edition, but I got some takeaways from my second adventure at the fair. And my trophy was an autographed book I got for my son by Beatrice Alemagna, my favourite contemporary children's literature author and illustrator, and a precious face-to-face chat I unexpectedly got to have with her after her full-house talk session. I have once talked about her book on this blog, and I truly adore her works, and now also adore her after getting to know some unveiled personal aspects of this charming maestra. She is so famous, but was very kind to have a few moments with me. What we talked about? Sorry, I would like to keep it personal. She truly made my day!
This photo was taken at the other talk-session where she presented her exhibition to be inaugurated in the city centre on the occasion of the book fair. It was also fully crowded and I was sitting on the floor close enough to the stage. I went to the exhibition last week and it truly was amazing.
Do you remember there was another illustrator I wanted to meet at the event? Miguel Tanco, the author of the books I wrote in the precious article. Unfortunately, I could not speak with him, but I could see him very close while he was working. And that was more than enough, his face seemed so calm and happy while moving his hand over a paper. Yes, I saw him drawing!
All right then, I am signing off for today. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!